Library Theodoret Questions on Exodus
Questions on Exodus 10: The leprosy of the hand
What does the leprosy of the hand signify?
The race of Jacob entered Egypt reared in piety; but there it learned the impiety of the Egyptians. Freed from their slavery, it came to know the God of all. Through the alteration of the hand, then, he indicated both their leprosy and their cleansing.
In addition to this the Lord God was also arranging something else. For since he was about to lay down the law concerning lepers and to call them unclean—yet nothing involuntary is unclean—arranging other things through these means, he used these laws; and when we come to those passages we shall, God willing, make them clear. He made the lawgiver’s hand leprous, teaching those educated to perfection that nothing of this kind is unclean. For the right hand that worked those wonders, having first become leprous, served the divine signs and changed the elements. By this he also trained the lawgiver not to think highly of himself, but to know his nature, remembering the right hand that had become leprous.
Greek: Theodoret of Cyrus, Quaestiones in Octateuchum / Questions on Exodus (CPG 6200.02; cf. Fernández Marcos and Sáenz-Badillos; also PG 80, cols. 225–298). English: study translation for BWAB Library—not the copyrighted Robert C. Hill (CUA Press) translation. The full Questions on Exodus (72 questions) is hosted here.