In New Testament times, sick people seem to have experienced varying degrees of socio-religious marginalization. Those suffering from skin diseases and certain demon-possessed persons were isolated more than others, due to matters of purity and contagiousness (Kazen, 2021). Furthermore, illness in general counted as a disvalued state of being which could, according to Pilch, also lead to marginalization, as evidenced by some New Testament stories (Pilch, 2000). Underlying such marginalization were associations between illness, sin and death, which stood in contrast to notions of purity and holiness (Kok, 2016). In his research on healing in John, Kok contextualizes such associations against the background of first-century temple-oriented Judaism, though connections between illness and death are also to be found in Greco-Roman literature (Salier, 2004). Nevertheless, as Kok also notes, it is not a foregone conclusion that people suffering from illnesses or disabilities were actually marginalized in New Testament times. Sometimes, they were actively part of the economic fabric of society, for instance (Solevåg, 2018). And even in the case of skin diseases, marginalization has recently been called into question (Shinall, 2018).
In this paper, I want to further investigate whether, to what extent, and for what reasons people suffering from illnesses were marginalized in the Mediterranean of the first century CE. First, through studying relevant passages from the New Testament and other contemporary primary sources, I aim to identify the extent to which different categories of sick people actually faced socio-religious marginalization. Second, I bring into focus the underlying motives, with a specific interest in their coherence. I conclude by briefly indicating the relevance of this direction of research for a theology on suffering and for Christian practice in society.