Did Jesus Take 39 Stripes to Redeem Us from 39 Classes of Diseases?

I’m a preacher, not a doctor, so I can’t vouch for there being 39 (not 38, not 40) classes of diseases.  The Bible never states that Jesus took one stripe for each major disease.

It does appear that the Jews would generally give out 39 stripes, or “40 stripes less 1,” as they did to Paul on five occasions.  (2 Corinthians 11:24: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.”)   The giving of more than 40 was expressly forbidden by God Himself (Deuteronomy 25:3: “Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.”)  However, it is not stated explicitly how many times Jesus was whipped by the Romans.  It’s not unreasonable, at least, to assume that it’s 39, as that would seem to be the most LIKELY number based on what we see in Scripture.  However, I know of no proof that the Romans followed the Jewish custom of giving 39 lashes.

If there are indeed 39 main disease categories, this may be more than a coincidence, but my faith would not suffer if a medical journal were to declare that we now know that there are actually 38, or 40, or 17, or 113 different types of diseases.  Men put diseases into categories. The Bible never tries to make a point using the number of lashes Jesus received.

It is sort of like saying that there are seven mountains of culture.  This may be helpful for identifying different areas of influence in society, but the only time I read about seven mountains in Scripture is that they are the “seven heads” of the beast on whom the Great Prostitute in Revelation 17 rides.  So if someone else says that there are only six mountains of culture and someone else comes along and says that there are more than seven of them (which has already happened), it won’t shake my faith because it’s an observation, not a Bible doctrine.  We may all find when we get to heaven that there were indeed exactly 7 cultural mountains and that Jesus took exactly 39 stripes for 39 diseases, but there is no proof directly from the Bible of these.

The main reason I would not present to people that Jesus took 39 stripes for 39 disease categories is precisely because someone could come along and claim that there are more or fewer disease categories, and if I’ve preached “39 stripes for 39 sicknesses,” someone’s faith could then be undermined.  I don’t want that to happen.

You have to be careful about things you read online.  A hoax has circulated for years that the “fact” that men have one less rib than women proves the book of Genesis.  But actually, men and women have the same number of ribs – Adam was the only man whose rib count changed.  The purported “proof” is not a fact at all but rather a hoax to make Christians look ignorant when they pass it along to others.

Another “healing hoax” is that you get new blood the day you are born again, and doctors can (supposedly) tell the difference.  Actually, your body is the same before and after you are born again – it is your spirit that was born again, not your body.  Your physical DNA does not change and your blood does not change.

If you read a statement in the Bible, you can take it to the bank.  If you read a statement online that isn’t in the Bible, you can’t be as sure.