A noun meaning physician or doctor — one who practices the healing arts. In the ancient world, physicians occupied an ambiguous cultural position: respected for their skill yet mistrusted for their frequent failures. Scripture uses the physician as a metaphor for God's healing power and for Jesus's ministry to the spiritually sick.
Jesus's use of physician language is deliberately provocative. When criticized for eating with sinners, he says: 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick' (Luke 5:31). This reframes the entire question of his mission — he is not affirming sin by association with sinners but is practicing divine medicine. His presence with the sick is the treatment, not the infection. Luke, 'the beloved physician' (Colossians 4:14), naturally gravitates to healing narratives. The Great Physician who heals all our diseases (Psalm 103:3) is ultimately the one who diagnoses the root disease — sin — and provides the only cure.