A few references to surgical disease and accident occur in the Bible. Among primitive peoples, as a rule, surgery preceded medicine, as the conditions of their life expose the body to violence. The following are cases of surgical disease :—
The woman bound by the spirit of antieralty and unable to lift herself (Lk 13"), was yet able to attend the synagogue. This was probably a ease of senile kyphosis, due to chronic osteitis of the vertebrae, a condition not infrequent among aged women whose lives have been spent in agri- cultural labour: in these the vertebrae become gradually distorted and modified to the new posi- tion, so that by nothing short of miracle can the spine be straightened without violence. Why this deformity was regarded as of specially Satanic origin is not apparent, but some Rabbinic authori- ties regard every disease which produces distortion as due to demons.
Crook-backedness rendered a man unfit for the priesthood. This condition, called 138 in Lv 21” (LXX κυρτός), differs from the last in that it occurs in the young, and is due to caries of the vertebra. It must have been fairly common in Egypt, as the present writer has found a considerable number of spinal curvatures of this kind in collections of
gyptian bones, The Jerus. Targ. renders gibbén, ‘very dark coloured,’ but this meaning is im- probable.
In a metonymic or metaphorical sense the bones in many poetical passages stand for the whole human frame as affected by mental emotion. Rottenness or caries (39 rakab) of the bones is compared with envy (Pr 14), with a wife that causes shame (Pr 124), and with the emotion of terror (Hab 316): LXX, however, puts σής, σκώληξ, and τρόμος respectively for caries in these three place, but there is no suggestion of worms in the
ebrew. Thebones are end to shake with fear (Job 4") or with grief (Jer 23°). The bones are burnt with heat in Job’s disease (30%), with grief (Ps 102%, La 118), with the fire of suppressed emotion (Jer 20°). They are said to wax “fd (Ps 323), to be pierced (Job 3017), vexed (Ps 65), out of joint (Ps 2214), consumed (Ps 312°), or broken (La 34). A
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bandage (San) for broken bones is mentioned in Ezk 30%; ef. use in same verse of verb wa9 ‘bind up.’
Fracture of the skull without immediate in- sensibility, showing the absence of compression of the brain, was produced by the fall, of the millstone on the head of Abimelech (Jg 9%). In the case of Eutychus the fall produced fatal com- pression and most probably a broken neck (Ac 20°). Goliath is said to have fallen on his face when struck by the slingstone, as if his fall was due to flexor spasm (1 αὶ 17%). Ahaziah died ultimately of the injuries sustained from his fall through the lattice (2K 13. It is difficult to understand the parenthetic account of Judas’ suicide in Ac 118; see art. JUDAS ISCARIOT.
Mephibosheth’s lameness in both his feet (2S 44 918), due to a fall from his nurse’s arms, seems to have been some kind of injury which produced bone disease, for when he hastened to meet David on his return he did not delay to ‘dress’ his feet (19%), LXX tr. πῃ by ἐθεράπευσεν. Both these words, however, may amply mean ‘to wash,’ parallel to the trimming of his beard in the con- text. In spite of his friendship for Mephibosheth, it was proverbial that the Jame were among the hated of David’s soul (2S δ). This curious pas- sage appears to be corrupt (see Driver, Heb. Text of Sam. 199; Smith, Comm. on Sam. [1899], 288). Lameness incapacitated a descendant of Aaron from the priesthood (Ly 218), but did not prevent the access of such into the temple, for many lame persons were healed by Christ there (Mt 21"; for other lame men healed see Mt 11° 15%, Lk 7”; they are called ‘halt’ in Mt 188, Mk 9*, Lk 14”, Jn 5%. See HALT in vol. ii. p. 288). Jacob’s lame- ness has been referred to in connexion with the sinew that shrank (see FoopD, vol. ii. p. 39). The Jewish butchers now extract the great sciatic nerve as the gid. See Meir’s Sepher Pabahi, 63.
Of congenital malformations the giant with six fingers and six toes on each side is the most re- markable (2S 21”, 1 Ch 20°). Persons with such superfluous parts were disqualified for the priest- hood, Ly 21%, where yny may mean ‘having members of unequal length’ (LXX renders it wrérunros, ‘crop-eared’), 077 in Ly 2118, tr. ‘flat- nosed’ (LXX κολοβόριν, snub-nosed’), may refer to the deformity in hare-lip (RVm ‘slit-nose’). Dwartishness also disqualified a son of Aaron from the priesthood (Lv 215): this, however, has by some been supposed to refer to emaciation from wasting disease. See art. DWARF.
Skin diseases, using the term in the widest sense, were and still are common in the East. They are frequently referred to in their relation to leprosy and the allied conditions, which are carefully described on account of their causing the uncleanness of the sufferers from it. See Leprosy. The words referring to these diseases are baldness (treated of in vol. i. p. 234f.), itch, scab, scurvy, blemishes, wen, blains, boils, botch, scall, and spot :—
Itch (075 Aeres, LXX κνήφη), Dt 28”, is probably the parasitic disease of this name now known to be due to a small mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, which burrows in the skin. In some cases, when neglected, it spreads over the whole body, which becomes covered with a rough crust adhering to the surface. It is very easily communicated from person to person, and cannot be healed unless the oe be destroyed. It disqualified its victims rom the priesthood (Ly 21”), The Heb. word is derived from a root which means to scratch, hence the Vulgate uses prurigo. It is not at all uncommon in Syria at the present day.