NEW TESTAMENT CHARACTERS.

LEPROSY SUFFERERS.
The disease now known as Leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) was not identified and defined until 1874 - 263 years after the translation of the King James Bible. There is no possibility therefore that the word leprosy could mean the same in the Bible as it does today.

Skin diseases have always been frightening, partly because people fear disfigurement more than pain, partly because skin diseases tend to be slow to come and slow to go, partly because there is a semi-rational fear of infection.

In New Testament times, people with skin diseases were declared “unclean” by the priests and had to be isolated in the only way that community knew - not an isolation hospital but living outside the towns and villages, sleeping rough, not coming near other people. This sense of rejection therefore, added to the misery of the disease, made skin disease sufferers a special class.

If the disease cleared up (and being in fact a variety of different conditions it frequently did) the sufferer could be examined by a priest, then after thorough washing and a readmission ceremony, return to society.

Jesus singled out these sufferers for special attention because society singled them out for special segregation.

At the peak of His early popularity in Galilee, a man came to him “Full of a skin disease,” ran to Him and knelt.

“If you want to you can make me clean.”

There was double poignancy in his plea. He used the word ‘clean’ rather than well, feeling himself to be dirty. He doubted that Jesus would even want to care for such as himself.

Jesus then “had compassion” on him - and the word translated “compassion” means emotional involvement. Normally Jesus’ response to need and suffering was action, caring action to bring relief. Sometimes, however, we are told specifically that He responded with feeling too.

Jesus also touched Him. Often Jesus healed with a word, but not this time. The man had been shunned and avoided too much. He was used to rejection. Other people might care at a distance, call out a word of sympathy or throw him money or put food down where he could go and pick it up. What he desperately needed was the touch of a human hand, an arm round his shoulders. The touch was not necessary for his physical healing but for his self acceptance.

Jesus told him to say nothing but go quietly to the priest for his examination and readmission into society. But he could not keep quiet. At a time when Jesus was already thronged by crowds, His popularity now rose to such a point that He could no longer go into the towns. The streets would be blocked. Only the open country was wide enough to take Him.

Later there were ten others who met Him by the roadside. They had formed a small community of their own. Their need for healing was the same, but they were less isolated and vulnerable, having each other. They had probably worked out a system for begging, knowing just the places to go and where people would throw them the money.

Jesus dealt quite differently with them. By healing their disease He was taking away their livelihood as beggars. Returning to normal life meant taking responsibility for themselves again, and He made them do this at the point of their healing. He told them to go to the priest.

They did go, and just one came back to thank Him.

References.
First sufferere healed Matthew 8:1-4 Mark 1:40-45 Luke 5:12-16
Ten healed Luke 17:11-19