11 Cmn. on Luke, ii. 30G (T. & T. Clark). There is certainly one other mstance on record of a like mysterious flow of blood, 'that, namely, of Charles ix. of France, it is said of him that on his deathbed his bitterness of sorrow and qualms of conscience, oil account of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Eve, were 8o intense that in the ans;uish of his soul he literally sweated
of sacrifice under the Old Dispensation that blood should flow,* and that it should flow from a vital part, usually from the throat, thotigh the spirit of the Law would obvi- ously be fulfilled when the blood flowed from sucli a vital part as the region of the heart, the central part of man ; t the sacrifice was consummated when the life, i.e. the blood, had flowed out.t KalLsch points out that, guided by similar views, the Teutons pierced the heart of the sacrificial victims, whether animals or men, becanse the heart is the fountain of the blood, and the blood of the heart was pre-eminently regarded as the blooil of sacrifice. § See also the following article.
7. The passages which speak of the blood of Christ (Mt 26-'», Mk 14« Lk 22™, Jn &^-^\ i.e. of blood in its spiritual meaning, can be here only briefly re- ferred to [see Atonement, Last Supper]. They must be taken in conjunction with such expressions elsewhere as 'the blood of Christ' (I Co lO^", Eph 2"), 'the blood of the Lord' (1 Co 11-'), 'the blood of his cross ' (Col F"), ' the blood of Jesus ' (He 10'^ 1 Jn 1'), ' the blood of Jesus Christ' (1 P 1-), 'the blood of the Lamb' (Rev 12").
From the earliest times among the ancient Hebrews the various rites and ceremonies, indeed the whole sacrificial system, showed the yearning desire for a closer union with God ; this union was to be ell'ected only through life-containing and life- giving blood. The very existence of these sacri- fices proved (and the ottering up of their firstborn sons only emphasized the fact) that men deemed the relationship between God and themselves to be unsatisfactory. Useless as these sacrifices were in themselves, they were at any rate (when not unauthorized) shadoivs of good things to come (He 10'-'') ; and they served their purpose of witnessing to profound truths which God intended to reveal more fully as soon as man's capacity for appre- hension should have become sutticiently developed. The shedding of Christ's blood eflected a new rela- tionship between God and man ; it sealed a Neiu Covenant,}} and became the means of the salvation of many (Mt 26=8, Mk 14«, cf. Lk 22=»). But the ancient conception, the God-revealed truth only dimly apprehended, was right : the life was in the blood, inasmuch as the shedding of blood brought life— 'I lay down my life, that I may take it again' ( Jn 10")— only it was a life which it was impossible to conceive of before the Author of it brought it to man. ' Having in His own blood the life of God and the life of man, Jesus Christ could make men sharers of the Divine by making them sharers of His own nature ; and this was tlie truth of truths which He declared to those whom He instructed.' H
Literature. —There are many books which give information on this subject, but as regards the special relationship between ' blood ' and Christ it is ditticult to point to any particular work ; many details are to be had, but they must be gathered from numerous sources ; some of the more important of these are : Franz Delitzsch, System der biblischeii Psiirholwii,-, Leipzig, 1855 ; P. Cassel, Die Sijmbolik des Bliites, Berlin, Issii ; C. Biihr, Sijmbolik des Masaischca Cultus^, 1S7J ; F. Godet, Biblical
* This was originally based on the conception of blood being the drink of gods (cf. Ps 60i3) ; see Rob. Smith, op. cit. p. 233 ff.; Curtiss, Primitiee Sem. Bel. To-day, p. 223: 'The cousununa- tion of the sacrifice is in the outflow of blood.'
t Cf . the words of Philo, de Concupisc. x. ; ' Some men pre- pare sacrifices which ought never to be offered, strangling the victim and stifling the essence of life, which they ought to let depart free and unrestrained ' (quoted by Kalisch, Leoiticus, i. 184).
t 'Under the symbolic sacrifices of the Old Co\rn:iiit it wi^ the 6ioorf which made atonement forthesoul. II \^ - U' ' ih" death of the victim, nor yet its broken body: Iih k ' i- ili. blood, the life, the soul, that was made thc'incni^ "I i ^ni ^ ransom, of its rescue, of its redemption' (Truml hi N, '!'> ■ /:■:.. i/ Covenant, p. L'Si;). ' I'.Iood atones by virtue of the nie Ui:il la jn
ilied by the shedding of blood.
216
BLOOD AND WATER
BOAT
studies in the OT ayid XT (Eng. tr. hy I.yttelton), London, 1876; L. J. Riickert, Das Abendmahl . . ., Leipzig', 1856 ; H. L. Strock, Der BhUaberglaube in der fllcn.-icfiheU\ Miincheu, 1892 (a work of extreme interest). A great fund of information is to be foxmd scattered in the three books of H. C. Trumbull, The Blood Coi'enant, London, 1SS7, T/ie Threshold Covenant, Philadelphia, 1896, Studies in Oriental Sociid Life, London, 1895; and in C. M. Dou^rhti s 'l'rar.l.< in Arabia Deserta, 2 vols., Cambridge, ISSs. IHlicr «(.ik^ tluit should be consulted are: J. Lightfoot, Hone Ueh. et l\,h„.. 4 lols, (ed. Gandell), Oxford, 1869; Rob. Smith, liel. vl the Semites"-. London, 1S94, Kinship and Marriage (ed. S. A, Cook), London, 1903 ; S. L Curtiss, Primitiee Semitic Ecliciion To-day, London, 1902. Various notices will also be found in the Commentaries of Lange, Tholuck, Olshausen, Godet, and Westcott. See also the art. on 'Blood' and kindred subjects in the Bible Diction, aries, such as Hamburger, Riehm, Hastings, Cheyne, and the Jewish Encyclopedia. W. O. E. OesTERLEV.