Ailments and Diseases in the Bible Quiz

Answer: dropsy

Jesus used the healing of this man to teach whether it was lawful by Jewish regulations to heal on the Sabbath. Now known as edema, dropsy is the accumulation of fluid in body tissues causing swelling.

Answer: emerods

In this passage, the Philistines captured the Ark in battle and took it to the temple of their god, Dagon, in Ashdod. After this, the statue of Dagon was found toppled over twice and the people were smitten with emerods. The Philistine leaders then decided to send the Ark back to the Hebrews. Bible scholars believe that emerods probably refer to hemorrhoids, a painful condition of the lower intestine.

Answer: Herod

Herod persecuted early Christians and was responsible for the death of James the Apostle and putting Peter in prison. When Herod gave a speech to the men of Tyre and Sidon, they lauded him as a god. Herod accepted the praise and was immediately infected with worms since he did not give God the glory. The parasites led to his death.

Answer: sunstroke

This passage says that when the boy was grown, he went to help his father with reaping grain and suddenly complained of pains in his head. He was carried back to his house where he died, but Elisha the prophet was able to restore his life. See 2 Kings 4:32-37. Sunstroke was a likely cause from the description of the symptoms and knowing that the grain is harvested during the hot part of summer in a semi-tropical region.

Answer: leprosy

In the fourth chapter of Exodus, God made Moses' hand leprous, and then restored it, as a way for Moses to demonstrate God's power and convince the Hebrews that he could be their leader and get them out of slavery in Egypt. During the Israelites' desert wandering, Miriam also contracted leprosy for speaking out against Moses' leadership. She recovered in seven days. (See Numbers 12).

Answer: plague

Numbers 11:31-35 relates this event. It could be that God was angry at the people's constant complaining and their greed in consuming the birds. It says, "And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague" (Numbers 11:33).

The Israelites could have been so hungry that they ate the fowl undercooked or raw and thus contracted the disease. Even today, poultry is still implicated in outbreaks of food-borne illnesses.

Answer: murrain

Exodus 9:3 states, "Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain." There is no specific disease to which murrain pertains. It is likely a general term for many conditions affecting domestic animals.

Answer: a lump of figs

According to 1 Kings 20:1-7, Isaiah told Hezekiah to place a lump of figs on the abscess. The king recovered and lived 15 more years.

Answer: no

Apparently this was a terminal condition and King Jehoram succumbed to it at age 40 after suffering with it for two years. He was not cremated as was the custom for royalty, but buried like a common person. The gory details can be read in 2 Chronicles 21:16-20.

Answer: Revelation

In describing the "new" Jerusalem in Revelation 22:2 it states, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Bible scholars believe that this is the antithesis of the tree in the Garden of Eden which brought the downfall of humanity: now a symbolic tree will be used to restore it.