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Sunday, April 21, 2019

צרעת = Leprosy?


Introduction

The nominal and verb forms of the root צרע occur 54 times in the Hebrew bible, and corresponding Greek terms occur an additional 14 times in the New Covenant books.  These terms are always translated as references to leprosy in modern European languages.  This automatically brings up the question as to whether these references actually are referring to clinical leprosy as it is known today.  According to rabbinic opinion, צרעת has nothing to do with the disease known today as leprosy, or Hansen’s disease.  According to this opinion, צרעת is a condition imposed by YHWH on individuals for certain types of covenantal unfaithfulness.  As such, it may be imposed for the remainder of the individual’s life, or it may be spontaneously cured by God.  Levitical priests were assigned the responsibility of examining suspected individuals, houses, and garments and assessing whether or not צרעת was present.  For the entire time that an individual is afflicted with צרעת, he (or she) remained expelled from the covenant community.  How accurately does this rabbinic opinion reflect the usage in the Hebrew bible, and is there any correspondence between צרעת and Hansen’s disease?

What is Clinical Leprosy?

Hansen’s disease is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae.  This bacterium has two peculiarities: 1) It is incapable of growing outside of some animal or human host; 2) Once it has infected a host it grows very slowly, so a person may remain asymptomatic for months following initial infection.  As a result of these factors, the method of transmission is not always clear.  Leprosy is contagious, but not highly so, and medical professionals estimate that up to 95% of the world population is naturally immune to the disease. 

The disease may attack any part of the skin, mucus membranes at body openings, or the eyes.  The infection has three different manifestations.

1.      Paucibacillary (PB), or tuberculoid, Hansen’s disease is characterized by one or a few hypopigmented or hyperpigmented skin macules that exhibit loss of sensation (anesthesia) due to infection of the peripheral nerves supplying the region. The body’s immune response may also result in swelling of the peripheral nerves; these enlarged nerves may be palpated under the skin, and may or may not be tender to the touch.
2.     Multibacillary (MB), or lepromatous, Hansen’s disease is characterized by generalized or diffuse involvement of the skin, a thickening of the peripheral nerves under microscopic examination, and has the potential to involve other organs, the eyes, nose, testes, and bone. The nodular form of this condition is the most advanced form of the disease. Ulcerated nodules contain large numbers of M. leprae acid-fast bacilli packed in macrophages that appear as large foamy cells.
3.     Borderline, or dimorphous, Hansen’s disease is the most common form. When compared to tuberculoid or lepromatous forms, it is of intermediate severity. The skin lesions seem to be of the tuberculoid type, but are more numerous, and may be found anywhere on the body. Peripheral nerves are affected as well, with ensuing weakness and anesthesia.

Regardless of the particular manifestation, the disease can affect the nerves, skin, eyes, and lining of the nose (nasal mucosa). The bacteria attack the nerves, which can become swollen under the skin. This can cause the affected areas to lose the ability to sense touch and pain, which can lead to injuries, like cuts and burns. Usually, the affected skin changes color and either becomes:
·       lighter or darker, often dry or flaky, with loss of feeling, or
·       reddish due to inflammation of the skin.

If left untreated, the nerve damage can result in paralysis of hands and feet. In very advanced cases, the person may have multiple injuries due to lack of sensation, and eventually the body may readsorb the affected digits over time, resulting in the apparent loss of toes and fingers.  Corneal ulcers and blindness can also occur if facial nerves are affected. Other signs of advanced Hansen’s disease may include loss of eyebrows and saddle-nose deformity resulting from damage to the nasal septum.

The disease was widely known and feared in antiquity as a highly contagious and debilitating condition.  My father, who was a doctor for some 40 years, encountered exactly one case of leprosy during his entire career.  In his day, leprosy could be arrested but not cured.  Today leprosy is known to be only mildly contagious; it can be treated and the infection cured through the use of multiple combinations of antibiotics.  The cause of the disease can be eliminated from the patient, but the damage caused by the infection prior to treatment cannot be reversed.  Despite all this, the disease remains a significant health problem in some parts of the world.  According to figures from the World Health Organization, something less than 200,000 new cases of leprosy were reported world wide in 2015.  Locations most severely affected were Brazil, sub-Sahara Africa, India, and south-east Asia.

What is the Biblical Description of צרעת?

According to the Hebrew bible, the infection of צרעת may occur on a garment, on the plaster of a house, or on the skin of a person.  Because Mycobacterium leprae is not capable of multiplying outside of a living host, the manifestation of צרעת in a garment or the plaster of a house is clearly unrelated to leprosy as we know it today.  These may have been the result of dry rot, mold, fungus, or some other phenomenon.  Symptoms of צרעת in a human as described in the bible are as follows:

·      The skin of one afflicted with leprosy was described as white as snow (Ex 4:6, Num 12:10).
·      A swelling, scab or bright spot on a person’s body in which the hair has turned white and the infection has penetrated below the surface is designated as צרעת (Lev 13:2).
·      The skin exhibits white swelling, the hair has turned white, and there is raw flesh in the swelling (Lev 13:12).
·      The skin has a healed boil or sore with a white swelling or with a reddish-white bright spot that penetrates into the skin and the hair has turned white (Lev 13:19, 20).
·      The person had a burn, and the raw flesh develops a reddish-white or white spot that penetrates into the skin and the hair has turned white (Lev 13:24, 25).
·      A scaly infection on the head that is deeper than the skin surface and has thin yellowish hair (Lev 13:30).
·      A person becomes bald or partially bald with a reddish-white infection that penetrates the skin (Lev 13:43).

Apart from these diagnostic references to צרעת the Hebrew bible contains four passages in which YHWH or a prophet is directly involved in inflicting an individual with the infection of צרעת:

·      In Ex 4:6, 7 YHWH first infected Moses’ hand with צרעת instantaneously, and the just as suddenly restored it to health.  This was the second of three signs that God used to persuade Moses that he was the God of his fathers and that this God had absolute power over conditions on earth.
·      In Num 12 Aaron and Miriam confronted Moses, so YHWH called out the three of them and rebuked Aaron and Miriam.  When the presence of YHWH departed Miriam was afflicted with צרעת.  Moses then prayed for her, so YHWH promised to restore her to health after a week of exile from the camp.
·      In 2 Chron 26:16-21, Uziah became proud and usurped the role of the priests by offering incense before YHWH in the temple.  For this affront, Uziah was stricken with leprosy immediately, and he remained a leper for the rest of his life.
·      The narrative in 2 Kings 5 is different from the previous three.  In this passage, Naaman was a Syrian military commander who was infected with צרעת.  He went to Israel with a significant treasure because he had heard that a prophet there might be able to cure him.  He ultimately appeared before the home of Elisha, who sent word that he should bathe seven times in the Jordan River.  After he finally complied, he was cured as promised.  Immediately he returned and offered the entire treasure to Elisha, but Elisha refused to accept anything.  After Naaman departed to return home, Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, decided to gain some part of the reward.  He then ran after Naaman, and by means of a lie he gained a small part of the treasure.  After he returned to his master, he again lied about his activities.  Elisha was aware of the lie, so he pronounced judgment: The leprosy that had departed from Naaman would cleave to him and his descendants forever.

These four passages constitute the basis for the rabbinic interpretation concerning צרעת.  There are several other passages where individuals with צרעת are mentioned, but there is no description concerning the cause of infection, and there is no reference for the restoration of any of them to health.

Linguistic Evidence

The Hebrew bible contains a noun form – צרעת – and a denominative verb from the root צרע.  BDB lists just two cognate references for this root: an Arabic root meaning throw down, prostrate, and a Sabean root meaning humble oneself.  I have found no example of this root being attested in later Aramaic dialects, and I have found only one  reference to leprosy other than those in translations of the Hebrew bible.  The translations I have examined in detail are the Aramaic targums, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta.

·      Targums.  In every instance the targums use various forms of סגיר as the translation for both the nominal and verbal forms of צרע.  The Aramaic term is derived from the root סגר, meaning that the individual afflicted with this condition was shut up or confined.  That is, the term is a description of how a person with this condition was to be treated and not a translation of the Hebrew term itself.
·      LXX.  The Septuagint used various forms of the noun λεπρα as the translation for צרעת and forms of the verb λεπραω as the translation for the verbal root.  Latin uses the terms lepra and leprosus.  This usage provides an explanation for the terminology found in modern translations, but the Greek term was far broader than the modern concept of leprosy.
o   Λεπρα – a condition causing rough or scaly skin, which could be leprosy
o   Λεπρος – scaly
o   Λεπραω – have leprosy; become scaly, rough
o   Λεπριαω – develop a nail fungal condition
o   Λεπρομαι – become leprous
o   Λεπρυνομαι – be rough, scaly (of snakes)
·      Peshitta.  The Syriac translation of the Hebrew bible uses various forms of the root גרב for every occurrence of צרעת and צרע.  The nominal form of this root is attested three times in the Hebrew bible with the meaning of itch or scab.  The form girba is attested in Mandanaic with the meaning of leprosy.  The range of meanings for this root in the Syriac dialect are as follows:
o   G-rev – Verb form; become leprous
o   G-reb – Noun form; a leper
o   Garve – Noun; leprosy
o   Garbene – Noun; a leper
·      Modern Hebrew – Garav – eczema; Garevet – eczema (Med); tzar’at – leprosy

Conclusions

If the root etymology for צרע offered by BDB is accurate, then the base meaning of צרעת indicates that the individual so afflicted is bowed down, humbled, thrown down.  Such a meaning describes the inevitable result of the condition for any individual so afflicted in the ancient world.  According to symptoms listed in modern medical references, anybody afflicted with Hansen’s disease according to the modern medical definition would ultimately have been designated as one infected with צרעת on the basis of the Levitical standards.  However, there are a variety of other skin conditions – like psoriasis, shingles, and other inflammatory skin conditions – that might also have been so designated.  All such individuals would have been expelled from the community, and by living in close contact with one another true Hansen’s disease could have propagated among them.

Now, the assertion that צרעת is a covenant-based judgment for certain types of transgression cannot be dismissed.  YHWH’s claim in various parts of scripture is that he gives health and prosperity for covenant faithfulness, and he withholds these and even causes death and exile for faithlessness.  If the medical estimate that 95% of the world population is spontaneously immune to leprosy, then approximately 30 million out of 6 billion people are susceptible.  According to the records from 2015, less that 0.6% of those susceptible were recorded as new cases during that year.  Surely God is capable of changing that percentage up or down locally or worldwide.  No such form of judgment has been predicted by the ancient prophets, so I am inclined to doubt that such a form of judgment will occur.

Saturday, April 6, 2019

You must eat my flesh and drink my blood (Jn 6:53)


This statement as related in the Gospel of John occurs on the day after the feeding of the 5000.  Following that event Yeshua withdrew alone, and his disciples attempted to cross Lake Galilee to Capernaum in their boat.  After they had gotten only a short way from shore a strong wind came up to hinder their progress, and then they saw Yeshua walking to them on the water.  After he got into the boat with them, they were immediately at the opposite shore to which they had been heading.  The following day, a large number of the crowd made the trip across the lake to Capernaum, and they were astounded to find Yeshua there with his disciples.  (After all, they had seen the disciples leave without him, and it was a long walk around the lake from where they had started.)  Yeshua’s immediate response was to castigate them for merely wanting a repetition or the previous day’s sign.  They brought up the giving of the manna during the exodus travels, but Yeshua’s response was to assert that he was the true bread to come down from heaven, and they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.  The result was predictable: Many of those who had been following Yeshua did so no more (Jn 6:65).

But what was Yeshua’s point about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  No interpreter I am aware of connects this statement with anything in the Hebrew bible.  I suppose the most obvious Christian response would be that this anticipates the event during the Last Supper when Yeshua reinterpreted the last cup and last matzo as his blood and body.  This event is recorded in the Synoptic Gospels and in 1 Corinthians (Mat 26:26-26, Mk 14:22-25, Lk 22:14-19, 1 Cor 11:23-26), but not in John.  There are three different common Christian interpretations for the so called ‘Lord’s Supper’:

·      Catholic:  Transubstantiation in which the bread and wine are transformed into the literal body and blood of Yeshua.  The event is interpreted as the bloodless sacrifice of the Mass and functions like a repetition of a sin sacrifice.
·      Lutheran: Consubstantiation in which the body and blood of Yeshua are mystically present without literal transformation of the elements.
·      Memorial:  Most Protestants adhere to this view.  Yeshua said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  The book of Hebrews emphasizes that Yeshua’s sacrifice for sin was done just once and would never be repeated.

It is not my purpose to discuss the relative merits of these Christian interpretations, but they all do have a common deficiency: they have no point of contact with the tabernacle/temple and its rituals.  These disciples were all Jews, and all of their experiences with Yeshua would have been understood through the lens of their cultural heritage.

·      The order in which wine and bread are presented in the four descriptions of the ‘Lord’s Supper’ differ.  Luke indicates that the wine was distributed first, but the other three reverse the order.  There is no way to know exactly how the Passover seder proceeded 2000 years ago, but the modern seder is built around four cups of wine, and the blessing of the wine is the first thing to be done during each phase of the celebration, but the wine is not drunk until after everything else for that phase of the seder has been completed.  Since the gospel accounts agree that the ‘Lord’s Supper’ was the last thing done for their seder, most interpreters agree that the wine corresponded to the fourth cup, the cup of praise according to current tradition..  All of the accounts agree that the wine represented Yeshua’s blood as that necessary to inaugurate the New Covenant -- this is my blood of the New Covenant shed for you and for many.  This is a reference to Jeremiah 31:31-37.  For those Christians who assert that Torah no longer has any relevance for believers in Yeshua, you should read this passage in Jeremiah: The primary difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that under the New Covenant Torah would be written on human hearts rather than tablets of stone.  Those Christians who assert that the heritage of Israel has passed to the church should read Jeremiah 31:35-40.

      The reference to eating the flesh of Yeshua is clearly metaphorical rather than literal, but what is the point?  The New Covenant texts are consistent in asserting that Yeshua died as a vicarious sin sacrifice for his people and also that he represented the Passover sacrificial lamb, which accomplished redemption from slavery for the people of Israel.  The understanding of details is much debated among Christian theologians, but I have never read any of them that did any more than make a superficial connection (if that) with the sacrificial rituals as described in Leviticus.

o   The person who has sinned must bring a sacrifice that is appropriate for his level of social position of responsibility before YHWH.  During the time of the tabernacle, this was done at the door to the tent of meeting; following the construction of the temple this was done in the courtyard near the altar of burnt offering.
o   The individual or individuals presenting the offering must place his hand on the head of the animal in symbolic acknowledgement that the animal was dying in place of the one who sinned.
o   That person then slaughtered the animal, and the priest collected its blood.  Some of the blood was put on the one presenting the sacrifice and some was put on the horns of the altar.
o   The fat parts of the sacrifice were placed on the altar, a portion of the meat was set aside for the priest to eat, but the rest of the animal was burned outside the camp.  The author of Hebrews laid considerable stress on this last part of the ritual because Yeshua was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
o   Following the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and his remaining two sons failed to eat the designated portion of the sin sacrifice, making Moses angry with them (Lev 10:16, 17).  The reason for his anger was that YHWH had given this ritual as the means for bearing away the sin of the people.  I suggest that this is the connection with eating the flesh of Yeshua.  Believers in Yeshua are called a royal priesthood by Peter (1 Pet 2:9 and Exodus 19:6), and like the Levitical priests they are called upon to eat (symbolically) some of the flesh of their sin sacrifice in the role of believer priest.
o    The Passover lamb is never called a sin sacrifice, but rather it redeemed the people of Israel from slavery.  Yeshua said that anyone who sins becomes a slave to sin.  Just so, Yeshua's death as the Passover lamb redeems those who believe in him from slavery to sin so that they can live righteous lives here and now on earth.  The people were commanded to eat the Passover lamb during a single evening, and anything remaining the following day was to be burned.

The priests were commanded to eat a portion of every sin sacrifice; all the people were commanded to eat the entire Passover lamb during a single night.  This is the point of connection for Yeshua's comment in the gospel of John. 

The "Lord's Supper" is different.  All of the peoples of the ancient Near East had some form of ritual of table fellowship with their God or gods.  In this ritual, individual participants ate a meal with their God/gods in mystical attendance.  Israel did as well.  The first example of this is in Exodus 24:9-11 in which Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders ate a meal in the visual presence of YHWH.  This was subsequently formalized with the various forms of Shlamim (Peace) offerings described in Leviticus.  Let me suggest that the "Lord's Supper" and the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" constitute Shlamim instituted by the New Covenant scriptures.