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BLOODY SWEAT*
Rare medical condition called hemohydrosis, thought to result from hemorrhage of small blood vessels into the sweat glands. It occurs only in extreme emotional stress and is of biblical interest because of the reference to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before his betrayal: “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Lk 22:44, nasb). Although some translations make it appear that Jesus actually sweat blood, the Greek text is clearly making a comparison. That is, sweat poured off of Jesus “as though he were bleeding,” an apt analogy for Luke, a physician, to make.
The Bloody-Sweat Passage
This is the name for Luke 22:43-44, which speaks of Jesus sweating, as it were, drops of blood. But the genuiness of this passage is doubted—at least, as to Lucan authorship. Several important manuscripts do not include the passage: P69, P75, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Borgianus, and Codex Washingtonianus—manuscripts dating from the second to the fifth century. Other signs of its doubtfulness appear in manuscripts marking the passage with obeli (symbols), including 0171 (dated around 300) or crossing out the passage (as was done by the first corrector of Codex Sinaiticus). Writing in the fourth century, Epiphanius (Ancoratus 31.4-5) indicated that the verses were found in some “uncorrected copies” ofLuke. But other early church fathers (Justin, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Dionysius, Eusebius) acknowledged this portion as part of Luke’s Gospel.
The debate about the genuiness of this passage has focused on what view one takes concerning whether or not Jesus needed to have been strengthened by angels during his trial in the Garden of Gethsemane. Some have said that the passage was excised because certain Christians thought that the account of Jesus overwhelmed with human weakness was incompatible with his deity. But it is more likely that the passage was an early (second century) interpolation, added from an oral tradition concerning the life of Jesus. Its transposition to Matthew 26 in some manuscripts and lectionaries indicates that it was a free-floating passage that could be interjected into any of the Passion narratives.
Despite the textual evidence against the passage, most English versions have kept it in the text for the sake of tradition. Therefore, many Christians consider this detail about Jesus’ Passion to be authentic. However, it is often interpreted incorrectly to say that Jesus was in such agony that he was sweating blood (technically called hemohydrosis or hematidrosis); that is why the passage is often called “the bloody-sweat” text. But the text says that he was sweating so profusely that it looked like blood dripping from a wound, not that his sweat became dripping blood.