Bojowald, Stefan, Vögel als Entsorger negativer Kräfte in biblischen, ägyptischen und altorientalischen Texten, in: Biblica 101, 2020, 272–276.  Show MoreAbstract from OTA: This short paper compares Hebrew and Egyptian texts on the role of birds as removers of negative forces. In the Hebrew Bible, Lev 14:49-53 describes the cleansing of a house from “leprosy” by letting a bird fly away. In an Egyptian example, P. Ramesseum 3 B33, a swallow symbolically removes a childhood sickness. Comparable motifs also occur in Hittite and Babylonian texts. (Adapted from published abstract)—C.T.B.

Meyer, Esias E., Why is there an אָשָׁם sacrifice in Leviticus 14?, in: Verbum et Ecclesia 44, 2023, a2832, https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v44i1.2832  Show MorePublished abstract: This article engages with the issue of the אָשָׁם sacrifice in Leviticus 14. Firstly, the paper provides an overview of the extensive cleansing ritual in Leviticus 14. Then the issue of the relation between צָרַ֫עַת and sin is addressed, with some scholars arguing against any causal connection in Leviticus 14. Although the latter argument can be made from a literary perspective, the presence of the אָשָׁם sacrifice, which is usually linked with sin against the sanctuary and YHWH, spoils the argument. After engaging with the meaning of the אָשָׁם sacrifice, the article presents another possible solution by arguing that we should distinguish between what the authors of the text thought and how their audience might have understood the relation between צָרַ֫עַת and sin.

Krauss, Rolf, Kritische Bemerkungen zur Erklärung von ṣāraʿat als schuppende Hautkrankheit, insbesondere als Psoriasis: Biblische Notizen 177, 2018, 3-24.   AssessmentDer Artikel setzt sich sehr kritisch mit dem Essay von E.V. Hulse, The Nature of Biblical Leprosy: PEQ 107, 1975, 87-105, auseinander. Dem Autor wird vorgeworfen, dermatologisch nicht ausreichend informiert zu sein sowie Wortspielereien und Unterstellungen vorzunehmen. Allerdings helfen die Ausführungen von Krauss nicht wirklich weiter. Krauss’ Artikel ist voll mit medizinischem Jargon, so dass er für Bibelwissenschaftler/innen, die sich nicht mit der Thematik intensiv auseinandergesetzt haben, kaum verständlich ist. Während die Argumente von Hulse mit medizinischen Behauptungen demontiert werden, vermisst man jedoch einen eigenen Lösungsvorschlag für die in Lev 13 beschriebenen Phänomene. Da ich mich in meinem Kommentar ausführlich mit dermatologischen Fragestellungen beschäftigt habe und dazu auch einen Dermatologen konsultiert habe, möchte ich mich nicht als „uninformiert“ bezeichnen. Der dermatologische Kollege hat meine Ausführungen zu Lev 13 im HThKAT gegengelesen und als medizinisch vertretbar angesehen.

Olanisebe, Samson O., Laws of Tzara’at in Leviticus 13–14 and Medical Leprosy Compared: Jewish Bible Quarterly 42, 2014, 121–127. Online

Schmitt, Rüdiger, Leviticus 14.33-57 as Intellectual Ritual, in: Landy, Francis; Trevaskis, Leigh M.; Bibb, Bryan D. (Hg.), Text, Time, and Temple. Literary, Historical and Ritual Studies in Leviticus (Hebrew Bible Monographs 64), Sheffield 2015, 196–203.  Show MoreAbstract from OTA: S. employs ritual studies categories to analyze Lev 14:33-57 as a textual phenomenon, an „intellectual ritual“ rather than a record of actual ritual practice. He begins with the notion of „ritual refiexivity,“ the process by which rituals are themselves ritualized, protected from critical analysis and transformed into rhetorical communication. S. argues that the elimination ritual for the diseased house in the above text has turned into didactic literature that teaches about the clean/unclean and about the nature of ritual authority. Examining the structure and content of the text, he concludes that the absence of performative detail makes the text unsuitable as a manual for priestly practice. Since the text cannot be performed „as is,“ we should accordingly read it as a rhetorical claim, an assertion that impurity is a concrete-materialistic force rather than a miasmatic or dynamistic spiritual force. Thus, the priests who diagnose the problem and repair its breach of purity are indispensable specialists whose authority in such matters is absolute; they are purveyors of a ritualistic monopoly with its concomitant spiritual and social control. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.]

Skidmore, Simon, The Evolution of the ṢāraꜤat Ritual in Leviticus 13:1-46, in: The Heythrop Journal 61, 2020, 893–902.  Show MoreAbstract from OTA: The problematic assumption that biblical purity thematically represents life and death is commonly held in modern biblical studies. Building upon this assumption, many scholars have attempted to explain the treatment of the ṣāraꜤat patient in Lev 13:1-46 as a symbolic banishment of death. My paper, for its part, seeks to move beyond this reading toward a method of reconstructing the evolution of biblical rituals and practices. Drawing on René Girard’s typology of four scapegoat stereotypes, I identify the scapegoat mechanism operative in the Leviticus text and propose a reconstruction of the evolution of this ritual. In particular, I suggest that the ritual now found in Leviticus 13 may have evolved from an earlier tradition in which ṣāraꜤat patients were executed to halt a mimetic crisis. [Adapted from published abstract–C.T.B.]

Ugwu, Collins; Eze, Virginus Uchenna; Ndukka, Ncheke Alfred; Amarachi, Ugwu Salom, Leviticus 13:1–8 and The Handling of Pandemic Victims Among Priests in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, in: KAMASEAN: Jurnal Teologi Kristen 4, 2023, 187–203.  Show MorePublished abstract: Leviticus 13:1–8 presents God’s instruction to his people, Israel, on how to combat the health pandemic. The hermeneutical propagations will help the priests and church leaders fight the virus, especially among priests in Nsukka, Enugu State. According to this text, the priest is to act as a health instructor in a situation of overwhelming health challenges. It describes health challenges and the role of the priest in overcoming them. Therefore, this text can serve as a model for combating contagious diseases like Covid-19. It is on record that the emergency of the Corona virus pandemic overwhelmed the health workers. This opened a gap, which necessitated that other people, like the priests, could come in and fill it. A rhetorical-exegetical method of biblical interpretation was used. Again, observations and interviews sufficed to ascertain the extent to which the priest helped enforce precautionary measures for Covid-19 as advanced by the World Health Organization and the National Center for Disease Control. It was discovered that the priests and other ordained men of God in Nsukka, Enugu State, are not totally committed to the extra services of helping the health workers in their fight against Covid-19. This is because it does not reflect on their sermon. Also, social distancing was not observed in the churches visited, and no testing kits, not even infrared thermometers, were found in most of the churches visited. Worse still, some laity were observed entering and worshiping without a facemask and no sanction. Washing of hands with soap and use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer were noticed not to be in place in most of the remote places of worship centers that were visited. Therefore, this paper engages the priests and religious leaders within the study area to preach health protocols, provide testing materials, and establish isolation centers to assuage Covid-19 pandemic.