1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,From a quick look at the simple joys of motherhood, we move into a detailed guide on "How to Handle a Leper."
2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:
3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.
4 If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:
5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:
6 And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.
7 But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again.
8 And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a leprosy.
9 When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest;
10 And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising;
11 It is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up: for he is unclean.
12 And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh;
13 Then the priest shall consider: and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean.
14 But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.
15 And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean: for the raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.
16 Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be changed unto white, he shall come unto the priest;
17 And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the plague be turned into white; then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean.
18 The flesh also, in which, even in the skin thereof, was a boil, and is healed,
19 And in the place of the boil there be a white rising, or a bright spot, white, and somewhat reddish, and it be shewed to the priest;
20 And if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it be in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof be turned white; the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil.
21 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and if it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:
22 And if it spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague.
23 But if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not, it is a burning boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.
24 Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white;
25 Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin; it is a leprosy broken out of the burning: wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.
26 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the other skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:
27 And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day: and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.
28 And if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not in the skin, but it be somewhat dark; it is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean: for it is an inflammation of the burning.
29 If a man or woman have a plague upon the head or the beard;
30 Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.
31 And if the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, it be not in sight deeper than the skin, and that there is no black hair in it; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days:
32 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if the scall spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in sight deeper than the skin;
33 He shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall seven days more:
34 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall: and, behold, if the scall be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him clean: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.
35 But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing;
36 Then the priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean.
37 But if the scall be in his sight at a stay, and that there is black hair grown up therein; the scall is healed, he is clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean.
38 If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots;
39 Then the priest shall look: and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white; it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin; he is clean.
40 And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean.
41 And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald: yet is he clean.
42 And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.
43 Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh;
44 He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head.
45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.
46 All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.
47 The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment;
48 Whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin;
49 And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest:
50 And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days:
51 And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin, or in any work that is made of skin; the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean.
52 He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in woollen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire.
53 And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin;
54 Then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more:
55 And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and, behold, if the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread; it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without.
56 And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it; then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof:
57 And if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a spreading plague: thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire.
58 And the garment, either warp, or woof, or whatsoever thing of skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean.
59 This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean.
It describes how Aaron and sons are to evaluate people with blemishes to decide whether they're lepers. They are authorized to declare someone a leper on the spot (i.e., "unclean"), to hold the allegedly inflicted in isolation (enforced how?) while watching for symptoms , or to pronounce the subject "clean."
Can't say as how accurate the various diagnostic methods might be — looking at boils, freckles, and hairs for certain clues. So, let's focus on verses #44-59, which describes what to do when someone is deemed afflicted:
- #44: A leprous man is unclean, and "the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head."
- #45: The leper's clothes shall be torn, his head uncovered, and he has to cover his upper lip and cry "Unclean, unclean." (Seems like lepers have nice life. Thanks, YHWH!)
- #46: For as long as he has leprosy (did they have ex-lepers back then?) he is "defiled" and must live alone, outside the camp. (Thanks, YHWH!)
- #47: The leper's leprous garment, whether it's made of wool or linen...
- #48: "Whether it be in the warp, or woof..." (huh?) or of linen or wool (again?), whether it's leather or otherwise made of skin...
- #49: If that garment shows green or red blotches (either way, a festive yuletide wardrobe choice), it is in fact leprous in its own right, and a priest needs to check it out.
- #50: The priest will quarantine the garment for seven days...
- #51: And if the plague has spread in the warp, woof, skin, etc., "the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean."
- #52: The priest will, therefore, burn the warpy, woofy, wooly, lineny, or skinny schmatta. And where will he burn it? "In the fire." (Always the best place to burn something).
- #53: If the priest doesn't find the plague in the warp, woof, or skin...
- #54: Then he orders the garment washed, after which it's quarantined for another week.
- #55: If after the washing, the plague spots haven't changed their color, and the plague hasn't spread, it's still got the plague in it, and the priest will burn it (in the fire, of course).
- #56: If the plague spots look "somewhat dark after the washing of it," the priest tears the soiled parts out of the garment, skin, warp, or woof.
- #57: And if it still appears in the garment (does he wait another week?), in the warp, woof, or skin, then "it is a spreading plague," and the priest is going to burn it.
- #58: If warp, woof, or skin came out in the wash, they garment is to be washed a second time and then be declared clean.
- #59: "This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean." (Is that what this was about? Well, why didn't they just say so? FYI, see Anonymous comment re: "Colophons.")
In any case, that was certainly everything we could want to know about leprosy. There isn't a single, solitary fact about dealing with early Israelite leprosy that has been left out of this chapter.
Wrong, lesion breath!
3 comments:
The key thing to realise is that this is NOT about leprosy.
"There isn't a single, solitary fact about dealing with early Israelite leprosy that has been left out of this chapter." is basically completely inaccurate in that almost everything about leprosy has been left out of the chapter.
Its another of those mistranslation examples. The translation "leprosy" is based on the Septuagint, which says "Lepra". "Lepra" IS the origin of the word "Leprosy", BUT in ancient times (ie. when the Septuagint was written) "Lepra" referred to Psoriasis; the greek word for Leprosy was "Elephas" (as in the modern medical term "Elephantisis").
The hebrew term here is "Tzaraas", which roughly means "smited", and isn't much use for translating the condition; its a term used for theological explanations of the cause, not describing the disease itself. Almost NONE of the descriptions fit leprosy.
Stupidly it conflates several different diseases into one "Tzaraas" disease. The diseases include psoriasis complicated by eczema (whitening + sores), impetigo (spreading sores), erysipelas (spots + swellings in burn wounds), ringworm (sores on the head, with whitening hair), and tropical sores (spots + swellings in burn wounds, with whitening hair).
The Jewish tradition is very stupidly fundamentalist in regards to this chapter, confusing symptoms and cause; it argues that plucking out any white hairs before you are examined by a priest is enough to cure you of the disease.
The diagnostics are similar to initial tests that modern GPs would carry out, but the medical knowledge is clearly inadequate as it conflates several diseases, some of which (like eczema) are not contagious.
In many ancient cultures, it was the priests who performed medical functions as part of their duties. It is only in recent times that medicine became a distinct profession. In the middle ages, it was the monks and the knights hospitaller (as opposed to the "knights templar"); the knights templar eventually became St Johns Ambulance, who still exist today, at least in europe. Priests were really the only people who had enough spare time to do any kind of scholarly study, and so inevitably it was in the priesthood, and among the monks (when monasticism arose), that medical studies really began in many cultures.
Although the calling out of "unclean", tearing clothes, etc., superficially seem to be for hygiene reasons, they are NOT. The Talmud makes it clear that the concern was against the transmission of MORAL corruption, not medical illness. The name of "Tzaraas" itself makes clear that the afflictions were seen as being imposed as punishment for some act against Yahweh.
One of the most peculiar things about the bible is that its medical knowledge is quite as poor as it is. Egypt had already amassed a great deal of medical knowledge, presumably starting with Imhotep; that the Bible hardly demonstrates awareness of this knowledge suggests a very primitive society indeed.
Verse 48; "woof" = "(that which is) woven". Its a form of the word "weave" that is much rarer now; its rare to find words of this form outside of poetry in modern times. In this particular case, "woof" roughly means "knitted things".
"Leprosy of clothes" is basically mould, in particular the description matches penicillin - which was later (in the 20th century) discovered to be good at curing certain disease, and therefore a good thing not a bad thing. The fact that the bible describes "Leprosy" (ie "Tzaraas") as being able to affect clothes as well as people is obviously evident of a very poor level of scientific knowledge.
The "leprosy"-in-clothes section has been tacked on by a later priestly writer. If you remove it, the remainder of the text flows much more smoothly into the next chapter. It seems to have once been an independent document (rather than an ad-hoc addition), having as it does a distinct colophon ("this is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment..."). Note how the case of "leprosy" in the skin doesn't have a colophon in this chapter (there is NO "this is the law of the plague of leprosy in the skin" in this chapter).
Anon,
The quote you cite at the top of your comment was a joke.
On the old "Tonight" show, whenever Johnny Carson would read a long list (generally three actual facts that would set up a comedy premise), his sidekick Ed McMahon would say with great certainty something to the effect that that list contained everything possible about the topic, that there was no way in the world there was more to be said.
Carson would then say something like "Wrong, bison breath," before launching into a series of fake facts or whatever along the same lines as the original list.
Appetizing. Coffee time!
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