Sunday Sermonette: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Skin Diseases

For those who claim that the Bible is the literal and inerrant word of God, and who claim to live by the Bible, Leviticus 13 and 14 ought to pose a considerable problem. Of course nobody who makes that claim is sincere. They just skip the embarrassing parts. Noah's ark is a fun story with animals. You can build a theme park around it. These chapters, however, are just deeply weird.

It's important to note that "leprosy" here does not mean the disease which has been given that name in modern times, now more properly called Hansen's Disease. None of the symptoms described here correspond to those of Hansen's disease, or at least not clearly enough to be useful for diagnosis. (The early symptoms of Hansen's disease include flat patches that may be lighter than the surrounding skin; nodules on the skin; and swelling or lumps on the face or earlobes. They do not include hair whitening.) Of course many of the most important and potentially deadly contagious diseases have dermatological manifestations: smallpox, measles, chickenpox, rubella. But you don't need a priest to recognize these and none of the symptoms described here correspond to any of them. Rather these seem to be presentations of single lesions, that might be pimples, boils, ulcers or carbuncles. These are generally not contagious. But the descriptions don't really correspond to anything in particular.

And there is the very strange outcome of the affliction covering the person's entire body, whereupon they are pronounced clean. As with most of this sort of material, I have read commentaries that try to interpret it in some metaphorical way or otherwise justify it, but I haven't read any serious attempt to explain how this got into the Torah. As I said last week, these are the longest chapters in the Bible. This stuff must be very important! So I'm going to have to split them up. Don't scratch it!

13 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests, ³ and the priest shall examine the diseased spot on the skin of his body; and if the hair in the diseased spot has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous disease; when the priest has examined him he shall pronounce him unclean. ⁴ But if the spot is white in the skin of his body, and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall shut up the diseased person for seven days; ⁵ and the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and if in his eyes the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days more; ⁶ and the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if the diseased spot is dim and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only an eruption; and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. ⁷ But if the eruption spreads in the skin, after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again before the priest; ⁸ and the priest shall make an examination, and if the eruption has spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy.

⁹ “When a man is afflicted with leprosy, he shall be brought to the priest; ¹⁰ and the priest shall make an examination, and if there is a white swelling in the skin, which has turned the hair white, and there is quick raw flesh in the swelling, ¹¹ it is a chronic leprosy in the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; he shall not shut him up, for he is unclean. ¹² And if the leprosy breaks out in the skin, so that the leprosy covers all the skin of the diseased person from head to foot, so far as the priest can see, ¹³ then the priest shall make an examination, and if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease; it has all turned white, and he is clean. ¹⁴ 

Now, smallpox or measles would cover all of the body, but it would not turn white.  And those diseases really are contagious.

But when raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean. ¹⁵ And the priest shall examine the raw flesh, and pronounce him unclean; raw flesh is unclean, for it is leprosy. ¹⁶ But if the raw flesh turns again and is changed to white, then he shall come to the priest, ¹⁷ and the priest shall examine him, and if the disease has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce the diseased person clean; he is clean.
¹⁸ “And when there is in the skin of one’s body a boil that has healed, ¹⁹ and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling or a reddish-white spot, then it shall be shown to the priest; ²⁰ and the priest shall make an examination, and if it appears deeper than the skin and its hair has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is the disease of leprosy, it has broken out in the boil. ²¹ But if the priest examines it, and the hair on it is not white and it is not deeper than the skin, but is dim, then the priest shall shut him up seven days; ²² and if it spreads in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is diseased. ²³ But if the spot remains in one place and does not spread, it is the scar of the boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.
²⁴ “Or, when the body has a burn on its skin and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a spot, reddish-white or white, ²⁵ the priest shall examine it, and if the hair in the spot has turned white and it appears deeper than the skin, then it is leprosy; it has broken out in the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous disease. ²⁶ But if the priest examines it, and the hair in the spot is not white and it is no deeper than the skin, but is dim, the priest shall shut him up seven days, ²⁷ and the priest shall examine him the seventh day; if it is spreading in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous disease. ²⁸ But if the spot remains in one place and does not spread in the skin, but is dim, it is a swelling from the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him clean; for it is the scar of the burn.
²⁹ “When a man or woman has a disease on the head or the beard, ³⁰ the priest shall examine the disease; and if it appears deeper than the skin, and the hair in it is yellow and thin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an itch, a leprosy of the head or the beard. ³¹ And if the priest examines the itching disease, and it appears no deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up the person with the itching disease for seven days, ³² and on the seventh day the priest shall examine the disease; and if the itch has not spread, and there is in it no yellow hair, and the itch appears to be no deeper than the skin, ³³ then he shall shave himself, but the itch he shall not shave; and the priest shall shut up the person with the itching disease for seven days more; ³⁴ and on the seventh day the priest shall examine the itch, and if the itch has not spread in the skin and it appears to be no deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. ³⁵ But if the itch spreads in the skin after his cleansing, ³⁶ then the priest shall examine him, and if the itch has spread in the skin, the priest need not seek for the yellow hair; he is unclean. ³⁷ But if in his eyes the itch is checked, and black hair has grown in it, the itch is healed, he is clean; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.
³⁸ “When a man or a woman has spots on the skin of the body, white spots, ³⁹ the priest shall make an examination, and if the spots on the skin of the body are of a dull white, it is tetter that has broken out in the skin; he is clean.

Tetter is an archaic term, which the dictionary says refers to eczema or ringworm. Eczema is not contagious but ringworm -- actually a fungal infection -- is. But neither of them is dull white, both are reddish.

⁴⁰ “If a man’s hair has fallen from his head, he is bald but he is clean. ⁴¹ And if a man’s hair has fallen from his forehead and temples, he has baldness of the forehead but he is clean. ⁴² But if there is on the bald head or the bald forehead a reddish-white diseased spot, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead. ⁴³ Then the priest shall examine him, and if the diseased swelling is reddish-white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, like the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the body, ⁴⁴ he is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest must pronounce him unclean; his disease is on his head.
⁴⁵ “The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ ⁴⁶ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.