Great drops of blood

[billcu1]

Does the church believe that when Jesus was praying that he literally sweated blood? And what does water coming from the spear piercing mean?

 

[adrift]

Does the church believe that when Jesus was praying that he literally sweated blood? And what does water coming from the spear piercing mean?

I don’t believe that the Church has made any comment as in most of Scripture it does not. This article explains a medical condition that could cause sweats of blood It is only one of many explanations. It is only mentioned in Luke fittingly enough since he was a doctor

As for the water, I heard it explain recently that there is a sack around the heart and that this is what was pierced hence the water. I also have heard other explanations.

 

[billcu1]

I don’t believe that the Church has made any comment as in most of Scripture it does not. This article explains a medical condition that could cause sweats of blood It is only one of many explanations. It is only mentioned in Luke fittingly enough since he was a doctor

As for the water, I heard it explain recently that there is a sack around the heart and that this is what was pierced hence the water. I also have heard other explanations.

OH ok. The sack is called the pericardium btw

 

[patrick457]

Does the church believe that when Jesus was praying that he literally sweated blood? And what does water coming from the spear piercing mean?

There’s no official pronouncement on this. While it is common to interpret “drops of blood” literally, all that Luke says is “His sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground.” You could either take this literally (i.e. Jesus had hematidrosis) or as a vivid simile (i.e. Jesus sweated so hard they trickled down like blood from a wound would). Either way it shows how anxious Jesus was.

 

[Glacies]

St. Bede thinks the sweating points to accomplished prayer, St. Augustine considers the sweating to represent the martyrs of the Church, while Theophylact explains the expression might signify intense sweating. The bloody sweat is mentioned in the Papal Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. Moreover Haydock Commentary from the 19th century says Aristotle has referred to people sweating blood when in agony.

Catena Aurea:

BEDE; Let no one ascribe this sweat to natural weakness, nay, it is contrary to nature to sweat blood, but rather let him derive therefrom a declaration to us, that He was now obtaining the accomplishment of His prayer, namely, that He might purge by His blood the faith of His disciples, still convicted of human frailty.

AUG. Our Lord praying with a bloody sweat represented the martyrdoms which should How from His whole body, which is the Church. THEOPHYL. Or this is proverbially said of one who has sweated intensely, that He sweated blood; the Evangelist then wishing to show that He was moistened with large drops of sweat, takes drops of blood for an example. But afterwards finding His disciples asleep for sorrow, He upbraids them, at the same time reminding them to pray; for it follows, And when he rose from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping.

Laetitiae Sanctae by Pope Leo XIII, 8 September, 1893:

We behold Him overwhelmed with sadness, so that drops of blood ooze like sweat from His veins.

Augustissimae Virginis Mariae by Pope Leo XIII, 12 September, 1897:

An Angel consoled, with his loving words, Jesus in His bloody sweat in the garden.

Haydock Commentary:

And his sweat became as drops of blood, &c. This has sometimes happened, though in a lesser degree, to persons under extraordinary grief, if we believe Aristotle, l. iii. Animanium, c. xix. p. 891, and lib. de part. Animalium, c. v. p. 1156. Ed. Aureliæ Allobr. an 1607.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

There’s no official pronouncement on this. While it is common to interpret “drops of blood” literally, all that Luke says is “His sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground.” You could either take this literally (i.e. Jesus had hematidrosis) or as a vivid simile (i.e. Jesus sweated so hard they trickled down like blood from a wound would). Either way it shows how anxious Jesus was.

One may note that St Luke is reported to have been skilled in both medicine and art. So do we have the medical man describing a physical phenomena, or the artist employing great imagery? He does seem to say that it was like blood; not that it was blood.