Topic
Eyes, Diseases of the
15 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 27:1ISBE
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
- Genesis 48:10ISBE
Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
- Leviticus 21:16ISBE
¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- Leviticus 21:18ISBE
For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
- Leviticus 21:20ISBE
Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
- Deuteronomy 34:7ISBE
¶ And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
- 1 Samuel 4:15ISBE
Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.
- Tobit 2:10ISBE
And I knew not that there were sparrows in the wall, and mine eyes being open, the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes, and a whiteness came in mine eyes: and I went to the physicians, but they helped me not: moreover Achiacharus did nourish me, until…
- Mark 8:22ISBE
¶ And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
- John 9:1ISBE
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
- Acts 9:18ISBE
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
- Acts 23:5ISBE
Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.
Show 3 more
- Romans 16:22 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 12:7 ISBE
- Galatians 6:11 ISBE
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 15 references
di-zez'-is:
Blindness, defects of sight and diseases of the eye are frequently mentioned in the Scriptures, but usually in general terms. It is probable that in the period covered by the Bible, ophthalmia was as common in Palestine and Egypt as it is now. See BLINDNESS. The commonest of the diseases at present is the purulent conjunctivitis which is a highly infectious malady affecting people of all ages, but especially children, and whose germs are carried from eye to eye by the flies, which are allowed to walk freely over the diseased eyes. This is one of the most disgusting sights in a Palestine village, but I have been told by mothers that it is esteemed unlucky to drive off the flies. In this manner the disease is propagated. The number of persons in any Palestine village whose eyes are more or less blemished by disease is on this account phenomenally large.
Blindness incapacitated a man from serving in the priesthood (Le 21:16,18); even a blemish of the eye was regarded as a disqualification (Le 21:20).
The cases in the New Testament of persons blind from their birth (as Joh 9:1) were probably the results of this ophthalmia, but may have been due to congenital malformation. The interesting psychological record of the difficulty of interpreting the new visual sensations by the blind man healed by our Lord (Mr 8:22) indicates that it was probably not a case of congenital blindness, as the evangelist uses the word apokatestathe ("restored"), but he had been so long blind that he had lost the power of appreciating the sense-impressions. This condition has been often discussed as a psycho-physical problem since the days of Molyneux and Locke (Essay on the Human Understanding, II, 9, 8).
The blindness of Paul was probably a temporary paralysis of the retina from the shock of a dazzling light accentuated by the intense emotion which accompanied his vision on the road to Damascus. The "scales" mentioned in Ac 9:18 were not material, but his sight was restored as if (hosei) scales had fallen from his eyes. How far this left his eyes weak we do not know, but from his inability to recognize the high priest (Ac 23:5) and from his employing an amanuensis for transcribing his epistles (Ro 16:22), as well as from his writing in characters of large size (pelikos; Ga 6:11), it is probable that his vision was defective, and this it has been conjectured was the "thorn in the flesh" of 2Co 12:7.
Senile blindness, the result either of cataract or retinal degeneration, is mentioned in the cases of Isaac (Ge 27:1), Jacob (Ge 48:10) and Eli (1Sa 4:15). The frequency of such senile dimness of sight made the case of Moses the more remarkable that at the age of 120 his eye was not dim (De 34:7).
Tobit's blindness, caused by the irritation of the sparrow's dung ( /APC Tobit 2:10), was a traumatic conjunctivitis which left an opacity. It is not said that the whiteness was itself sufficiently large to destroy vision. There was with it probably a considerable amount of conjunctival thickening, and it is possible that the remedy might have removed this. It certainly could not remove a cicatricial white spot of the nature of an albugo. The conjecture of a recent commentator that the gall, by coloring the spot, made the eye look as if sight was restored when it really was not, seems ludicrously inept. In any case the historical accuracy of the narrative is so problematical that explanation is unnecessary.
See BLINDNESS.
Alexander Macalister
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.