Fever

the rendering, in the A. V., of the Hebrew קִדִּחִת, kaddach’ath (Deu 28:22), and the Greek πυρετός (Mat 8:14; Mark i, 30; Luk 4:38; Joh 4:52; Act 28:8). Both the Hebrew and Greek words are derived from the association of burning heat, which is the usual symptom of a febrile attack; the former coming from the verb קָדִח, to burn, the latter from πῦρ, fire (comp. Aram. אֶשְׁתָּאfrom אֵשׁ; Goth. brinno, from brinnan, to burn; Lat. febris, and our own fever, from fervere). In Lev 26:16, the A. V. renders קִדִּחִת) by " burning ague," but the rendering fever seems better, as it is not necessarily the intermittent type of the disease which is thus designated. In all Eastern climates febrile diseases are common, and in Syria and Palestine they are among the commonest and severest inflictions under which the inhabitants suffer (Russell’s Aleppo; bk. v, ch. iii). They are especially prevalent in the vicinity of Capernaum (Thomson, Land and Book, i, 547). The fever under which Peter’s wife’s mother suffered is called by Luke πυρετὸς μέχας, "a great fever," and this has been regarded as having reference to the ancient scientific distribution of fevers into the great and the less (Galen, De diff febr.; see Wetstein, in loc.), and as an instance of Luke’s professional exactitude in describing disease. His use of πυρετοί in the plural in describing the disease under which the father of Publius labored (Act 28:8) has also been adduced as an instance of the same kind, inasmuch as that disease was, from its being conjoined with dysentery, not a continuous, but an intermittent fever. To this much importance cannot be attached, though it is probable that Luke, as a physician, would naturally use the technical language of his profession in speaking of disease. In Deu 28:22, besides קִדִּחִת, two diseases of the same class are mentioned, דִּלֶּקֶת, dalle’keth, a burning (A.V. " inflammation"), and חִרְחֻר, charchur’, intense parching (A. V. ’ extreme burning"). The Sept. renders the former of these by ῥίγος, shivering, and the latter by ἐριθισμός, a word which is used by the Greek writers on medicine to designate " quodvis Naturae irritamentum, quo sollicitata natura ad obeundas motiones excitatur" (Foes, Oecon. Hippoc.). The former is probably the ague, a disease of frequent occurrence in the East; and the latter probably dysentery, or some species of inflammatory fever. The Syriac version renders it by burning, which favors the latter suggestion. Rosenmuller inclines to the opinion that it is the catarrhus suffocans, but this is without probability. There is no ground for supposing it to be erysipelas. Fever constantly accompanies the bloody flux or dysentery (Act 28:8; compare De Mandelslo, Travels, ed. 1669, p. 65). Fevers of an inflammatory character are mentioned (Burckhardt, Arab. i, 446) as common at Mecca, and putrid ones at Jedda. Intermittent fever and dysentery, the latter often fatal, are ordinary Arabian diseases. For the former, though often fatal to strangers, the natives care little, but much dread a relapse. These fevers. sometimes occasion most troublesome swellings in the stomach and legs (ii, 290-291). SEE DISEASE.

The words in the originals imply ’a burning heat,’ so that there is no doubt that what is commonly known as ’fever’ is intended. Deu 28:22; Mat 8:14-15; Luk 4:38-39; Joh 4:52; Act 28:8. The same Hebrew word is translated BURNING AGUE in Lev 26:16.

FEVER (ὁ πυρετός, and in Act 28:8 οἱ πυρετοἱ, with corresponding participle in Mt. and Mk. πυρέσσουσα). There are only five passages in the NT in which fever is spoken of, and three of these, viz. Mat 8:14 f., Mar 1:30 f., and Luk 4:38 f. are parallel passages. One cannot say with certainty what specific fever is alluded to in these passages, or in Joh 4:52, where the healing of the nobleman’s son is spoken of. It may be, indeed, that St. Luke, whose training as a physician naturally led him to speak with exactness about medical matters, does specify the fever from which Peter’s wife’s mother was suffering (συνεχομένη πυρετῷ μεγάλῳ). It has been contended that there was a specific fever known as ‘the great fever,’ and that it was this, whatever it may have been, from which the sick woman in Capernaum suffered. This, however, has been questioned, and perhaps it is rather the intensity of the fever than its specific character that is indicated by the word ‘great.’ Probably both Peter’s wife’s mother and the nobleman’s son suffered from malarial fever. Professor G. A. Smith tells us that the region about Tiberias is a very feverish region, and Dr. Cunningham Geikie says that malarial fever was common at Capernaum. It is very likely that there has always been a good deal of malarial fever about the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and especially about the more northerly portion of these shores. The fever from which the father of Publius suffered (Act 28:8) was fever accompanying or accompanied by acute dysentery. See also artt. Cures, p. 403^b, and Disease, p. 463^b.

Literature.—NT Commentaries; artt. ‘Medicine’ in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible and ‘Diseases,’ Encyc. Biblica; G. A. Smith, HGH^{L [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] 1 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} , p. 449; Cunningham Geikie, Life and Words of Christ, ii. 5 f.

George C. Watt.

FEVER.—See Medicine.

fē´vẽr (קדּחת, ḳaddaḥath, דּלקת, dalleḳeth; πυρετός, puretós, derived from a root signifying “to burn”): A generic term, applied to all diseases characterized by high temperature of body. Several forms of febrile disease are among the commonest of all maladies in Palestine today, as they were also in the period covered by the Bible history. Of these the most prevalent is ague or intermittent malarial fever, which is common in all parts but especially in low-lying districts or places where there are pools or marshes in which mosquitoes breed, these insects being the commonest carriers of the malaria bacillus. These fevers are generally more severe in late summer and autumn, when the mosquitoes are most numerous, and when there is a liability to chill, owing to the sudden drop of temperature at sunset. During the day one uses as light clothing as possible, but immediately after sunset the air becomes chilly and damp, and the physiological resistance to the influence of the parasite is remarkably diminished. On this account travelers in Palestine at this season should be particular to avoid exposure to these evening damps, and to use mosquito curtains invariably at night. In most tropical countries now houses are rendered mosquito-proof by close wire netting, and thereby the risk of infection is much diminished. In Palestine the marshes of the north about Banias and the Water of Merom, the Shephelah, and the Jordan valley are the most fever-stricken regions of the country. The word ḳaddaḥath is translated burning ague in Lev 26:16 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) “fever”), and is coupled with dalleḳeth, translated inflammation in Deu 28:22. Septuagint renders the former word puretos, and the latter rhı́gos in this passage, a collocation which is interesting as Galen uses these words together rhigopúretos in his description of a fever identical with that common in Palestine. In Lev the word in Septuagint is ı́kteros which literally means jaundice, a disease otherwise not mentioned in the Bible. In Palestine as in other malarious countries the condition of jaundice or yellowing of the skin frequently accompanies repeated and protracted attacks of fever which cause organic disease of the liver. On this account Hippocrates describes all fevers as due to a perverted secretion of bile. These fevers begin with severe shivering fits, hence, the name rhigos which is used by Hippocrates. This is followed by a period of burning dry heat, ending in a period of profuse perspiration. Such attacks may take place daily, a few hours of interval with normal temperature separating the end of one fit from the onset of the next. The commonest type however is that called tertian, in which a whole day separates one fit from the next. In some of the severe fevers which are rife in the Jordan valley the temperature never falls to the normal, and while there is a short remission between the attacks with a body heat a little above the normal, there is no intermission. Rarer febrile conditions which have been met with in Palestine, such as the Malta fever, present the same characteristics and may continue for months. Cases also of genuine blackwater fever have been recorded by several authorities. It is probable that in former days these fevers were even worse than they are now, as ancient medicine knew of no certain remedy for them. At present they generally yield at once to treatment by quinine, and in my own experience I believe that the administration of this remedy in large and repeated doses is the most effectual treatment.

Other febrile diseases are rife in certain districts in Palestine, and probably existed in Bible times. Typhoid is common in some crowded towns and villages, and considering how little protected the wells are from contamination, the wonder is that it is not much more prevalent. It is probable also that typhus then, as now, was present as an occasional epidemic in the more crowded cities, but even the physicians of Greece and Rome did not differentiate these diseases. All these fevers seem also to have existed in Egypt to much the same extent as in Palestine. The Papyrus Ebers speaks of “a fever of the gods” (46) and another called “a burning of the heart” (102). Its causation is attributed to the influence of the “god of fever,” and the evil sequelae of the disease as it affects the heart, stomach, eyes and other organs are described in terms which remind us of the minatory passages in Lev 26 and Dt 28. The conditions there mentioned, such as consuming the eyes and causing sorrow of heart or pining away of the soul, graphically describe the state frequently seen affecting those in the Shephelah villages who have suffered from frequent returns of fever, and who in consequence have developed serious local affections of the liver, spleen and other organs. Before the introduction of quinine, cases of this kind must have been much more commonly met with than they are now. It is probable that this state is that called shaḥepheth, or consumption, in these passages.

Another form of fever, ḥarḥur, the “extreme burning” of the King James Version or “fiery heat” of the Revised Version (British and American), is coupled with the other forms of fever in Deu 28:22. This is called in Septuagint erethısmós or irritation, and may have been a feverish condition with a reddened skin, possibly erysipelas or else one of the eruptive fevers. At present outbreaks of scarlatina, measles and erysipelas are of fairly frequent occurrence and are often very severe.

In the New Testament fever is mentioned eight times. The disease which affected Simon’s wife’s mother is called a “great fever” (Luk 4:38), and that which nearly proved fatal to the nobleman’s son in the same district was also a fever (Joh 4:52). Cases of the kind are common all round the Sea of Galilee at the present day.

In the single passage (Act_28:8) in which the word occurs, it is associated with dysentery (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ). Fever is a rise in bodily temperature above the normal of 98.4° F. It may be caused by physiological conditions-a mechanical interference with the nervous system which prevents heat-elimination, as in sunstroke. It is also a symptom of the reaction of the body to infection by micro-organisms or other poisons by which the heat-regulation apparatus is disturbed. The effects of this are evident in further derangements in the digestive glands, the liver and kidneys, the alimentary canal, the nervous organism, and the blood. The name is given to many diseases of which fever is the leading symptom, as e.g. typhoid fever. At a time when it was not possible to explain diseases by reference to a single cause, it was very natural to describe the derangement by two or more of the principal symptoms, as in the instance under consideration.

C. A. Beckwith.

Mat 8:14 (c) Here is a type of the worries and difficulties which bother many hearts and hinder their usefulness. The touch of CHRIST on the life will bring peace. (See also Joh 4:52).