SOME DISEASES MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. 261 



our Lord on His way through Samaria (Luke xvii., 12-14), 

 and others were afflicted with this disease. 



But from ancient times down to a quite recent period, 

 persons suffering from other loathsome diseases besides true 

 " leprosy " or elephantiasis were banished from their homes 

 and sent to live amongst the lepers. It is said that in 

 Europe, at one time, as many as 7o per cent, of the inmates 

 of the Lazar houses were not afflicted with elephantiasis. 



A very great deal has been written about the leprosy of 

 the Bible, more particularly Avith reference to " the law of 

 the leper" in the 13th chapter of Leviticus. Yet it must be 

 owned that the subject is even now by no means clearly 

 understood. The circumstance that the expression '^y^i V^Vy^. 



neg'a tzar'aath, has been rendered in the translations by the 

 terms \e7rpa, lej)ra, leprosy, appears to have caused much 

 misunderstanding, and led expositors astray. Lepra is 

 explained by all medical writers to be derived from \e7rt9, a 

 scale, and it has therefore been supposed that this so-called 

 *' leprosy " must be one of the numerous skin diseases accom- 

 panied by the formation of scales on the surface of the 

 cuticle. Yet there is not a word distinctly referring to scales 

 in the whole chapter, though doubtless certain scaly diseases 

 would be amongst those which were to be brought to the 

 priest. Then, as the term "leprosy" is applied pretty 

 generally to the dreadful disease known to physicians as 

 Elephantiasis Gracorum, efforts have been made to bring the 

 descriptions in Leviticus into accordance with the appear- 

 ances of that disease, and this has proved a bewildering and 

 hopeless task. Nega /c«raai;/i does not mean "leprosy" at 

 all, but simply an evil or malignant plague or stroke, and 

 the object in the first 44 verses of Leviticus xiii. is to lay down 

 clearly and succinctly what appearances come under this 

 head, and render the sufferer tdmeh, or unclean. No one 

 disease is fully described, but a considerable number of 

 diseased conditions is included, some clean and some unclean ; 

 eleplianiiasis, at least in some of its stages, being no doubt 

 among them. The things which constituted the uncleanness 

 appear to have been — (1) unsightliness ; (2) loathsomeness, 

 as from open sores ; (3) contagiousness ; and (4) an active 

 force in the disease which caused it to spread. 



The word yy^_ neg\i, a plague, or stroke, is from '}i^'2 to 



touch, which in the Piel form means to strike. riJ^^^J tzaraath 



is from V")!J, which also means to strike, or strike down. 



-t" 



