Leprosy

Terminology. Both ancient and modern writings show considerable confusion about the terminology for leprosy. Heb. sara'at  is of uncertain provenance and meaning, having been related variously to the roots for "strike," "become disfigured in the skin," "erupt," and "hornet." Since the ailment is given more prominence than any other in Scripture, the inability to determine the term's derivation is very unfortunate. In Lev. 13 sara'at is evidently used in a technical sense, describing a class of pathological conditions. If related to Akk. sinnitu, "eruption," the root can describe any type of cutaneous eruptive lesion, including clinical leprosy. The comprehensive nature of sara'at is indicated by its application not only to human pathology but also to molds, mildews, and mineral efflorescence in the walls of buildings or on fabrics.

The LXX translates sara'at by the comprehensive term lepra, which for the Greeks signified an ailment that resulted in a scaly condition of the skin. Lepra was associated by Herodotus (i.138) and Hippocrates (who named it the "Phoenician disease") with leuke, a cutaneous affliction characterized by a localized absence of pigment, probably the modern leucoderma. Galen (A.D. 130-201) and some Greek medical writers before him employed elephas or elephantiasis for a more serious cutaneous disease that seems to have corresponded closely to modern clinical leprosy. The Romans generally preferred the Greek term lepra to the more cumbersome elephantiasis Graecorum ("of the Greeks"), and the Vulgate uses lepra to render Heb. sara'at. Hence "leprosy" occurs in later English versions of the Bible.