Cura te ipsum

Cura te ipsum ("Take care of your own self!" or "Cure yourself") is a Latin injunction, urging physicians to care for and heal themselves first, before dealing with patients. "The phrase alludes to the readiness and ability of physicians to heal sickness in others while sometimes not being able or willing to heal themselves. This suggests something of 'the cobbler always wears the worst shoes', that is, cobblers are too poor and busy to attend to their own footwear. It also suggests that physicians, while often being able to help the sick, cannot always do so and, when sick themselves, are no better placed than anyone else".[1]

First Citation

23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” - Gospel of Luke chapter 4:23

Cura te ipsum was made famous in the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, and is a shortening of the phrase "medice, cura te ipsum", ("Physician, heal thyself" (Greek (Ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν)). The first textual reference to this proverb was citing Jesus in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4:23 in the context that Jesus expected to hear the proverb said to him in Nazareth, where "the people there would expect him to work miracles in his hometown as he had in other places".[2] Luke the Evangelist, to whom Christian tradition attributes the gospel, was himself a physician.[3]

Pop culture

Cura Te Ipsum, based on the reference above, was chosen as the title for the fourth episode of the first season of Person of Interest.[4]

References

  1. ↑ http://phrases.org.uk/meanings/281850.html
  2. ↑ http://phrases.org.uk/meanings/281850.html
  3. ↑ Colossians 4:14)
  4. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2033779/

See also