The Great Epidemiologist

I love love love Leviticus! Besides being an intriguing book that speaks to my heart about God's love and sacrifice, I think that Leviticus is a truly radical public health service announcement. It's God giving the His people a better way to live as He ensures the survival of the Israelites, His very own beloved chosen people. I love having a picture of community health in 1400BC and most of all, I love how God was giving the Israelites good health and hygiene advice when the basis for that advice was still thousands of years away from being discovered and understood.

Here's a little microbiology/epidemiology history lesson:

Bacteria were discovered in the 17th century and were named "animalcules" (great name, right?) by some dead, white guy whose name I don't remember. They were later called bacteria by some other dead, white guy. Prior to the 19th century AD, disease was largely believed to be caused by spirits and personal character failures. The idea of associating disease and environmental causes emerged in the mid-1800's AD when a doctor in London, John Snow, decided to map out cases of cholera that was plaguing the city, killing hundreds. From his maps, he was able to trace back the source of the cholera to a water pump which all the disease's victims commonly used for their household drinking water. He treated the water with chlorine, replaced the handle on the water pump, and ended the plague. John Snow is super famous amongst public health nerds as he is considered to be the "Father of Epidemiology". Prior to his study, the idea of waterborne illness, particularly bacteria being able to survive in water long term and cause disease, was quite unheard of. If you think about it, it is a pretty abstract radical idea. Tiny, living, invisible particles are transferred between us in the air and they can live in food and water and cause us to be sick! It's weird even though from a 2009 perspective it is common knowledge and seems totally obvious.

But God is The Great Epidemiologist. In 1400BC, He was giving public health advice to the Israelites that makes sense by the standards of modern hygiene and knowledge of microbiology. God was telling them how to protect themselves from hazards that mankind was millenia away from understanding. Of course He knew what was up with bacteria, He created them. Here's a few Leviticus highlights that piqued my interest:

• God tells the Israelites to quarantine lepers. Great idea! Not that I am totally on-board with setting up leper colonies or anything, but keeping sick people away from well people is a great way to stop the spread of disease.
  

"The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of his body; and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean" -Leviticus 13:3

• But God didn't treat all disease the same. He had the priests assess the wounds of the sick and then act appropriately. God knew that not all illnesses or sores (nor all bacteria) are created equal. Some are more contagious. Some more lethal.

"But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priestshall isolate the one who has the sore seven days" -Leviticus 13:4

• My mama always said "Don't pick up dead things." And God says, "Don't touch dead rodents and lizards. They're dirty. It's gross"
  

"These are unclean to you among all that creep.
Whoever touches them shall be unclean till evening" -Leviticus 11:31

• And don't drink the water after dead things fall in it...brilliant! absolutely brilliant!

"Any earthen vessel into which any of them (dead creeping things) falls you shall break; and whatever is in it shall be unclean: in such a vessel, any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean"
- Leviticus 11:33-34

• Dude, Moses, lay off the pork. It is now known that trichonosis, a parasitic roundworm, is commonly found in pig meat. If pork is not cooked long enough or hot enough, trichonosis can infect those indulging in swine and can kill them within weeks.
  

"and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves,
yet does now chew the cud, is unclean to you" -Leviticus 11:7

• But not all of the weird things that our bodies do are symptoms of disease. Sometimes it's just male-pattern baldness. And God said to man, "No worries bro, you're not sick or dirty, you're just bald."
  

"As for the man whose hair has fallen from his head,
he is bald, but he is clean"

- Leviticus 13:40