Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 5. Originals That Matter

Luke 22:43-44 — the bloody sweat in Gethsemane

Handle with care. The manuscript evidence here is genuinely split and the passage is old, whether or not Luke wrote it. Present it as a scholarly dispute you are reporting, not a settled forgery.

In short

1.Missing from important early manuscripts, including P75 and (as a first hand) Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.
2.The surrounding passage is a tight **chiasm**; the two verses break its symmetry.
3.Luke systematically removes distress from his Markan source — he omits Jesus's 'deeply grieved' and the cry of dereliction.
4.Ehrman argues the verses were added against **docetism**, to prove Jesus genuinely suffered in a real body.

The claim being examined

An angel strengthens Jesus and his sweat becomes like great drops of blood — the classic image of his agony.

The Islamic position

The verses interrupt a deliberately composed structure and are absent from major early witnesses; Luke's own portrait of Jesus is calm and in control.

Analysis

Chapter 5 treats this as an intentional, theologically motivated insertion. The argument is cumulative: external attestation, literary structure and Lukan redactional habit all point the same way. The wider consequence Ehrman draws is that Luke's Jesus goes to his death composed — praying for his executioners and promising paradise to the criminal — a portrait the inserted verses obscure. Note the counter-argument honestly: some scholars, including Metzger's committee, judged the verses early even if not original to Luke.

From the Bible

Luke 22:43-44

Greek: hosei thromboi haimatos

And being in agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

Read it in their Bible

Luke 23:46

Greek: pater, eis cheiras sou

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Read it in their Bible

Sources

Bart D. Ehrman · Bruce M. Metzger · Bart D. Ehrman, *Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why* (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), ch. 5, pp. 139-144

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