HYGIENE IN THE BIBLE
UK
Millennia before the discovery that bacteria and viruses triggered diseases, and the realisation that cleanliness was important in prevention, Moses wrote down laws of hygiene for the Children of Israel. He was far in advance of his time, for the prevailing wisdom of the Egyptians and the Babylonians, who had contemporary cultures, was that of magic and superstition. The Egyptians used a few herbal remedies, but their knowledge was not very extensive, and their patients were subjected to many bizarre rituals and disgusting remedies. How could Moses have been so far ahead in his thinking? He had been brought up in the court of the Pharaoh of Egypt, having been adopted as a baby by Pharaoh’s daughter. His education would have included instruction in medicine, or at least, he would have had a working knowledge of the methods that the Egyptians used in their efforts to heal the sick. How could it be that his approach was so radically different?
It could only have been by direct inspiration from God, which refutes the theories of those sceptics who maintain that various scribes wrote the Bible at a much later date. Even if Deuteronomy had been written much later, the medical systems of the Greeks and Romans were not much further advanced, and relied largely on superstition. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that any progress began to be made in the prevention of death by infection.
One of the advances made by our modern scientific civilisation, of which we are justly proud, is that of hygiene and asepsis. Countless lives have been saved, and much suffering prevented or alleviated since the science of bacteriology was born. After scientists discovered that tiny forms of life, which they named microbes (i.e., bacteria and viruses), are present in the human body during many of the illnesses which afflict it, a great deal of scientific research has been concentrated on ways and means of destroying the microbes, and of preventing their getting a hold in human tissue.
About a hundred and fifty years ago these facts were unknown, and medicine was largely in the dark about treatment of infectious diseases and septic conditions. We ‘moderns’ are inclined to look back at these ‘Dark Ages’ and wonder how the human race could possibly have survived under such conditions of ignorance, squalor, disease and suffering as is inevitable without a knowledge of elementary hygiene.
Greater cleanliness and hygiene in maternity nursing have greatly cut the infant mortality rate-but scratch below the glamorous surface, and what do we find? Dental decay is still a problem, in spite of the fluoridation of water, which brings other problems. Nervous troubles abound, allergies mount higher every day; and no scientist has solved the modern scourge of cancer or the miseries of arthritis and asthma, to name but a few. The body is still prone to so many ills, and so is the soul, if one can judge by the increase in crime and juvenile delinquency.
In addition to the above, we now have a new problem, which is due to over-reliance on antibiotics. This has led to carelessness about hygiene in hospitals, and certain bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. Had the basic hygiene laws of the Bible been observed, this would not have happened. Another instance is that of HIV and AIDS, which would not have gained ground if Biblical sexual laws had been observed.
Are we happier and more energetic than our Victorian ancestors? These people, without the benefits of modern medicine and child welfare, pioneered discovery in exploration, mechanics, science, medicine and other fields, displaying more energy and initiative than can be boasted nowadays. A neo-Elizabethan would have a nervous breakdown after a few months of the hardships suffered by the explorers of the first Elizabeth’s reign. Our own parents and grandparents had more resilience to the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (as Shakespeare put it) than many of the modern generation can boast.
To many people it will come as rather a shock that we have not succeeded in ironing out these problems. Civilisation and Science have dealt with many problems and evils, but they have also created problems and evils of their own, undreamed of in a primitive society.
The solution to this problem is clear to the Bible student. It is for mankind to follow the laws of God as given in the Bible.
It is not a popular pastime to study the Old Testament, and of it all, perhaps the most neglected parts are Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Indeed, many eminent divines have advocated that they should be omitted altogether from the modern Bible, as being obsolete Jewish literature, quite out of tune with present-day thought. This is understandable from the point of view of modern ‘churchianity’, for it is practically impossible to hang a spiritual message or meaning on these books. They are ‘earthly’, to say the least; yet it is from these books that the keen Bible student can learn the Divine Laws for life as it should be lived on earth.
The Old Testament also contains laws, which, if obeyed by mankind, would ensure perfect government administration, agriculture and other forms of economy, which are becoming cumbersome and beyond the powers of men to control in our present day civilisation.
Dr. de Mussy, a French physician, said: “The idea of parasitic and infectious maladies, which has conquered so great a position in modern pathology, appears to have greatly occupied the mind of Moses, and to have dominated his hygienic rules. Moses was thousands of years in advance of modern science.”
Moses did not formulate Israel’s laws, but received them from God by Divine revelation. They are complete for all aspects of national and individual life; for food, justice, medicine, sanitation, and hygiene.
Why should we take any notice of these laws, which were written down about 3,500 years ago? Surely they are quite out of date for us in the enlightened twenty first century? The astonishing fact is that they are remarkably up to date. How can we explain away the fact that the Israelites had laws that enforced hygiene, disinfecting, and quarantine, thousands of years before the world had the glimmerings of knowledge about bacteriology? It can only be explained by the fact that the Creator made provision for man to live in such a way that he need not be harmed by those invisible creatures, the germs and viruses.
The more man disobeyed these natural laws, the more his sufferings increased, until his own researches and growing knowledge taught him how to fight these ills in his own way. Since modern medicine is man’s way, not God’s way, it cannot succeed completely in preventing and curing disease.
God’s natural laws of diet and hygiene were first detailed in the time of Moses, but Moses was not the first man to know of their existence and advocate their observance. We are told in Genesis, chapter 7, that Noah “was righteous before God in his generation.” This means that Noah kept God’s laws, and as he lived 1,000 years before Moses, it implies a revelation of God’s laws to mankind at least 4,500 years ago . It is also a remarkable fact that the Bible records what is to us an incredible longevity amongst those people of so long ago. It is reasonable to suppose that they could attribute this fact to their living in closer accordance with the laws of nature-which are the Laws of God.
There are always germs around us and within us, and they are not always harmful. In fact, the majority do not cause trouble unless they invade a part of the body which they do not normally inhabit, or the body’s natural resistance is lowered for some reason. It is impossible to keep the body completely free from germs; and the result of washing is to remove dirt where they can breed, and keep down their numbers to lessen the chance of infection. Germs live and multiply best in warm and moist places, provided they have the material to feed on; left over food, dirt, waste products from the human body, including mucous in the nose and throat and air passages. Germs can be killed by heat, ultraviolet light (in sunshine) or by modern chemical disinfectants, antiseptics and antibiotics.
Even extreme cold will not kill them, but only inactivate them temporarily. Germs that have been killed will soon be replaced, unless what they feed on is removed. Personal and domestic cleanliness is almost second nature with us nowadays, but only a few generations ago it was practically unknown. It is only our modern knowledge and consequent fear of germs which has made us as conscious of hygiene as the Israelites were in 1500 BC.
Without the bacteria that are harmless to us we could not make cheese, nor ferment wines or beers, nor would nitrogen in the soil be made available to plants. We could not digest our food properly, for we are hosts to bacteria in our intestines that break down our food into its vital components. This, by the way, is one instance in which our scientific wonders are too clever for us. When we take antibiotics to kill disease germs which have the upper hand in our bodies, we also kill off many of these benign bacteria, and suffer the side effects of antibiotic therapy, which can be digestive and nervous troubles and depression. The balance of nature is disturbed by man’s chemical interference. It is delicate and complex, and man tampers with it without sufficient knowledge. A perfectly balanced body, in tune with nature, would automatically keep the level of disease under control, but modern life makes this a difficult task .
An example of these natural laws at work can be seen in those governing electricity. We take it for granted that electricity must be channelled in the right directions and all precautions taken to insulate the user against its ill effects. Used correctly, electricity is a powerful force of endless usefulness to man; ignore the natural laws for its use, and it is a killer! So it is with diet and hygiene, though the results of neglecting the natural laws for their use are not usually so dramatic and immediate in their effects as an electric shock. Rather, we reap the harvest of our mistakes after years, and even generations.
In order to understand how advanced and sensible were the laws of Moses for health, we will examine them in more detail.
In ancient Israel the Levites were not only priests, but lawyers, Civil Servants, Public Health Inspectors and Doctors . (Leviticus 13-14.) Just skimming rapidly through Leviticus one can find laws for washing, disinfecting, and quarantine, which make good sense to us today. Leviticus deals with washing (without, remember, being aware of the truth in the knowledge current at that time, that washing dilutes and weakens germs and removes their feeding matter). Anyone having, or coming in contact with, an infectious disease, issue of blood matter from septic or diseased parts, or vermin, must thoroughly wash his person, his clothes, bedclothes, chairs , saddles and utensils in running water to further intensify the dilution process and lessen the chances of the germs multiplying. Pottery that is contaminated must be broken and thrown away. Clothing and linen, which still showed stains after being washed twice, must be destroyed. Quarantine was imposed upon those who had infectious diseases, and those who had been in contact with them, and they were kept apart for certain specified periods, which had to be controlled by the Levites. (Leviticus 13 and Numbers 5) Disinfecting was practised. Leviticus 14: 33-40 gives details of the disinfecting of property that would not seem strange to a modern Public Health inspector.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;
And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house :
Then  the  priest shall command  that  they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house :
And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall;
Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days:
And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house;
Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city:
In Numbers 16:46-48 there is the story of how Aaron arrested the progress of a plague by placing himself between the dead and the living with a smoking censer.
And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun.
And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people.
And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.
Nowadays we know this method as fumigation. In more recent history we have an example of the effectiveness of this method. The Great Plague of London was followed by the Great Fire of London, of 1666, which effectively disinfected the city and prevented the further spread of the Plague.
The above few examples illustrate the high standards of hygiene maintained in ancient Israel. There can be no better summing up than the words of the Scriptures from Deuteronomy,
Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days, in the land which ye shall possess. (Deuteronomy 5: 32-33)
And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. (Deuteronomy 7:11-15.)
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