Bible Biology

I am terrible at remembering people's names, but that doesn't mean I don't remember them. I will most likely remember three things about people I meet:

(1) What a person looks like

(2) Which country a person comes from

(3) Which course/profession they are in

(Not necessarily in that order)

I know, I know, it sounds terribly impersonal to remember country/culture of origin and field of interest, but they are the two things I like asking because they give me some sort of background as to how the person thinks, where they come from, and how they interact with the world. I have found that makes conversation much easier and avoids silly mistakes and prevents me from making a fool out of myself sometimes. 

The thing is, what you study is a big deal, especially if you are passionate about it. For example, I am convinced many people find me very annoying when I make random comments that automatically lead conversations into neuroscience and physiology, but it's how I see the world. I have even learnt to see the Bible in a different way because of it, because of some expressions and metaphors it puts. I know that the authors did not know of all the physiology going on when they put the metaphors there,  but I do truly believe that Scriptures are inspired by God - the same God who created every living organism, molecule and transcripted gene.  So I decided to try to put together some things I think about when reading some passages of scripture. 

(Note: some of the references can be seen and studied further in the books by Dr. Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey, Fearfully and wonderfully made and In the image and likeness of God)

Purified by blood

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 

(Hebrews 9.22)

For many people, the sight of blood is disgusting and alarming - as it should be. Seeing blood most often means that there is something terribly wrong and the situation involves risk in similar proportions to the volume of blood. Also, anyone who has ever tried washing a bloody stain knows how crazy anything being 'cleansed' by blood sounds, and how 'receiving new life from blood' sounds absurd. 

But, for someone who studies even a tiny bit of physiology, that metaphor suddenly makes sense. Blood is designed to carry oxygen to tissues and to carry away toxins and waste products. If blood circulation is cut, toxins will accumulate and the tissues isolated will die - you can test it on yourself, tying something tightly around your arm or finger. Your limb will go prickly and start to go dark, and when you untie it, it will be painful to have blood flooding through the vessels and capillaries again (which also applies to the metaphor, because when you think of what it's like when Jesus comes into our lives and starts 'cleaning it out' and removing sin, it is extremely painful). 

In the end, the only reason why the sight of blood is alarming, is because it has a very necessary function it should be fulfilling inside the body's tissues. Blood cleanses, and blood brings oxygen for normal cell functioning. Blood purifies, and blood brings life. 

...and the two shall become one flesh.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

(Mark 10.7- 8)

I know, this topic can be very hard to talk about and I won't go into detail, but I will say what I see when I read it: rather than thinking of the uniting, I go the opposite way to understand the importance of the topic and I think of the separating. 

It was only the first time that I walked into an anatomy lab and saw separate limbs from one same body that I understood the gravity and brutality of divorce. Something that once was one, and then is severed, separated from what it used to be part of. It is something unnatural, revolting and that clearly is not the way it was meant to be. 

The body of Christ

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 

(1 Corinthians 12)

I could talk about this text all day long, for pages and pages, but I will try to not go into too much detail. 

Being one same body

I love this text because it has a systemic approach of the body to an extent much beyond the medicine of the time Paul wrote this. Now we know how much one part of the body cooperates with another. A body cannot be made only of eyes or only of feet or only of livers. Each organ has a specific function and must do so - and if it does not another organ will be overburdened in compensating - or the body will cease living altogether. Organs need each other, and what one does affects all the others. 

In physiology we like separating systems neatly, but the truth is, we are all just one system composed of many parts working together and keeping track of what is going on. It is both terrifying and beautiful. 

Pain

Pain exists both in the physical and emotional aspect, and in the case of the body of Christ this serves perfectly for the metaphor. When one part of the body suffers, it does not suffer alone. Other cells and parts near it will suffer immediately with inflammation and citokine relesases in the region (resulting in swelling, heat, and, well, pain). Pain is a good thing: it means that the rest of the body must care for that region, and it is a signalling that that part needs protection. And there is much that we can learn from that in the body of Christ: if we see someone else in pain, we will suffer with them and try to assist in healing and protection, not just add onto the fire. 

Also, pain has systemic consequences. Recent studies show that prolonged inflammation, for example, has neurological consequences. When we are one and when we love, we are not immune from pain - we are most likely even more vulnerable to it. 

More or less honoured parts of the body

There are some body organs that receive much attention, such as the brain and heart, which are more 'admirable' in an obvious way. But something I love about the body is the way that some relatively small organs have massive function. The spleen, for example, if ruptured and not cared for can lead to death within few hours, and we cannot live without a liver or kidneys (though nowadays there is hemodialysis). Or even the glands - like the suprarenal glands or the thyroid gland. Mess them up and, boy, you'll see conditions as brutal as Addison's and hyper/hypothyroidism, and you see how the entire body is affected by these seemingly small parts of the body. 

You can, but should you?

"I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"--but not everything is constructive.

(1 Corinthians 10.23) 

When I see this text, I think of DNA. I know, a bit far fetched, but bear with me. Every cell in your entire body is made up of the exact same genetic code. That is a lot of information. But, some cells have bucketloads of genes which will never be expressed or genes that will only be expressed very briefly. A cell cannot express all genes at all times if it is to be a healthy and normal cell, it must express only the genes that are beneficial to itself and to all the other cells in the body. There is a 'set of rules' that the cell must live by (or 'commandments'?) we could say, in such a way that it will fulfil what it was made to do and benefit the entire organism. Too bad the set of commandments is much more than just 10. 

To be the head

"And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy." 

(Colossians 1.18)

Now, again, unpopular topic, I know, BUT I must say that for a neuroscientist to read this, this is rather beautiful to read. Again, I could go on for AGES talking about this, but I will try very hard to speak concisely. 

When I think of head, I think of the Central nervous system, of the Brain and Spinal cord. I think of all the sensory information of every last and tiny cell in the body being sent to the brain and from the brain. I think of massive networks of neurones. I think of communication. I think of cooperation. I think of harmonious, vastly complex and exceedingly difficult to understand phenomena. 

Here is the thing: the brain is the entire time functioning in favour of the rest of the body, and along with the blood, providing communication and unity and harmonious function. The HEAD and the BLOOD (sorry, had to put that in capitols simply because it's too much awesomeness and it makes a lot of the bible make sense). 

So, it is only through the head (Jesus) and through the blood (His blood, to be more precise) that we can be one body and function properly in a coordinated manner. The head joins the information from synapses (why not call them prayers?) and processes the information and produces systemic responses to the information input. 

The funny thing is, it is only through the brain that we can also feel pain - so it also unites us in that, and makes us care for one another as little cells in this body. How amazing is that? And the brain does all that, and feels the pain of all the parts of the body but does not do it for itself - the brain does not have innervation, and in a very poetic way, is 'selfless' and puts its own pain aside in order to feel the pain of others and respond to that. That makes me think of Christ putting aside his pain in leaving the Father, in dying on a cross, in order to save us from what should have been our pain and our death. 

Also, the brain does a lot of things that we don't understand. For example, if you voluntarily decide to stop breathing, you can do that - for some time. When the situation gets critical, your brain kicks in with the autonomous nervous system and makes you go back to breathing weather you like it or not. Therefore, there are many things that Christ, as the head, will do that we will not understand or agree with at the time - but he does it having something much greater in mind. 

The brain is also what makes us who we are in the body. Without it, it is the condition of being brain dead. It is the brain that allows us to empathise, to feel hope, love, joy. That allows us to think and decide. That allows us to be more than a worm or fish. 

So, when I read

"But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."

(1 Corinthians 11.3)

I no longer think of an authoritarian point of view: I think of how the man must be the head in the sense that he must protect and make sure the woman is well, cared for and to be in constant communication with her so that together they can keep each other alive and serving one another in the best way possible. 

I could go on for ages, but I'm guessing that's a good start for some Biology in the Bible. Hope you liked it!