We’ve been studying healing for a while, and I want to focus on New Testament healing words. They show the different ways Jesus and the disciples healed people.

In my last post, I examined the places in the Gospels and Acts where Jesus healed people immediately and the one place He healed a blind man progressively. In this post, I want to talk about the words found in the New Testament for healing.

The New Testament was written in Greek’s, and just as the Hebrew Old Testament has rich words for healing, the Greek New Testament uses several words that reveal different aspects of God’s healing power. These words show us Jesus’s holistic ministry and the fullness of our salvation.

Greek uses precision and depth that helps us understand exactly how Jesus and the apostles approached healing. When we examine these original words, we discover that healing in the New Testament encompasses much more than just physical restoration – it includes salvation, deliverance, wholeness, and spiritual renewal.

New Testament Words for Healing

I will focus mainly on the Gospels and Acts because that is where most of the healing happens in the New Testament. We will discuss the rest of the New Testament in later posts. There are five words for healing in the New Testament.

These are the exciting historical accounts of Jesus’s and the apostles’ ministry of healing to the sick and disabled. Each word gives us a new facet of how God heals people. Different sicknesses and disabilities require a different emphasis. Let’s look at the six words and game a fresh appreciation for what Jesus does in our lives and bodies.

The Most Used New Testament Healing Word

The most used and most powerful word for healing is a holistic, complete word describing everything Jesus does for us. It is more than just healing for the body. It is salvation of our souls and deliverance from demonic oppression. This word, sozo, is Jesus’s complete work in us.

It appears 105 times in the New Testament. This powerful word means to save, heal, deliver, preserve, rescue, and make whole. Sozo represents the complete package of salvation Jesus provides. Jesus doesn’t separate spiritual salvation from physical and emotional healing – they’re all part of the same divine work.

When Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:34, “Your faith has made you well,” He used sozo. When He said to Zacchaeus in Luke 19:9, “Today salvation has come to this house,” He used sozo. The same word describes the healing of the sick throughout the Gospels. God’s will is not just to save our souls but to make us whole in every area of our lives.

The New Testament Healing Words for Curing

Some similar words the New Testament uses for healing talk about the treatment and curing of the body. We are familiar with this word because it sounds like the word for therapy. It appears 46 times. In Greek, therapeuo” has a range of meaning that includes heal, cure, restore to health, and provide medical treatment.

It portrays Jesus as one who serves people by relieving them of their diseases and infirmities. This word emphasizes the process of healing and medical attention rather than just the instantaneous result.

Jesus healed all kinds of sickness and disease among the people (Matthew 4:24). In Matthew 14:14, when Jesus saw the large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed them. This word shows Jesus going through the crowd like a skilled physician, methodically attending to each person’s needs.

Therapeuo reveals Jesus’ heart as our ultimate healer who serves us. He doesn’t heal from a distance with cold indifference, but with the personal attention of one who serves. This is why we call Jesus the Great Physician – He personally attends to our every need with compassion and skill.

A New Testament Word for Complete Restoration

Another New Testament word for healing is iaomai, which appears 32 times in the New Testament. This word carries the meaning of heal, cure, and make whole. Unlike therapeuo, which emphasizes the process, iaomai often describes instantaneous, miraculous healing.

Iaomai speaks of restoration to complete wholeness and health. When this word is used, it often indicates a supernatural intervention that brings immediate and total healing. In Acts 9:34, Peter declares to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you,” using this word to describe the immediate restoration of a man who had been paralyzed for eight years.

This word appears in Jesus’s miracles. The centurion’s servant was healed at that very hour (Matthew 8:13). Jesus healed those who needed healing in the crowd (Luke 9:11). It emphasizes the divine power that brings immediate and complete restoration.

Iaomai is sometimes used for spiritual healing as well as physical healing. In 1 Peter 2:24, it says “by His wounds you have been healed,” referring to our spiritual restoration through Christ’s sacrifice. This shows that Jesus’s healing ministry addresses our deepest needs.

A New Testament Healing Word for Cleansing

Another important word is kathairo, which means to cleanse, purify, or make clean. This word appears several times when Jesus heals those with skin diseases or conditions that made them ceremonially unclean.

When Jesus heals the leper, He says “Be clean!” and immediately the man was cleansed of his leprosy (Matthew 8:3). Both “clean” and “cleansed” come from kathairo. This healing wasn’t just about removing disease, but about giving back participation in community and worship. This word reveals that Jesus’s healing includes restoration to relationship and community.

A New Testament Word for Deliverance and Release

The word apallasso is another New Testament word for healing that appears three times when the New Testament talks about healing. It means to set free, release, or deliver. This word involves removing or changing a condition.

In Luke 8:2, Jesus cured women who had evil spirits and diseases. Jesus removed these afflictions from them. This word shows healing as deliverance from whatever has bound or oppressed a person.

Some healing involves spiritual warfare and deliverance ministry. Jesus didn’t just treat symptoms; He addressed root causes and spiritual bondages that affected people’s well-being.

This word encourages us to understand that our healing may involve God removing things from our lives that have held us captive. Whether it’s physical disease, emotional wounds, or spiritual oppression, Jesus has the power to set us completely free.

Wrapping It Up

These five Greek words reveal healing in the New Testament. From therapeuo’s emphasis on personal care and attention, to iaomai’s focus on complete restoration, to sozo’s all-encompassing salvation and healing, Jesus’s ministry addressed every human need.

Healing comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s instantaneous and miraculous (iaomai), sometimes it involves ongoing care and process (therapeuo), and it’s part of God’s comprehensive plan for our wholeness (sozo). Whether it involves cleansing (kathairo) or deliverance (apallasso), Jesus provides what we need.

Jesus didn’t come just to get us to heaven someday – He came to bring heaven’s healing power to us today. When we understand the full meaning of these Greek words, we gain a deeper appreciation for Jesus’s complete salvation. Our Great Physician knows how to bring healing into every area of our lives.

Praying for Your Healing

Let me have the privilege of praying for you.

Great Physician Jesus, we have been studying the beautiful Greek words that describe Your healing ministry. We see in these words Your heart to serve us, to make us completely whole, to save and deliver us, to cleanse us, and to set us free. I lift up my brother and sister to You right now and ask You to bring Your healing touch into every area of their lives. We receive Your healing. We thank You that You have already provided everything we need for life and godliness. Heal us, Lord, according to Your perfect will and in Your perfect timing. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.

Up Next

Now that we have seen the six words for healing in the New Testament, I want to move on to the topic of how Jesus healed the death and mute people in the Bible.

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