Why is the "Sweating Blood" Phrase in the Bible

Bart Ehrman explained why most scholars in the field of textual criticism conclude the "sweating blood" passage was not in the original writing of the Book of Luke.

I reviewed a couple of days ago that reference to Jesus sweating blood prior to his alleged assassination. An account in one version of manuscripts includes the passage, another group of manuscripts does not.

One of the rules textual critics use to assign probabilities of original authorship as opposed to more recent additions from scribes is readability. The rule is the less readable, the more difficult a passage is to read, the more likely it was in the original writing. Conversely, of course, the more readable to more like it was altered in later recopying. The sweating blood version is more readable.

So, why would a later scribe insert the sweating blood version. The answer, Ehrman says, can be found in controversies of ancient times. Around 100 CE a set forceful writers now call Docetists claimed it was impossible for Jesus to be both human and divine. He was only divine, they insisted.

This alarmed an orthodox circle of followers whose writing also survived. A couple were Justin Martyr and Hippolytus. Their writing insisted Jesus was both a god and human. What better way to hammer home a human Jesus than to make him stressed like other humans. Even better were he to be so stressed he "sweated blood."

It appears, then, that the sweating blood was added to versions of the Bible after the time of Martyr and Hippolytus. It was not in earlier versions but there is high probability it was inserted by scribes after 100 CE.

As my Baptist preacher friend likes to say, those who wrote the Bible, and the scribes who altered original writing, had a specific point they wanted to make and aimed their writing at a specific audience during the time they lived. The sweating blood passage is a good example.