Luke 22: 43-44

[TOP]

What is the earliest source for this? Thanks, Tim

 

[TOP]

Anything earlier then this and is this true?

Justin Martyr (d. 165 A.D.): Moreover, the statement, “All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water; my heart has become like wax, melting in the midst of my belly” [Ps. 22:14], was a prediction of that which happened to Him on that night when men came out against Him to the Mount of Olives to seize Him. For in the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them, (it is recorded) that His sweat fell down like drops of blood while He was praying, and saying, “If it be possible, let this cup pass”: His heart and also His bones trembling; His heart being like wax melting in His belly: in order that we may perceive that the Father wished His Son really to undergo such sufferings for our sakes, and may not say that He, being the Son of God, did not feel what was happening to Him and inflicted on Him. (–“Dialogue with Trypho,” ch. 103.)

Chrysostom (d. 407 AD): And He prays with earnestness, in order that the thing might not seem to be acting. And sweats flow over him for the same cause again, even that the heretics might not say this, that He acts the agony. Therefore there is a sweat like drops of blood, and an angel appeared strengthening Him, and a thousand sure signs of fear, lest any one should affirm the words to be feigned. (–“Homily 83 on Matthew.”)

Irenaeus, Theodoret, John of Damascus, Augustine, and numerous other fathers

 

[NotWorthy]

Good point, TOP. So it at least dates to circa 150AD.

Here’s what the NAB says about it:
These verses, though very ancient, were probably not part of the original text of Luke. They are absent from the oldest papyrus manuscripts of Luke and from manuscripts of wide geographical distribution.
It doesn’t show just how early these text appeared.

 

[TOP]

I ordered a print depicting this scene and my wife asked why an angel came down to comfort Jesus. I said because of His humanity and that went along with Sundays homily at our church. So ,I looked it up in the gospels of the NAB and came across it only in Luke along with the footnote you posted. I don’t really trust the NAB’s footnotes all that well. But finding it as early as 165 ad was earlier then I expected. Thanks, Tim

 

[thistle]

What is the earliest source for this? Thanks, Tim

D-R Bible, Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 43. An angel … strengthening him. Christ, our Redeemer, was truly God and truly man. And being made man by a real union of his divine person and nature, to our weak and infirm human nature, he likewise took upon him our infirmities, sin excepted. We must consider him as man, when we read of his being tempted in the wilderness, (Matthew iv.) when he wept at the raising of Lazarus out of the grave, (John xi.) as often as we read of his praying; and here, when we read of his praying, and redoubling his prayer in the garden, when we find him seized with fear, sadness, and grief: for though, as God, he could prevent and hinder these passions and affections natural to man, yet he could also permit them to affect his human nature; as he permitted himself to be seized with hunger, after fasting forty days; and so he permitted his human nature to be seized with fear and grief in this garden of Gethsemani. As angels came and ministered to him after his fast in the wilderness, so an angel came as it were to propose to him the divine decree, that he was to suffer and die for the redemption of mankind; and as man, he is said to be strengthened and comforted by the angel: he, who as God, was Lord and maker of the angels, and so needed not to be strengthened by his creatures. Besides what happened to Christ as man, were ordained as instructions for us. We are taught by angels appearing, that they were not only ready to assist and wait upon Christ, but that, by the order of divine Providence, they are also ready to assist us in our temptations and afflictions. — In an agony. This Greek word signifies, a strife, or combat; not that there could be any opposition or contrariety in the interior of Christ, whose human will was always perfectly subject to his divine will, and the sensitive part to reason: yet, inasmuch as he was truly man, his human nature dreaded all those sufferings which at that time were represented to his soul, and which in a few hours he was to undergo. (Witham)

Ver. 44. 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, lib. iii. Animanium, chap. xix. p. 891, and lib. de part. Animalium, chap. v. p. 1156. Ed. Aureliæ Allobr. an 1607. — This passage of Christ’s bloody sweat, and of the apparition of the angel, was heretofore wanting in divers both Greek and Latin copies; as appears by St. Jerome, (lib. ii. cont. Pelagianos. tom. iv, part 2, p. 521) and by St. Hilary, lib. x. de Trin. p. 1062. Nov. Ed. It seems to have been left out by ignorant transcribers, who thought it not consistent with the dignity of Christ. But we find it in the above-said place, in St. Jerome, in St. Chrysostom (hom. lxxxiv. in Matt.), in St. Augustine (in Psalm cxl. tom. iv, p. 1564, and in Psalm xciii, p. 1013.) in St. Epiphanius in Ancorato, p. 36, Ed. Petav. (Witham)

 

[TOP]

Thanks Thistle, very informative. Tim