4. A further use of the word is seen in Mt 16", where the expression "flesh and blood' occurs. § In this passage the use of ■ blood ' is somewhat modified from what has been found hitherto ; tlie phrase adpj xai alii.a denotes what is human, ab- stractly considered ; ' the antithesis is between knowledge resulting from natui-al human develop-
•Eob. Smith, Rel. of the Semites^, \>. 337 fl. ; Wellhausen, Reete arabischen Ueid.^ p. ii2Bfl. : Strack, up. cU. p. 9 0.; J. G. Frazcr, Golden Bought i. 353, where other authorities are cited ; Bahr, Symbolik des Moaauchtn Ciiltm-, i. 44 ff. ; Trumbull, Studies in Orietitat Social Life, p. 157 ft.
t See, further, with regard to this poiut, the many iuterestiii<; details in Trumbull's The 2'hreshold CovenaiU, and Doughty's .irabia Deserta (2 vols.); the references are too numerous to (luote, but both works vriU well repay careful study.
J Cf. Strack, op. cit. p. 75 ff. ; Franz UeliUtsch, System der blMischen Pspcholagie, pp. 196, 202.
{The espressiou «^i« x«i «!;<«« (also in the order tciutt ««.' «/>!) is frequent in Rabbinical writings (Dni tip^) ; ' the Jewish ^Titers use this form of speech infinite times, and by it oppose jnen to God' (Lightfoot, Uurte Ueb. et Taliii. (Gandell's ed] ii. •234) : see also Sir 14i», wliere ' flesh and blood ' are compared to
BLOOD
BLOOD
iiieiit, or on the basis of natural birth, and know- ledge proceeding from the revelation of the Father in heaven, or on the basis of i-egeneration ' (Lange).* The expression therefore emphasizes the contrast between human and Divine know- ledge (cf. Gal l" ' immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood' ; cf. also He 2", 1 Co 15», Eph 6'^). The special meaning attaching to ' blood ' here is that it belongs to human nature ; and significant in this connexion is the passage Lk 24^" a ' spirit hatli not flesh and bones as ye behold me having,' where ' flesh ' is clearly intended to include blood ; t the primary diflerence in bodily structure between a natural and a spiritual body being the absence of blood in the latter. If in the ordinary human body blood is conceived of as being the source of life, the body without blood receives its life in a manner utterly ditterent, — it is the life which comes from Christ : ' I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly ' (Jn 10'"). Closely connected with this are the words in Jn f ' . . . which were born, not of blood t . . . but of God ' ; here, too, the contrast is between that which is born ' of blood,' i.e. accord- ing to a natural birth, and that which is born ' of God,' i.e. according to a spiritual birth.
5. A very mysterious use of ' blood ' is that con- tained in the words ' bloody sweat' (Lk 22'''').§ ' It is probable that this strange disorder arises from a violent commotion of the nervous system, and forcing of the red particles into the cutaneous ex- cretories.'ll 'The intensity of the struggle,' says Godet, ' becomes so great, that it issues in a sort of beginning of physical dissolution. The words, as it were drops, express more than a simple com- parison between the density of the sweat and that of blood. The words denote that the sweat itself resembled blood. Phenomena of frequent occur- rence demonstrate how immediately the blood, the seat of life, is under the empire of moral impres- sions. Does not a feeling of shame cause the blood to rise to the faceV Cases are known in which the blood, violently agitated by grief, ends by penetrating through the vessels wliich enclose it, and, driven outwards, escapes with the sweat through the transpiratory glands (see Langen, ijp. 212-214).' IT See Sweat.
6. One other passage nmst be referred to before coming to the spiritual use of ' blood,' namely, Jn 19^ ' and straightway there came out blood and water.' On the phenomenon of the ettusion of water together with the blood, see Godet's Gospel of St. John, in. 274 f. With regard to the flowing of the blood, there seems to be a striking si»niti- cance in the fact ; it was a visible instance of the fulfilment of Christ's own words : ' Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets ; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil . . .'** (Mt 5"-"); for
* Cormnentanj on Matt, in loc. Cf. the words of Tholuck : ' It designates hunianitv with reference to its character as endowed with the senses and passions' (Cam. uri Matt.); see also OJs- hausen, Com. o;i t)ie. Gospels, vol. ii. (T. & T. Clark).
t See, further, art. BoDv.
(The use of the plur. 1 appears, accordint; to We
elements out of wliic-li in various measures the hody is framed' (Com. 0,1. St. John, hi loc. ; cf. also Icjdct a Com. oil St. John, i;T. Clark).
e, see Wcstcott-IIort, and Godet,
II Stroud, Physical Caiise of the Death of Christ, pp. 74, 380, quoted in Trumbull's The Blood Covenant, p. 279 note ; cf. also the letters of Dr. Begbie and Sir James Y. Simpson, given in Ami. 1. of Hanna's Last Dan of Our Lord's Passion.