From Pets to Physicians: Dogs in the Biblical World

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What roles did dogs play in the Biblical world? A survey of dogs’ portrayals in ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures shows that far from being perceived as “unclean,” dogs served as companions, guard dogs, sheep dogs, hunters, and—surprisingly—physicians. These diverse roles inform our understanding of the famous parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31).

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Footnotes

1. See Lawrence E. Stager, “Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?” BAR, 17:03.

Endnotes

1.
Homer, Odyssey 17.290–327.

2.
Homer, Odyssey 10.216–217. Translated by A.T. Murray, revised by George E. Dimock, Loeb Classical Library.

3.
De Re Rustica 7.12.1. Translated by E.S. Forster, Loeb Classical Library.

4.
Xenophon, Cynegeticus 7.5; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.205–225.

5.
Egyptian Demotic Papyri xiv.554–562.

6.
Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen, ed., Inscriptiones Graecae, IV. Inscriptiones Argolidis, 2nd ed. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1929), 1.22.26.

7.
For additional discussion of many of the findings referred to in this article, see Justin David Strong, “Lazarus and the Dogs: The Diagnosis and Treatment,” New Testament Studies 64.2 (2018), pp. 178–193.