Sunday Sermonette: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Skin Diseases

For those who claim that the Bible is the literal and inerrant word of God, and who claim to live by the Bible, Leviticus 13 and 14 ought to pose a considerable problem. Of course nobody who makes that claim is sincere. They just skip the embarrassing parts. Noah ' s ark is a fun story with animals. You can build a theme park around it. These chapters, however, are just deeply weird.It ' s important to note that " leprosy " here does not mean the disease which has been given that name in modern times, now more properly called Hansen ' s Disease. None of the symptoms described here correspond to those of Hansen ' s disease, or at least not clearly enough to be useful for diagnosis. (The early symptoms of Hansen ' s disease include flat patches that may be lighter than the surrounding skin; nodules on the skin; and swelling or lumps on the face or earlobes. They do not include hair whitening.) Of course many of the most important and potentially deadly contagious diseases have dermatological manifestations: smallpox, measles, chickenpox, rubella. But you don ' t need a priest to recognize these and none of the symptoms described here correspond to any of them. Rather these seem to be presentations of single lesions, that might be pimples, boils, ulcers or carbuncles. These are generally not contagious. But the descriptions don ' t really correspond to anything in particular.And there is the very strange outcome of the affliction covering the person ' s entire body, whereupon th...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs