Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Leviticus

  • Biblical leprosy: A dermatologist’s perspective

    Harry GoldinSkokie, Illinois, United States The descriptions of “leprosy” in chapter 13 of the Book of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible are complex and difficult to understand. This confusion has led to misleading modern English translations of biblical “leprosy” such as “malignant,”1 “contagious,”2 and “virulent”3 skin disease. The preferred term for the biblical “leprosy” is…

  • The sight of blood

    Joanne JacobsonNew York, New York, United States None of us live to adulthood without seeing our own blood—growing up, I witnessed my blood flow free of my body too many times to count. The bleeding knee picked clean of leaves and gravel after my father sent me spinning down the driveway on my birthday bike;…

  • Taking the bat out of Hell

    Tajri SalekBirmingham, UK “Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”― Bram Stoker, Dracula   If you ever trek through the dense undergrowth of the Borneo rainforests, you will eventually get to a clearing where monkey song and colorful epiphytes give way to the gigantic rocky face of Deer Cave. If you…