What is leprosy disease in the bible

But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, 4 the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed.

After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields. After this they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days. They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves with water, and they will be clean. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy. When the priest examines that person, he shall pronounce them ceremonially unclean. They must wash their clothes, and they will be clean.

He is not to isolate them, because they are already unclean. Since it has all turned white, they are clean. The raw flesh is unclean; they have a defiling disease. It is a defiling skin disease that has broken out where the boil was.

Clarence L. Haynes Jr. Britt Mooney. Jason Soroski. Mike Leake. Both the publications seek to dispel the idea that the leprosy of the bible is the disease that we know as leprosy today. Read the article by Dr Jeanie Cochrane Oldman biblical leprosy.

Support NLT with a donation via Give. Nepal Leprosy Trust is a UK-based Christian agency that provides services to people affected by leprosy in the country of Nepal. Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital and Services Centre, one of the two busiest centres in the world serving many thousands of people affected by leprosy.

So what are the facts? The conditions described could include boils, carbuncles, fungus infections, infections complicating a burn, impetigo, favus of the scalp, scabies, patchy eczema, phagedenic ulcer, and impetigo or vitiligo on people. On walls or clothes it was more likely to be fungus, mould, dry rot, lichen or similar conditions. The skin, especially around the eyes and ears, begins to bunch, with deep furrows between the swellings, so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion.

Fingers drop off or are absorbed; toes are affected similarly. His throat becomes hoarse, and you can now not only see, feel, and smell the leper, but you can hear his rasping voice.

And if you stay with him for some time, you can even imagine a peculiar taste in your mouth, probably due to the odor. Leprosy is a vivid and graphic physical picture of the spiritual defilement of sin. Sin is ugly, loathsome, incurable, and contaminating; it separates men from God and makes them outcasts. The instructions given to the priests in Leviticus 13 help us understand the nature of sin: Sin is inside us, deeper than the skin Leviticus ; sin also spreads Leviticus ; sin always defiles and isolates Leviticus ; and just as leprous garments are fit only for the fire Leviticus , so those who die clothed in sin will burn forever.

But then came Jesus [ Mark ]. When the untouchable is touched by Jesus cf. Leviticus , "Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.