The D o w n w a rd M o tio n o f Jesus' Sweat

and the A u th e n ticity o f Luke 22:43-44

M ICHAEL POPE
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602

Abstract: Recurring debate over the authenticity of Luke 22:43-44 has subjected the
verses to intense scrutiny. In addition to the unique vocabulary and Jesus’ dycovia, the
blood and sweat metaphor/imagery is a usual locus of investigation. Missing from
these studies on the blood and sweat, however, has been any interrogation of
KcrraPaivovTci;, the one term describing the sweat’s secretion and motion. Almost
unanimously, translators and commentators have rendered the participle as “falling”
even though this is inconsistent with Luke’s own use of KaraPaivstv. I argue that the
notion of sweat falling is incongruous across time and genre with Greek modes of
discussing the emission and movement of sweat and similar bodily fluids. Instead of
Jesus’ sweat “falling,” I argue that “coursing down” or “streaming down” best captures
the idiom. Along with gaining translational accuracy and coherence with Lucan usage,
I suggest that this description of Jesus’ sweat accords with his bodily comportment
(kneeling) in 22:41, a modest but previously unnoticed piece of internal evidence that
may point toward the verses’ authenticity.

Key Words: Luke 22:43-44 • Jesus • sweat • blood • secretion

With their starkly divided attestation in the earliest m anuscripts and

in the later textual tradition, Luke 22:43-44 rem ain fam ously knotty v erses.1

1Their absence in third-century p 75 became grounds for reassessing the authenticity o f the
verses. See Joseph A. Fitzmyer, “Papyrus Bodmer XIV: Some Features of Our Oldest Text of Luke,”
CBQ 24 (1962) 170-79. Complicating matters, however, fragment 0171, also dated to the third or
even the second century, contains part of v. 44 and must be taken seriously as a witness to the
disputed verses. See Christopher M. Tuckett, “Luke 22,43-44: The ‘Agony’ in the Garden and
Luke’s Gospel,” in New Testament Textual Criticism and Exegesis: Festschrift J. Delobel (ed.
Adelbert Denaux; BETL 161; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002) 131-44. See also J. N.
Birdsall, “A Fresh Examination of the Fragment of the Gospel of St. Luke in ms. 0171 and an
Attempted Reconstruction with Special Reference to the Recto,” in Philologia Sacra: Biblische und

261
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Whether the verses belong in the text and why they may have been inserted are
lively points of contention with several recent contributions.2 For some scholars,
the existence of three terms (dyuma, iSptbc;, and 0po|i(3oi), all unique in Luke-Acts
and the NT, is contributory evidence that Luke did not author these two verses.3
For those who accept the authenticity of the verses, a different set of controversies
arises when they try to determine the meaning of these exceptional terms. For
example, the term dytovict presents a significant interpretive difficulty since the
meaning of the word bears directly on competing views of the moral standing of
Luke’s Jesus. Likewise, the two hapax legomena of v. 44, ISpux; and 0pop(3oi, pose
problems for interpreters that range from the lexical to the theological. Further,
interpreters must consider whether the vivid simile “his sweat as drops of blood”
(6 ifipcbc autou cboel 0p6p(3oi aiparoq) is only a simile of the sort Luke uses else­
where in his treatises or whether evidence from ancient medical observation of
bodily secretions legitimates reading actual blood into Luke’s “garden” scene.4All
of this attention on the sweat and the drops of blood has, it seems to me, left
kcit<x(3cuvovt£c;, the only word in v. 44 that describes the sweat-as-if-drops-of-
blood, underscrutinized.5
Commentators regularly note that the participle KaTajJaivovtec; modifying
0p6p(3oi is corrected in Codex Sinaiticus (and in a few early versions) to Kcmx-

patristische Studien fu r Hermann J. Frede und Walter Thiele zu ihrem siebzigsten Geburtstag (ed.
Roger Gryson; 2 vols.; Vetus Latina 24; Freiburg: Herder, 1993) 1:212-27. For a second-century
dating o f 0171, see Pasquale Orsini and Willy Clarysse, “Early New Testament Manuscripts and
Their Dates: A Critique o f Theological Paleography,” ETL 88 (2012) 443-74, here 455, 458, 466.
Luke 22:43-44 are also omitted from important manuscripts like p 69vld, x2a, A, B, N, T, W but attested
in N*2b, D, L, 0 , T, 0223.
2 For a brief review o f the classic and more recent text-critical arguments for and against
inclusion, see Claire Clivaz, “The Angel and the Sweat like ‘Drops o f Blood’ (Lk 22:43-44: P69
and fl3 ,” HTR 98 (2005) 419-40, here 420-22.
3 NA28. For w . 43-44 as interpolations, see Bart Ehrman and Mark Plunkett, “The Angel and
the Agony: The Textual Problem o f Luke 22:43-44,” CBQ 45 (1983) 401 -16, here 409. For the hapax
legomena as possible evidence o f interpolation, see Lyder Brun, “Engel und Blutschweifi Lc 22:43-
44,” ZNW32 (1933) 265-76, here 267.
4 This and all subsequent translations are mine. The list o f secondary literature addressing all
o f these issues continues to grow. For a nearly exhaustive review o f this literature and for the most
thoroughgoing current work on these matters, see Claire Clivaz, L'Ange et la sueur de sang (Lc
22,43-44): Ou, comment on pourrait bien encore ecrire I'histoire (Biblical Tools and Studies 7;
Leuven: Peeters, 2010). Most recently and more directly concerned with the genuineness o f the
verses in question is Lincoln Blumell, “Luke 22:43-44: An Anti-Docetic Interpolation or an
Apologetic Omission?” in TC: A Journal o f Biblical Textual Criticism 19 (2014) periodical online,
http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/vl9/TC-20l4-BIumell.pdf. Luke, o f course, does not call the venue of
the prayer a garden, though the term is conventionally used to discuss this scene in the Synoptic
Gospels.
5 Ehrman and Plunkett, for example, pay no attention to the participle and render it in passing
as “falling” (“Angel and the Agony,” 401,409).
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 263

(3cuvovxoc; (and to the translational equivalent o f Kctxa|3aivovxoc; in these early

versions) in order to bring the participle into agreement with cupaxoq.6 But this
minor issue appears to pose no real semantic or translational problem to commen­
tators.7 Indeed, there is general agreement that the meaning o f the participle is
“falling.”8 Among these comments, Joseph A. Fitzmyer’s treatment o f the sweat’s
descent deserves mention for its strained vividness: “The comparison is made
between profuse perspiration and copious drops o f blood splashing to the ground.”9
More recently, it is notable that Claire Clivaz does not interrogate Kaxa(3aivovx£c;
at all even though she incisively analyzes the verse’s other terms (ayiovict, ekxeve-
OT£pov, iSpcbc;, 0pop(3oi) as well as the ancient concept o f haimatidrosis and its
relevance to the literary contexts o f Luke 22:44.10
The assumed certainty o f the participle’s meaning is also echoed in the nearly
unanimous translation o f KaxapcuvovxEc; as “falling/fell/dropping” in the various
English versions o f the Bible.11 German translations, like their English counter­
parts, render the verb Kaxa(3aiveiv as “to fall,” though with slightly more lexical
variation.12 French translations are more uniform in diction, generally using the

6 See, e.g., Theodor Zahn, Das Evangelium des Lucas (Kommentar zum Neuen Testament
3; Leipzig: Deicbert, 1920) 689 n. 80.
7 So Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S.
Luke (5th ed.; ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1922) 510.
8Note, for example, how the meaning of the participle is not in question when Gerhard
Schneider discusses the vocabulary of Luke 22:44, even while he notes the incidence and usage of
KaTa|3cuverv in Luke, Acts, and the NT as a whole (“Engel und Blutschweiss [Lk 22,43-44]:
RedaktionsgeschichteimDienstederTextkritik,” BZ20 [1976] 112-16). Neither Walter Grundmann
{Das Evangelium nach Lukas [2nd ed.; THKNT3; Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1966] 412)
nor Franfois Bovon (Luke 3: A Commentary on the Gospel o f Luke 19:28-24:53 [trans. James
Crouch; Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012] 193, 203) mentions the participle in their
comments on v. 44, though “falls/falling” is how they render it. I. Howard Marshall notes that “the
stress is on the falling” {The Gospel o f Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text [N1GTC; Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978] 832-33). Similarly, Jerome H. Neyrey, in his close reading of the garden
scene, translates the participle as “falling” while noting in the very same paragraph that the sheet in
Acts 10:11 and 11:5 “descended” (Kcrrapcuvov) (The Passion According to Luke: A Redaction Study
o f Luke s Soteriology (New York: Paulist, 1985) 64. Raymond E. Brown notes the number of times
Katapaiveiv occurs in Luke-Acts and the NT as a whole and gives its definition as “to fall down”
(The Death o f the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave. A Commentary on the Passion
Narratives in the Four Gospels [2 vols.; ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1993] 1:182). Zahn goes
into some detail imagining sweat as blood falling to the ground (Das Evangelium des Lucas, 689-
90).
9 Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel according to Luke: Introduction, Translation, and Notes
(2 vols.; AB 28, 28A; New York: Doubleday, 1980-85)2:1444.
10Clivaz, L ’A nge et la sueur de sang, 424-51.
11 For example, “falling down” (NRSV); “falling down” (ASV)\ “falling” (NIRV [New Inter­
national Readers Version])-, “falling” (NIV).
l2For example, fallen (Luther Bibel, 1545); herabfallen (Elberfelder, 1905); fallen
(Schlachter, 2000); tropfen (Gute Nachricht Bibel); tropfen (Einheitsiibersetzung).
 264 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79, 2017

imperfect form of tomber, “to fall.”13 There is a notable exception to these con­
sistent translations. Although the English Darby translation has “falling” for Kcrra-
(3aivovT£c;, the French Darby renders the Greek participle with the present
participle of the verb decouler, a verb commonly meaning “to follow” but more
rarely (in literary usage) meaning “to flow.”14 Decoulant as a rendering of Kctra-
(3cuvovtec; might seem anomalous or perhaps an act of overtranslation when com­
pared to other French, English, and German translations of the Greek participle. I
aim to demonstrate that, far from abnormal or a case of overtranslation, decoulant
is perhaps the modern translation of KCtTa(3aivovT£c; most consistent with Greek
modes of describing sweat and its movement.15 In other words, irrespective of how
sweat does commonly and observably drip down through air sometimes, I argue
that Greek authors rarely, if ever, include the sense of falling or dropping in their
semantic palette for depicting the descent of sweat in literature.
I begin with an analysis of how Luke uses the verb Kara(3cuveiv in his two
treatises. I then survey the way bodily liquids are portrayed secreting and moving
in the LXX, in Philo, and, more broadly, in literary contemporaries and near con­
temporaries of Luke. In a more expansive sweep, I also investigate corporeal fluid
movement in poetry as well as philosophical and medical writings. The conse­
quence of the argument is threefold. (1) We gain greater precision in understanding
and rendering Karapaivovrec as it pertains to the secretion of sweat—an issue with
a suite of terms and ideas that prove to be stable in Greek. (2) We recognize that
outside of v. 44 Luke uses K<XTa(3cuv£iv in a way precisely analogous to v. 44, and
this observation adds counterweight against the three hapax legomena of 22:44
that can be seen as suggestive of interpolation. (3) We observe that the specificity
of the movement of sweat indicated by KaTa(3cuvovT£c; comports with the Lucan
redaction that Jesus knelt in the garden. The final two points have direct bearing
on the controversy surrounding Luke 22:43-44. In short, by a more informed read­
ing of Kara(3cuvovT£(; we acquire a previously untapped source of internal evidence
for the verses’authenticity. First, however, we must investigate what Karapaivovrec;
means when describing sweat.

13 Tomber (Louis Segond); tomber (La Bible du Semeur); tomber (La Bible de Jerusalem).
Clivaz likewise renders the participle with forms of tomber (L 'Ange et la sueur de sang, 447, 448).
14Le petit Robert (Paris: Robert, 1967), s.v. decouler 1.
15 Even when commentators render Kcrra|3aivovTEc; as something like “flowing down” or
“running down,” the sense of dropping is still the primary mode of the sweat reaching the ground.
Take, for example, Johannes Geldenhuys’s lines: “sweat like drops of blood running from Him and
falling down to the ground” and “much sweat was wrung from the saviour that it trickled down and
fell upon the ground in great drops” (Commentary on the Gospel o f Luke [NICNT 3; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1950] 575,577).
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 265
l

I. Katapaivetv, tuttteiv, and Their Com pounds in Luke-Acts

Fonns of the verb Karapaivsiv occur thirty-two times in Luke-Acts.16 In
twenty-five of these instances a form of the verb is used to indicate that a person
or group of people purposefully moves.17 O f the seven remaining occurrences of
K a ra p a iv a v , one describes the direction of a road (Acts 8:26); another depicts the
imagined descent of heavenly fire (Luke 9:54); another describes the onset of a
storm (Luke 8:23); two depict the descending sheet containing unclean animals in
Peter’s vision (Acts 10:11; 11:15); one portrays the downward motion of the holy
spirit in dove-form (Luke 3:22); and the final instance is from the verse in question
in this discussion, the downward motion of Jesus’ sweat (Luke 22:44). In none of
these seven occurrences does Luke seem to use Karapaivciv to mean something
like a gravitational free fall. The direction or decline of a road, of course, has noth­
ing to do with this sort of meaning of falling. Further, given the supernatural qual­
ity of punitive fire and its nonfulfillment as a wish in the narrative, we need not
concern ourselves with speculating at what rate such fire descends from the heav­
ens. More pertinently, a cyclone does not free fall from the sky, though it can be
said to descend more gradually. Additionally, if we are to understand that the sheet
containing animals in Peter’s visions is dropping to the ground at something like
a gravitational rate, we must wonder whether the divine command to slaughter
them is not altogether redundant. Similarly, it is surely ridiculous to imagine the
holy spirit free falling into Jesus’ baptism scene in the form of a dove. Flumor aside,
this rather defeats the purpose of drawing comparison to a winged animal in the
first place. The downward motion here, as for the sheet containing animals, must
be restrained to a rate of descent slower than gravitational free fall, a rate more
controlled and gradual. Unless Luke (or another author) is using Kcn:a(3aiv£iv in a
very different way than he does for the other descending objects in his narrative,
Jesus’ sweat must be seen to be moving down to the ground at a similar, more
restrained and gradual rate.
Further suggestion that Luke uses Karapaivciv to indicate gradual descent
rather than gravitational free fall can be found by comparing how he uses the verb
in contradistinction to forms and compounds of tuttteiv. When Jesus says that he
saw Satan fall (ncaovra) from heaven, the quickness of the fall, “like lightning”
(cbq darpaTtijv), is emphasized (Luke 10:18). In another case o f falling, when
Eutuchus plummets from a third-story window to his near death, Luke uses the
verb tuttteiv to describe his sudden, downward motion (Acts 20:9). In comparison,

16 Brown, Death o f the Messiah, 1:182.

17 Luke 2:51; 6:17; 10:15, 30, 31; 17:31; 18:14; 19:5, 6; Acts 7:15, 34; 8:15,38; 10:20,21;
14:11,25; 16:8; 18:22; 20:10; 23:10; 24:1, 22; 25:6, 7.
 266 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

when Paul descends to check whether Eutuchus’s fall was fatal, Luke uses a
participle from the verb Kaxct(3aiv£iv to indicate Paul’s more measured downward
motion (Acts 20:10). Though the verb mirreiv does not appear, this same distinc­
tion is also at issue in the scene where Zacchaeus has climbed (dve(3r|) a tree to get
a better view of Jesus (Luke 19:4). When Jesus commands Zacchaeus to come
down from his vantage point (oneuoac; Kaxa|3q0i), it would do violence to the
ava/Karapaiveiv couplet to interpret Jesus’ injunction (to say nothing of Jesus’
cruelty) as “Zacchaeus, hurry and fall down” (Luke 19:5). Again therefore, Kcrra-
(Jaiveiv, as Luke uses the term, does not indicate a precipitous plunge.
Luke, however, does utilize Kaxamrtxav to indicate “falling down” or “drop­
ping down.” In fact, he is the only NT author to use this more descriptive com­
pound of TUTixeiv. O f the three occurrences of this verb in Luke-Acts, one has to
do with the idea of a person dropping down dead and another with people falling
unexpectedly to the earth (etc; xf]v yijv) at the sudden appearance of dazzling light
from the heavens (Acts 28:6; 26:14). These two instances of KaxamrcxEiv suggest
something very much like a sudden, rapid plunge downward through air. With
respect to the size of the thing dropping, its inanimateness, and its rate of descent,
the third instance more closely matches our verse in question. In this occurrence,
the verb KCtxaTtlirxEiv is used in Luke 8:6 to describe the downward motion of a
seed that “fell upon a rocky place” (k< xxett£ctev etu xqv nExpav). Here KaxaninxEiv
signifies a gravitational free fall to the earth rather than a more gradual descent. If
Luke had wanted to indicate that the drops of sweat free fell or dropped to the
ground (elc; xqv yfjv/em xqv nexpav), he had the precise term, and he had used it in
that exact way with small, spheroid, falling objects. Thus, by examining Luke’s
usage of Kaxa(3aiveiv in his two treatises, one sees that rendering the participle in
22:44 as “falling” or “dropping” is incongruent with how Luke employs the term
to specify certain downward motions. Luke’s description of bodily fluids secreting
and moving does not likely spring newly created from his mind. His descriptive
tableaus and vocabulary have contexts, the LXX being an essential one.

II. The Body and the Downward Motion of Liquids

in the Septuagint
The verb Kaxa(3aiv£iv is used frequently in the LXX.18 Most often it is used
personally, as it is in Luke (e.g., Gen 42:2,3,38) or directionally (e.g., Num 43:11-
12; Josh 18:13, 16-18), but in several instances it depicts the descending motion
of liquids (and frozen liquids). Many of these occurrences are meteorological. So,
for example, in Num 11:9 dew falls during the night (along with manna). Dew,

18 For the LXX text, I use Alfred Rahlfs and Robert Hanhart, eds., Septuaginta: Editio Altera,
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006).
 JESU S’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 267

rain, and snow can metaphorically fall in Deut 32:2; hail falls in Isa 32:19; and
rain and snow fall from heaven in Isa 55:10. But Kara(3aiv£iv is also used to portray
the downward flow o f rivers or streams from a higher to a lower elevation, as in
Deut 9:21; Josh 3:16; and Ezek 47:1, 8.
This sort o f downward flow o f liquid, rather than free falling precipitation
from the skies, is implied also when the human body is involved. Thus, in Ps 132:2
LXX tinctured oil is said to descend down from the head to the beard and then to
the collar o f the anointed’s clothing (dx; pupov eni KEtpaXfjq to Kata(3aIvov eni
mirywva. . . to Kcrra(3cuvov cni rqv q>av tou evSupciToc; auTou).19 Notably, in the
very next verse (132:3), dew is described as descending upon mountains (dx;
Spoooq . .. f| KaraPaivonoa £7ii tcc opp). So does the oil in v. 3 fall from the head
to the beard and from the beard to the collar, or does it flow? We probably cannot
determine the exact motion, though it seems to me that a liquid descending from
head to beard might more reasonably be conceived as flowing or streaming down
rather than falling, especially since oils tend to adhere readily to hair. I may be
drawing too fine a distinction between the two descending (KaraPalvov/KaraPai-
vouaa) liquids, though the NRSV does likewise in translating the identical parti­
ciples in the MT (“oil on the head running down upon the beard . . . dew . . . which
falls on the mountains”).20 At any rate, we see how KCtTctPcuveiv can be used to
indicate the movement o f liquids in very different settings: liquids descending
from the sky, liquids descending down the body. O f course, the body can itself be
the source o f liquids. This is case in Sir 35:15, where “tears course down upon the
jaw o f a widow” (S&Kpuct XflPa 9 ^7Tl cucryova KcrraPaivEi). One could see the tears
here as falling from the eye upon the cheek or jaw rather than streaming down from
the eye upon the cheek or jaw. This seems to be a truncated interpretation of
KcrraPaivEiv, however, since the tears would presumably continue streaming down
the cheek or jaw after falling there from the eye. Perhaps in this instance it is best
to understand the verb KctTctpaivEiv as indicating that the tears both drop from the
eye as source and stream down the cheek or jaw.
There is another instance o f secreted liquid running down the body, but this
occurrence presents a difficulty. In Ps 118:136, eyes are said to cause springs o f
tears to descend. The obstacle here is that KctTePqaav is used transitively with
6 ie^66oix; as its direct object. The transitive usage o f KoraPcuvELv is without prec­
edent prior to or in the LXX.21 This occurrence, however, is still useful to the
present argument, if we accept the unusual transitiveness o f KCtTEPqoav and focus

19 On the oil in the LXX and the MT, see Mitchell Dahood, Psalms III: 101-150: Introduction,
Translation, and Notes (AB 17A; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970) 251.
20 Similar to the two participles (KaTa|3cuvov/KaTa|3aivouaa) of the LXX, the MT has identical
qal active participles (TV) describing the downward motion of the oil and the dew (BHS).
21 See T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon o f the Septuagint (rev. ec..; Louvain: Peeters,
2009), s.v. Kcrraflaivu), 4.
 268 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

more on its direct object, Steijodout;. This noun in the LXX, when referring to
water, can indicate a spring or a fount of water (rqv 6 ie^o6 ov tu>v u5&tu>v) as in
4 Kgdms 2:21 and Ps 106:33, 35 (8iei;6Soui; uSdtcov), and “spring” or “fount”
seems to be the appropriate referent for the metaphor in Ps 118:136 (see also the
fount of tears, nqyq SaKputov, in Jer 8:23). Thus, the eyes in Ps 118:136 cause the
springs or founts to course down. Even though one might not readily conceive of
springs themselves moving and flowing downward since a spring is usually a static
source, the image is readily grasped: tears stream down from the eyes.
The downward motion of liquid from the body is depicted elsewhere with
slightly different terminology. In Jer 13:17, eyes draw down tears (Kata^ouaiv ol
6<p0a\poi... SaKpua) from the body as a source of fluids. Here downward flowing
rather than downward falling of corporal liquids is suggested. The verb-noun pair­
ing of Kardyeiv and SaKpua appears also in Lam 2:18. In contrast to Jer 13:17,
downward flowing rather than falling of bodily liquid can be securely understood
in Lam 2:18 since the notion of downward flowing undergirds the metaphor when
the walls ofZion are enjoined to draw down tears like rivers (Teiyq Etcov, KaraydyETE
toe; yEipappouc; SaKpua). In Jer 8:6 the adjective Ka0iSpo<;, unique in the LXX, also
occurs describing a horse in a high state of physical exertion. LSJ glosses the
extremely rare compound as “sweating violently,” and Muraoka as “sweating
profusely.”22 More precise, I think, and conforming to the notion that the body is
both the source from which and surface on which exuded liquids like tears and
sweat flow is Robert Beekes’s translation “covered with sweat.”23 Rather than only
interpreting Kara as an intensifying prefix (i.e., “violently” and “profusely”),
Beekes’s translation allows for the idea that sweat secretes and courses down the
horse’s body, thus covering it in sweat.24 Since the term is used only once in the
LXX— and in regard to a horse at that—we should not perhaps place too much
weight on it as evidence for how human sweat is regularly depicted secreting and
descending in Greek. Still, the adjective surely does not imply anything like drop­
ping or dripping sweat even if it does suggest intensive sweating.
Searching further, the ps lexeme within yeipappouc; (“rivers”) also occurs
coupled with the preposition Kara in the context of downward streaming corporeal
fluid. Thus, in 4 Macc 6:6 the elderly hero Eleazar is so savaged by torture that he
streams down with blood (6 yepuw Kai KatEppelro T(I> ai'pari). David A. deSilva in
his excellent translation and commentary on 4 Maccabees renders this phrase as

22 LSJ, s.v. raOiSpoi;; Muraoka, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. KdOiSpoq.

23 Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary o f Greek (2 vols.; Leiden Indo-European Etymo­
logical Dictionary Series 10; Leiden: Brill, 2010), s.v. KdOiSpoi;.
24 For the general intensifying quality of Kara in composition, see Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek
Grammar (1916; rev. Gordon M. Messing; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973)
§1690.3.
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 269

“[Eleazar] was dripping with blood.”25 By doing so, deSilva imports dripping into
the verb tcaxappElv even though this is not the primary meaning of pe, a lexeme
properly indicating flowing and streaming.26 This slight imprecision contradicts
the context of the phrase since we learn a few words later that Eleazar had fallen
to the ground on account of his suffering, a bodily position that is more apt for
fluids flowing down rather than dripping down due to the proximity to the ground
of the liquid’s source. The same translation issue is at hand a few lines later when
deSilva renders the description of the fallen Eleazar, iSptov ye tot to itpooumov,
as “sweat dripping from his face” (4 Macc 6:11 ).27 Again, since Eleazar is prostrate
on the ground, there seems to be no good reason to introduce the idea of dripping
into the participle of the verb iSpouv. 1 suggest that the participial phrase is more
accurately translated as “sweating from his face” since this captures the face as the
source of the sweat and avoids reading dripping into ISpouv, when the verb does
not demand this nor does the context support it.28
The idea of the body as the source and surface of liquid flow in the LXX, and
in 4 Maccabees specifically, is more clearly communicated with the addition of
prepositions. We see this sort of prepositional construction, attested as early as
Homer (Od. 11.599-600), in the ritual purity material in Lev 15:3, where a man’s
body is discussed as the source of irregular or unhealthy ejaculation (pewv yovov
ek ocbpaxoc; auxou). That ejaculate sometimes falls through the air to the ground
is, of course, famously depicted in the story of Onan in Gen 38:9 (e^exeev [cmeppa]
£7ti xqv yfjv). There is, in contradistinction, no indication that the blood and sweat
spurt, drop, or fall to the ground from Eleazar’s body as though his body were
merely a source of the liquids. Instead, Eleazar’s body provides both the source
from which the blood and sweat flow and the surface on which the liquids flow.
This distinction can be observed also in the gruesome torture of the third brother
in 4 Macc 10:8. Severely lacerated, he watched drops of blood flowing down from
his own guts (ecopa. .. Kara anKayyywv axayovaq ai'paxoc; curoppeouaac;).29 Here
again, though we have drops (oxayovac;), the drops are explicitly depicted as flow­
ing down (cmoppEOucrcu;), not falling, from his viscera (Kara crnAayxviov).

25 David A. deSilva, 4 Maccabees: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex
Sinaiticus (Septuagint Commentary Series; Leiden: Brill, 2006) 21.
26 The basic meaning of the lexeme is “stream” and “flow.” Metaphorically, hair, fruit, or grain
can flow or fall from a source, but this usage does not seem to be synonymous with dripping liquids.
See LSJ, s.v. peco I.la-e. See also Beekes, Etymological Dictionary o f Greek, s.v. pecu.
27 DeSilva, 4 Maccabees, 21.
28 For body parts as the source of sweat in the accusative with iSpouv, especially the face as
source, compare Aristotle [Probl.] 867b34.
29 Here 1 am in agreement with deSilva’s rendering o f the blood’s downward motion: “He saw
. . . drops of blood flowing down from his entrails” (4 Maccabees, 35).
 270 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

III. Philo and Sweat

Philo’s writings, likewise dependent on the LXX, are also an important source
for critical examination of Luke-Acts. Germane to the present argument, the flow
of sweat from the body is addressed three separate times in the Philonic corpus.
Briefly in Leg. 1.13 Philo notes that there are seven bodily secretions (ctTTOKplaeii;
Etna) of which sweat is one.30 Though he does not elaborate in this passage on
sweat as one of the seven secretions, Philo develops the idea in.De opificio mundi.
In one section of the treatise, Philo vigorously argues for the unifying significance
of the number seven, the full week of the creation (Opif. 89). One manifestation
of hebdomadic immanence in the natural world is the human body’s seven pas­
sageways of secretion (tck; 6ia too aiopaxoc; EKKplaeu;) (Opif. 123). Three methods
of secretion are relevant to our investigation. The first is tears, which Philo says
are poured forth through the eyes (6ia p&v yap 6(p0aXpd)v Saicpua rtpoxEixcu)
(ibid.). The motion of liquid discharge described here by the verb rtpoxelv appears
again in noun form when Philo mentions the secretion of sweat. The way that sweat
exudes from the body is, Philo asserts, “the pouring forth in sweat through the
whole body” (f) Si’ oXou xou ocopaxoc; ev iSpum npoyoaic;) (ibid.). In the statements
concerning the secretion of tears and sweat, the lexeme does not preclude the
concept of falling or dropping liquid.31 Still, the lexeme \ e more basically conveys
the meaning of “stream” or “course forth” in continuous flow rather than drop by
discrete drop.32 Thus, it seems to me that by using npoyelv/npoxuaic; Philo is draw­
ing a distinction between bodily secretions flowing streamlike and bodily secre­
tions discharging drop by drop down through the air. The latter kind of secretion
more readily entails dropping or falling motions away from the body as a source
of the liquid. As though to underscore this very distinction, directly after listing
the passageway of sweat, Philo addresses ejaculation. It is, he says, the casting
forth of semen through the genitals ( q ... oneppaToc; Ttposaic; 8ia idiv yEvvqxiKtbv)
(ibid.). Here, significantly, Philo uses the noun npoecnc; rather than npoxucm; to
describe the spurting motion of ejaculation. Thus, if we carry through Philo’s
distinctions of the seven bodily secretions, semen would spurt forth from the body
and would, with nothing intervening, come under the power of gravity and there­
fore drop or fall through the air while tears and sweat would pour or ooze forth
from and down the body, though not necessarily dripping or falling.
In Philo’s works, the third instance of sweat flowing may prove to be even
more instructive in our examination of Luke’s description of Jesus’ sweat in Luke

30 Philo, Philonis Alexandrini Opera quae supersunt (ed. Leopold Cohn; 7 vols.; Berlin:
Reimer, 1896; repr., Berlin: de Gruyter, 1962), vol. 1.
31 Beekes, Etymological Dictionary o f Greek, s.v. yioi.
32 Ibid.
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 271

22:34. After an impassioned speech delivered in the persons of :he elders of Jeru­
salem to Petronius, the legate over Syria, stating their absolute refusal to counte­
nance the erection of a statue of Gaius as Jupiter in their temple, Philo relates the
emotional and physical state of the elders (Legat. 229-42).33
tauTd Se Sie^fieaav urt’ dycoviac; Kal 7t£pi7ta0f|aeco(; aaSpari rtoXAcj), KEKoppsvcp t<I>
nvEupan, peopevot K ata tdrv psXuiv atidv-rcov iSpum, peta (popou; attaucrtcov SaKpucov.
They explained these matters under the weight o f distress and with much heavy breath­
ing from intense emotion, beaten in spirit, streaming in sweat down all o f their limbs
and with a flow o f unceasing tears. (Philo Legat. 243)

Philo gives a precise description of the motion of the elders’ sweat: the elders
stream with sweat (peopevot. . . 16pdm) and that sweat moves down all of their
limbs (Kcrra Ttbv peXtov artavTcov). In addition to the kind of motion by which the
sweat moves (pe: streaming or flowing) and its direction (Kata: downward), we
also gather from Philo that the volume of sweat is large, since all of their limbs
(tcov peXdjv art a v tu)v) are streaming with it. Yet in no way does Philo suggest that
the high volume of sweat led to the sweat dripping or falling from the limbs to
some landing point. Instead the sweat remains on the surface of the elders’ bodies
as it streams down.

IV. Sweat and dycovia

There is another factor commending this final passage from Philo to our
investigation. We cannot pass over the appearance of the term dycovia in this scene
of intense sweating. As noted above, dycovia is one of the unique and contested
terms in Luke 22:43-44. We need not rashly conclude that somehow the author had
this passage from Philo in mind when composing 22:43-44. In fact, Clivaz includes
this passage from Philo as evidence that dycovia and sweating are something like
a topological package for ancient authors treating competitive feats.34 Her collec­
tion of evidence can be augmented. Philostratus records a witty saying of the great
rhetorician Polemo, a younger contemporary of Luke.35

33 See notes on the historical situation of this speech in Philo of Alexandria, Philonis
Alexandrini Legatio ad Gaium (ed. and trans. E. Mary Smallwood; 2nd ed.: Leiden: Brill, 1970)
32-34,275-79.
34 Clivaz is not, however, concerned with the movement of the elders’ sweat (L ’A nge et la
sueur de sang, 427-28, 430-42, 445).
35 For critical treatment of Polemo’s career and cultural context, see Maud Gleason, Making
Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
1995)21-54.
 272 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

iSwv 8k povopctxov i6pum peopevov Kai deSiora tov UTtep tfjc; \|n>xfj<; dydiva “outuk;”
£itt£v “ayumac;, cbc; peXstav peXXoiv.” (Vi/, soph. 541 )36

And when he saw a gladiator streaming with sweat and dreading the contest for his
life, Polemo said, “You are as anxious as though you were about to declaim!”
The crisis in this anecdote causing the sweat and dytovia (in the derived verb
ayamav) is the potentially lethal bout in which the gladiator is about to engage.
Polemo makes a joke of the poor gladiator’s fear and distress, diminishing these
by comparing gladiator fighting to declaiming. As in Philo’s description of the
elders of Jerusalem and Luke’s description of Jesus’ garden prayer, here also we
find a person streaming with sweat and in a state of dytovia linked to delivering
speech. It is also notable that the life of the gladiator (imep xfjc; yuxtjc;) is at stake
in a way similar to the elders of Jerusalem, who claim that they will kill their citi­
zens and themselves (Philo Legat. 234-35) should the statue be erected in their
sanctuary. Similarly, Jesus voluntarily cedes his life in subordination to the divine
will (Luke 22:42). We should not press these comparisons too far, but the conflu­
ences are striking. For the present argument we should also note that, although
Philostratus’s framing of the witticism does not detail whether the sweat was
streaming down the limbs or body of the gladiator, he also does not indicate that
it was dropping or falling.

V. Plutarch and Sweat

Other near contemporaries of Luke, like Dio Chrysostom, depict sweat as
flowing (peopevtyv ifipum) rather than gravitationally falling through the air
(Charid. 38).37 Likewise, we find a person secreting sweat in a downward flow
(iSpdm KareppEopqv) in Lucian (Nigr. 35).38 Plutarch, another author of the late
first and early second century, provides still more depictions of sweat flowing
rather than falling or dropping. Like Dio Chrysostom and Lucian, he portrays the
secretion of sweat with forms of the verb pelv. Thus, horses stream with sweat
(Cor. 3.5; Aem. 25.3), the face of a statue of a god streams ominously with sweat
(Tim. 12.9), and Athena herself streams with sweat in people’s nighttime visions
(Luc. 10.4). In none of these instances is there any contextual reason to understand

36 Greek text from Philostratus, Flavii Philostrati Opera (ed. C. L. Kayser; 2 vols.; Leipzig:
Teubner, 1870-71).
',7 Greek text from Dio Chrysostom, Dionis Prusaensis quern vocanl Chrysostomum quae
exstant Omnia (ed. J. von Amim; 2 vols.; Berlin: Weidmann, 1893-96; repr., 1962).
38 Greek text from Lucian, Luciani opera (ed. M. D. Macleod; Scriptorum classicorum
bibliotheca Oxoniensis; Oxford: Clarendon, 1972-). See also Lucian Anach. 25 (Harmon, LCL).
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 273

the various forms of pelv as to fall or to drop. In each case, streaming or coursing
best fits the scene.
Plutarch also describes the secretion of sweat with forms of acpievcu which is
regularly used with descriptions of bodily liquids.39 Although dcptevat can mean
“to emit” or “cast forth” when used with, say, semen, it also can mean “to shed”
or “to secrete” when used with tears.40 As with the instances involving pelv in the
previous passages, in neither of the Plutarch texts involving ctcpievai is there con­
textual cause to render the forms of acpievcu as something other than shed or secrete.
So in a certain battle, Rome’s opponents wilted in the heat and shed much sweat
from their bodies (ISpdtxci . .. no\vv ex xurv ocopaxcov acpievxec;) (Mar. 12.8) while
the Roman legionaries were said to have been so well trained that not a single one
was seen sweating (pf|0’ ISpouvxd xiva) (12.10).41 In the other instance, Alexander
interprets a wooden statue that had shed much sweat as a good omen (Alex. 14.8).
In addition to pelv and acpievcu, Plutarch once uses the term exyelv to describe the
ominous flow of sweat from statues (Cam. 6.4). Although in the example of Onan’s
ejaculation in the LXX, eicxelv could mean to pour through the air, the proper
meaning of the term is “pour out.” As we noted, it is commonly used to describe
the continual rather than spurting movement of liquids (tears, blood, sweat) out
from the body. In short, the term could suggest poured liquids falling through the
air, but this meaning is hardly requisite. Thus, in this passage it seems to me that
Plutarch is describing statues with sweat running down them rather than statues
squirting and dropping sweat through the air to the ground.
Additionally, in one instance Plutarch uses the rare and descriptive term
dvamduetv meaning “to spring up” or “to ooze out,” to portray the portentous
secretion of sweat from a stone statue (Ant. 60.3).42 The term as Plutarch elsewhere
deploys it in a passage about underground reservoirs of water does not bear any
implication of liquid falling or dropping but rather gushing or flowing forth (Aem.
14.7). Indeed, the sense in this passage is that this underground water, when
unearthed, flows forth becoming the source of a stream. Similarly, it seems to me
therefore that the sweat on the statue must be understood as secreting and then,
reasonably, flowing. Again we need not conclude that actual falling sweat was
some phenomenon strange to authors like Dio Chrysostom or Plutarch. Rather we
should suppose that, regardless of whether sweat might sometimes drop or fall in
real life— and certainly it did—the customary mode of conceiving and depicting
sweat in literature involved focus on the secretion and flow of the bodily liquid.

39 LSJ, s.v. d(pir||ii 1.1.

40 See examples in LSJ, s.v. a<pir|pi 1.1.
41 Greek text from Plurarch, Plutarchi vitae parallelae (ed. K. Ziegler; 2nd ed.; Bibliotheca
scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana: Scriptores Graeci; Leipzig: Teubner, 1971).
42 LSJ, s.v. dvani6uio.
 274 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

VI. Sweat’s Secretion and Motion in Poetry

A broader examination of Greek literature yields more evidence that sweat
was commonly portrayed as secreting and flowing rather than falling or dropping.
We also find examples of sweat portrayed as streaming or coursing in a downward
motion. At three locations in the Iliad we find sweat streaming from the body. In
23.688-89, sweat flows profusely from limbs (eppse 6’ iSpaiq/navToGev ek
peXecov).43 Elsewhere, however, the flow of the sweat is distinctly depicted as
downward. Thus, in 16.109-10, sweat is portrayed as streaming down profusely
from the limbs of Telamonian Ajax ( k&S 5 e oi ISpibc/rravToOev ek peXecov noXuc;
£pp££v). Similarly, in 11.811-12 sweat is depicted as streaming down from the
shoulders and head of a wounded Achaean warrior (Kata 6 e votiop pcev idpcbc;/
toptov xai KE(pa\fj<;). In this third instance, we should note, the blood from the
injured warrior is described as bubbling forth like a stream (K£\apu(eiv) from the
wound, rather than dripping or falling (II. 11.812-13).44
In the poetry of Sappho and Theognis, we find this same downward flow of
sweat. The references, however, include additional detail about sweat’s descent.
In Sappho’s famous poem (31), sweat flows down the speaker (p’ t'dptoc; Y^XP°9
KCLKyEETCu) (31.13) 45 With slightly more specificity, the line in question from
Theognis reads, “Immediately much sweat streams down my skin” (auT tea poi
K ara pev ypoiqv peei danetoc; ISptbc;) (Eleg. 1.1017).46 As in the lines from Homer,
we have words meaning “flow” or “pour” (peiv and yelv) and the preposition Kata
but we also have the body (pe) and skin (xpoif)) as the surface on which the sweat
flows. With this third detail we are largely prevented from conceiving of the sweat
falling down through the air unless we further imagine droplets of sweat taking
leave of the skin and falling. That skin is both the source from which and medium
on which sweat moves is fairly obvious. But what is important for our argument
is the idea that Greek authors regularly depicted sweat not just as secreting from
and flowing on skin but secreting and flowing down bodies and skin.
Theognis is not our only proof of this verbal image. Athenaeus provides
further evidence in some cited lines of poetry:

43 Homer, Homeri Mas (ed. Thomas W. Allen; 3 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1931).
44 The onomatopoetic quality of KeXapufeiv is that o f over-bubbling or gushing rather than
dripping and splashing (LSJ, s.v. KEXapu(u)).
45 Greek text from Edgar Lobel and Denys L. Page, eds., Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta
(1st ed. corr.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1955; repr., 1968) (1 follow the Lobel-Page numbering system in
citations). Notably, for our discussion, Clivaz translates kcocx^etcu in this line as ruisselle, though
this specific flowing or streaming motion o f sweat does not seem to inform her assessment of Jesus’
sweat in Luke 22:44 (L 'Ange et la sueur de sang, 425).
46 Greek text from Theognis (ed. Douglas Young; 2nd ed.; Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum
et Romanorum Teubneriana; Leipzig: Teubner, 1971).
 JESU S’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 275

onto rd)v (i£v 6<p0aXpd)v OSpoppoat Suo

peouai peXavoi;, ek 6 e tcov -yvaOutv ISptbc;
ETti tov TpaxnXov aXoKa |iiXtu>6r| ttoiei47

Two streams of inky black flow from their eyes and sweat flows from their cheeks and
makes a red furrow on their necks. (Deip. 13.6)

Though the lines lack the preposition Kata, the downward flow o f the sweat is
manifest since it flows from the cheeks (ek 6e tcov yvaBtov) and combines with the
dark streams from the eyes to make a red furrow on the necks. That the skin is the
surface on which the sweat flows is made certain by the presence o f both the cheeks
and the neck.
In tragedy we find more o f the same. H eracles’ sweat in his moment o f
extreme pain does not drip or fall from his tortured body in Sophocles’ Trachiniae.
Instead, the sweat “came forth on his skin” (idputc; avpei xpwti) (V67).48 Euripides
also depicts secreted liquid on the skin in his Andromache, but with the additional
detail o f downward movement. Recalling all her bereavements Andromache says,
“many tears coursed down my skin” (noXXd Se Scucpua poi Kat£(3a xpooq) {Andr.
111).49 Here, as in Theognis, we have the downward direction (Katct/Kat-) and the
skin (xpoif|/xpd><;) as a medium on which the secreted liquid (iSptbp/SctKpua)
moves. Importantly, in Euripides line we also have the less descriptive verb
KatafSaiveiv depicting the downward motion o f the tears on the skin, the same verb
used for the downward motion o f Jesus’ sweat in Luke 22:44.

VII. Sweat’s Secretion and Motion in Philosophical and Medical

Literature
In our investigation o f sweat and its flow, it is logical also to examine philo­
sophical and medical writings. Plato puts forth a biological explanation for sweat,
though only once and briefly at that. As part o f a larger discussion on humors in
his Timaeus, he comments that sweat and tears flow daily (16pibc Kai Scucpnov . . .
to Ka0’ qpepav xeitai) (83D-E).50 Though the surrounding context is sparse, there
is no reason to understand falling or dropping as inherent modes o f sweat’s flow

47 Greek text from Athenaeus, Athenaei Naucratitae deipnosophistarum libri xv (ed. G.

Kaibel; 3 vols.; Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanomm Teubneriana; Leipzig: Teubner,
1887-90; repr., Stuttgart: Teubner, 1966).
48 Greek text from Sophocles, Tragedies (ed. and trans. Alphonse Dain and Paul Mazon; 3
vols.; Collection des universites de France; Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2005). For dvuipi and the
emitting of bodily fluids, cf. Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus, 1277-78.
49 Greek text from Euripides, Euripidis fabulae (ed. James Diggle; 3 vols.; Scriptorum
classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis; Oxford: Clarendon, 1984).
50 Greek text from Plato, Platonis Opera (ed. J. Burnett; 5 vols.; Scriotorum classicorum
bibliotheca Oxoniensis; Oxford: Clarendon, 1902; repr., 1968).
 276 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

in this passage. As far as Plato goes, the description of sweat’s motion seems
consistent with what we have already seen. So also in Aristotle’s works, where we
find sweat being discussed in a biological context as a secretion from the flesh (rtp
5’ Ifipdm ai)V£KKpivo|i£vr]c; etc rd>v aapxcov) with no sense of dropping {Mete.
357B).51 But further investigation yields a potential difficulty that threatens to
undermine our contention that in Greek literature sweat is usually not depicted as
falling.
Among the extant writings of Theophrastus, Aristotle’s student and successor,
we find that sometimes the verb describing some aspect of sweat’s motion is
eKTtlnxeiv. For instance, in a discussion of bodily responses to heat and fainting
Theophrastus notes that 6 ISptoc; ektiltttcov Xu e i xf)v XemoGuplav (Jgn. fr. 15).52 If
we translate E K T tln x eiv literally as “fall from” or “fall out o f ’ the line reads some­
thing like “when sweat falls out it alleviates the swoon.” At first blush this seems
to present a challenge to our argument. But ektuttxeiv as it is used here and else­
where is something of a technical term meaning “secrete” or, more specifically,
“exude,” though LSJ does not register this particular meaning of the term.53 The
term cannot mean “fall out” as in sweat falls out of the pores and through the air.
Otherwise sweat would not be regularly linked to the surface of skin as it is in
Theophrastus’s treatise on sweat examined in the following paragraphs.54 But
before proceeding to this next step in the discussion we must exercise caution in
assuming what Theophrastus regards as sweat’s function on the skin: sweat on the
surface of the skin was not understood as being involved in the body’s external
cooling mechanism. Unlike our modem understanding of sweat, for Theophrastus
and others the secretion of sweat was an excretory function.55
Even so, the surface of the skin was the proper location of secreted sweat, and
to conceive of ektuttxeiv as involving sweat falling out of the pores and down
through the air is as mistaken as anachronistically retrojecting our modem under­
standing of sweat as an external cooling agent. A second occurrence of the term in
Theophrastus underscores the fact that sweat, when it secretes ( e ktuttxeiv ) , emerges
onto the skin’s surface (npoc; xo ETrmoXfjc;) (Slid. 26 = Wimmer, fr. 9.26). This usage
of the term ektuttxeiv is altogether consonant with another, more general term for
secretion, EKKpiveoGai, that Theophrastus uses to discuss sweating and its proper

51 For sweat and secretion, see also Aristotle Mete. 358A (Aristotelis Meteorologicorum Libri
Quattuor [ed. F. H. Fobes; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919).
52 Greek text from Theophrastus, De Igne: A Post-Aristotelian View o f the Nature o f Fire (ed.
Victor Coutant; Assen: Van Gorcum, 1971).
53 L S J, S.V. EKTlinTU).
54 E.g., Theophrastus De sudore 11 (= Wimmer, fr. 9.11).
55 William Fortenbaugh disambiguates these modem and ancient conceptions of sweat’s
function. See Theophrastus o f Eresus: On Sweat, On Dizziness, and On Fatigue (ed. William W.
Fortenbaugh, Robert W. Sharpies, and Michael G. Sollenberger; Philosophia antiqua 93; Leiden:
Brill, 2003) 52. Plato also sees sweat as an excretory/cleansing function (Tim. 83E).
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 277

positioning on the surface of the skin (ev 8k rfj (rapid iSpcbc; KaXmai) (Sud. 1-2 =
Wimmer, fr. 9.1 -2).56 In fact, in the whole of Theophrastus’s treatise on sweat, even
when he discusses intense sweating (to Se npoaomov pdXiaG’ iSpdxnv), there is no
mention of sweat falling from the body through the air to the ground {Sud. 33 =
Wimmer, fr. 9.33). For Theophrastus at least, sweat belongs on the skin.
Pertaining to the sweat in Luke 22:44, notable also is the absence of any
concept of sweat dropping through the air when Theophrastus discusses those who
sweat while in a state of ctyuma. Indeed, there could be no such falling because,
as Theophrastus asserts, strange though it is, “those undergoing aycovia sweat from
their feet’’ (ot dytovitbvTEt; roue; noSap ISptoat) (Sud. 36 = Wimmer, fr. 9.36)!
Though we mean to imply no literary dependence of Luke 22:44 on this passage
from Theophrastus, we should note that this passage does have a traceable Nach-
leben.51 Theophrastus’s observations about people sweating from the feet while in
a state of dytovia are modified by probably two different authors in closely related
passages compiled in the later [Probl. ] of pseudo-Aristotle (869a2-12,869b4-19).58
William W. Fortenbaugh argues that the dytovia as it is presented by the two
authors is probably something like eager anticipation before competition.59 The
second author even compares those in dytovia and sweating from their feet to
athletes stretching or flexing prior to entering the contest (869b9-13). As it turns
out, the verb here for stretching or flexing, £icreiv£a0ai, is a close lexical relative
of the aforementioned hapax legomenon ekteveotepov in Luke 22:44, a compara­
tive adverb indicating the heightened intensity with which Jesus prays when he is
in a state of aycovia.60 Again, there is no need to strain at any connection among
these passages from the Aristotelian corpus and Luke 22:44, but the confluence of
aycovia and the lexical agreement indicating flexion and tension should, I think, at
least serve as a caution against any cursory reading of the sweat’s downward
motion in either passage.61
More proximate to our period of literature, the medical term ektutiteiv is also
used by the historian Diodorus Siculus to describe sweating as a symptom of a
certain poison. He, like Theophrastus, employs the term in conjunction with a more

56 For cooling properties o f sweat, see also Theophrastus Sud. 10 = Wimmer, fr. 9.10. For
sweat on surface of skin, Sud. 11 = Wimmer, fr. 9.11.
57 Though he was not investigating and does not comment on the downward motion of Jesus’
sweat, W. R. Paton had already put Jesus’ sweat in conversation with this passage from Theophrastus
over a hundred years ago. See W. R. Paton, “ATONIA (Agony),” Classical Review 27 (1913) 194.
58 Fortenbaugh convincingly shows that the two passages are so different in their explanation
of dytovia that they are likely from separate authors (Theophrastus ofEresus, 136-37).
59 Ibid., 136-37 and 137 nn. 213, 214.
60 Aristotle, Aristotelis Opera (ed. I. Bekker; Berlin: Reimer, 1831; repr., Berlin: de Gruyter
1960).
61 Rather inexplicably, Clivaz does not treat these important passages on dytovia and sweat
even though she cites Theophrastus De sudore at several points.
 278 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79, 2017

general and common term for secretion, otiveKKpivecOai (Bibl. Hist. 17.103.5).62
With neither term is there any sense o f dropping or falling. Instead, the emphasis
o f the passage is on the heating and melting effects o f the poison on theflesh, the
site o f the secretions (Oeppaoicu; tr|Kouar|(; rf)v Tpc; aapKOt; cpucnv) (17.103.5).
Though only once in regard to sweat, Galen also uses the term ektutiteiv to discuss
observations o f sweats concomitant with sicknesses lasting a certain number o f
days {Die. Deer. = Kuhn 9.809.1-3).63 Elsewhere Galen indicates that skin is
exactly the location where the presentation o f secreted sweat belongs (ifipurroc; 6’
eerriv imotpamq. . . rtspi to Seppa) {Meth. Med. 8.2 = Kuhn 10.541.1-2). Again,
there is no sense o f falling or dropping in Galen’s employment o f the term EtauTrrav
or in his concept o f sw eat’s discharge. By contrast, in pseudo-Galen the downward
motion o f sweat (iSpdx;. . . Kaxe(3r|), when it is mentioned, is portrayed with the
same vocabulary as in Luke 22:44 ([ Cau. Aff.] 17).64 Moreover, there is nothing at
all in the passage suggesting falling or dropping. Indeed, as William Hobart has
shown, KCtTa(3cuveiv “was applied by the medical writers to the descent o f humours,
&c., from the upper to the lower parts o f the body.”65 Notably, in none o f the ten
surveyed passages from Galen and the Hippocratic corpus substantiating Hobart’s
claim is there any sense o f humors or other descending bodily matters dropping or
falling through the air. Rather, in each instance the descending fluid or other bodily
matter remains in contact with or inside o f the body.66
If we look to other medical texts, we find that sweat’s motion is regularly
described with language denoting flowing, while the body— or, more specifically,
the skin— is depicted as the proper medium o f sweat. For example, in Aretaeus, an
exact contemporary o f Luke, profuse sweating (noAuc pev iSpux;) is described with
the verb EKpeiv (SD 1.15.6); and in another passage listing the bodily sites o f
various secretions, we read that sweat belongs on skin (ev oapki pev ifipebe;) (CA
2.3.12).67 We see further that a person sweating profusely is portrayed as “flowing

62 Greek text from Diodorus Siculus, Diadori Bibliotheca Historica (ed. K. T. Fischer and
F. Vogel; 5 vols.; 3rd ed.; Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana; Leipzig:
Teubner, 1888-1906; repr., Stuttgart: Teubner, 1964-69).
63 Greek text from Galen, Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia (ed. C. G. Kuhn; 20 vols.; Medicorum
Graecorum 1-20; Leipzig: Knobloch, 1821—33; repr., Hildesheim: Olms, 1965). Richard J. Durling
does not register ektuttteiv in his dictionary of Galen’s medical terminology (A Dictionary o f
Medical Terms in Galen [Studies in Ancient Medicine 5; Leiden: Brill, 1993).
64 Cited number = Helmreich edition page number: Georg Flelmreich, ed., Handschriftliche
Studien zu Galen (Ansbach: C. Briigel & Sohn, 1910-11).
65 William Kirk Flobart, The Medical Language o f St. Luke (1882; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker,
1954) 83.
66 By other “bodily matters” 1 mean things like pain (o6uvr|), heat (Oepprj), tumors (oiSfipara),
etc. See Hobart, Medical Language o f St. Luke, 83-84.
67 Both texts are from Aretaeus (ed. K. Hude; 2nd ed.; Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 2;
Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1958).
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 279

with sweat” (iSpum Se xeopevou tou avOpcbnou) (CA 1.1.28), not with the modem
English phrase, dripping with sweat. From the Hippocratic Corpus also come sev­
eral references to sweat and its downward flow. In three locations we find the
locution “much sweat flows down” (ISpcbt; re novXix; Karaxeerai [AM 110]; iSpcoc;
te ttouXuc; Kcnrax££Tcu [Int. 47]; ISpcoc; te noWoc, KcnraxEETcu [Int. 49]).68 Given the
nearly identical construction in each instance, the phrase is perhaps formulaic for
discussing sweats. In each case, copiousness is a key component of the sweat’s
downward streaming, though in none of them does copiousness equate to dripping
or dropping. Lacking in these instances, it must be noted, is the suggestion that the
body is the medium on which the sweat courses down. This detail, however, can
be found elsewhere in the corpus. For example, in one passage we read that “much
sweat came from the head and flowed down the whole body” (tSptbc; citto K£<pctXfjc;
TtouXut;- Kcrreppei Se Kai Kara tou awparoc; oAou) (Epid. 7.1.69). In another we
observe that “sweat, when it comes out, proceeds down along the body” (iSpcoc;
yevopevoc; e^ca x^peei Kurd to ocopa) (Genii. 45.23). In these passages, as in all
the preceding passages, sweat’s descent is not depicted as falling through the air.
In these medical writings, when sweat descends it does so in streams on the
surface of the body. Indeed, in none of the sources surveyed in this paper and, to
my knowledge, in no ancient Greek source is sweat ever explicitly depicted as
falling or dropping through the air. Such a conception does not appear to be part
of any idiom for portraying sweat’s secretion and descent.

VIII. Concluding Remarks

The central claim of this word study is that modem translations of and com­
mentaries on the participle in Luke 22:44 are inconsistent with Greek usage. Elu­
cidating the lexical and semantic possibilities for describing the motion of sweat
is a rather modest but worthwhile payoff, since moving toward greater precision
in our modem translations of the NT is a good in itself. The related but potentially
more significant upshot of this study, however, concerns the controversy over the
authenticity of Luke 22:43-44. In regard to the debate over the unique or rare
vocabulary of Luke 22:43-44 and its bearing on the status of these verses as genu­
ine or interpolations, the participle KaTa|3aivovT£<;, as we have seen, concords with
the very particular use of Kaxa(3aiv£iv and other terms of downward motion in
Luke-Acts. Indeed, we are justified in asserting that the use of Kata(3aiv£iv is
unquestionably Lucan. On its own, the presence of K<rra(3aivovT£c; does not prove
the authenticity of v. 44, but its exact concurrence with Lucan usage elsewhere
must be acknowledged as a counterweight against Lyder Bran’s attention to the

68 Greek text from Oeuvres Completes d ’Hippocrate (ed. E. Littre; 9 vols.; Paris: Bailliere,
1839-61; repr., Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1962).
 280 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 79,2017

hapax legomena (ay u m a, ifiptbc;, and 0p6p(3oi) in his greater argum ent that
w . 43-44 are an interpolation. Further, combined with A dolf von H am ack’s work
showing Lucan vocabulary and constructions in vv. 43-44, the decidedly Lucan
Kaxa(3aivovTec; may help to break up the impasse that Bart Ehrman and Mark
Plunkett see in regard to the hapax issue.69
How else does precision in rendering KaTa(3aivovT£<; affect the authenticity
question? If we accurately read the participle into the greater context o f the garden
prayer, we find a tight thematic fit. That is to say, if we understand KaTa(3aivovrec;
to mean that the sweat is streaming down Jesus— the motion that is used ubiqui­
tously in Greek literature when describing sw eat’s descent— we find direct cor­
respondence to the picture painted in 22:41 where Jesus kneels prior to praying
(0ei<; to yovarct TTpoaquyeTO). O f course one could say the same o f sweat dripping
and falling off o f Jesus in this kneeling posture. But here precision in understand­
ing and rendering K(rra(3aivovT£c; aids in recognizing the close linkage between
Jesus’ upright posture and the downward motion o f his sweat. Unless we import
somatic responses like swooning or convulsing into the scene because o f the pres­
ence o f the ctycovia o f v. 44, the suspected verses certainly give us no reason to
imagine Jesus doubled over or shaking, thus causing to sweat to drip to the ground
from suspended collecting points or from sudden movement— especially since we
are told that an angel from heaven has just strengthened him. Rather, on this point
we recall from Theophrastus that sweat and dycovia, at least in the semantic realm
o f competition, go hand in hand with muscular tension instead o f swooning and
shaking. To restate, once we observe that Luke elsewhere disambiguates flowing
down from falling down, we see that the specificity o f Jesus’ sweat flowing down­
ward in v. 44 internally underscores Luke’s depiction o f Jesus’ kneeling posture in
a way that is lost if we bracket the verse or that is masked if we understand tcata-
(3aivovT£<; as falling. This concord complicates Ehrman and Plunkett’s claim that
w . 43-44 interrupt the chiastic and thematic structure o f the prayer scene.70 M ore­
over, Ehrman and Plunkett assert that, with the intrusion o f vv. 43-44, “the focus
o f attention shifts to Jesus’ intense agony. . . . Hence Luke’s portrayal o f Jesus
accepting his fate in a quiet minute o f prayer has become tainted by a description
o f his overwhelming grief.”71 Our reading o f KctTct|3cuvovT£c; suggests that vv. 43-44
portray Jesus not as overwhelmed but as composed. The verses are therefore the­
matically in harmony with the equanimity o f Jesus’ prayer emphasized by Ehrman

69 Adolf von Haraack, Studien zur Geschichle des Neuen Testaments und der alten Kirche,
vol. 1, Zur neutestamentlichen Textkritik (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 19; Berlin: de Gruyter,
1931) 88; Ehrman and Plunkett, “Angel and the Agony,” 409.
70 Ehrman and Plunkett, “Angel and the Agony,” 412-14.
71 Ibid., 414.
 JESUS’ SWEAT AND LUKE 22:43-44 281

and Plunkett.72 In conclusion, I do not mean to suggest that the controversy

surrounding the status of Luke 22:43-44 hinges on KctTa|3cuvovTe(;, but a contex­
tualized definition of this largely overlooked participle offers some internal evi­
dence in support of the verses’ authenticity. Though this internal evidence is slight,
it is magnified by the unsettled debate over what the divided text-critical evidence
can reveal concerning the genuineness of Luke 22:43-44.

72 For Jesus’ composed demeanor during his prayer and agony, see Neyrey. Passion according
to Luke, 49-68.
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