RSM logo
JRSM

Home Current issue Browse archive Alerts About the journal Feedback
 
J R Soc Med 2006;99:169
doi:10.1258/jrsm.99.4.169-a
© 2006 Royal Society of Medicine

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Send a Quick Comment
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when Quick Comments are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Russell, W M S
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
J R Soc Med 2006;99:169
© 2006 The Royal Society of Medicine

Letters

Plague, rats and the Bible again: a postscript

W M S Russell

Department of Sociology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 218, Reading RG6 6AA, Berkshire, UK

In connection with Freemon's diagnosis of the `plague' of the Philistines as bubonic plague,1 two further points have occurred to me as needing to be mentioned. He showed that black rats and their fleas were certainly present in the Near East in time for the epidemic. But there is no mention of rats in the Biblical account, only of crop pests, `mice that mar the land' (1 Samuel, 6:5).2 In any case, nobody then could possibly have known of rat or flea vectors. The first person known to have connected dead rats with human plague deaths was the Chinese poet Shih Tao-nan (CE 1765-1792).3

Shrewsbury diagnosed the epidemic as bacillary dysentery, which can lead to piles—the `emerods' (haemorrhoids) of the Authorized Version, translating the Hebrew word opalim.4 The biblical concordance leads one to Psalms 78:66, where the Lord `smote his enemies in the hinder parts'.5

Freemon states that `the "emerods" of the King James Bible appear in all modern translations as tumours'.1 But Josephus diagnosed the disease as dysentery (Antiquities 6:1).5 Surely a high-ranking priest and Pharisee of the first century CE is likely to have been a better Hebraist than any modern translator.

REFERENCES

  1. Freemon FR. Bubonic plague in the Book of Samuel. J R Soc Med 2005; 98:436[Free Full Text]

  2. Russell WMS. Plague, rats and the Bible again. J R Soc Med 2005;98:533[Free Full Text]

  3. Russell WMS. Man, Nature and History. London: Aldus Books, 1967:219

  4. Shrewsbury JFD. The Plague of the Philistines. London: Victor Gollancz,1964

  5. Russell WMS. Plague, rats and the Bible. J R Soc Med 1987;80:598 -9


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Send a Quick Comment
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when Quick Comments are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Russell, W M S
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

MDU Exam Doctor

 Developing the Wise Doctor RSM Journals - Clinical Ethics