Leprosy
Leprosy in the UPDV moves between three settings: the Levitical diagnostic and cleansing law, narratives in which Yahweh strikes named persons with the disease, and gospel scenes in which Jesus cleanses lepers and sends them to the priest. The disease is a skin-plague subject to inspection by the priests, a condition that excludes the sufferer from the camp and from the holy things, and an affliction that the prophet Elisha and Jesus reverse.
The Law of Leprosy
The leprosy law in Leviticus 13 prescribes the priest's diagnostic role. A man with "a rising, or a scab, or a bright spot" that becomes "the plague of leprosy" is brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons (Lev 13:2). The priest looks at the plague: if the hair has turned white and the appearance is "deeper than the skin of his flesh," the priest pronounces him unclean (Lev 13:3). Inconclusive cases are shut up seven days, then re-inspected (Lev 13:4-6). The chapter extends the protocol to plagues breaking out from a boil (Lev 13:18-23), from a burn (Lev 13:24-28), in the head or beard (Lev 13:29-37), and in a wool or linen garment, in warp or woof or in skin (Lev 13:47-59).
The leper himself is given a four-sign public-identification code: "his clothes will be rent, and the hair of his head will go loose, and he will cover his upper lip, and will cry, Unclean, unclean" (Lev 13:45). The signs are imposed on the sufferer rather than removed from him, and the dwelling rule follows: "All the days in which the plague is in him he will be unclean; he is unclean: he will dwell alone; outside the camp will be his dwelling" (Lev 13:46).
Leviticus 14 sets out the cleansing rite. On the day of his cleansing the leper is brought to the priest, who goes "out of the camp" to look (Lev 14:3). The priest takes "two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop"; one bird is killed in an earthen vessel over running water, and the cedar, scarlet, hyssop, and the living bird are dipped in its blood (Lev 14:4-6). The priest sprinkles the cleansed man seven times, pronounces him clean, and lets the living bird go "into the open field" (Lev 14:7). The man washes his clothes, shaves his hair, and bathes in water, then dwells outside his tent seven days; on the seventh day he shaves "his head and his beard and his eyebrows" and bathes again (Lev 14:8-9). On the eighth day he brings two male lambs without blemish, an ewe-lamb, fine flour mingled with oil, and a log of oil; the priest applies blood and oil to the right ear, right thumb, and right great toe of the cleansed man, then makes atonement (Lev 14:10-20). The poor man's variant substitutes one lamb and "two turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Lev 14:21-22). The chapter closes with leprosy in a house of the land of Canaan: stones are taken out, the house scraped, mortar replaced, and if the plague returns the house is broken down and its materials carried "into an unclean place" outside the city (Lev 14:33-45). A clean house is sprinkled with the same bird, cedar, scarlet, hyssop, and running-water rite (Lev 14:48-53). The closing summary names this "the law for every manner of plague of leprosy, and for a lesion, and for the leprosy of a garment, and for a house" (Lev 14:54-57).
Deuteronomy reiterates the priestly charge: "Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites will teach you⁺: as I commanded them, so you⁺ will observe to do" (Deut 24:8).
Isolation from the Camp
The dwell-alone rule of Lev 13:46 is reinforced in Numbers, where Yahweh commands Moses: "Command the sons of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is unclean for a soul: both male and female you⁺ will put out, outside the camp you⁺ will put them; that they do not defile their camp, where I stay in their midst" (Num 5:1-3). The leper is named first among the classes excluded.
The Aaronic priesthood receives an additional class-specific exclusion. "Any man of the seed of Aaron who is a leper, or has a discharge; he will not eat of the holy things, until he is clean" (Lev 22:4). A priest who is a leper is a disqualified priest whose access to holy food is suspended for the duration of his uncleanness.
Leprosy as Judgment
Three named persons are struck with leprosy as a judgment.
Miriam speaks against Moses with Aaron over "the Cushite woman whom he had married" (Num 12:1). Yahweh calls the three out to the tent of meeting, defends Moses as faithful "in all my house," and asks "why then were you⁺ not afraid to speak against my slave, against Moses?" (Num 12:7-8). His anger kindled, "the cloud removed from over the Tent; and, look, Miriam was leprous, as [white as] snow: and Aaron looked on Miriam, and saw that she was leprous" (Num 12:10).
Gehazi, attendant of Elisha, runs after Naaman to take silver and raiment that the prophet had refused (2 Kings 5:20-24). Elisha sees: "Didn't my heart go [with you], when the man turned from his chariot to meet you?" The judgment-sentence transfers Naaman's healed disease to the lying servant: "The leprosy therefore of Naaman will stick to you, and to your seed forever. And he went out from his presence a leper [as white] as snow" (2 Kings 5:26-27).
Uzziah king of Judah, "when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense" (2 Chr 26:16). Azariah the priest with eighty priests withstands him: "It does not pertain to you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense" (2 Chr 26:18). "Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense" (2 Chr 26:19). The priests "thrust him out quickly from there; yes, he himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him" (2 Chr 26:20). The leprosy entails a permanent regency: "Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of Yahweh: and Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land" (2 Chr 26:21). The Kings parallel reports the same outcome: "Yahweh struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate house. And Jotham the king's son was over the household, judging the people of the land" (2 Kings 15:5). The burial separates him from the kings' tombs: "they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper" (2 Chr 26:23).
Other Lepers Named
Two further lepers stand outside the judgment frame. Four leprous men sit "at the entrance of the gate" of besieged Samaria during the Syrian famine and reason: "If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we will die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall to the host of the Syrians" (2 Kings 7:3-4). They find the camp emptied — "the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses" (2 Kings 7:6) — eat, drink, hide spoil, then resolve, "We are not doing right; this day is a day of good news, and we hold our peace," and they bring word to the king's household (2 Kings 7:8-10).
Simon the leper appears as a host: "And while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat to eat, there came a woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure nard very costly; [and] she broke the cruse, and poured it over his head" (Mark 14:3).
Healings of Leprosy
Naaman, "captain of the host of the king of Syria," is the first lengthy cure narrative. The opening label is bracketed: "he was also a mighty man of valor, [but he was] a leper" (2 Kings 5:1). A captive Israelite maiden tells his wife of "the prophet who is in Samaria" (2 Kings 5:3). The king of Israel rends his clothes at Syria's letter — "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to recover a man of his leprosy?" (2 Kings 5:7). Elisha sends word: "Let him come now to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel" (2 Kings 5:8). Elisha's instruction is delivered through a messenger, not in person — "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will come again to you, and you will be clean" (2 Kings 5:10) — and Naaman is angry: "Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" (2 Kings 5:12). His slaves persuade him; he obeys: "Then he went down, and dipped [himself] seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:14).
Miriam's seven-day healing comes through Moses's prayer. Aaron implores Moses, "Don't let her, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb" (Num 12:12), and Moses cries to Yahweh, "Heal her, O God, I urge you" (Num 12:13). The reply imposes a seven-day shut-up: "If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside the camp seven days, and after that she will be brought in again" (Num 12:14). "And Miriam was shut up outside the camp seven days: and the people didn't journey until Miriam was brought in again" (Num 12:15).
Jesus cleanses lepers in three named scenes. In the first, Mark and Luke run parallel. Mark: "And there comes to him a leper, imploring him, and kneeling down, and saying to him, If you will, you can make me clean. And being angry, he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and says to him, I will; be made clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean" (Mark 1:40-42). Luke: "a man full of leprosy: and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face, and implored him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be made clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him" (Luke 5:12-13). Both accounts close with the priestly remand: "show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing, according to as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them" (Luke 5:14).
The second scene is the ten lepers on the way to Jerusalem. "As he entered into a certain village, ten men who were lepers met him, who stood far off: and they lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us" (Luke 17:12-13). Jesus's command sends them to the priestly inspection: "Go and show yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed" (Luke 17:14). One returns: "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, with a loud voice glorifying God; and he fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan" (Luke 17:15-16). Jesus asks, "Were not the ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there none found that returned to give glory to God, except this stranger?" (Luke 17:17-18). The Samaritan is sent away with a faith-saying: "Arise, and go your way: your faith has made you whole" (Luke 17:19).
In each Gospel cleansing, the cleansed leper is sent to the priest in keeping with the Levitical law — the cleansing rite of Leviticus 14 is the standing protocol that the cleansed leper must still complete.