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Leprosy and Leviticus: The Problem of Description and Identification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

John Wilkinson
John Wilkinson
Affiliation:
70 Craigleith Hill Gardens Edinburgh EH4 2JH
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Extract

For centuries, the identity of the unclean skin conditions described in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Leviticus has been accepted as that of the disease we know today as leprosy or Hansen's disease. These conditions are denoted there by the Hebrew term ṣārā'ath, which means by derivation ‘a stroke’, and by usage ‘an unclean skin disease’. This word has frequently been translated simply as ‘leprosy’, and it is used with this meaning in modern Hebrew. However, it has become increasingly uncertain in recent times that the identification of ṣārā'ath with modern leprosy is a valid one, and this identification is now widely questioned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 153 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1977

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References

page 154 note 1 Rabinowitz, L. I., Encyclopaedia Judaica (Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1971), vol. XI, p. 338Google Scholar, s.v. ‘Leprosy’.

page 156 note 1 Driver, G. R., Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, One Volume Edition (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1963), revised edition, p. 575Google Scholar, s.v. ‘Leprosy’.

page 156 note 2 Snaith, N. H., The New Century Bible, Leviticus and Numbers (Nelson, London, 1967), PP. 92–93.Google Scholar

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page 158 note 3 G. R. Driver, op. cit., p. 576.

page 158 note 4 N. H. Snaith, op. cit., p. 96.

page 159 note 1 The Mishnah, Nega'im, 1. 5 and 6. 1(Danby, op. cit. pp. 677 and 682).

page 160 note 1 The Mishnah, Nega'im, 1. 1(Danby, op. cit, p. 676).

page 160 note 2 The Mishnah, Nega'im, 4.4(Danby op. cit. p. 680), and Silberman, A. N. (ed), The Pentateuch with Rashi's Commentary: Leviticus (Shapiro Vallentine & Co., London, 1932), p. 51.Google Scholar

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page 161 note 1 K. P. C. A., Gramberg in the symposium Leprosy and the Bible (United Bible Societies, London, 1961), p. 2.Google Scholar

page 161 note 2 N. H. Snaith, op. cit. p. 93. Cp. note on ‘swelling’ on p. 92.

page 161 note 3 A. M. Silberman, op. cit. p. 51. Cp note 6 on p. 163.

page 163 note 1 A. M. Silberman, op. cit., pp. 52 and 53.

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