Was biblical leprosy Hansen's disease?

[tonychanyt]

Probably not.

J Am Acad Dermatol. 1993 Mar;28(3):507-10:

Although there is a growing consensus that biblical leprosy was indeed not Hansen's disease, there has been no agreement as to the disease or diseases described in the Bible. Biblical scholars have recently provided valuable insights regarding the interpretation of the original text on the cutaneous diseases described in Leviticus, chapter 13. It is suggested by the author that no particular cutaneous disease was meant to be implicated. Rather the passages were written to exonerate persons whose only "sin" was to have an obvious cutaneous disorder.

The following is from Nepal Leprosy Trust:

1. The condition described as leprosy in the Old Testament section of the Bible is NOT the same as modern leprosy or Hansen’s Disease, as it is often called. The Hebrew word sara’at is a ritualistic term denoting uncleanness or defilement and covered a range of conditions that could affect people, or clothing, or even a wall. The conditions described could include boils, carbuncles, fungus infections, infections complicating a burn, impetigo, favus of the scalp, scabies, patchy eczema, phagedenic ulcer, and impetigo or vitiligo on people. On walls or clothes it was more likely to be fungus, mould, dry rot, lichen or similar conditions. There is no evidence that the diseases described as “leprosy” in the Old Testament had any relationship to modern leprosy.
2. Archeological and written records strongly suggest that although the equivalent of modern leprosy had appeared in China very early, it did not appear in the lands of the Bible and Europe until well after Moses’ time, about three centuries before Christ. Some have connected this appearance with the campaigns of Alexander the Great whose armies travelled widely and may have carried the disease with them. This in turn supports the fact that it is not leprosy described in the Old Testament, but a range of other diseases that were no doubt feared, and for the management of which the relevant Levitical laws were established.
3. Although, as mentioned above, modern leprosy had appeared in Israel by the time Christ was living there, we do not know whether the “ten lepers” that were healed by Him had modern leprosy or not. After the four Gospels at the beginning of the New Testament, there is no further mention of leprosy in the Bible.
4. In New Testament times in Israel, modern leprosy was known as “elephas” or “elephantiasis” (not to be confused with the filarial disease now called elephantiasis).
5. The word “leprosy” only came about in AD383 when Jerome translated the Hebrew word “sara’at and the Greek word “Lepra” into the Latin word “Leprosy” while translating the whole Bible into Latin to produce the Vulgate version. From there, the word “leprosy” became commonly accepted in the languages of Western Europe as the translation for the sara’at of the Old Testament. Therefore the link between the word “leprosy” and the “ritual uncleanness” described in the Old Testament was only established after AD383.