Topical Encyclopedia
Leprosy, a term used in the Bible, refers to a variety of skin diseases and conditions, not limited to what is known today as Hansen's disease. In the biblical context, leprosy is often associated with ritual impurity and social isolation, reflecting both physical and spiritual dimensions.
Old Testament ReferencesLeprosy is prominently discussed in the Old Testament, particularly in the books of Leviticus and Numbers. The Hebrew term "tzaraath" is used to describe a range of skin afflictions.
Leviticus 13 and 14 provide detailed laws concerning the diagnosis and purification of leprosy. The priests were responsible for examining individuals and determining their status.
Leviticus 13:2-3 states, "When a person has a swelling or rash or bright spot on his skin that could become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. The priest is to examine the sore on his skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious skin disease. When the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean."
The afflicted person was required to live outside the camp, as described in
Leviticus 13:45-46 : "The person afflicted with an infectious skin disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair hang loose, cover his mouth, and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp."
The purification process for a healed leper is detailed in
Leviticus 14, involving offerings and rituals to restore the individual to the community and worship.
Notable Biblical AccountsSeveral notable biblical figures were afflicted with leprosy. In
Numbers 12, Miriam, the sister of Moses, was struck with leprosy as a divine punishment for speaking against Moses.
Numbers 12:10 recounts, "As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous."
Another significant account is that of Naaman, a commander of the army of the king of Aram, who was healed of leprosy by following the prophet Elisha's instructions to wash in the Jordan River seven times (2 Kings 5).
King Uzziah is another example, who was struck with leprosy for his pride and unlawful attempt to burn incense in the temple, as recorded in
2 Chronicles 26:19-21 .
New Testament ReferencesIn the New Testament, leprosy continues to be a significant theme, often highlighting Jesus' compassion and authority. Jesus healed several lepers, demonstrating His power over physical and spiritual uncleanness. In
Matthew 8:2-3 , a leper approached Jesus, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man, saying, "I am willing, be clean!" And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
The healing of the ten lepers in
Luke 17:11-19 is another notable account, emphasizing gratitude and faith. Only one of the ten, a Samaritan, returned to thank Jesus, highlighting the importance of recognizing God's grace.
Symbolism and Theological ImplicationsLeprosy in the Bible often symbolizes sin and its effects, such as separation from God and community. The physical cleansing of leprosy serves as a metaphor for spiritual purification and redemption. The laws and narratives surrounding leprosy underscore the holiness of God and the need for purity among His people.
The healing of lepers by Jesus signifies the breaking of barriers and the restoration of individuals to both God and society, reflecting the transformative power of the Gospel.
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Hebrews tsara'ath, a "smiting, " a "stroke, " because the disease was regarded as a direct providential infliction). This name is from the Greek lepra, by which the Greek physicians designated the disease from its scaliness. We have the description of the disease, as well as the regulations connected with it, in
Leviticus 13; 14;
Numbers 12:10-15, etc. There were reckoned six different circumstances under which it might develop itself, (1) without any apparent cause (
Leviticus 13:2-8); (2) its reappearance (9-17); (3) from an inflammation (18-28); (4) on the head or chin (29-37); (5) in white polished spots (38, 39); (6) at the back or in the front of the head (40-44).
Lepers were required to live outside the camp or city (Numbers 5:1-4;12:10-15, etc.). This disease was regarded as an awful punishment from the Lord (2 Kings 5:7;2 Chronicles 26:20). (seeMIRIAM; GEHAZI; UZZIAH.)
This disease "begins with specks on the eyelids and on the palms, gradually spreading over the body, bleaching the hair white wherever they appear, crusting the affected parts with white scales, and causing terrible sores and swellings. From the skin the disease eats inward to the bones, rotting the whole body piecemeal." "In Christ's day no leper could live in a walled town, though he might in an open village. But wherever he was he was required to have his outer garment rent as a sign of deep grief, to go bareheaded, and to cover his beard with his mantle, as if in lamentation at his own virtual death. He had further to warn passers-by to keep away from him, by calling out, `Unclean! unclean!' nor could he speak to any one, or receive or return a salutation, since in the East this involves an embrace."
That the disease was not contagious is evident from the regulations regarding it (Leviticus 13:12, 13, 36;2 Kings 5:1). Leprosy was "the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption; a meet emblem in its small beginnings, its gradual spread, its internal disfigurement, its dissolution little by little of the whole body, of that which corrupts, degrades, and defiles man's inner nature, and renders him unmeet to enter the presence of a pure and holy God" (Maclear's Handbook O.T). Our Lord cured lepers (Matthew 8:2, 3;Mark 1:40-42). This divine power so manifested illustrates his gracious dealings with men in curing the leprosy of the soul, the fatal taint of sin.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
(
n.) A cutaneous disease which first appears as blebs or as reddish, shining, slightly prominent spots, with spreading edges. These are often followed by an eruption of dark or yellowish prominent nodules, frequently producing great deformity. In one variety of the disease, anaesthesia of the skin is a prominent symptom. In addition there may be wasting of the muscles, falling out of the hair and nails, and distortion of the hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
LEPER; LEPROSYlep'-er, lep'-ro-si (tsara`ath; lepra): A slowly progressing and intractable disease characterized by subcutaneous nodules (Hebrew se'eth; Septuagint oule; the King James Version "rising"), scabs or cuticular crusts (Hebrew cappachath; Septuagint semasia) and white shining spots appearing to be deeper than the skin (Hebrew bahereth; Septuagint telaugema). Other signs are
(1) that the hairs of the affected part turn white and
(2) that later there is a growth of "quick raw flesh."
This disease in an especial manner rendered its victims unclean; even contact with a leper defiled whoever touched him, so while the cure of other diseases is called healing, that of leprosy is called cleansing (except in the case of Miriam (Numbers 12:13) and that of the Samaritan (Luke 17:15) where the word "heal" is used in reference to leprosy). The disease is described in the Papyrus Ebers as ukhedu (the Coptic name for leprosy is tseht). It is also mentioned in ancient Indian and Japanese history. Hippocrates calls it "the Phoenician disease," and Galen names it "elephantiasis." In Europe it was little known until imported by the returning soldiers of Pompey's army after his Syrian campaign in 61 B.C.; but after that date it is described by Soranus, Aretaeus and other classic authors.
1. Old Testament Instances:
The first Old Testament mention of this disease is as a sign given by God to Moses (Exodus 4:6 (Jahwist)), which may be the basis of the story in Josephus' Apion, I, 31, that Moses was expelled from Heliopolis on account of his being a leper (see also I, 26 and Ant, III, xi, 4). The second case is that of Miriam (Numbers 12:10), where the disease is graphically described (EP2). InDeuteronomy 24:8 there is a reference to the oral tradition concerning the treatment of lepers, without any details, but inLeviticus 13;Leviticus 14 (Priestly Code) the rules for the recognition of the disease, the preliminary quarantine periods and the ceremonial methods of cleansing are given at length. It is worthy of note that neither here nor elsewhere is there any mention of treatment or remedy; and Jehoram's ejaculation implies the belief that its cure could be accomplished only by miracle (2 Kings 5:7).
The case of Naaman (2 Kings 5:1) shows that lepers were not isolated and excluded from society among the Syrians. The leprosy of Gehazi (2 Kings 5:27) is said to have been the transference of that of Naaman, but, as the incubation period is long, it must have been miraculously inflicted on him. The four lepers of Samaria of2 Kings 7:3 had been excluded from the city and were outside the gate.
The leprous stroke inflicted on Uzziah (2 Kings 15:52 Chronicles 26:23) for his unwarrantable assumption of the priestly office began in his forehead, a form of the disease peculiarly unclean (Leviticus 13:43-46) and requiring the banishment and isolation of the leper. It is remarkable that there is no reference to this disease in the prophetical writings, or in the Hagiographa.
2. Leprosy in the New Testament:
In the New Testament, cleansing of the lepers is mentioned as a specific portion of our Lord's work of healing, and was included in the commission given to the apostles. There are few individual cases specially described, only the ten ofLuke 17:12, and the leper whom our Lord touched (Matthew 8:2Mark 1:40Luke 5:12), but it is probable that these are only a few out of many such incidents. Simon the leper (Matthew 26:6Mark 14:3) may have been one of those cured by the Lord.
3. Nature and Locality of the Disease:
The disease is a zymotic affection produced by a microbe discovered by Hansen in 1871. It is contagious, although not very readily communicated by casual contact; in one form it is attended with anesthesia of the parts affected, and this, which is the commonest variety now met with in the East, is slower in its course than those forms in which nodular growths are the most prominent features, in which parts of the limbs often drop off. At present there are many lepers to be seen at the gates of the cities in Palestine. It is likewise prevalent in other eastern lands, India, China, and Japan. Cases are also to be seen in most of the Mediterranean lands and in Norway, as well as in parts of Africa and the West Indies and in South America. In former times it was occasionally met with in Britain, and in most of the older English cities there were 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, 112 such leper houses were founded in England. Of this disease King Robert Bruce of Scotland died. There was special medieval legislation excluding lepers from churches and forbidding them to wander from district to district. Leprosy has been sometimes confounded with other diseases; indeed the Greek physicians used the name lepra for the scaly skin disease now called psoriasis. In the priestly legislation there was one form of disease (Leviticus 13:13) in which the whiteness covers all the body, and in this condition the patient was pronounced to be clean. This was probably psoriasis, for leprosy does not, until a very late stage, cover all the body, and when it does so, it is not white. It has been surmised that Naaman's disease was of this kind. Freckled spots (Hebrew bohaq), 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. the Revised Version (British and American) reads for freckled spot "tetter," an old English word from a root implying itchiness (see Hamlet, I, v, 71).
The homiletic use of leprosy as a type of sin is not Biblical. The only Scriptural reference which might approach this isPsalm 51:7, but this refers toNumbers 19:18 rather than to the cleansing of the leper. The Fathers regarded leprosy as typical of heresy rather than of moral offenses. (See Rabanus Maurus, Allegoria, under the word "Lepra.")
(1) 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 inLeviticus 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`ath mam'ereth), 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 mold-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 alsoJude 1:23, "the garment spotted (espilomenon) by the flesh."
(2) Leprosy in the House (Leviticus 14:34).
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 such is observed the occupant first clears 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. In case these conditions are fulfilled, it is pronounced to be leprosy and the affected part of the wall is taken down, its stones cast outside the city, its plaster scraped off and also cast 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 is condemned and must be destroyed and its materials cast outside the city. The description is that of infection by some fungus attacking whatever organic material is in the mud plaster by which the wall is covered. If in woodwork, it might be the dry rot (Merulius lacrimans), but this is not likely to spread except where there is wood or other organic matter. 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.
4. 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.
Alexander Macalister
Greek
3014. lepra --leprosy... lepra. 3015 .
leprosy. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: lepra Phonetic
Spelling: (lep'-rah) Short Definition:
leprosy Definition:
leprosy.
...167. akatharsia -- uncleanness
... Cognate: 167 (from 1 "not" and 2513 , "clean because unmixed, pure") -- ritual ,
caused byleprosy, open infection, child birth, touching a corpse, etc....
Strong's Hebrew
6883. tsaraath --leprosy... 6882, 6883. tsaraath. 6884 .
leprosy. Transliteration: tsaraath Phonetic
Spelling: (tsaw-rah'-ath) Short Definition:
leprosy. Word
...6879. tsara -- to be struck withleprosy, to be leprous
... 6878, 6879. tsara. 6880 . to be struck withleprosy, to be leprous.
Transliteration: tsara Phonetic Spelling: (tsaw-rah') Short Definition: leper....
2224. zarach -- to rise, come forth
... A primitive root; properly, to irradiate (or shoot forth beams), ie To rise (as
the sun); specifically, to appear (as a symptom ofleprosy) -- arise, rise (up...
622. asaph -- to gather, remove
... consume, destroy, felch, gather (in, together, up again), X generally, get (him),
lose, put all together, receive, recover (another fromleprosy), (be) rereward...
Library
Constantine'sLeprosy; Healing and Baptism by Silvester.
... Chapter III Writings. 3. Constantine'sLeprosy; Healing and Baptism by
Silvester. This tale is one of the most frequently found....
That Covetousness Brings Upon the Soul a SpiritualLeprosy.
... Prolegomena. Chapter XXVI. That covetousness brings upon the soul a spiritual
leprosy. And such are seen to be lepers in spirit...
Defilers of Themselves with Beasts, Being Also Leprous, who have...
... Canon XVII. Defilers of themselves with beasts, being also leprous, who have
infected others with theleprosy? Defilers of themselves...
Jesus Heals a Leper and Creates Much Excitement.
... it is idle to conjecture which city it was], behold, ^b there cometh { ^a came}
^b to him a leper [There is much discussion as to what is here meant byleprosy...
The Leper
... clean. And straightway theleprosy departed from him, and he was made clean....
RV) THE disease ofleprosy was peculiarly fearful to a Jew....
The First Stage in the Leper's Cleansing
... shall be brought unto the priest: 3. And the priest shall go forth out of the camp;
and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague ofleprosy be healed...
Naaman the Syrian and the Jordan. No Other Stream Has the Same...
... interpretation about this Jordan, so good to drink, so full of grace, it may be
of use to compare the cleansing of Naaman the Syrian from hisleprosy, and what...
The Touch that Cleanses
... And immediately hisleprosy was cleansed.4. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell
no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that...
A Slave Girl who Helped Her Master
... Samaria! Then he would cure him of hisleprosy." So Naaman went in and told
the king what the maid from the land of Israel had said....
A Little Jewish Maid.
... She learnt to love her mistress very much; and was sorry for her master, for he
was troubled with the terrible sickness ofleprosy, and she often wished he...
Thesaurus
Leprosy (51 Occurrences)... That the disease was not contagious is evident from the regulations regarding it
(Leviticus 13:12, 13, 36; 2 Kings 5:1).
Leprosy was "the outward and visible
...Infectious (19 Occurrences)
... 13:2 "When a man shall have a rising in his body's skin, or a scab, or a bright
spot, and it becomes in the skin of his body the plague ofleprosy, then he...
Infection (24 Occurrences)
... 13:2 "When a man shall have a rising in his body's skin, or a scab, or a bright
spot, and it becomes in the skin of his body the plague ofleprosy, then he...
Leprous (27 Occurrences)
... Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (a.) Infected withleprosy; pertaining to or
resemblingleprosy. 2. (a.) Leprose. Multi-Version Concordance...
Pronounced (63 Occurrences)
... and the hair in the plague hath turned white, and the appearance of the plague
'is' deeper than the skin of his flesh -- it 'is' a plague ofleprosy, and the...
Appears (38 Occurrences)
... and if the hair in the plague be turned white, and the appearance of the plague
be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the plague ofleprosy; and the...
Fretting (6 Occurrences)
... Fretting in the sense of eating away, consuming, is used of theleprosy, ma'ar,
"to be sharp, bitter, painful" (Leviticus 13:51, 52; Leviticus 14:44, "a...
Pronounce (47 Occurrences)
... the body: and if the hair in the plague has turned white, and the appearance of
the plague is deeper than the body's skin, it is the plague ofleprosy; and the...
Examine (48 Occurrences)
... the body: and if the hair in the plague has turned white, and the appearance of
the plague is deeper than the body's skin, it is the plague ofleprosy; and the...
Examination (10 Occurrences)
... It isleprosy. (See RSV). Leviticus 13:10 and the priest shall examine him.... It is
the plague ofleprosy. It has broken out in the boil. (See RSV)....
Resources
Why is leprosy talked about so much in the Bible? | GotQuestions.orgWho was Naaman in the Bible? | GotQuestions.orgWhat can we learn from the story of Elisha and Naaman? | GotQuestions.orgLeprosy: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.comBible Concordance •
Bible Dictionary •
Bible Encyclopedia •
Topical Bible •
Bible Thesuarus
