When Moses submitted to God's plan for him to lead the trek of a million and a half slaves from Egypt to Palestine, he must have been aware of some of the public-health and hygiene problems involved. Had he known from the first that his task would involve ministering to the spiritual, material, and physical needs of his undisciplined brethren for the remainder of his life, rather than for the few weeks or months ordinarily required for such a migration, the stupendousness of the task might have overcome him.
It is often pointed out that Moses secured valuable training in statecraft, military tactics, and organization while he was a member of the royal family in Egypt. It was perhaps equally providential that he observed first-hand the Egyptian system of personal hygiene, which was not without merit. Further, Moses must have had access to the medical papyri of earlier Egypt, which revealed to him a more rational method of health and healing than the superstitious and theurgic system which characterized the declining Egypt of his day.
While Moses studied and contemplated Jehovah's promises to Abraham and Jacob, his idolatrous companions at court turned to sorcery, magic, and enchantments. They trusted in a multitude of gods to each of which was attributed some definite healing or protective power. Many years later, after Moses had experienced a spiritual renaissance, he returned to attack this philosophy which bound his people and which he so thoroughly despised. Each plague brought upon Egypt was a mortal thrust at some deity, and each failure of Pharaoh's magicians to rid the land of its distress was proof conclusive of Jehovah's will to reclaim His people.
Circumstances conspired to make Moses' task a colossal undertaking so far as health and hygiene were concerned. First of all, the people of Israel, although hardened in labor, were not used to the hardships of travel in the wilderness. There was the problem of water supply—insufficient at times and at times contaminated. Satisfactory food was not always available in sufficient quantities. Traumatic injuries from the battlefield had to be treated. Personal and mental hygiene, and the ever-present threat of epidemics, were factors to be considered.
About three months after Israel left Egypt. the Lord instructed Moses to give His people a fuller understanding of His design for them. "Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people : for all the earth is Mine. And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."
This was meaningful language to people who had lived in Egypt. The priests of the Pharaohs were almost fanatically devoted to personal cleanliness. Their idolatrous holiness depended in large measure upon the precision and thoroughness of their ablutions. The new pronouncement of Jehovah, then, must have been to the Hebrews a call to personal hygiene and cleanliness as well as to purity of soul. To Moses it was new light on the magnitude of his task. It was then that the leader of the chosen people, under divine guidance, put himself to the task of drafting laws and rituals which, if obeyed, would preserve Israel and make of it a special treasure to the Lord.
Mosaic Concept of Medicine
The basic concept of Mosaic medicine was that Jehovah, the one and only true God, not only was the source of all health, but possessed the only effective power over disease. In other words, to obey the Levitical code was to secure the protection of God against plague and ill-health, and to violate the ordinances was to invite sickness and disaster. This monotheistic factor in the Mosaic concept of etiology, pathology, and therapeutics, logically decreed that the priesthood become the custodians of the healing art, and the officers of personal and public hygiene.
In this one detail, early Hebraic medicine was not unlike contemporary systems of healing. The Egyptians, Sumerians, and other ancients also accepted their priesthood as authority in medical matters. On the contrary they worshiped a galaxy of gods, and respected the power of innumerable evil spirits which were thought to be the purveyors of plagues and maladies. It was also believed that human beings at times became the custodians of these spirits, and were able to inflict evil on others. Hence the therapeutics of the ancients was largely a matter of magic, incantations, prayers, and amulets.
This system was anathema to Moses, and entirely foreign to the code laid down by him. Severe punishment was authorized for Israelites who worshiped other gods, and national destruction was predicted as the penalty for wholesale idolatry. The priesthood was pressed with the importance of following divine precepts with all the scrupulousness of the idolators who invoked magic prescriptions, and of meticulously carrying out religious and hygienic practices with equally fervid faith.
The object of the Levitical law, so far as health was concerned, was to establish physical purity on a par with moral purity. To the priests, who had the high function of supervising both religious and hygienic practices, it was not admissible that the heart and mind could be pure without cleanliness of the body. This lofty concept of life and service was designed to make of Israel a nation of priests, and an unusual treasure among the peoples of antiquity.
In a large measure this was accomplished, even though Israel repeatedly wandered from an adherence to the law of Moses. One example of Israel's failure, with its accompanying direful results, is sufficient to mention. When Israel approached Moab, the king of the land of Balak became alarmed, and sought the services of an apostate prophet, Balaam of Mesopotamia. After much urging, Balaam made the journey to Moab, only to discover that he was powerless to curse a people whom God chose to bless. But the depraved Balaam, knowing the weakness of human flesh, advised the king to tempt the men of Israel to immoral acts, such as participating in the worship of Bael-peor. According to the Talmud, Balaam's advice was that the God of Israel detested lewdness, and "strict punishment would be meted out to all the offenders."
The scheme worked. Many men in Israel prostituted themselves to the daughters of Moab. A plague broke out which cost the lives of thousands. As a severe emergency measure, Moses ordered that every man in Israel who had exposed himself to the infection be slain. Later, when the time came to avenge God's people of this disgrace, Israel's men of war destroyed the enemy's armed forces and brought back to camp many of the women and children. Moses, realizing the hazard that such an act was to the health of the nation, wrathfully reminded the warriors that among their prisoners were the women who had caused the terrible plague.
Another stern health measure was ordered. All of the prisoners were executed except the virgins. Further, the remaining prisoners and the warriors who had slain any of the enemy, or touched any of the slain, were held in quarantine for one week and required to participate in strenuous purifications. The booty and equipment were also purified. In describing the method of purification, Eleazar, the priest, said: "This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses." In spite of Moses' vigorous health measures, we discover that eradication of the disease was subtotal. Years later Joshua referred to "the iniquity of Peor ...from which we are not cleansed until this day."
Today, many authorities look upon Moses as the father of public hygiene and sanitation. Certainly he was the first sanitarian to provide a race with a rational, extensive, and detailed code of laws designed to preserve and develop a nation both physically and spiritually. God works marvelously with educated men whose faculties are devoted to the great objectives of His program.
