The Bible gives a number of examples of leprosy.
In Exodus 4:6: "Furthermore YHVH said to him, 'Now put your hand into your bosom.' So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow."
Which is remarkably similar to Numbers 12:10: "But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aharon turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous."
Deuteronomy 24:8 is simply a warning: "Be careful against an infection of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do."
"Na'aman the Leper", (2 Kings 5:27) was said to be "leprous", and "white as snow", as with Moshe and Miriam previously.
The Hebrew concept of leprosy is given in Leviticus 13, as well as a description of the symptoms and the methodology of cure. However, Biblical leprosy is not the disease that we call leprosy today. Most likely, given the diagnosis and treatment in Leviticus 13, the condition was a form of psoriasis; leprosy does not cover all the body, as is described here, or if it does then it does so only at a very late stage; and when it does so, it is not white. It has been surmised that Na'aman's disease was of this kind. Freckled spots (Hebrew bohak - בוהק = "brightness"), which were to be distinguished from true leprosy (Leviticus 13:39), were either spots of herpes or of some other non-contagious skin disease. The modern Arabic word of the same sound is the name of a form of eczema.
What we call leprosy today is also known as Hansen's Disease, a chronic infection caused by the bacteria mycobacterium leprae and mycobacterium lepromatosis. It is contagious, although not readily communicated by casual contact.
In the first of these two forms, the treatment is by simple anesthesia of the parts affected; this is the most common variety today, especially in the East. It manifests more slowly than the other form, in which nodular growths are the most prominent features, and parts of the limbs often drop off.
Hansen's Disease is prevalent in India, China and Japan, though cases have also been identified in Mediterranean countries, parts of Africa, the West Indies and South America, and in Norway.
Until modern times it was occasionally encountered in Britain. Most older English cities had leper houses, often called "lazarets" from the mistaken notion that the eczematous or varicose ulcers of Lazarus were leprous (Luke 16:20). Between 1096 and 1472, a hundred and twelve such lazarets were founded in England, and it was from Hansen's Disease that the Scottish king Robert the Bruce died.
Medieval laws excluded lepers from churches and forbade them to wander from district to district.
Leprosy has sometimes been confused with other diseases, in particular psoriasis; in fact it was the Greek misunderstanding of the scaly skin which is the manifestation of psoriasis, which led to them calling it "lepra" in the first place.
Leprosy in Garments.
The occurrence of certain greenish or reddish stains in the substance of woolen or linen fabrics or in articles made of leather is described in Leviticus 13:47, and when these stains spread, or, after washing, do not change their color, they are pronounced to be due to a fretting leprosy (tsara'at mameret - צָרַעַת מַמְאֶרֶת - in 13:51), and such garments are to be burnt. As, among the Fellahin, articles of clothing are worn for years and are often hereditary, it is little wonder that they become affected by vegetable as well as animal parasites, and that which is here referred to is probably some form of mildew, such as Penicillium or mould-fungus. The destruction of such garments is a useful sanitary precaution. Possibly this sort of decaying garment was in Job's mind when he compares himself to a "rotten thing that consumeth, like a garment that is moth-eaten" (Job 13:28); see also Jude 1:23, "the garment spotted (espilomenon) by the flesh."
Leprosy in the House (Leviticus 14:34).
According to the mediaeval Jewish commentators, the occurrence of "hollow streaks, greenish or reddish," in the plaster of a house is regarded as evidence that the wall is affected with leprosy, and when it is observed the occupant should first clear his house of furniture, "for if the discoloration be pronounced leprous, all in the home would become unclean and must be destroyed". Then he asks the priest to inspect it. The test is, first, that the stain is in the substance of the wall, and, second, that it is spreading. If these conditions apply, it is pronounced as leprosy and the affected part of the wall is taken down, its stones removed outside the city, its plaster scraped off and also removed outside the city; new stones are then built in and the house is newly plastered. Should the stain recur in the new wall, then the whole house will have to be condemned and destroyed, and all its materials removed outside the city.
Though this is described as "leprosy", it is clearly the description of a fungus that is attacking whatever organic material is in the mud plaster by which the wall is covered. If it is in woodwork, it might be dry rot (Merulius lacrimans), but this is not likely to spread except where there is wood or other organic matter. Or it might be the efflorescence of mural salt (calcium nitrate), which forms fiocculent masses when decomposing nitrogenous material is in contact with lime; but that is generally white, not green or reddish. Considering the uncleanly condition of the houses of the ordinary fellah, it is little wonder that such fungus growths may develop in their walls, and in such cases destruction of the house and its materials is a sanitary necessity.
The Legal Attitude.
"It should be observed here that the attitude of the Law toward the person, garment or house suspected of leprosy is that if the disease be really present they are to be declared unclean and there is no means provided for cure, and in the case of the garment or house, they are to be destroyed. If, on the other hand, the disease be proved to be absent, this freedom from the disease has to be declared by a ceremonial purification. This is in reality not the ritual for cleansing the leper, for the Torah provides none such, but the ritual for declaring him ceremonially free from the suspicion of having the disease. This gives a peculiar and added force to the words, 'The lepers are cleansed,' as a testimony to our Lord's Divine mission."
From "The Words and Works of Jesus Christ: A Study of the Life of Christ" by J. Dwight Pentecost, John Danilson, page 37
Copyright © 2015 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment