30⌄ Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.

Mark 1:30
  • Location: Capernaum
  • Subject: Jesus Rebel
  • Narrator: Mars
  • Author: Flavius Josephus
  • Created: Flavian Imperial Cult

We absolutely must set aside any modern ideas about sickness here. What we know today about disease and medicine colors how we think about disease, so we cannot think of this clinically and understand it as it was meant. A “fever” was an emotional ailment, and it was imagined that with sufficient incentive, one could easily cure such a malaise. Women, especially given their tendency to die in childbirth or of malnutrition, were particularly prone to disease. As such, there’s little doubt that their complaints of illness went unheard then as they do today.