Ancient Egypt

The major similarity between doctors, magicians and priests in ancient Egypt was the fact that they all practiced healing; in fact they were regarded as the three major types of healers by the Egyptian. There was no division of doctors, priests and magicians during that period because the healing process varied from faith healing, surgery autopsy and embalming. Therefore they would all use magic in the healing process (Simpson, 2003).

Another similarity is the fact that the three different groups had a specialization of what they would heal. For example there were those who had specialized in eye healing of flesh wounds (Pinch, 2010).  It was also a family custom to   turn out to be a doctor, magician or priests. This is because the teachings were done orally thus it was easier to pass the knowledge from one generation to another.

There were also diverse essential differences between the three groups, for starters the priest were considered the highest among healers because the practiced both clinical and spiritual medicine. This is because it was believed that they spoke to the gods and goddesses thus it was believed they were guardians of the secret knowledge given to humanity by the gods to ward off the blows of fate.

According to Simpson (2003) the doctors on the other hand were mostly trained to practice medicine thus there was a difference between them and priests because they were not associated with any god or temple.

Another difference is that the magicians were not trained in any kind of medicine rather they used spells to cure the sick. Also the priest physicians did not include women but for the doctors there is evidence that there were female doctors as well.

Additional major difference is the fact that the priests minded for the gods and helped to solve their needs a responsibility doctors and magicians did not have. Additionally, the priests could also carry out sacred rituals (Pinch, 2010).