Bible Dictionary
BLOODY FLUX
A severe intestinal disease involving fever and dysentery, formerly called the bloody flux because of blood in the discharge. It afflicted Publius's father on Malta and was healed through Paul's prayer.
Definition
The bloody flux was a severe intestinal disease involving fever and dysentery, with blood in the discharge. The Revised Version calls it dysentery.
Biblical Usage
The disease afflicted the father of Publius on Malta, and Paul prayed for him and healed him. A similar intestinal illness is described in the account of Jehoram.
Historical Background
Dysentery was common and dangerous in Malta, Palestine, and Egypt. In Egypt its former mortality was reported as about thirty-six percent, and chronic ulceration or gangrene could follow the disease.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>fluks (puretos kai dusenteria, literally "fever and dysentery"): The disease by which the father of Publius was afflicted in Malta (Ac 28:8). the Revised Version (British and American) calls it "dysentery"; a common and dangerous disease which in Malta is often fatal to soldiers of the garrison even at the present day (Aitken, Pract. of Medicine, II, 841). It is also prevalent in Palestine at certain seasons, and in Egypt its mortality was formerly about 36 percent. Its older name was due to the d ischarge of blood from the intestine. Sometimes portions of the bowel become gangrenous and slough, the condition described as affecting Jehoram (2Ch 21:19). There seems to have been an epidemic of the disease at the time of his seizure (2Ch 21:14,15), and in the case of the king it left behind it a chronic ulcerated condition, ending in gangrene. Somewhat similar conditions of chronic intestinal ulceration following epidemic dysentery I have seen in persons who had suffered from this disease in India.</p><p>Alex. Macalister</p>