Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LAMENESS, LIMP

In ancient Israel, which treasured notions of a complete and ordered world, and which valued wholeness, physical defects were regarded as shameful (Lev. 21:18; Deut. 15:21; Mal. 1:8; cf. 2 Sam. 5:6-8). Lame (Heb. pissēaḥ) or limping people were regarded as helpless and useless (Prov. 26:7). They were forbidden entry into holy spaces (Lev. 21:18), and in both the OT and NT were objects of pity and charity (2 Sam. 4:4; 19:26[MT 27]; Job 29:15; Acts 3:2; 8:7; 14:8).

In this light, Jesus’ comment to his disciples that they should be prepared to enter the kingdom lame, rather than whole, was a radical statement (Luke 14:13, 21). By declaring the lame fit for the kingdom of heaven, he reverses current attitudes on wholeness and salvation.

In an unusual story, the prophets of Baal “limp (pāsaḥ) about [upon?] the altar that they had made” (1 Kgs. 18:26). This may be a reference to a cultic dance, but it also may be a rhetorical device to indicate the ineffectiveness of the prophets’ activities.

Bibliography. J. H. Neyrey, “Wholeness,” in Biblical Social Values and Their Meaning, ed. J. J. Pilch and B. J. Malina (Peabody, 1993), 180-84; Pilch, “Biblical Leprosy and Body Symbolism,” BTB 11 (1981): 108-13.

T. R. Hobbs

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LAMENESS, LIMP

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)