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TERRY - Why does the Bible say in reference to Gethsemane that
Christ sweat as if they were great drops of blood, not that it was blood? I hear this a lot.
Did a Prophet say otherwise?
JOEL - The Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation from God that said He sweat blood:
"Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest
of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at
every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and
would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and
shrink— " (D&C 19: 18)
Most Biblical scholars agree the description in the
Bible was meant to literally mean blood coming out of
His pores. The Greek word hosei (“as it were”) refers
to condition, not comparison, as Greek scholar Henry Alford observed:
"The intention of the Evangelist seems clearly to be,
to convey the idea that the sweat was (not fell like,
but was) like drops of blood;—i.e., coloured with
blood,—for so I understand the hosei, as just
distinguishing the drops highly coloured with blood,
from pure blood…. To suppose that it only fell like
drops of blood (why not drops of any thing else? And
drops of blood from what, and where?) is to nullify
the force of the sentence, and make the insertion of
haimatos not only superfluous but absurd"
"We can conclude quite justifiably that the
terminology used by the gospel writer to refer to the
severe mental distress experienced by Jesus was
intended to taken literally—i.e., that the sweat of
Jesus became bloody"
(Robertson, A.T. (1934), A Grammar of the Greek New
Testament in the Light of Historical Research
(Nashville, TN: Broadman) (Robertson, A.T. (1930),
Word Pictures in the New Testament).
In the Book of Mormon an angel told King Benjamin:
"He shall suffer temptations, and pain of body,
hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can
suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood
cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish
for the wickedness and the abominations of his
people." (Mosiah 3:7.)
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