Jesus the Leper?

Was Jesus a leper? Well, in the Middle Ages you may have thought that he was because of the way Jerome translated Isa 53:4 in the Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible that became the main way that people encountered Scripture.

Dr. Andrew Abernethy, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Degree Coordinator for the Master of Arts in Biblical Exegesis Program, joined me on Exegetically Speaking to show us how Isaiah 53:4 was interpreted and translated in the Latin Vulgate by Jerome.  He translated it that Jesus was “like a leper” stricken by God and rejected for the diseases he bore.  As a result artists and paintings from the Middle Ages depict Jesus on the cross as suffering the marks of leprosy.

Exegetically Speaking is a short podcast (about 7 minutes) of the faculty and friends of Wheaton College and the Lanier Theological Library, Houston, TX.

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