12. LAYING ON OF HANDS FOR HEALING:
In the ISRAEL EXPLORATION JOURNAL, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1957, D. FLUSSER, then of the Hebrew University, on pages 107-108, FLUSSER presents a short note on HEALING THROUGH THE LAYING-ON OF HANDS IN A DEAD SEA SCROLL. After discussing portions of the GENESIS APOCRYPHON, Col. xx.16-29, telling of the Pharaoh having become ill sends for Abram to pray for the king and to lay his hands upon him that he might live, so Abram prayed and laid his hands upon his head and the plague departed from him and the evil (spirit) was gone and he lived. FLUSSER comments: "Thus Abram healed Pharaoh by prayer and by laying his hands on Pharaoh's head. The laying-on of hands for healing purposes is not found in the Old Testament, nor in rabbinical literature (as far as we know), but it appears many times in the New Testament in the stories of healing related there of Jesus and his disciples." We could add that it is a regular practice of most active LDS members. FLUSSER continues: "From the Genesis Apocryphon it becomes clear that healing through the laying-on of hands was practiced among Jews, not only by Jesus and his first disciples, but by other circles as well". The GENESIS APOCRYPHON was composed before Jesus' time. FLUSSER comments: "Jesus was not the first to heal by the laying-on hands, and that this practice was current in some Jewish circles." And to day it is current among the LDS as a regular practice. FLUSSER continues: "Additional proof that Jesus and his disciples used the word .....for laying-on of hands for healing, as in the Genesis Apocryphon, is found in the fact that the words (in greek) and (in greek) are used in the New Testament to translate "the laying on of hands (Hebrew) for ordination. Rabbinical literature also used the root (Hebrew) for ordination".