Although the textual tradition has
led many to dispute 22:43-44 as original to Luke—some of the most dependable
manuscripts show them either added or omitted—further investigation favors the
inclusion of these verses, in addition to the fact that the Catholic tradition
has always considered them authentic. An examination of the internal evidence
within the whole Lucan narrative shows that the verses stand as a reprise of
the desert temptation (scene 4:13). Luke reads that the devil departs from
Jesus “for a time,” or more accurately, until an opportune time, achri
kairos (4:13). The angel now arrives to minister to Jesus as well.
To emphasize the intensity of the
scene, Luke describes the bloody sweat. A rare medical condition and often
associated with people under severe duress, hematidrosis occurs when the
capillaries in the sweat glands rupture, thereby causing the seat to become
blood-tinged. Luke is describing such a situation here. An alternative view is
that at the agony, Jesus sweats so profusely that the drops are like blood
globules falling to the ground. Neither case is very complimentary to the Son
of God, a point that explains why some over the centuries have questioned the
authenticity of the verses.
Luke 22:43-44 are original to
Luke. Docetists and others, who preferred to stress the divine nature of Jesus
at the expense of his humanity, removed the verses from the text (see also
23:34). They are, nonetheless, part of the original reading . . . (Michael
Patella, “Luke,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First
Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 1353)
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.
