Leprosy was once a highly contagious disease used as a judgment by God during a period in biblical antiquity when there was no cure. Leprosy was reported as early as 600 BC in India, China, and Egypt.
Leprosy is a chronic, progressive bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It primarily affects the nerves of the extremities, the lining of the nose, and the upper respiratory tract. Leprosy produces skin sores, nerve damage, and muscle weakness. If left untreated, the nerve damage can result in crippling of hands and feet, paralysis, and blindness, which is to say that today Leprosy is treatable.
In the Bible, the word leprosy is mentioned upwards of 40 times. The main reason why leprosy is talked about so much in the Bible is that it is a graphic illustration of sin’s destructive power. In ancient Israel leprosy was a powerful object lesson of the debilitating influence of sin in a person’s life.
God had given the Israelites very specific instructions on how to deal with leprosy and other skin infections (Leviticus 13). Anyone suspected of having this disease had to go to a priest for examination.
2 “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests”:
3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean”. Leviticus 13:2-3
The leper then was considered utterly unclean—physically and spiritually, many believed God inflicted the curse of leprosy upon people for the sins they committed. In fact, those with leprosy were so despised and loathed that they were not allowed to live in any community with their own people (Numbers 5:2). Among the sixty-one defilements of ancient Jewish laws, leprosy was second only to a dead body in seriousness. A leper wasn’t allowed to come within six feet of any other human, including his own family. The disease was considered so revolting that the leper wasn’t permitted to come within 150 feet of anyone when the wind was blowing. Lepers lived in a community with other lepers until they either got better or died. This was the only way the people knew to contain the spread of the contagious forms of leprosy.
The Bible records the story of a leper who was the first to be healed by Jesus (Matthew 8:2-4). The key lesson to be learned from this incident is that sin defiles us in the sight of God, but through Christ, we can be healed of the plague of sin that separates us from God. God loathes sin; it is repulsive to Him. Sin bans us from the presence of God because God will not allow sinful man in His sight and presence (Psalm 5:5; Habakkuk 1:13; Revelation 21:27). This is not only true of sins with a sexual connotation that are normally regarded as filthy and repulsive, but it includes all forms of disobedience and rebellion (1 Samuel 15:23; Proverbs 15:9). All sin is abhorrent to God. But those who have been redeemed from sin by grace through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9) can stand in God’s presence in full confidence that we are accepted “in the Beloved,” and we praise Him for the grace He extends to us for that purpose (Ephesians 1:5-7).
While its definition in modern times is different from biblical times, the definitions overlap, and the modern form of the disease is called Hansen’s disease.
The term “leprosy” (including leper, lepers, leprosy, leprous) occurs 68 times in the Bible—55 times in the Old Testament and 13 times in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the instances of leprosy most likely meant a variety of infectious skin diseases, and even mold and mildew on clothing and walls.
The precise meaning of the leprosy in both the Old and New Testaments is still unclear in its specifics, but it probably includes the modern Hansen’s disease (especially in the New Testament) and infectious skin diseases.
The term “Hansen’s disease” was not given until 1873, when Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen described the leprosy bacillus in its specifics. Only at this point was a precise definition for leprosy made available.
Biblical leprosy is a broader term than the leprosy (Hansen’s disease) that we know today. In biblical times it included a variety of ailments and is most frequently seen in Leviticus, where it referred primarily to uncleanness or imperfections according to biblical standards. A person with any scaly skin blemish was leprous. The symbolism extended to rot or blemish on leather, the walls of a house, and woven cloth. Other Old Testament references to leprosy are associated with punishment or the consequences of sin.
References to leprosy have a different emphasis in the New Testament. They stress God’s desire to heal. Jesus freely touched people with leprosy. While people with leprosy traditionally suffered banishment from family and neighbors, Jesus broke from the tradition. He treated lepers with compassion, touching and healing them.
The biblical correlation to the characteristics of leprosy is that sin starts out small but can then spread, leading to other sins which speaks to the contagion of leprosy and causes great damage to our relationship with God and others.
For this reason the affliction was the message.