What Does “Leprosy” Mean in the Bible?
In the Bible, several diseases of the skin. The sick person had to live apart until healed.
A detail
- Today: leprosy is a single disease, and it can be cured. In the Bible the word covered more.
Where it appears in the Bible
Leviticus 13:45-46; Mark 1:40-42
What the Bible says
Leviticus 13:45-46
45Shall have his clothes hanging loose, his head bare, his mouth covered with a cloth, and he shall cry out that he is defiled and unclean. 46All the time that he is a leper and unclean, he shall dwell alone without the camp.
Mark 1:40-42
40And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down said to him: If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 41And Jesus having compassion on him, stretched forth his hand; and touching him, saith to him: I will. Be thou made clean. 42And when he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: NAB note on Mark 1:40; Leviticus 13