ECHOES

People with disabilities in the Bible:
Who are they and what can we learn from them?

by Arne Fritzon


Parable of the blind, 1568, by Pieter the Elder Brueghel
© Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Italy / Bridgeman Art Library		 The word disability is a modern word and has no direct equivalent in ancient languages. There is no one word, either in Hebrew or Greek that means disabilities in the way we use that word today. In the Bible we read about the blind, the deaf, the paralysed: all the injuries that today we gather under the term disability, but the collective term is lacking. From this absence of the term disability in the Bible can we learn to handle the rubric of this article with care? Disability is a modern term, built on a modern understanding of people with disabilities as a group of people with certain needs due to lack of different physical or mental functions.

The terms disability and handicap relate to politics that we started to use when modern social welfare policies began to take form and the need to name a specific group which demanded special action from the governments was felt. Even though all the conditions that today we name various kinds of disabilities were well known in both the Old and New Testaments, the persons who lived with these conditions were not understood, either by themselves or by others, as persons with disabilities in the modern meaning of that word.


According to the Bible, every human being is created in God’s likeness regardless of their physical or mental capacities. The love that God has for every being also applies to people with different kind of disabilities. God’s wish to save every human being and the whole creation from evil is a wish he also has for those who live with disabilities. That means that God’s command that we love our neighbour as ourselves (Lev 19:18) also includes those who have disabilities. According to the same chapter, God commands his people not to curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind. The Old Testament tells its readers to treat people with disabilities justly and fairly. So Moses tells people that to mislead a blind man on a road will lead to a curse. (Deut 27:18)

There is one well-known scripture passage that from our modern point of view may look discriminating. That is the command in Leviticus 21 that no one who has a blemish may be a priest. We can understand this passage by comparing it to Malachi 1:7 where the prophet complains that the priests are offering polluted food on the altar. The idea is that what is offered to the Lord should not be something that would be thrown away anyway. What is offered to the Lord should be something valuable, so that the one who is offering makes a real sacrifice. Similarly, a family which is asked to offer one son as a priest should not be allowed to offer a son who can not help them on the farm. The son offered for priesthood should be without blemish, like the lamb killed at Easter (Ex 12:5-6). This a rule for the temple cult on earth. But when Ezekiel gives us his prophecy about the future temple, this rule is omitted, and that is not a coincidence. That rule is not needed in the kingdom to come.

Sometimes this passage has been interpreted as if the Bible regards people with disabilities as unworthy and whose injuries or sicknesses are a punishment for sin. We can see this interpretation behind the disciples’ questions to Jesus when they meet the man who was blind from birth: (John 9:2) "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus’ answer is clear: "It was not that this man sinned or his parents." This answer should have prevented any interpretation that the Bible teaches us that disabilities is a punishment from God for sins. Yet we meet such interpretations among Christians all over the world.

Another passage seems to allow for such an interpretation. It is the story in Luke 5 of the paralysed man who was brought to Jesus. The first thing Jesus says to the man when he meets him is "Man, your sins are forgiven you". (Luke 5:20) But clearly, we can not say that this passage teaches us that there is a general connection between people with disabilities and their personal sins. People have disabilities as a result of not taking care of themselves as they should. Maybe this man’s injury was due to an accident he could have avoided if he had been more careful. Maybe what the man most needed was to hear that his sins were forgiven, and not to be healed from his injury.

That interpretation is important for many people with disabilities because they question the passages where Jesus heals persons with different kind of disabilities. They ask if Jesus’ only interest in persons with disabilities is to heal them. Is the Bible only a book about miraculous recoveries whereas our experiences - the experiences of those whose lives are not success stories are excluded?

But this interpretation excludes the very centre of Christian faith: the cross and the message of atonement. The gospel is a message of a power that is made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor 12:9) It is about Jesus who was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. Our vocation as Christians is to be weak in Him in order to live with Him by God’s power. (2 Cor 13:4) The experience of weaknesses in life is crucial for an understanding of the Christian faith that is in accordance with what the Bible teaches us.

If the power of God is made perfect in weakness, then the experience of weakness is crucial for anyone who wants to experience the power of God. The gifts from people who have experienced different weaknesses are vital for a Christian church. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. (1 Corinthians 12:22) It is important to note that Paul writes "seem to" and not "are". Because what seems to be weak and what is weak in reality is not always the same thing.

In the Bible we read about God’s love and God’s transforming power. What is strong and what is weak is not clear from a human point a view when we allow the transforming presence of God influence our way of understanding God. In Deuteronomy 7:7, we read that God did not set His love upon them because they were more in number. The people of Israel were the fewest of all people. Like so many other passages in both Testaments, this one’s perspective on weaknesses and strength is very different from the world’s perspective.

Maybe the best answer to the question of what we can learn about disabilities in the Bible is to see that the question of who is weak and who is strong is much more complicated in the presence of the living God, and that we need the contribution of all, especially of those who seem to be weak, to understand God’s love. Because it is only when all who belong to Christ come together that we can comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for us in His son, Jesus Christ.

Rev. Arne Fritzon from Sweden is a pastor in the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden. He is presently working on a thesis for a Ph.D. in systematic theology at Uppsala University. He is part of the core team of the Ecumenical Disability Network (EDAN).

Back to table of contents of ECHOES no. 19/2001