HIS SWEAT WAS LIKE DROPS OF BLOOD
The gospel of Luke
mentions Lord Jesus sweating ‘like clots of blood’ during this last night at
Gethsemane before his arrest and crucifixion (Luke 22:44).
Many things have been
said since the early times of Christianity about this event, with different ideas
about in what consisted this phenomenon exactly, but none of them have found
final unanimous agreement in the Christian world.
THE EVENT
The four canonical
gospels mention that Jesus went to pray in the early morning after finishing
the last supper with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, where he
agonized over his coming death (Mt 26:36-46; Mk 14:32-42; Lk 22:39-46; Jn
18:1-11). However, only the account of Luke mentions that in the middle of this
anguished and insistent agony, Jesus sweated ‘like clots of blood’ ( καὶ ἐγένετο
ὁ ἱδρὼς αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ θρόμβοι αἵματος ), that fell on the ground.
CONSIDERATIONS
Various explanations
have been given throughout history about this detail.
Verses 43 and 44 are
not present in the chapter 22 of Luke’s account
in some older manuscripts where this event is mentioned, in their Latin
and Greek versions (1), but it is present in others of equal number and era (2).
The absence of this
event in the other three gospels it may be due to the idea that Luke, the
reputed writer, was considered to be physician (Col 4:14) and was able to note
this detail worthy of mention more than the other writers. However, as many
reputable fathers considered them part of the original version, they gained
acceptance into the textus receptus of the whole world (3)
WHY DOES NOT
APPEAR IN SOME OLD VERSIONS
Some have suggested
that the apparition of this event in later manuscripts was an addition to
contradict the Docetic heresy, by highlighting the physical humanity of Jesus,
and is based on oral traditions of the early times (4). On the other hand, some
argue that it was part of the original copies, but was taken away as it can be
seen in the Codex Sinaiticus alterations, to protect the Church against
Arianism, and that is the reason why it was known in the first centuries (5).
However something interesting is to note that Epiphanius of Salamis claims to
have seen these verses taken out of hand copies during his time, the 4th
century, which implies that given the common knowledge of the existence of
these verses, they were not a later interpolation, but were erased at the oncoming
of Nicene controversies (6).
EXPLANATION OF THE
EVENT
If the verses are not
part of the original message, they are not worth further consideration; but if
they truly are part of the original text, then they deserve special observation
for the character particular of the text.
Basically, there have
always been two groups; one, that from ancient times saw in this narrative a
hyperbole (7), and the other, a medical reality not well known to many (8).
WHAT IT REALLY
MEANS
The devil has been in
war against God from even before we were created, and among his battle fronts
it is to discredit God before creation. He discredited Him in Heaven, and a
third of the angels followed him into his disgrace (Rv 12:4).
It is only evil who
can conceive alter the Holy Word of God in order to ‘help’ a personal agenda,
either to distort the truth, or to avoid corruption of that truth, since God
does not need sinful help based on lies.
The passage even
though it is not present in many reputable manuscripts, it was well known and
quoted by early Christians and martyrs, which strongly challenges the theory of
a later fictional addition. On the contrary, being from holy origin, it
presented a challenge to the Arian as well as to the Docetic, for the
perplexity of seeing Jesus of Nazareth, in material human suffering, but at the
same time consoled by divine beings in accordance to his status as Son of God.
Considering that this
may be a real part of our Lord’s life, then we need to consider whether this
was an allegory or a literal event.
The narrative is
classified by internal testimony as a chronicle (Lk 1:1-4), and in this story
that depicts the last day of Jesus by presenting a vast collection of
historical data to precise the circumstances and manner of his death and
resurrection, the sudden apparition of a parable, symbolic illustration or any
other kind of fiction, it would be completely out of place, especially coming
from an author who had promised to present the historical ‘truth’ of the life
of the savior, in comparison to all the ‘traditions’ that people started to
build around Him.
From these considerations,
we are only left with the theory that it may be a genuine story that happened
to the man Jesus of Nazareth, around two millennia ago.
HEMATIDROSIS
Even though it is not
common, there is a medical phenomenon called Hematidrosis, which manifest
itself by blood drops coming through the pores of the skin in a sweat like
manner (9). There are many reasons why this happen, but one of the cases is a
high level of stress.
In history there have
been cases of common people who being so afraid of pain, they sweated blood
when they expected a terrible execution (10), and even though it is not common,
it is real and it happens.
WHAT HAPPENED TO
LORD JESUS
As a human, Jesus
must have suffered a great deal of anguish as the time of his execution came
closer. Indeed, He admitted this when He went to pray at Gethsemane the night
of his arrest (Mt 26:38; Mk 14:34). When He said that He was consumed by sorrow
to the ‘point of death’, He spoke of a very strong depression in view of the
great torture that He was about to endure, and wished for a natural death
instead. It was this human experience
that moved Jesus to pray to the Father to avoid Him that suffering if it was
possible (Mt 26:39), even though He knew it wasn’t, as He admitted it later (Jn
12:27).
The crucifixion was
created as the cruelest form of death, where next to live burning, it was a
torture from every angle, from before the actual nailing to the cross, until
the last breath of life on it. In his humanity, Jesus fell the anguish of this
pain, but never despaired, but maintained his posture to the very end.
Under this stress, He
asked his three close disciples, Peter, James, and John, to keep watch with
Him. He felt overwhelming loneliness (Jn 16:32), and that is why He asked his
disciples to keep Him in company (Mt 26:38,40), but they slept while the Master
started to sweat blood while praying (Lk 22:44).
Jesus was so
overwhelmed with anguish, that his pores started opening, and his capillaries
started breaking, mingling his holy blood with his sweat, that fell to the
ground in coagulated form due to the morning weather. Hematidrosis had occurred
to Him at that moment, and it came as a consequence of the view of his coming torture,
the human desire to escape the situation, and the clash with his divine
resolution to carry on his redemptive mission.
His pain was great,
but it was even greater for what it meant, the payment for the sins of all
humanity. And it became the commencement of his atoning sacrifice by the spilling
of blood, which He later consummated by being nailed to the Cross.
Omar Flores.
(1)
Footnotes
in NRSV, Holman, NIV and other modern versions.
Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and
other minors.
(2)
Sinaiticus,
Bezae, Laudianus, Diatesaron, Armenian, Etiopian, and other minors.
(3)
Justin
Martyr, Dialogue Against Trypho, Ch.103.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies,
3:22:2
Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary
on the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism and Eucharist, Ch.5.
Also Hippolytus, Eusebius,
Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine and many others.
(4)
B.F.
Westcott and F.J.A. Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek:
Introduction, (London: Macmillan, 1896), appendix 64–67.
Daniel B. Wallace, Revisiting
the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript,
Patristic, and Apocryphal
Evidence (Grand Rapids:
Kregel Publications, 2011), 60.
(5)
S.
P. Tregelles, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the
Holy Scriptures, Vol 4 (London 1856), 451.
John William Burgon, The
Revision Revised, (New Jersey, 2018)
(6)
Lincoln
H. Blumell, Luke 22:43–44,
An Anti-Docetic Interpolation or an
Apologetic Omission?
TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual
Criticism (Salt Lake City, 2014), 4.
(7)
H.D.M.
Spence, The Pulpit Commentary, Luke 22:43-44 (Springfield, 1919).
(8)
Aristotle,
History of Animals, 3:19.
(9)
Zawn
Villines, MedicalNewsToday, 26 August 2017, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319110
(10) Jacobi Agusti Thuani, Historiarum Sui Temporis, 1:1:8;
4:1:82.
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