Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Parallel Translations
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Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
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And he was in an agonye and prayed somwhat longer. And hys sweate was lyke droppes of bloud tricklynge doune to the grounde.
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But being in an agonie, hee prayed more earnestly: and his sweate was like drops of blood, trickling downe to the ground.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Luke 22:44 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Lamentations 1:12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
- Hebrews 5:7 He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
- Psalms 22:12-21 Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing. But don’t be far off, Yahweh. You are my help. Hurry to help me! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, you have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.
- Romans 8:32 He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
- Psalms 130:1-2 Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions.
- Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
- John 12:27 “Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But I came to this time for this cause.
- Genesis 32:24-28 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.” He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob”. He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
- Psalms 143:6-7 I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
- Lamentations 3:53-56 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
- Jonah 2:2-3 He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
- Psalms 22:1-2 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
- Psalms 69:14-18 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily! Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.
- Psalms 88:1-18 Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you. Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help, set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape. My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you. Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off. They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me. You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain These do not only show that Christ was true…
These do not only show that Christ was true man, but other things also which the goodly have to consider of, wherein redemption of all mankind is contained in the son of God his debasing himself to the state of a servant: such things as no man can sufficiently declare.
This agony showeth that Christ strove much, and was in great distress: for Christ strove not only with the fears of death, as other men used to do, for so many martyrs might seem more constant than Christ, but with the fearful judgment of his angry Father, which is the fearfullest thing in the world: and the matter was, for that he took the burden of all our sins upon himself.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 44 And being in an agony he prayed more…
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Ver. 44. And being in an agony] Μη δια τουτο ατιμος, οτι δια σε ταπεινονος, saith a Greek father. Alphonsus is honoured in histories for this, that he abased himself so far as to help one of his subjects out of a ditch. Shall not Christ much more be honoured that helped all his out of the ditch of damnation.
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He prayed more earnestly] εκτενεστερον, he bent, as it were, all his nerves, he intended the utmost activity of his spirit and of his speech; to make atonement for our dull and drowsy devotions.
Great drops of blood] Clotty blood (θρομβους αιματος) issuing through flesh and skin in great abundance. Oecolampadius tells of a certain poor man, who being kept hanging in the truss of the cord (which is a certain hanging by the hands behind, having a weighty stone fastened at their feet) the space of six hours, the sweat that dropped from his body for very pain and anguish, was almost blood. But here was no "almost" in our Saviour’s bloody sweat: while without any external violence, merely by the force of his own saddest thoughts working upon him, sanguinem congelatum quasi extruserit. (Bucholcer.) So great was Scanderbeg’s ardour in battle, that the blood burst out of his lips. But from oar Champion’s, not lips only, but whole body burst out a bloody sweat. Not his eyes only were fountains of tears, or his head waters, as Jeremiah wished, Jer 9:1, but his whole body was turned, as it were, into rivers of blood: a sweet comfort to such as are cast down for that, that their sorrow for sin is not so deep and soaking as they could desire.
Falling down to the ground] Through clothes and all, in a cold night; so great was the pressure of his passion here begun. He wept with his members; a strange kind of watering of a garden, as one saith.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And when he rose from prayer,.... The Syriac version…
And when he rose from prayer,.... The Syriac version reads, "from his prayer", having finished it; and the Persic and Ethiopic versions read, "from the place of prayer", or where he prayed:
and was come to his disciples; to the three, which he had left about the distance of a stone's cast:
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he found them sleeping for sorrow; on his account; for he had signified unto them, how exceeding sorrowful he was; and they might perceive by his looks and gestures, the anxiety and distress of mind he was in, which must needs affect them; and besides, he had given them some intimations of his being to be betrayed by one of them, and of his sufferings and death, and speedy departure from them; and because of these things, sorrow had filled their hearts, and this had induced heaviness and sleep upon them; See Gill on Mat 26:40.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And being in an agony - Probably just now…
And being in an agony - Probably just now grappling with the powers of darkness: feeling the weight of the wrath of God, and at the same time surrounded with a mighty host of devils, who exercised all their force and malice to persecute and distract his wounded spirit. He prayed more earnestly - Even with stronger cries and tars: and his sweat - As cold as the weather was, was as it were great drops of blood - Which, by the vehement distress of his soul, were forced out of the pores, in so great a quantity as afterward united in large, thick, grumous drops, and even fell to the ground.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 44. Prayed more earnestly] With greater emphasis and…
Verse 44. Prayed more earnestly] With greater emphasis and earnestness than usual, with strong crying and tears, Heb 5:7; the reason given for which is, that he was in an agony. Kypke well observes, Vox αγωνια summum animi angorem et dolorem indicat; et idem est, quod αδημονειν, Mt 26:37; Mr 14:34. "The word αγωνια (agony) points out the utmost anguish and grief of soul, and is of the same import with αδημονειν in Matthew and Mark." See Clarke on Mt 26:37.
Drops of blood] See Clarke on Mt 26:38. Some have thought that the meaning of the words is, that the sweat was so profuse that every drop was as large as a drop of blood, not that the sweat was blood itself: but this does not appear likely. There have been cases in which persons in a debilitated state of body, or through horror of soul, have had their sweat tinged with blood. Dr. Mead from Galen observes, Contingere interdum, poros ex multo aut fervido spiritu adeo dilatari, ut etiam exeat sanguis per eos, fiatque sudor sanguineus. "Cases sometimes happen in which, through mental pressure, the pores may be so dilated that the blood may issue from them; so that there may be a bloody sweat." And Bishop PEARCE gives an instance from Thuanus (De Thou) of an Italian gentleman being so distressed with the fear of death that his body was covered with a bloody sweat. But it is fully evident that the fear of death could have no place in the mind of our blessed Lord. He was in the bloom of life, in perfect health, and had never suffered any thing from disease of any kind; this sweat was most assuredly produced by a preternatural cause. See at the end of the chapter. See Clarke on Lu 22:71.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And his sweat became as drops of blood, &c.…
And his sweat became as drops of blood, &c. This has sometimes happened, though in a lesser degree, to persons under extraordinary grief, if we believe Aristotle, lib. iii. Animanium, chap. xix. p. 891, and lib. de part. Animalium, chap. v. p. 1156. Ed. Aureliæ Allobr. an 1607. --- This passage of Christ’s bloody sweat, and of the apparition of the angel, was heretofore wanting in divers both Greek and Latin copies; as appears by St. Jerome, (lib. ii. cont. Pelagianos. tom. iv, part 2, p. 521) and by St. Hilary, lib. x. de Trin. p. 1062. Nov. Ed. It seems to have been left out by ignorant transcribers, who thought it not consistent with the dignity of Christ. But we find it in the above-said place, in St. Jerome, in St. John Chrysostom (hom. lxxxiv. in Matt.), in St. Augustine (in Psalm cxl. tom. iv, p. 1564, and in Psalm xciii, p. 1013.) in St. Epiphanius in Ancorato, p. 36, Ed. Petav. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 44. Sweat… great drops of blood—Instances of what has…
44. Sweat… great drops of blood—Instances of what has been called bloody sweat are on record numerous and authentic. Dr. Clarke on the passage quotes Galen through Mead as saying: “Cases sometimes happen in which, through mental pressure, the pores may be so dilated that the blood may issue from them; so that there may be a bloody sweat.” The Latin poet, Lucan, in his poem, the Pharsalia, vividly describes a case in which sudor rubet, the sweat is ruddy. Yet Luke affirms not that it was blood, but “as it were great drops of blood.”
§ 132. JESUS IS BETRAYED, Luk_22:47-53.
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See notes on Mat_26:47-56; Mar_14:43-52; Joh_18:2-12.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 44. being in an agony] The word which occurs…
44. being in an agony] The word which occurs here only in the N.T.— though we often have the verb agonizomai—means intense struggle and pressure of spirit, which the other Evangelists also describe in the strong words ademonein (Mat_26:37) and ekthambeisthai (Mar_14:33). It was an awful anguish of His natural life, and here alone (Mat_26:38; Joh_12:27) does He use the word ψυχὴ of Himself. It was not of course a mere shrinking from death and pain, which even the meanest natures can overcome, but the mysterious burden of the world’s guilt (2Co_5:21)—the shrinking of a sinless being from the depths of Satanic hate and horror through which He was to pass. As Luther says ‘our hard impure flesh’ can hardly comprehend the sensitiveness of a fresh unstained soul coming in contact with horrible antagonism.
as it were great drops of blood] Such a thing as a ‘bloody sweat’ seems not to be wholly unknown (Arist. Hist. Anim. iii. 19) under abnormal pathological circumstances. The blood of Abel ‘cried from the ground;’ but this blood ‘spake better things than the blood of Abel’ (Gen_4:10; Heb_12:24). St Luke does not however use the term ‘bloody sweat,’ but says that the dense sweat of agony fell from him “like blood gouts”—which may mean as drops of blood do from a wound.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (44) And being in an agony.—The Greek noun primarily…
(44) And being in an agony.—The Greek noun primarily describes a “conflict” or “struggle,” rather than mere physical pain. The phenomenon described is obviously one which would have a special interest for one of St. Luke’s calling, and the four words which he uses for “agony,” “drops,” “sweat,” “more earnestly” (literally, more intensely), though not exclusively technical, are yet such as a medical writer would naturally use. They do not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The form of the expression, “as it were, great drops (better, clots) of blood,” leaves us uncertain, as the same Greek word does in “descending like a dove,” in Mat_3:16, whether it applies to manner or to visible appearance. On the latter, and generally received view, the phenomenon is not unparalleled, both in ancient and modern times. (Comp. the very term, “bloody sweat,” noted as a symptom of extreme exhaustion in Aristotle, Hist. Anim. iii.19, and Medical Gazette for December, 1848, quoted by Alford.) If we ask who were St. Luke’s informants, we may think either, as before, of one of the disciples, or, possibly, one of the women from whom, as above, he manifestly derived so much that he records. That “bloody sweat” must have left its traces upon the tunic that our Lord wore, and when the soldiers cast lots for it (Mat_27:35; Joh_19:24), Mary Magdalene, who stood by the cross, may have seen and noticed the fact (Joh_19:25), nor could it well have escaped the notice of Nicodemus and Joseph when they embalmed the body (Joh_19:40).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And his sweat was as it were great drops…
And his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Some (for instance, Theophylact) understand this "as it were" to signify that the expression, "drops of blood," was simply parabolic; but it is far better to understand the words in their literal sense, as our Church does when it prays, "By thine agony and bloody sweat." Athanasius even goes so far as to pronounce a ban upon those who deny this sweat of blood. Commentators give instances of this blood-sweat under abnormal pathological circumstances. Some, though by no means all, of the oldest authorities omit these last two verses (43, 44). Their omission in many of these ancient manuscripts was probably due to mistaken reverence. The two oldest and most authoritative translations, the Itala (Latin) and Peshito (Syriac), contain them, however, as do the most important Fathers of the second century, Justin and Irenaeus. We have, then, apart from the evidence of manuscripts, the testimony of the earliest Christianity in Italy and Syria, Asia Minor and Gaul, to the genuineness of these two famous verses. They are printed in the ordinary text of the Revised English Version, with a side-note alluding to their absence in some of the ancient authorities.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 22:44 his sweat fell to the ground like great…
22:44 his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood: The text does not say that Jesus sweated blood, as is often supposed, but that his sweat fell like blood pouring to the ground, which probably means that in his agony he sweated profusely.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.