{"id":505,"date":"2014-12-15T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=505"},"modified":"2014-12-12T22:49:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T22:49:14","slug":"matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few awful facts about leprosy in New Testament times:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The term used for leprosy in the New Testament was a general reference to seemingly-incurable skin infections. It could have included the formal affliction, which we now call Hansen\u2019s Disease, or any other \u201cacute skin disease characterized by inflammation.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>By Mosaic law, priests\u2014not doctors\u2014 were charged with diagnosing leprosy in people (Leviticus 13:2), and sometimes they tried to treat the disease with \u201cdifferent kinds of baths, ointments, and poultices made of herbs and oils.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The process for diagnosing leprosy went something like this: 1) A person with serious skin infections such as tissue-crusts on the skin, severe rashes, or \u201cwhitish-red swollen\u201d spots would go to a Temple priest to be examined. 2) The priest would look to see if the infection had penetrated the skin, or if hair in the affected area had turned white. If so, he would declare the person \u201cunclean\u201d with leprosy. If not, a seven-day quarantine was instituted, with a new examination for leprosy schedule for afterward (Leviticus 13:2-8).<\/li>\n<li>Being diagnosed with leprosy was a death sentence, physically, socially, economically, and spiritually. A leper was considered physically unclean\u2014and contagious\u2014as well as spiritually unclean. That meant a leper was completely shunned from normal activities of community life and banned from inclusion in worship in the Temple or any synagogue. The leper couldn&#8217;t hold a job, couldn&#8217;t live in a home with non-lepers (including his or her own family), couldn&#8217;t shop in a market, couldn&#8217;t own property, couldn&#8217;t touch or hug or hold hands, nothing. The leper\u2019s only option was begging for scraps, isolation, and waiting to physically deteriorate and die.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This was the awful situation of the man who came to Jesus, begging to be healed. We do not know how many years he had endured this horrible disease, but we can be sure of one thing: It must have taken great courage\u2014and great faith\u2014for this unnamed leper to brave the antagonistic crowds surrounding Jesus and to ask for his miracle.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[JHT, 161; ILJ, 185-188]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few awful facts about leprosy in New Testament times: The term used for leprosy in the New Testament was a general reference to seemingly-incurable skin infections. It could have included the formal affliction, which we now call Hansen\u2019s Disease, or any other \u201cacute skin disease characterized by inflammation.\u201d By Mosaic law, priests\u2014not doctors\u2014 were&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[16,217,216],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-factualinfo","category-matthew","tag-jesus","tag-lepers","tag-leprosy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few awful facts about leprosy in New Testament times: The term used for leprosy in the New Testament was a general reference to seemingly-incurable skin infections. It could have included the formal affliction, which we now call Hansen\u2019s Disease, or any other \u201cacute skin disease characterized by inflammation.\u201d By Mosaic law, priests\u2014not doctors\u2014 were&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-15T12:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-12T22:49:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"A few awful facts about leprosy in New Testament times: The term used for leprosy in the New Testament was a general reference to seemingly-incurable skin infections. It could have included the formal affliction, which we now call Hansen\u2019s Disease, or any other \u201cacute skin disease characterized by inflammation.\u201d By Mosaic law, priests\u2014not doctors\u2014 were&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-12-15T12:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-12T22:49:14+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html","name":"Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-15T12:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-12T22:49:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/12\/matthew-81-4-the-man-with-leprosy-factual-info.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 8:1-4; The Man with Leprosy (Factual Info)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}