Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: WHOLENESS, HOLINESS AND HEALTHCARE 9
Hermeneutics of This Study 10
Medical Exegesis 12
Reception History 13
Wholeness and Holiness as Parameters of the Investigation 13
Wholeness 13
Holiness 14
THE LEVITICAL TEXTS AND ASSOCIATED MATERIAL 16
The Biblical Book of Leviticus 16
Jewish Material From Later Times and a Later Worldview 34
The Talmud 35
Leviticus Rabbah 36
The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Later Viewpoint 36
WHOLENESS AND HEALTHCARE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST 38
Disease and Illness 38
Influences From Other Cultures of the Ancient Near East 39
Egypt 40
Mesopotamia 44
Greece 49
Arabia 50
Healthcare in Ancient Israel Outside the Priestly Society 52
A Unique Example of an Israelite Physician from a Later Period 53
Magic and Manticism 57
Botanical Medicine in Ancient Syria–Palestine 63

WHOLENESS AND HEALTHCARE IN THE PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF ISRAEL 67
Priestly Ideology and Ritual 67
The Priestly Weltanschauung 67
Priestly Duties 69
The Priestly Concept of Ritual 70
Medicine in the Priestly Society 72
Medical Language in the Hebrew Bible 73
PURITY AND IMPURITY IN THE PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF ANCIENT ISRAEL 83
The Priestly View of Purity and Impurity 84
Terminology 85
Impurity and Defilement 86
Ideas of Ritual Impurity and Moral Impurity 86
[Im]Purity and [Un]Holiness 88
Sin 91
Modern Views of Biblical Impurity 94
Douglas: A Sociological Approach. 94
Neusner: A Working Hypothesis. 96
Neusner’s Idea of Cultic Purity/Impurity 97
Milgrom: An Exhaustive Analysis 100
Frymer-Kensky: A Classification of Impurity. 104
Wright: Permitted and Prohibited Impurities 109
Jenson: A Holiness Spectrum 111
Klawans: Ritual and Moral Impurity, Revised 112
THE “LEPROSY” PROBLEM 121
Background 122
Hansen’s Disease 124
Aetiology 125
Diagnosis 125
Epidemiology 126
Pathology 127
Physical Symptoms and Signs 127
Treatment 128
Elephantiasis Graecorum 128
“Leprosy” or צרעת in the Hebrew Bible 133
Etymology of צרעת 134
Other Hebrew Words to Describe “Leprosy” 136
Cognate Languages of the Ancient Near East 136
צרעת — Semantics or Semiology? 140
Archaeological Evidence from the First Century 141
צרעת A MEDICAL EXEGESIS OF LEVITICUS CHAPTER 13 143
The Nature of צרעת 143
A Medical Exegesis of Leviticus Chapter 13 144
13:1 Introductory Command 144
13:2–17 Symptoms and Signs 144
13:7–46 Further Symptoms and Signs 150
The Leviticus Rabbah and צרעת 160
צרעת In the Dead Sea Scrolls 164
זוב GENITAL EFFLUXIONS: A MEDICAL EXEGESIS OF LEVITICUS CHAPTER 15 171
Structure of Leviticus Chapter 15 173
A Medical Exegesis of Leviticus 15 175
The Leviticus Rabbah & Genital Discharges 197
BLEMISH, DEFORMITY & DISABILITY 199
Terminology and Logometrics 199
Negative Imagery and Disability 201
Beauty and Ugliness in the Hebrew Bible 204
A Neuro-Biological Approach to Blemish 207
Mortal Flesh as a Symbol of Defilement 211
Blemishes in the Hebrew Bible 212
Classification of Blemishes in the Hebrew Bible 213
The Emphasis on Sexual Function and Dysfunction 221
Mental Disability 224
Blemished Individuals in Israelite Society 227
CONTAGION 229
Nosologies of the Ancient Near East 230
A Comparative Approach 230
Egypt 231
Mesopotamia 231
Arabia 235
Greece and Rome 236
Ancient Syria-Palestine 237
Lieber’s View of Contagion 238
Contagion as Symbolism and Metaphor 239
צרעת AND UN-WHOLENESS 245
Evidence From the Language of the Texts 246
Language and Thought in the Hebrew Bible 246
Context Logometrics 248
Doctors and Physicians 249
זוב 252
צרעת 253
צרעת—Evidence from the Hebrew Bible 256
What צרַעַת Might Have Been if it Were a Disease 257
Elephantiasis Graecorum 258
Vitiligo—Leucoderma 258
Scabies 258
Favus 258
Pellagra 259
Leishmaniasis 259
Chronic Psoriasis 259
The Treponematoses 260
Lieber’s Medical View of צרעת 261
צרעת AND UN-HOLINESS 265
Baden’s and Moss’s View — צרעת and Sin 265
Impurity and Holiness: the Influence of Deuteronomy 269
Levitical Dynamic-Holiness and Deuteronomic Static-Holiness 270
צרעת in Biblical Passages Beyond the Torah 275
The Case of Ancient Israel 279
HEALTHCARE, WHOLENESS, AND HOLINESS: SYNERGY OR TENSION? 285
Healthcare ↔ Wholeness ↔ Holiness 285
Healthcare ↔ Wholeness 285
Wholeness ↔ Holiness 286
Healthcare ↔ Holiness 288
BIBLIOGRAPHY 293
SELECTED INDEX 316

About the Author

Michael Glasby, now retired, has held teaching and research posts at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London and was latterly Reader in Experimental Neurology in the University of Edinburgh. Most recently he served as Consulting Clinical Neurophysiologist at the Scottish National Spinal Deformity Centre at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh, a Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. He is a Senior Member, The British Society for Surgery of the Hand. He received his Batchelor of Divinity degree (first class honours) from the University of London in 2009 an his PhD in Theology from Edinburgh University in 2015.