Blood And Water
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
Blood And Water ( John 19:31-37).—When the soldier, whom tradition names Longinus,* [Note: Nicod. x. [(Lat.) (xvi. (Gr.)]. Cf. ‘Aug.’ Manual. xxiii: ‘Longinus aperuit mihi latus Christi lancea, et ego intravi et ibi requiesco securus.’ The name is probably derived from λόγχη, ‘spear.’] to make sure that He was really dead, drove his spear into the side of Jesus on the cross (see Crucifixion), a strange thing happened. On being withdrawn the spear was followed by a gush of blood and water. It was a singular phenomenon. The Fathers regarded it as a miracle,† [Note: Orig. c. Cels. ii. 36: ‘Blood does not flow from dead bodies, τοῦ δὲ κατἁ τὸν Ἱησοῦν νεκροῦ σύματος τὀ ταράδοξον.’ Cf. Euth. Zigahenus.] but St. John does not venture on an opinion. He neither attempts to account for it nor pronounces it a miracle, but contents himself with solemnly asseverating that he had witnessed it, and could vouch for its actual occurrence. He felt the wonder of it to the last (cf. 1 John 5:6-8).
Medical science has confirmed his testimony, and furnished an explanation which at once defines the phenomenon as a perfectly natural occurrence, and reveals somewhat of the awfulness of our Lord’s Passion. During His dread and mysterious dereliction on the cross (see Dereliction) His heart swelled until it burst, and the blood was ‘effused into the distended sac of the pericardium, and afterwards separated, as is usual with extravasated blood, into these two parts, viz. (1) crassamentum or red clot, and (2) watery serum.’ When the distended sac was pierced from beneath, it discharged ‘its sanguineous contents in the form of red clots of blood and a stream of watery serum, exactly corresponding to the description given by the sacred narrative, “and forthwith came there out blood and water.” ’‡ [Note: Stroud’s Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ; J. V. Simpson in Append. to Hanna’s Last Day of Our Lord’s Passion. Cf. Calvin.] Jesus died literally of a broken heart —of ‘agony of mind, producing rupture of the heart.’
It was a favourite idea with the Fathers that the Water and the Blood were symbolic of the Sacraments. St. Augustine, following the v.l. ἤνοιξε for ἔνυξε in v. 34, comments ( in Joan Ev. Tract. cxx. § 2): ‘Vigilanti verbo Evangelista usus est, ut non diceret, Latus ejus percussit, aut vulneravit, aut quid alind; sed, aperuit : ut illis quodammodo vitae ostium panderetur, unde Sacramenta Ecclesiae manaverunt, sine quibus ad vitam quae vera vita est, non intratur.’ Cf. Chrysost. in Joan . lxxxiv: οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὐδὲ ὠς ἔτυχεν αὖται ἐξῆλθον αἱ πηγαὶ, άλλʼ ἑπειδὴ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἠ ἐκκλησία συνέστηκε. καὶ ἴσασιν οἱ μυσταγωγούμενοι, διʼ ὕδατος μὲν ἀναγεννώμενοι διʼ αἵματος δὲ καὶ σαρκὸς τρεφόμενοι. ἀρχὴν λαμβἁνει τὰ μυστήρια, ἴνʼ ὅταν προσίῃς τῷ φρικτῷ ποτηρίῳ, ὠς ἀπʼ αὐτῆς πίνων τῆς πλευρᾶς οὔτω προσίῃς.
Literature.—Besides the Comm. consult S. J. Andrews, Life of Our Lord upon the Earth , 566–569.
David Smith.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]
(αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ , haı́ma kaı́ húdōr ): The remarkable passage ( John 19:34 ) from which this expression is taken refers to the piercing of the Savior's side by the soldier. The evangelist notes here what he, as an eyewitness of the crucifixion, had seen as a surprising fact. Whereon this surprise was founded cannot now be more than guessed at. Nor is it necessary here to discuss the reason or reasons why the apostle mentions the fact at all in his report, whether merely for historical accuracy and completeness, or as a possible proof of the actual death of Christ, which at an early date became a subject of doubt among certain Christian sects, or whether by it he wished to refer to the mystical relation of baptismal cleansing ("water") and the atonement ("blood") as signified thereby. Let it suffice to state that a reference often made to 1 John 5:6 , 1 John 5:8 is here quite out of place. This passage, though used by certain Fathers of the church as a proof of the last-named doctrine, does not indeed refer to this wonderful incident of the crucifixion story. The argument of 1 John 5:8 concerns the Messiahship of Jesus, which is proved by a threefold witness, for He is the one whom at the baptism of John ("water") God attested as the Messiah by the heavenly voice, "This is my beloved Son," who at the crucifixion ("blood") had the testimony that the Father had accepted His atoning sacrifice, and whose promise of sending the Comforter fulfilled on Pentecost ("spirit") presented us with the final proof of the completed Messianic task. The same expression in 1 John 5:6 refers probably to the same argument with the implied meaning that Jesus came not only by the merely ceremonial water of baptism, but also by the more important, because vivifying, blood of atonement.
The physiological aspect of this incident of the crucifixion has been first discussed by Gruner ( Commentatio de morte Jesu Christi vera , Halle, 1805), who has shown that the blood released by the spear-thrust of the soldier must have been extravasated before the opening of the side took place, for only so could it have been poured forth in the described manner. While a number of commentators have opposed this view as a fanciful explanation, and have preferred to give the statement of the evangelist a symbolical meaning in the sense of the doctrines of baptism and eucharist (so Baur, Strauss, Reuss and others), some modern physiologists are convinced that in this passage a wonderful phenomenon is reported to us, which, inexplicable to the sacred historian, contains for us an almost certain clue to the real cause of the Savior's death. Dr. Stroud ( On the Physiological Cause of the Death of Christ , London, 1847) basing his remarks on numerous postmortems, pronounced the opinion that here we had a proof of the death of Christ being due not to the effects of crucifixion but to "laceration or rupture of the heart" as a consequence of supreme mental agony and sorrow. It is well attested that usually the suffering on the cross was very prolonged. It often lasted two or three days, when death would supervene from exhaustion. There were no physical reasons why Christ should not have lived very much longer on the cross than He did. On the other hand, death caused by laceration of the heart in consequence of great mental suffering would be almost instantaneous. In such a case the phrase "of a broken heart," becomes literally true. The life blood flowing through the aperture or laceration into the pericardium or caul of the heart, being extravasated, soon coagulates into the red clot (blood) and the limpid serum (water). This accumulation in the heart-sac was released by the spear-thrust of the soldier (which here takes providentially the place of a postmorten without which it would have been impossible to determine the real cause of death), and from the gaping wound there flow the two component parts of blood distinctly visible.
Several distinguished physicians have accepted Dr. Stroud's argument, and some have strengthened it by the observation of additional symptoms. We may mention Dr. James Begbie, fellow and late president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Sir J. Y. Simpson, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and others (see Dr. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth , Appendix I). The latter refers to the loud cry, mentioned by the Synoptists ( Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46 ), which preceded the actual death of Jesus, as a symptom characteristic of cases of "broken heart." He adds that Dr. Walshe, professor of medicine in University College, London, one of the greatest authorities on the diseases of the heart, says that a "piercing shriek" is always uttered in such cases immediately before the end.
While we may never reach a state of absolute certainty on this subject, there is no valid reason to deny the probability of this view of the death of Christ. It certainly gives a more solemn insight into Christ's spiritual anguish, "the travail of his soul" on our behalf, which weighed upon Him so heavily that long before the usual term of bodily and therefore endurable suffering of crucified persons Christ's loving heart broke, achieving the great atoning sacrifice for all mankind.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
( John 19:34) are said to have issued from our Lord's side when the soldier pierced him on the cross. The only natural explanation that, can be offered of the fact is to suppose that some effusion had taken place in the cavity of the chest,' and that the spear penetrated below the level of the fluid. Supposing this to have happened, and the wound to have been inflicted shortly after death, then, in addition to the water, blood would also have trickled down, or. at any rate, have made its appearance at the mouth of the wound, even though none of the large vessels had been wounded. It is not sufficient to suppose that the pericardium was pierced; and, if effusion had taken place there, it might also have taken place in the cavities of the pleura; but, during health, neither the pericardium" nor the pleura contains fluid, being merely lubricated with moisture on their internal or opposing surfaces, so as to allow of free motion to the heart and lungs.
It is more probable, however, from all the symptoms in the case, that the immediate pathological cause of Christ's death was a proper rupture of the heart. The chief of these particulars are the following:
(1.) The suddenness of his death, which so surprised Pilate ( Mark 15:44), who was accustomed to see sufferers linger for days upon the cross. (See Crucify).
(2.) The loud cries just before expiring, which usually accompany the sense of suffocation resulting from the congestion of blood at the heart in such cases.
(3.) The sanguineous effusion from the pores that occurred in the garden the preceding night during a similar paroxysm of mental and physical tension.
(4.) The separation of the Serum (" water") from the Crassamentum (clotted " blood") in this case, which can only be medically accounted for by this supposition, as otherwise the blood would have become coagulated in the veins, and no such effusion as above could have occurred. (See Physical Cause Of The Death Of Christ, by Wm. Stroud, M.D., London, 1847, p. 399-420.)
The puncture by the soldier's spear was therefore in the lower part of the pericardium itself, on the left side, as would most naturally have resulted from a thrust with the right hand of one standing on the ground and opposite; this alone, had not Christ been already dead, would necessarily have been a fatal wound. Treatises on this subject have been written in Latin by Bartholin (Lugd. B. 1648, Lips. 1683 and since), Jacobi (Lips. 1663), Loescher (Viteb. 1697), Quenstedt (ib. 1678), Saubert (Helmst. 1676), Sagittarius (Jen. i1673), Schertzer (Tusc. Disputt. 8), Suanten (Rost. 1686), Triller (Viteb. 1775), Wedel (Jen. 1686), Calon (Viteb. 1679, 1736), Dreschler (Lips. 1678), Eschenbach (Rost. 1775), Derschow (Jen. 1661), Haferung (Viteb. 1732), Koeher (Dresd. 1698), Meisner (Viteb. 1662), Quenstedt (Viteb. 1663), Wegner (Reg. 1705), Hopfner (Lips. 1621), Loescher (Viteb. 1681), Quenstedt (Viteb. 1681), Schuster (Chemn. 1741). (See Bloody Sweat).
