Dysentery

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

( Authorized Version ‘bloody flux’  ; Gr. δυσεντέριον,  Acts 28:8)

When St. Paul and his companions, on their way to Rome, were shipwrecked on the island of Malta, the father of Publius who was governor of the island was suffering from this malady in an aggravated form. The symptoms of the disease are inflammation of the mucous membrane of the large intestine, mucous, bloody, difficult, and painful evacuations, accompanied, with more or less fever. Owing to Publius’ kindness to the little group of delayed travellers, the Apostle visited his father, ‘prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.’ This was evidently a case of mental healing, made effective by prayer and personal contact.

C. A. Beckwith.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Δυσεντέριον (Strong'S #1420 — Noun Neuter — dusenterion — doos-en-ter-ee'-ah )

whence Eng., "dysentery," is so translated in  Acts 28:8 , RV, for AV "bloody flux" (enteron denotes an "intestine").

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) A disease attended with inflammation and ulceration of the colon and rectum, and characterized by griping pains, constant desire to evacuate the bowels, and the discharge of mucus and blood.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Acts 28:8  2 Chronicles 21:18-19 2 Chronicles 21:15

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Dysentery . See Medicine.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

dis´en - ter - i ( δυσεντερία , dusenterı́a ): in  Acts 28:8 the Revised Version (British and American) uses this word in place of the phrase "bloody flux" of the King James Version to describe the disease by which the father of Publius was affected in Malta at the time of Paul's shipwreck. The acute form of this disease is often attended with high temperature, hence, Luke speaks of it as "fever and dysentery" puretoı́s kaı́ dusenterı́a ). The disease is still occasionally epidemic in Malta where there have been several bad outbreaks among the garrison in the last century, and it has proved to be an intractable and fatal disease there. It is due to parasitic microbe, the Bacillus dysenteriae . In  2 Chronicles 21:19 there is reference to an epidemic of a similar nature in the days of Jehoram. The malady, as predicted by Elisha, attacked the king and assumed a chronic form in the course of which portions of the intestine sloughed. This condition sometimes occurs in the amoebic form of dysentery, cases of which sometimes last over two years.