BLOOD AND WATER (Jn 193i-3')._When the soldier, whom tradition names Longinus,* to make sure that He was really dead, drove his spear into the side of Jesus on the cross (see Crucifixion), a strange thing happened. On being withdrawn the spear was followed by a gush of blood and water. It was a singular phenomenon. The Fathers re- garded it as a miracle.t but St. John does not venture on an opinion. He neither attempts to account for it nor pronounces it a miracle, but contents himself with solemnly asseverating that he had witnessed it, and could vouch for its actual occurrence. He felt the wonder of it to the last (cf. 1 Jn 5«-8).
Medical science has confirmed his testimony, and furnished an explanation which at once de- fines the phenomenon as a perfectly natural occur- rence, and reveals somewhat of the awf ulness of our Lord's Passion. During His dread and mysterious dereliction on the cross (see Dereliction) His heart swelled until it burst, and the blood was ' efiused into the distended sac of tlie pericardium, and afterwards separated, as is usual with cxtravasatcd blood, into these two parts, viz. ( 1 ) crassaraentuui or red clot, and (2) watery serum.' Wlien the distended sac was pierced from beneath, it dis- charged ' its sanguineous contents in the form of red clots of blood and a stream of watery serum, exactly corresponding to the description given by the sacred narrative, "and forthwith came there out blood and water." 'J Jesus tiled literally of a broken heart — of ' agony of mind, producing rup- ture of the heart.'
It was a favourite idea with the Fathers that the Water and the Blood were symbolic of the Sacra- ments. St. Augustine, following the v.l. -rivot^e for iyv^e in v.'", comments (in Joan Ev. Tract, cxx. § 2) : ' Vigilanti verbo Evangelista usus est, ut non diceret, Latus ejus percussit, aut vulneravit, aut quid aliud ; sed, aperuit : ut illis quodammodo vita; ostium panderetur, unde Sacramenta Ecclesite raanaverunt, sine quibus ad vitam qua; vera vita est, non intratur.' Cf. Chrysost. in Joan. Ixxxiv : oi>x aTrXws ov5i ujs ^tvx^v aCrai i^rikdov ai irriyal, dW eTTiibrj i^ d^cporipiov i} (KKXtjaia (TVP^ffrrjKe. Kai icraaiv oi /xvaTayoiyoii/j.ei'oi., Si iidaro! ij.ii> dvayevvuifieuoi Si' atjuaros 5e Kai ffapKOS Tp€<f}6/j.evoi. dpxvf Xaju^dcet ret IxvaT-fipia, iV OTav irpoai-tjs T(J ippiKT^ iroTTjpiui, us clt' avTTJ^ trivwv rrjs rrXevpds ol'Tu Trpoairis.
Literature.— Besides the Comm. consult S. J. Andrews, Life 0/ Our Lord upon the Earth, 506-569. DAVID S.MITU.
BOANERGES.— In Mk 3" we read that Christ 'gave to James and John name(s) Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder ' (vai iiridriKff airrois foo/io [v.l.
• Ev. iMcod. X. (Lat.) [xvi. (Gr.)]. Cf. 'Aug.' Manual, xxiii : ' Longinus aperuit mihi latus Christi lancea, et ego intravi et ibi requiesco securus.' The name is probably derived from >.c>-x*i,
t Orig. c. Cell. ii. 36 : ' Blood does not flow from dead bodies, TeC Si Mtri Ti. 'InrroS. vixftii rifutTK to T./!iS«5»».' Cf. Euth. Zigabenus.
t Stroud's Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of "■ 1 Append, to Hanna's Last Day of Our
oKi/iara] 'Roa.iiijpyh, o iartv viol fipovrJji).* The equa- tion Boanerges = ' sons of thunder' presents two difficulties : (a) the Hebrew 'j3 does not naturally give rise to the two vowels oa ; (6) no known Hebrew or Aram, root rgs or rqsh has the mean- ing ' thunder.' A third difficulty might be added, that the title Boanerges, whatever its meaning, does not accurately correspond to dvoiial^ra), ' name(s).' t If the Evangelist be right in saying that the original title meant ' sons of thunder,' we must suppose that Boai'77 or Boavc is due to inaccurate transliteration of '33, or to a conflation of two read- ings with a single vowel (see Dalm. Oram.^ p. 144). But tlie difficulty as to pyes=Ppoi'Tri remains. Jerome (on Dn 1') thought that Boanerges should be emended into Be)ieree7n = ci;-i 'js. In that case the sis a, mistake on the part of the Evangelist or his copyists for m. Others prefer to think that the original title was i:-; '}3 = ' sons of WTath,' or i?:"! '13 = ' sons of tumult,' and that I'ioi ^povrris is an in- accurate translation on the part of the Evangelist. The Syriac Version (Sinaiticus) unfortunately gives us no assistance. It transliterates Benai Bagsh or Eagshi, and omits the explanation 6 ianv viol PpovTrii (see Burkitt, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe, i. 181, ii. 280). It is possible, however, that the corruption lies deeper than this. Just as Dal- ■manutha (Mk 8'") is probably a corruption of an Aramaic proper name (see Burkitt, ii. 249), so Boanerges may be a fusion of two names answering to the ivifuiTa. In that case the Evangelist, mis- reading or mishearing his Aramaic original, has fused two names into one, and has tried to give a rough translation of the word thus formed. The first name might be '33 (Banni), '33 (Bannai), or '33 [Bitnnai). Curiously enough, the Babylonian Tal- mud gives Bani as the name of one of the disciples of Jesus (Bab. Sank. 43a). For the second name we offer no conjecture. See, further, John, James.
Expositor, III.
BOAT.—
Tie7»» : AV ' ship,' RV ' boat.' TXe,i,>,»« : Mk 39 AV ' a small ship,' RV 'a little boat' ; Jn ti-- AV and RV 'boat,' RVm 'little boat' ; v.^ injir.traiy (ii Tx -rhoir^yiai AV ' took shipping,' RV ' got into the boate,' mar';. ' little boats' ; 218 ,^ »x»i«/,;iii AV'in a little ship,' RV 'in the little l«at.' (Lk S^Tisch., WH ! TX»,i,><« : WH.TR tA.?*. Ju 6^ Tisch., TR,KV :