Disease

To understand the biblical records concerning illness it is necessary to think oneself back into a world that knew nothing of germs, bacteria, viruses, antisepsis, anesthesia, the circulation of the blood, or the precise difference among catalepsy, "clinical death, " coma, and "final death."

Something was known of anatomy from animal sacrifices; we read of heart, liver, kidneys, bowels, bones, sinews, flesh, and skin (with some hesitation over translation), but the function of each was not understood. Most references to human organs are metaphorical: The heart is the seat of the will, the bowels of compassion. Similarly, many of the terms used for diseases and infirmities are unknown, and translation is occasionally reduced to informed guessing.

It is helpful sometimes to suggest modern names for conditions whose description puzzles us. In Deuteronomy 28:22, "wasting disease" may well be tuberculosis; "fever" is likely to be the prevalent malaria; in the Greek version, the word chosen for "inflammation" means "ague, " possibly another form of malaria; and "scorching heat" could be almost any skin infection. The most common "pestilence" in the Middle East over the centuries was the virulent "bubonic plague, " its "tumors" being the swollen glands characteristic of the disease ( 2 Sam 24:15 ; the Greek translation of 1 Sam 5:6-12, ; and the Assyrian record of the story in 2 Kings 19:35, ; both mention rats, the usual carriers of this infection ).

Psalms 31:10-11, 38:5-11, and Zechariah 14:12 are said to describe one disfiguring form of smallpox. Second Chronicles 21:19 probably refers to dysentery, and the RSV so translates at ac 28:8. We would probably speak of Saul's manic-depressive insanity ( 1 Sam 16:14-23 ; 18:10-16 ; 19:9-10 ); of Nebuchadnezzar's "paranoia with (ox?) delusions" (see Daniel 4:16 Daniel 4:25 Daniel 4:33 ); and of the "apoplexy" of Nabal ( 1 Sam 25:37-38 ); and possibly also of Ananias and Sapphira ( Acts 5:5 Acts 5:10 ).

The Shunammite's child apparently collapsed because of sunstroke, a common danger ( 2 Kings 4:18-20 ; Psalm 121:6 ). "Crippled from birth" ( Acts 3:2 ) suggests congenital club-foot; "she was bent over and could not straighten up at all" ( Luke 13:11 ) recalls the widespread curvature of the spine (tubercular, or osteoarthritic?).

Among skin diseases we may hesitantly recognize boils, eczema, and skin cancer; the details in 2 Chronicles 16:12-14 suggest gangrene. Leprosy was prevalent, and variously described as "blotches, " "scars, " "eruptions, " "whiteness, " "bright patches, " and "ulceration"; it had many forms, most of which can be only approximately identified in the Hebrew terms. Despite the ignorance about germs, the danger of contagion was realized and isolation enforced. Detailed religious rites of "purification" from leprosy's "uncleanness" were elaborated. Whether "true" (most virulent) leprosy is named in the Bible is much debated.

Nervous ailments are more difficult to recognize in the Bible's language. The paralysis of Mark 2:3 and the "shriveling" of Mark 3:1 were possibly of nervous origin, if not accidental. Much illness was attributed to "bile" ("gall, " Job 16:13 ), and Timothy's trouble, in view of his timidity, could well have been nervous dyspepsia ( 1 Tim 5:23 ).

Blindness was very commonboth the highly contagious, lice-carried trachoma and optic atrophy in the aged ( Isaac 1:1 Gen 27:1 Isaac ; Eli 1:1 1 Sam 3:2 Eli ). Sudden blindness ( 2 Kings 6:18 ; Acts 13:11 ) has been called "hypnotic." Based on Galatians 4:12-15, 6:11, it is often inferred that Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was eye disease (cf. Acts 9:3 Acts 9:9 Acts 9:18 ); others argue that the "thorn" was malaria.

Precision and certainty on the theme of disease are obviously rare, creating problems for translators. At Mark 9:17, 25, the RSV text speaks of spirit possession, the page-heading of "epilepsy"; at Matthew 17:15 the RSV uses "epileptic" for Matthew's "moonstruck"; at Matthew 4:24, epileptics are distinguished from demoniacs.