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     The ancients knew little about contagion, i.e. contagious diseases and how to control them.  Little concerns mankind more than epidemics that threaten to kill the masses, such as the SARS scare.  Smallpox and influenza were killers even in the early twentieth century.  Quarantine, commonly called isolation, was the primary, yet simple method to control the spread of these diseases.  In the 17th century, the bubonic plague threatened to eliminate Europe.  After 60 million had perished during that century, the implementation of quarantine stopped its spread.
     Most medical historians believe Fracastorius (1500s) was the first to identify the theory of contagion from a scientific viewpoint.  This was fully 2000 years after Moses wrote the principles of containing contagion, in the treatment of leprosy, as part of the law of the Old Testament in Leviticus chapters 13 -14.  Moses wrote the essential six steps of isolating a disease:  (1) Identification and diagnosis (Lev.13:1-3);  (2) Isolation of the diseased person (Lev. 13:4-5);  (3) Putting a surgical mask over the nose and mouth (Lev. 13:45);  (4) Anything touched by the diseased person is contaminated (Lev. 13:47-59);  (5) Destruction of items that could not be cleansed (Lev. 13:47-59);  (6) Cleansing of contaminated material and people (Lev. 13:47-59; 14:1-9).
     We observe the same process in Leviticus chapter 14, (1) identification of the disease (Lev. 14:33-36);  (2) Quarantine (Lev 14:37-39); (3) Removing contaminated material (Lev.14:40-42);  (4) Destroying contaminated material (Lev. 14:43-45);  (5) Those who are contaminated need to be cleansed (Lev. 14:46- 47).  How is it that Egypt, the world’s renown medical authority for 1000 years, did not have such medical procedures, but Moses, who was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt (Acts 7:22), wrote the principles of quarantine?
     Castiglione, an Italian expert on tropical disease, stated “No one can fail to be impressed by the careful hygienic precautions of the Mosaic period.  The extremely stringent quarantine rules very likely did a great deal of good.”  Harry Wain, medical historian wrote that the Mosaic laws were advanced and superior to any others that existed.  No ancient sources espouse the basic sanitation precepts, except those found in the Mosaic law code in the Old Testament of the Bible.  Was Moses a genius or was the law of containing contagion given by inspiration of God?

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