Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Dear Ben,

You wrote: "TsaRa`aT is Biblical leprosy; whether or not it is the 
same as Hansen's Disease is beside the point." But then the rest of 
your discussion is based on the assumption that it is the same as 
Hansen's Disease. Maybe it is (I am not convinced by the arguments 
against this), in which case Matthew would be right to gloss "leprosy" 
as you argue. But if we accept the arguments that Biblical TsaRa`at is 
not Hansen's Disease, and given that in modern English the word 
"leprosy" is generally used for Hansen's Disease, the gloss "leprosy" 
then becomes inappropriate. I did suggest off-list to Matthew the 
possibility of a gloss "leprosy" in quotation marks with a footnote; 
but I don't think a simple gloss "leprosy" is acceptable given the 
weight of modern medical opinion.

Peter Kirk