The facts that the priests had to handle and examine lepers, and that any one who was white all over with leprosy was declared clean, led scholars to think that the laws of Moses, which forbade any one to approach or touch a leper, were not enacted to prevent the spread of a contagion, but for typical and symbolic purposes. It is thought that God chose the leprosy as the symbol of sin and its consequences, and that the Mosaic legislation was given to carry out this conception. Being the most loathsome and incurable of all diseases, it fitly represents in bodily form the ravages of sin in the soul of a man. Elephantiasis is the most awful disease known. The body of its victim disintegrates joint by joint, until the whole frame crumbles to pieces.
Psoriasis is milder, but is very distressing.
And as the furfuraceous or bran-like, scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh appeared quick or raw underneath. In addition to the scaly symptoms, the skin becomes hard and cracks open, and from the cracks an ichorous humor oozes. But the fact that Jesus sent him to the priest, shows that he was not such a clean leper. They were also accustomed to kneel before prophets and kings. It is not likely that the leper knew enough of Jesus to address him as the Son of God.