"Reception of the Legislation on Leprosy (Lev 13–14) in Hellenistic Judaism and Ancient Christianity"

Our dissertation will be dealing with the history of interpretation of the Mosaic legislation on leprosy (Lev. 13-14) in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Although it originally had a very practical use — leprosy was a contagious disease, and it was the main concern of the priests to take care of the afflicted in the ancient Israelite community — in Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity it is often interpreted in an allegorical sense, which was made possible by the fact that the affected were consider unclean according the Mosaic Law.

Philo of Alexandria was the first to interpret this text in a more allegorical way, in the context of his thesis on the relationship between the corruptible and the incorruptible nature of man — a man can be both, physically and spiritually unclean (Philo Quod Deus sit immutabilis 123–135). In his eight Ηomily on Leviticus, Origen discusses the Lord’s role as physician and interprets the section on leprosy in terms of an unclean and leprous soul (Origenes Homiliae in Leviticus 8,10). According to him, the Mosaic law, which is spiritual, in this case also refers to the souls full of vices and sins. He who is leprous in his soul, that is, who is bound by sins, shall be cleansed according to the precepts of the Law in the same way as he who was leprous in his body. This tradition was taken up by St. Methodius of Olympus and treated in detail in his work De lepra, which is entirely devoted to this subject.

Our objective is to trace the origins and development of this tradition, to find out what were the reasons for its emergence and continuing popularity and what was its use and value in the communities that maintained it, and thus to gain a better insight into the nature of biblical exegesis in antiquity.