Did the Old Testament Hebrews discover that diseases were infectious, and why didn't it catch on elsewhere until the Renaissance?

by helvetica-

Hi! I was reading through the Old Testament today, and I noticed that the entire chapter of Leviticus 13 talks about the procedures related to quarantining people with infectious diseases, as well as how to deal with mildew.

From what I found on Wikipedia on the Quarantine and Infection pages, this idea of diseases being infectious and isolating those affected by them didn't really come about until the Renaissance. Is there any reason why this is so?

Thanks a lot!

no1_vern

The Jewish culture knew what various illnesses were, and in some ways how to prevent its transmission. Whether they knew it was because of "diseases" is an open question for now.

They may not have understood diseases in the modern sense, but the did understand that removing people from those who were "unclean" kept many people from catching whatever the condition was.

The nature of biblical "leprosy" and the use of alternative medical terms in modern translations of the Bible'. (scanned PDF)

Patients with sara'al were segregated because they were cultically unclean and under taboo and it is an anachronism to relate their isolation to modern ideas on the control of infectious disease. The loose scales of vdra'at may have been thought to be akin to discharges, which also made individuals unclean.

Circumcision is one of the things the Old Testament definitely got right. The males, and many females were much healthier than otherwise. Again, whether they knew the reason is open to conjecture.

Squamous-cell carcinoma (cancer of the penis) is almost unknown among males who have been circumcised. Female uterine cervix cancer has been linked to sexual relations with uncircumcised males.

Wolbarst, A.L.: Circumcision and penile carcinoma, Lancet 1:150 (1932) Harlin, H. C.: Cancer of the penis, J Urol. 67: 326 (1952). Persky, L., and deKernion, J.: Carcinoma of the penis, Cancer 26: 130 (1976) Dodge, O. G.: Carcinoma of the penis in East Africans, Brit. J. Urol. 37: 223 (1965) Thomas, J. A., and Small, C.S.: Carcinoma of the penis in Southern India, ibid 100: 520 (1968)