Why Aren't Viruses Explained in Scripture?
The Bible doesn't describe germs; why not?
May, 2020
Given the recent impact of COVID-19, people are becoming more curious about the Bible's view of health and disease. Beyond wondering why God might allow something like a global pandemic, some wonder why Scripture doesn't provide more details about germs. That is, why didn't God tell us exactly what bacteria and viruses are, from the beginning?
It's not an unreasonable question, at all. A fair answer means understanding what the Bible is intended for, and how we respond to it. In short, the Bible is meant to explain our relationship with God. Information irrelevant to that relationship, even if it's useful, is simply not the purpose for which the scriptures are meant. Further, bogging people down in details they can't understand—and could never verify—only makes Scripture less accessible. And, no matter what facts the Bible tells us, there are those who will always want more.
The most important reason the Bible doesn't mention germs is that it's not a science book, it's primarily a discussion of our relationship to God. There's only one kind of "truth", so what the Bible says doesn't contradict the natural world. But adding details on some subjects would only make the Bible harder to understand, or overly long. People were accepting and rejecting God, sinning and serving, both before and after we understood germs. That category of knowledge ultimately means nothing in our moral or spiritual lives.
If the Bible had described bacteria and viruses, to Moses for instance, what would ancient peoples have done with that information? They lacked technological structures to do anything useful with that knowledge. Instead, God gave the Israelites effective procedures for germ control, without laying out every minute detail. Biblical instructions for basic sanitation (Leviticus 2:13, 7:17, 7:19, 13:2-6, 13:46, 15:2-13; Deuteronomy 23:12-13, etc.) are more than just compatible with modern germ theory, they're frequently on par with modern best practices for hygiene and sanitation.
One example is Numbers chapter 19. This describes those who touch a dead body as unclean, and imposes a ritual washing process. Believe it or not, until the mid-1800s, physicians not only ignored this concept, but they frequently went from autopsying dead bodies to operating on the living without washing their hands! Once this changed, hospital mortality rates dropped considerably. Further, the materials described in Numbers 19 include ingredients like hyssop, which is a natural anti-bacterial, wool ash, which is gritty, and cedar, an irritant that would encourage repetitive rinsing. Go into hospitals today, and you'll see doctors washing with gritty, antibacterial soap and lots of water.
The point is, while the Bible didn't explicitly explain viruses and bacteria, it gave people practical, understandable rules reflecting a scientifically modern understanding of germs. Today, hospitals are full of posters which don't explain germs in deep detail, but do explain the right way to wash your hands. Whoever wrote the posters clearly understands the details, even if they didn't lay them out in that particular message.
The Bible is meant to be accessible to people across history, culture, and experience. Adding something irrelevant to the main purpose, and which nobody could understand until thousands of years later, would have been counterproductive. Worse, people have a natural tendency to use anything they don't understand as an excuse to reject the Bible. At one point in history, archaeology was a favorite topic of skeptics who pointed to numerous stories in the Bible which had not been contradicted, but had also not been confirmed. Of course, as discovery after discovery confirmed the scriptures as accurate, that tactic faded away. How much more ammunition would there have been for non-belief if something as technical as germ theory had to wait several millennia to be confirmed through human science!
For the same reasons, even if the Bible did describe bacteria and viruses, humanity would still complain that we ought to have been told more. "I wanted more" is a bottomless resource for protest. At one time, biplanes and phonographs were considered cutting-edge, "modern" science. But today we see those as outdated and obsolete. If God had told Moses about viruses, skeptics would just move the goalposts and complained that germs were "old news", and God should have told Moses about DNA, or particle physics, and so on and so forth.
Ultimately, that's the real point of both the Bible and how we approach it. Whether God explains something is frequently a decision only He understands—for now. Ample experience shows His reasons are good reasons. The Bible is primarily concerned with what we absolutely need to know, in the most important area of our life: our relationship with Him. Interesting or not, useful or not, important or not, everything else is beside the point.
-- Editor
