In an era of renewed interest in immunomodulatory therapies, ophthalmology may find unexpected inspiration in ancient sources. A remedy in the Babylonian Talmud combining scorpion and kohl for an eye condition therefore invites biomedical analysis. This article explores its philology, zoology, pathology, and relevance to modern ocular drug discovery. No prior analysis has combined philological review with pharmacological feasibility assessment of arachnid venom in ophthalmology.
The
Babylonian Talmud is a vast compilation of rabbinic debate and interpretation, spanning topics from Jewish law and ethics to theology and medicine. It comprises 37 tractates grouped into six divisions (or ‘orders’), each tractate examining a specific legal or ritual subject. Within a tractate named
Gittin lies a self-contained book of remedies, thought to preserve earlier Akkadian medical material likely dating to the 3rd century AD.
1 Consequently, the
Talmud represents the most comprehensive medical corpus within ancient Judaism.
2 One entry in
Gittin 69a (
Figure 1) prescribes treatment for a condition named
buruqti (ברוקתי), alternatively transliterated as
beroketi. This term is explained by the leading rabbinical commentator, Rashi, as an eye disease colloquially known in his native Old French as
toile (טייל״א).
3 He explains elsewhere this is a type of curtain fabric, hence a metaphor for a physical or visual membrane.
4
