Sweat

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

Sweat —The word ‘sweat’ occurs only in one passage in the NT, namely  Luke 22:44, in the narrative of our Lord’s agony in Gethsemane, where we read: ‘His sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.’ In approaching the discussion of the passage there are three matters to be considered: (1) the textual problem, (2) the interpretation of the words ‘became, as it were,’ and (3) the possibility of the phenomenon known as ‘bloody sweat ( hœmadrosis ),

1. In turning first to the textual question, we find that  Luke 22:43-44 are omitted in many of the best authorities for the text of the NT (the great uncials אa Abrt). A number of other uncials (ESVΓΔΠ) mark the passage as doubtful; and in the case of Codex א the hand of one corrector has apparently inserted it, while that of another has deleted it. The Church Fathers, Hilary, Jerome, and others bear witness that there were many Manuscripts known to them which did not contain these two verses; and certain Manuscripts insert them in the parallel passage in Mt.’s Gospel, namely after  Matthew 26:39. Of the Versions, one MS of the Old Latin omits them, as do also the best of the Egyptian, Armenian, and the oldest Syriac versions. Cyril of Alexandria omits the verses in his Homilies on Lk.’s Gospel, while the silence of such writers as Clement of Alexandria and Origen cannot be without significance. One cursive MS (124) omits them, while No. 13 has them inserted by a corrector. In the Greek Lectionaries the verses are generally omitted from the lesson in which they would naturally appear, but are inserted in the Mt. passage, a custom that seems to have influenced Chrysostom in his reference to the passage, though, as WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] admit, ‘a mere comparison of the parallel narratives of the Evangelists would suffice to suggest to him the reference.’ On the other hand, the Manuscripts that include the verses as they stand in Lk. are the following: uncials א*Dfghklm Quxa and nearly all cursives. While A omits the passage, as we have seen, it has the reference section-number in the margin, showing that its presence in other Manuscripts must have been known to the scribe. The verses are contained also in the majority of the Manuscripts of the Old Latin, some few Egyptian, the Syr-Pesh. and Syr-Hier. They are known also to Justin Martyr (who quotes them in his Dialogue with Trypho , 103), Iren., Jerome, and Augustine. The verses gave rise to much discussion among early writers, some of whom held that they had been wilfully cut out by some who were afraid of their employment by unorthodox writers; though, on the other hand, they constituted a strong weapon of proof against those who denied the reality of our Lord’s humanity.

The conclusion to be drawn from this evidence is that the main witness to the presence of the verses is of a Western order; but this need not mean more than that, as is the habit of the Western text of Lk. in particular, many elements of tradition that would otherwise have been lost are contained in it. This is the conclusion to which WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] come. Their words are: ‘These verses can only be a fragment from the traditions, written or oral, which were, for a while at least, locally current beside the canonical Gospels, and which doubtless included matter of every degree of authenticity and intrinsic value. These verses and the first sentence of  Luke 23:34 may be safely called the most precious among the remains of this Evangelic tradition which were rescued from oblivion by the scribes of the 2nd century.’ Neither do these editors think that there is any evidence of the omission of the verses for doctrinal reasons. It would appear, therefore, as if they stood very much in the same position as does the Pericope Adulterœ  ; that is, as an early story of the Evangelic tradition that had not found its way into all the copies of the canonical Gospels.

2. The next point to consider is the interpretation of the words ‘as it were great drops of blood.’ Here again there is a secondary question of reading, because certain manuscripts and versions (אVX, Vulgate Boh.) read the genitive of the word rendered ‘falling down,’ agreeing with the word for ‘blood,’ and not the nominative in agreement with the word for ‘drops,’ as do the majority of the authorities. The Greek word θρόμβος, either with or without αἵματος, can itself bear the meaning ‘a drop of blood,’ and is so used in classical Greek writers (see aesch. Eum. 184; Plato, Crit. 120 A). Tatian in his Diatessaron renders in an exaggerated form, ‘like a stream of blood,’ which Bernard supposes would be visible in the moonlight.

When Justin quotes the verse he also omits ‘of blood’; but this may be because he regarded the word θρόμβοι as bearing that signification. Even when all is said, however, the expression may not mean more than that there was a resemblance between the falling of the heavy drops of perspiration and the plashing of blood-gouts from a wound, so that the verse does not absolutely and necessarily assert that blood flowed from our Lord’s body in the moment of His extreme anguish.

In a special discussion of the subject by Harnack, that writer maintains that the stamp of Lk. is clearly manifest on the verses in question, and it is to be remembered that it is a very remarkable thing that the only record of this event should occur in the Gospel attributed to the man whom tradition asserts to have been a physician, and whose own language supports the statement. This remarkable phenomenon is the very thing we should expect a physician to take special pains carefully to record. Harnack in the same discussion draws attention to the passage in  John 12:27;  John 12:30, which he regards as that Evangelist’s account of the same incident. It is remarkable that while the passage in Lk. speaks of an angel succouring Jesus, the passage in the Fourth Gospel tells of a voice from heaven that answered His prayer, which voice was regarded by some of the people as that of an angel. In Harnack’s opinion the Fourth Gospel draws its material for the Passion narrative from the Synoptics, and here he thinks we have another version of the story contained in Luke. Harnack also reminds us that there are two points in the Lukan story that would offend orthodox readers, first, the mention of an angel as strengthening our Lord, which might be a strong support to those who exaggerated the importance of angel ministry; and, second, the fact that the agony was the result of an inward struggle, which might be taken as pointing to too great human weakness in our Lord’s Person to be consonant with the full maintenance of His Divine nature.

3. There has been much discussion as to whether such a thing as a bloody sweat is a possibility, and here we come into the realm of medical evidence. Much has been written on the matter, both in older days and up to the present time; a great deal of it, one must admit, being irrelevant. The less critical medical writers of an earlier time were content to quote Galen as their authority for the statement that sometimes ‘the pores are so vastly dilated by a copious and fervent spirit, that even blood issues through them and constitutes a bloody sweat’ (see R. Mead, Medical Works , 1762, ch. 13). The most recent medical conclusion on the subject seems to be that it is physically possible for blood to exude through the sweat glands, as the contiguity of the blood vessels and these glands is so close and oftentimes the walls that divide them are so extremely thin.* [Note: In the case of haemophilic persons it seems not only possible but probable. Again, however, the relevancy is not very apparent.] It may thus be granted that such an event as the ordinary text describes was a possibility, though nothing very closely allied to it has ever been observed, and one would naturally manifest great caution in accepting the historicity of it, in view of all that has already been said about the passage.

Some writers have understood the phrase ‘drops of blood’ as a purely figurative one, being simply expressive of the intense agony undergone by the sufferer, and not in any sense to be taken either literally or as even suggesting that the perspiration was itself so heavy as to suggest the dripping of blood.

There remains one interesting instance of the use of the verb ‘sweat’ in a passage of the early Christian writing known as the Didache , where in ch. 1 we read, ‘Let thine alms sweat into thine hands until thou shalt have learned to whom to give.’ The words, indeed, are not actually quoted as Christ’s, but there can be little question that the author regarded them as a traditional saying of the Lord.

Literature.—The Comm. on the passage, esp. Plummer, ad loc. , and the additional note on p. 544; Holtzmann in the Hdcom .; the Expos. Gr. Test.  ; WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] , ‘Notes on Select Readings,’ pp. 64–67; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, art. ‘Medicine’; Encyc. Bibl. , art. ‘Sweat (Bloody),’ col. 4824, also ‘Cross,’ par. 5, col. 959; Harnack’s discussion in Sitzungsber. der Berl. Akad. der Wissensch . 1901; Quain’s Dict. of Medicine (ed. 1902, Murray), ‘Sudoriparous Glands (Diseases of)’; R. Mead, Medical Works , 1762, p. 630; W. Stroud, A ‘Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ , 1847; Allgemeine Ztschr. für Psychiatrie , 1863, xx. 51; on the case of Louise Lateau see Macmillan’s Mag. 1871, and Lancet , 1871, 1, 543; Gould and Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine , 1897, ix. 388 ff.; T. M. Anderson, Contributions to Clinical Medicine , 1898, p. 43; Besnier et Jacquet, La pratique dermatologique , vol. iv. 1904, pp. 420–424; Hobart, Medical Language of St, Luke , 79 ff.; Harnack, Luke the Physician [English translation], 194 n. [Note: note.]

G. Currie Martin.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. t.) To get something advantageous, as money, property, or labor from (any one), by exaction or oppression; as, to sweat a spendthrift; to sweat laborers.

(2): ( imp. & p. p.) of Sweat

(3): ( v. i.) To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.

(4): ( v. t.) To cause to excrete moisture from the skin; to cause to perspire; as, his physicians attempted to sweat him by most powerful sudorifics.

(5): ( v. t.) To emit or suffer to flow from the pores; to exude.

(6): ( v. t.) To unite by heating, after the application of soldier.

(7): ( v. i.) To excrete sensible moisture from the pores of the skin; to perspire.

(8): ( v. i.) The fluid which is excreted from the skin of an animal; the fluid secreted by the sudoriferous glands; a transparent, colorless, acid liquid with a peculiar odor, containing some fatty acids and mineral matter; perspiration. See Perspiration.

(9): ( v. i.) The act of sweating; or the state of one who sweats; hence, labor; toil; drudgery.

(10): ( v. i.) Moisture issuing from any substance; as, the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack.

(11): ( v. i.) The sweating sickness.

(12): ( v. i.) A short run by a race horse in exercise.

(13): ( v. i.) Fig.: To perspire in toil; to work hard; to drudge.

King James Dictionary

SWEAT, n. swet. L. sudor.

1. The fluid or sensible moisture which issues out of the pores of the skin of an animal.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.  Genesis 3

2. Labor toil drudgery. 3. Moisture evacuated from any substance as the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack.

SWEAT, swet. pret. and pp. sweat or sweated. Swot is obsolete. L. sudo.

1. To emit sensible moisture through the pores of the skin to perspire. Horses sweat oxen sweat little or not at all. 2. To toil to labor to drudge.

He'd have the poets sweat.

3. To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.

SWEAT, swet. To emit or suffer to flow from the pores to exsude.

For him the rich Arabia sweats her gums.

1. To cause to emit moisture from the pores of the skin. His physicians attempted to sweat him by the most powerful sudorifics.

They sweat him profusely.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ἱδρώς (Strong'S #2402 — Noun Masculine — hidros — hid-roce' )

is used in  Luke 22:44 . In the Sept.,  Genesis 3:19 .

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Ezekiel 44:18 (c) Anything that comes out of the body is a defiling thing, unless it is actuated by the Spirit of GOD. In the service of our Lord, He will not have that which is strictly and only human efforts, human programs, human designs, and carried out in the energy of religious flesh. The garment represents the outward professions made by religious workers.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 3:19 Ezekiel 44:18 Luke 22:44

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

swet ( זעה , zē‛āh (  Genesis 3:19 ), יזע , yeza‛ ( Ezekiel 44:18 ); ἱδρώς , hidrṓs (2 Macc 2:26;  Luke 22:44 )): "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" ( Genesis 3:19 ). Somewhat difficult is the passage, which the Revised Version (British and American) renders: "But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok ... shall have linen tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat," literally, "they shall not gird themselves with sweat" (  Ezekiel 44:15 ,  Ezekiel 44:18 ). The idea is evidently that profuse perspiration would make their ministrations unpleasant. The rule was of special importance in the sultry climate of Palestine.

Luke, the physician, describing the agony of the Lord in Gethsemane, says: "His sweat became as it were great drops ( θρόμβοι , thrómboi ) of blood falling down upon the ground" (  Luke 22:44 , the Revised Version (British and American), following Codex Sinaiticus ( a ), Codex Alexandrinus, Codex Vaticanus etc., notes in margin: "Many ancient authorities omit  Luke 22:43 ,  Luke 22:44 "). There are two difficulties of interpretation in this passage, apart from the difficulty which the physiological explanation of the phenomenon presents: (1) the word (θρόμβος , thrómbos ) translated "drop" means literally, "a clot of blood," "a lump," "a curd," and is nowhere else used in the sense of drop. (2) It has been generally accepted that the sweat of the brow of Jesus had become bloody in appearance and in character, a symptom called in ancient medicine αἱματώδης ἱδρώς , haimatṓdēs hidrṓs , "bloody sweat." It must, however, be observed that this translation would make the Greek particle ώσεί , hōseı́ , superfluous, by which, not the identity of the sweat with drops of blood, but a certain similarity or comparison must be intended. Ch. Th. Kuinoel, in his Latin commentary on the historical books of the New Testament (Leipzig, 1809, II, 654), has given all known parallel instances in history and legend, which seem to prove that under certain psychological or physiological conditions, though rarely, haimatōdēs hidrōs has occurred.

Olshausen in his Commentary , II, 469, thinks that the following points of comparison might have been in the mind of Luke: (1) the sweat may have appeared on the forehead of Jesus in heavy drops; (2) these may have dropped visibly to the ground, just as drops of blood fall from a wound; (3) in addition, possibly a reddish color may have been noticeable, owing to an exudation of the arteries, though the latter is not directly expressed in the words of the evangelist. See also Dr. Stroud, On the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ , 183; Bynaeus, De morte Christi , II, 33.

The people of Palestine in Greek-Roman times were generally provided with handkerchiefs, used especially to wipe off the perspiration. The fashion was derived from Rome, whence the name of these napkins became σουδάριον , soudárion , Latin sudarium . The late legend of Berenice or Veronica, who presented her handkerchief to the Saviour on His way to be crucified, and who found, when it had been returned to her by the Lord, that His features had been imprinted upon the cloth, is a reminiscence of this use. These handkerchiefs were frequently used to tie up small bundles of certain possessions, money, etc. (  Luke 19:20 ). As a rule the dead had their faces covered with one, or had it tied around the head ( John 11:44;  John 20:7 ). In Ephesus the handkerchiefs of Paul were carried to the sick, and achieved miraculous cures ( Acts 19:12 ).

The verb ἱδρόω , hidróō , "to sweat," is found in a rather difficult passage of the Didache (i. 6), which is introduced as a quotation, the source of which, however, we do not know: "Let thy alms sweat into (in ?) thy hands, until thou knowest to whom thou givest." The context seems to show that we have here a free repetition of the arguments of   Sirach 12:1 ff. so that the meaning would be: "In giving charity, do not give indiscriminately or thoughtlessly, but consider carefully so that no one who is unworthy receive your benefaction." Still it is not impossible that the text is corrupt in the passage.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( זָעָה ,  Genesis 3:19; יֶזִע ,  Ezekiel 44:18; Ἱδρώς ,  Luke 22:44) was one of the physical phenomena attending our Lord's agony in the garden of Gethsemane as described by Luke ( Luke 22:44): "His sweat was as it were great drops (literally clots, Θράμβοι ) of blood falling down to the ground." The genuineness of this verse and of the preceding has been doubted, but is now generally acknowledged. They are omitted in A and B, but are found in the Codex Sinaiticus ( א ), Codex Bezae, and others, and in the Peshito, Philoxenian, and Curetonian Syriac. See Tregelles, Greek New Test.; Scrivener, Introd. To The Crit. Of The New Test. p. 434), and Tregelles points to the notation of the section and canon in  Luke 22:42 as a trace of the existence of the verse in the Codex Alexandrinus.

Of this malady, known in medical science by the term disapedesis, there have been examples recorded both in ancient and modern times. Aristotle was aware of it (De Part. Anim. 3, 5). The cause assigned is generally violent mental-emotion. "Kannegiesser," quoted by Dr. Stroud (Phys. Causef the Death of Christ, p. 86), remarks, ‘ Violent mental excitement, whether occasioned by uncontrollable anger or vehement joy, and in like manner sudden terror or intense fear, forces out a sweat, accompanied with signs either of anxiety or hilarity.' After ascribing this sweat to the unequal constriction of some vessels and dilatation of others, he further observes: ‘ If the mind is seized with a sudden fear of death, the sweat, owing to the excessive degree of constriction, often becomes bloody.' Dr. Millingen (Cariosities of Medical Experience, p. 489, 2nd ed.) gives the following explanation of the phenomenon: "It is probable that this strange disorder arises from a violent commotion of the nervous system, turning the streams of blood out of their natural course, and forcing the red particles into the cutaneous excretories. A mere relaxation of the fibers could not produce so powerful a revulsion. It may also arise in cases of extreme debility, in connection with a thinner condition of the blood." The following are a few of the instances on record which have been collected by Calmet (Diss. sur la Sueur du Sang), Millingen, Stroud, Trusen (Die Sitten, Gebrdiuche und Krankheiten d. alt. Hebr. [Breslau, 1853]), in addition to those given under Bloody Sweat (See Bloody Sweat) . Schekius (Obs. Med. 3, 458) says that in the plague of Miseno in 1554 a woman who was seized sweated blood for three days. In 1552 Conrad Lycosthenes (De Prodigiis, p. 623, ed. 1557) reports, a woman sick of the plague sweated blood from the upper part of her body. According to De Thou (I, 11:326, ed. 1626), the governor of Montemaro, being seized by stratagem and threatened with death, was so moved thereat that he sweated blood and water. In the Helanges d'Histoire, (3, 179), by Dom Bonaventure d'Argonne, the case is given of a woman who suffered so much from this malady that, after her death, no blood was found in her veins. Another case of a girl of eighteen who suffered in the same way is reported by Mesaporiti, a physician at Genoa, accompanied by the observations of Valisneri, professor of medicine at Padua. It occurred in 1703 (Phiil. Trans. No.303, p. 2144). There is still, however, wanted a well-authenticated instance in modern times observed with all the care and attested by all the exactness of later medical science. That given in Caspar's Wochenschrift, 1848, as having been observed by Dr. Schneider, appears to be the most recent, and resembles the phenomenon mentioned by Theophrastus (London Med. Gaz. 1848, 2, 953). For further reference to authorities, see Copeland, Dict. of Medicine, 2, 72.