Did biblical leprosy imply albinism back then?

[toddy]

Mose’s hands, Miriam turned white as snow. Later, Naamah, the commander of Syrian army was recorded as leper too.

 

[BartholomewB]

It is sometimes conjectured that Laban, too – the father of Rachel and Leah in Genesis 29 – may have been a leper, simply because his name means “white” in Hebrew.

 

[Mintaka]

The whiteness of a skin disease has nothing to do with the whiteness of albinism, and nobody in ancient times thought of albino people as having a skin disease. Being albino was “exotic” and interesting, in most of the Middle East. Kings often had albinos at court, for instance.

Albino horses were a thing, and they still are. That kind of albinism was often a death sentence (there are some killer genes involved), so it was something that ancient people were concerned to avoid breeding.

The Bible didn’t start talking about lepers being people with pink eyes who can’t stand the sun, now did they? So why would you think they were talking about albinism?

 

[Crocus]

People died from leprosy, a very contagious disease in those days; it is now treatable. Albinism on the other hand is a condition from birth that does not necessarily shorten life span.

 

[toddy]

Actually, medical term does not have any word to define the body changes color “white as snow” in matter of seconds, I use word “albinism” is the best and closest status for explanation.

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease while “white as snow” could only be albinism
which is a rare disorder resulting in color change of skin, hair and/or eyes, but is not deadly condition.

Leprosy means the punishment but “white as snow” is not quite but it is miracle, because Mose’s hands changed back to his normal color. I don’t know it is just because of the limitation of biblical languages in Hebrew or Greek, the translated script might be use the word leprosy for the change in white color of the body.

My knowledge is very little about this. I hope an expert of the bible and language can explain original scripts and languages from the time of the scripts were written.

 

[Ron_Conte]

The “leprosy” of the Old Testament is merely any significant skin disease. The Israelites were rightly concerned, living in a closeknit community about the transmission of diseases that manifest on the skin (and so are more easily transmitted). It was not Hansen’s disease.

 

[toddy]

Tzaraat--A Biblical Affliction | My Jewish Learning

Finally I found some articles on internet that leprosy in the bible is tzaraat or sarat in Hebrew and (λέπρα) in Greek. It was first translated into Greek in sixth century, then into Arabic in ninth century. It was mistranslated. In Hebrew, it meant skin disease generally but not what we think as leprosy today.