556. He must have repeated the prayer to the
father over and over again with the tortured fervor of extreme need, like one
who has only one thing to ask. “And there appeared to him an angel from heaven
to strengthen him.” Luke (22:43), who is not one of the three witnesses of the
Passion but must have heard it from them, is the only one who records this
information. And he is also the only one who, psychologist and physician that
he is, gives us the details of what next took place: “And falling into agony he
prayed the more earnestly. And his sweat becomes as drops (θρομβοι) of blood running down upon the ground.”
For the Greeks “agony” was what took
place in the “agon,” that is, the struggle between charioteers or athletes
competing for the prize. Their struggle demanded a most painful effort, an
exhausting violence of limb and spirit, so that no one approached it without a
sense of inward fear and anxious trepidation. Later, in fact, “agony” came to
mean fear or trepidation in general, but specially that of the supreme struggle
against death. Such was the case with Jesus. “And falling into an agony he
prayed the more earnestly.” He had restored to prayer in a special way in all
the most solemn moments of his life, and it becomes now his only refuse in this
last hour. The “agony” is prolonged and the marks of the struggle appear on his
body: he sweats, and his sweat becomes “as drops of blood running down upon the
ground.”
In the clear moonlight and only a “stone’s
throw” away, our three witnesses could have noticed this effect easily enough,
and in any case there was every opportunity to confirm their impression when
Jesus came to them, his face lined with thin crimson traces of the “drops of
blood.”
There is a physiological phenomenon
known to doctors as “hematidrosis,” or “bloody sweat.” Aristotle had observed it
and uses this very same term: “some sweat and a ‘bloody sweat’ (αιματωδη ιδρωτα)” (Hist.
animal, III, 19). Physiologists are free to study Jesus’ sweat from
the scientific point of view, but they must not lose sight of the unique circumstances
in which he suffered it. With this information which he is the only one to
record, the physiologist Luke seems implicitly to invite such study.
But this same information, which makes the reality of Jesus’ human
nature so evident, was the source of scandal to some of the early Christians
who read the Gospel of the physician Luke. They decided that though he related
a fact, it would be better if it were not repeated because it seemed to confirm
the calumnies circulated by the enemies of Christianity. Celsus’ attacks
against the person of Jesus (§ 195) were probably responsible for their anxiety.
And because of this unfounded fear, the story of the bloody sweat together with
the mention of the comforting angel began to disappear from the codices of the
third Gospel. Today, it is wanting in various unical codices—the very authoritative
Vatican codex among them—in some minuscule codices and in other documents, and
its omission was noted as early as the fourth century by Hilarion and Jerome. When
there were no longer any attacks against the Christians to keep these unnecessary
worries alive, however, the ticklish passage was no longer suppressed. In any
case, the testimonies in its favor—both codices and early writers beginning with
Justin (Dial. cum Tryph., 103) and Irenaeus (Adv. haer., III, 22,
2)—are too numerous and important as to leave no doubt about the authenticity of
the passage.
557. The agony lasted a long time; it must have been now past midnight. The
three Apostles, at first painfully distressed by what they saw, sank gradually
into a kind of numbness induced by sorrow and fatigue, and finally they went to
sleep altogether.
At a certain point in the infinite spiritual anguish he was suffering,
Jesus felt also the desolation of human loneliness, and he again sought the
company of his three beloved friends; perhaps he expected only an affectionate word
or gesture, something that would make him feel less alone on the earth. But
when he reached them he found them all sound asleep, including Peter who a
little while before had poured forth torments of words to protest his faithfulness
(§ 549). Then Jesus said to him: “Simon, dost thou sleep? Couldst thou not
watch one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And this was all the comfort
Jesus had from the three he loved best.
The spam of suffering continued, and once more he turned from men to
God. And again he made the one same request to his heavenly Father, and the
three he had just awakened were able to hear him: “My Father, if this cup
cannot pass away unless I drink it, they will be done!” Time passed; the night
was monotonously still, and after a little while the three Apostles despite all
their efforts were again overcome by sleep. “And he came again and found them
sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And they did not know what answer to make
him” (Mark 14:40). It is easy to recognize in this last phrase the confession
of Mark’s informant, Peter.
“And leaving them he went back again,
and prayed a third time, saying the same words over” (Matt. 26:44). How
long Jesus prayed this third time we do not know; perhaps not very long. Then he
went back to the three sleeping men and this time in a different tone, he said
to them: “Sleep on now, and take your rest! It is enough; the hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go.
Behold, he who will betray me is at hand.” The first words, “sleep on now and
take your rest,” are obviously not to be taken literally as a bidding to do just
that and it is also very unlikely that they were a question. It seems more reasonable
to interpret them, as a kind of affectionate irony, as if he said: Yes, yes,
This is a good time to sleep! Do you not see that the traitor is here?
They could, in fact, hear the noise of
the crowd coming up the road from Jerusalem, and in the distance the glancing
light of torches and lanterns came breaking through the nighttime.
Jesus led his three sleepy witnesses
back to where the other eight Apostles lay undoubtedly in the deepest slumber,
and he waked them all. Then he waited, speaking meanwhile a few words of exhortations
to them. (Giuseppe Ricciotti, The Life of Christ [trans. Alba I.
Zizzamia; Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1947], 588-60)
Further Reading
Lincoln H. Blumell, "Luke 22:43–44: An Anti-Docetic Interpolation or an Apologetic Omission?,” TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 19 (2014): 1–35.