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The men of Israel indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women and are led into idolatry. God sends a plague because of their disobedience. (See 2 Pet 2:15, Jude 11, Rev 2:14 for New Testament insights into Balaam and his involvement in the Israelite downfall.) As the plague is associated...
Nebuchadnezzar's insanity was characterised by rapid onset (v33), with spontaneous remission after an unspecified interval (v34). His behaviour (eating grass and allowing his hair and nails to grow long) is suggestive of lycanthropy; a delusion in which the patient believes himself to be an animal. This may be caused by...
It seems Rebekah's twin pregnancy was not easy. The phrase 'the babies jostled each other within her' (Gn 25:22), is hard to put into medical terminology but suggests unusually violent foetal movements. This foresaw the momentous future conflict between Esau and Jacob- and their descendants (Gn 25:23). In the Bible...
There have been some remarkable injuries in the history of sports medicine but this is one of the most dramatic. During his gruelling and prolonged wrestling contest Jacob's hip was 'wrenched' (v 25) by his opponent and was almost certainly 'put out of joint' (v 25 RSV) or dislocated. It...
Luke has a difficult task in determining the aetiology of the blindness in this passage, the possible causes being legion. However, the Apostle John gives us a number of clues. We know that the man was blind at birth or soon afterwards as testified by the people and his parents....
The language used implies Uzzah's death was immediate, suggesting a cardiovascular cause. His youth (he was still living in his father's house) and fitness (he was chosen to perform a manual task), would make ruptured aneurysm, brain stem infarction and massive pulmonary embolism unlikely explanations. There is also no history...
After his encounter with the risen Jesus, Saul (as he was then) was blind for 3 days (Acts 9:9), and his sight was restored (9:17-18) when 'something like scales' fell from his eyes. In later years Paul's eyesight was poor. He refers to a personal illness in his letter to the...
Luke's history taking is again salient and clear; Elymas's vision suddenly became misty, blackness came over him and he groped around for some one to lead him. The speed of onset suggests a vascular cause, and the total visual loss implies a bilateral event. Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) of sufficient magnitude...
Leprosy (or Hansen's disease) is an infectious condition caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium leprae which was first described in 1847. It is characterised initially by a macular rash, progressing to dermal nodules most commonly on the nose, face, extensor sufaces of the limbs and the mucous membranes of the upper...
When the Roman soldiers approached Jesus on the cross intending to break his legs, they found he was already dead (v33). Indeed, he had been observed to die by eye witnesses a short time before (v30). Seasoned executioners such as these were unlikely to be mistaken in their diagnosis and...
