Bible Dictionary
FRECKLED SPOT
A freckled spot was a bright or pale skin eruption that did not make a person ceremonially unclean under the law. It may have been a mild form of psoriasis or another local skin condition.
Definition
A freckled spot was a bright, pale, or shining skin eruption. It was treated as a relatively minor skin condition and did not make the person bearing it ceremonially unclean under the law.
Biblical Usage
Leviticus 13:39 identifies these white eruptions and states that they did not render the marked person ceremonially unclean. The condition is distinguished from more serious skin diseases addressed in the surrounding legal material.
Historical Background
The supplied material identifies the condition with a term translated “tetter” in the Revised Version. It may have been a local form of psoriasis or an eczematous facial eruption and was described by Hippocrates as generally unimportant.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>frek'-'-ld, (bohaq; Septuagint alphos, called in the Revised Version (British and American) "a tetter," and described as a bright shining spot (beharoth lebhenoth):</p><p>These white eruptions did not render the person so marked ceremonially unclean (Le 13:39). This form of skin disease is described by Hippocrates as usually of no great importance and indicative of a sluggishness of body; it is probably some form of local psoriasis. There is a cognate modern Arabic word applied to a facial eczematous eruption. For other references to skin diseases, see LEPROSY.</p>