John 19:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

At the same time, an ineffable mystery was accomplished here: "immediately there came out blood and water" (v. 34).

These springs flowed not without meaning, and not by chance, but because from both the Church is formed. Those initiated into the mysteries know this. By water they are reborn, and by Blood and Flesh they are nourished.

Thus the mysteries take their beginning from here. Therefore, when you approach the dread chalice, approach as though you were drinking from the very rib.

Christ ordered it so that, after the sufferings, one of the soldiers pierced the Lord's rib with a spear, and blood and water flowed from it.

From His rib, says the Evangelist, "immediately there came out blood and water" (Jn 19:34), confirming the truth of His death and prefiguring the mysteries.

Blood and water came out. They did not simply flow out, but came forth with force, so that they splashed upon the body of the thief.

For when water comes out with force, it produces spray. When it flows slowly, it moves quietly and calmly.

But from the rib the blood and water came forth with force, so that they splashed upon the thief. By this sprinkling he was baptized, as the Apostle also says.

We have come "to Mount Zion and to the Blood of sprinkling, that speaks better than that of Abel" (Heb 12:22, 24).

Wishing to settle the matter of the woman and preserve her, who first appeared from the rib and brought death, He Himself gave His sacred rib to be pierced.

From it flowed sacred blood and water, the perfect and holy signs of the spiritual, mystical marriage, adoption, and regeneration.

"He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Lk 3:16): with water, as with the Spirit, and with blood, as with fire.

Notice also how the wound of the rib, that is, Eve, is healed through the pierced rib. There Adam, having fallen asleep, was deprived of a rib. Here the Lord, having fallen asleep, gives His rib to the soldier.

The soldier's spear is an image of the sword that turned and drove us out of Paradise (Gen 3:24).

Since everything that turns does not stop its motion until it strikes something, the Lord shows that He will stop that sword. He presents His rib to the soldier's spear.

Thus it may be clear to us that, just as the soldier's spear struck the rib and stopped, so the fiery sword will stop. It will no longer terrify by its turning, nor forbid entrance into Paradise.

Let the Arians be put to shame, who in the mystery of communion do not add water to the wine.

For they seem not to believe that water also flowed from the rib, which is the more wondrous thing. They believe that blood alone flowed, and thus they diminish the greatness of the miracle.

For the blood shows that the Crucified One is man, while the water shows that He is more than man, namely, God.

He did this in order to become the firstborn from the dead, and that He Himself might have preeminence in all things (Col 1:18).

The thieves are understood as our nature, divided into the righteous and sinners.

The breaking of the legs shows that, among dying men, you will find no one without error and the fracture of sin. The Lord alone died whole and without any sin.

With respect to each person, the thieves are understood in many ways. They are understood as soul and body, as fleshly and spiritual mind, and also as anger and desire.

They are also understood as the sensible world and the intelligible world, and as the written Law and the Law of grace.

Since, when we sin or act righteously, the Logos always descends and is crucified among us, something follows.

Whenever, through wickedness or ignorance, we make the Logos inactive and bowed downward, the demons immediately rush upon us. They crush the powers of our soul that walk and pass through the sensible realm.

See Jn 19:32-33; Mt 27:38; Mk 15:27. For a fuller anagogical interpretation of the two thieves in St. Maximus, see Ambigua 53, PG 91, 1372C-1376B.

At the same time, the Evangelist indicates that, in Christ's legs not being broken, the Old Testament type was fulfilled. This type was given in the unbroken bones of the paschal lamb.

In the piercing of Christ's rib, the prophetic words of the prophet Zechariah were fulfilled (Zech 12:10).

Concerning the flow of blood and water from Jesus' wound, Bishop Michael says that, according to natural laws, this could not have happened. When a dead body is pierced, blood and water do not flow from it.

Priest Butkevich cites the opinions of Strauss, Weisse, Baur, Schleiermacher, and Wilke. They say that blood cannot flow from a dead, congealed body.

They say that blood remains liquid in a dead body only briefly, no more than an hour. They add that separation of watery fluid from the blood begins only with decomposition.

They also mention certain illnesses preceding death, such as typhoid fever, fever, dropsy, and the like. On these grounds, these deniers assert that blood and water could not have flowed from Jesus' dead body.

In reply, Butkevich says that after abundant loss of blood a feverish condition always follows. From Jesus' hands and feet, nailed to the cross, there necessarily had to be abundant bleeding.

Therefore, in His death-agony Jesus must have suffered fever. For this reason, watery fluid could have separated in His blood.

Moreover, the piercing of the rib followed soon after death had occurred. Therefore there is no ground for saying that Jesus' body had already congealed by that time, or that blood could not have appeared from it.

There is an opinion of Professor A. Shiltov, Doctor of Medicine, that the scourging and tortures of Jesus before the Crucifixion, His total exhaustion and collapse of strength, and then the unbearable torments on the cross, must have caused a most dangerous illness, pulmonary edema.

The proof of this is the flow of blood and water from the pierced side. Consequently, pulmonary edema is the cause of the flow of water, or watery fluid, from the pierced side of the Lord. This is entirely natural.

There were cases when the crucified lived on the cross for two or three days. But Christ gave up the spirit after six hours, from the third to the ninth, after being nailed to the cross.

This fact seemed extraordinary already to Christian antiquity. This was especially so because He was in the full flower of His years and possessed blessed health throughout His earthly life.

Christian antiquity attributed this to a supernatural cause. Yet there was also an immediate cause.

When the soldier, to make certain of the reality of the crucified Christ's death, thrust a spear into His ribs, blood and water flowed from the wound that was made.

This decisively indicates that the immediate cause of death was rupture of the heart, brought about by immeasurable anguish of soul.

An excess of joy or grief, as is known, often causes the rupture of certain tissues of the heart. The result is the penetration of blood into the so-called pericardium.

This is the sac, filled with colorless watery fluid, in which the heart is suspended.

Under ordinary circumstances, only an examination performed after death can reveal this fact. But in Christ's case the spear-thrust made by the soldier fully assures us of it.

Then, in death from rupture of the heart, there is a constant phenomenon. The dying person suddenly raises his hand convulsively to his chest and utters a sharp, piercing cry.

The Savior could not make such a movement with His hand, since His hands were nailed. Yet the Evangelists clearly testify to the last loud cry, after which immediate death followed.

Thus the Savior of the world literally died of a broken heart.

That infinitely loving heart could not endure the shameful self-blinding to which men had surrendered. In frenzied malice they did not know what they were doing.

It could not endure the boundless madness that made men deliver to the fiercest torments of death Him Who came to free them from slavery to death.

He came to snatch them from the destructive power of Hades and to show them the path to eternal life and eternal blessedness.

Truly great is the dark power of evil. It compelled mankind, with its own hands and furious rage, to hack at its own tree of life.

With its own hands it tormented and executed its greatest Benefactor and Savior.

At the sight of this, not only such a tender and infinitely loving heart as Christ's heart could break. Even the granite heart of the mountains could have been torn apart.

Not in vain did the rocks split and the sun grow dark at the moment of Christ's death. The crime that had been committed shook even soulless nature.

See Martyrology, June 18. Sometimes, for the same purpose, the crucified were pierced under the armpits, after which death quickly followed.

See Origen, Commentary on Matthew 27:54, and Friedlieb.

Wishing to deal a mortal blow, the soldier had to choose the left side of the breast as the place of the heart.

This side was also more convenient for the blow in the present case.

The soldier’s λόγχη was the ordinary Roman spear, the hasta. It was a light weapon with a long wooden shaft, κόντος, and a sharp iron point at the end.

The latter was oval in form and a palm’s breadth wide. This is why the wound it caused was so large.

After the Lord’s resurrection, unbelieving Thomas could put his hand into it.

The blow, forcefully directed from below upward, penetrated the chest cavity and necessarily had to cause death.

At that very moment, εὐθύς, “immediately,” according to the Evangelist’s precise expression, from the pierced breast of Jesus Christ “there came out blood and water.”

We shall not strain to explain this wondrous separation of blood in a body that had died so recently.

Should we trust the many years of research by the physician Stroud?

He concluded that the natural cause of the Lord Jesus Christ’s so rapid death was rupture of the heart.

Therefore the blood poured from the heart into the pericardium could undergo separation there more quickly than in the rest of the body.

Or should we agree with another explanation?

According to it, the water that flowed together with blood from the pierced rib of Jesus Christ was simply lymph of the pericardium.

In the pericardium there is a special vapor-like fluid. When the body’s temperature falls, especially if the pericardial sac is opened, it condenses and takes on the appearance of water.

In the ordinary state of the organism, it is present in very small quantity.

But the sufferings that preceded the death of Jesus Christ, and especially the terrible heat that burned His body on Golgotha, could have promoted the accumulation of this fluid.

According to physicians’ research, it could have accumulated in the pericardium of Jesus Christ in such quantity that its outflow was clearly visible to John.

Friedlieb here refers to the studies of two physicians named Gruner.

Or, finally, should we acknowledge that this water resulted from some abnormal physiological phenomena caused by the Savior’s terrible combination of sufferings?

We are unable to decide this. Many of the Fathers of the Church saw here the active hand of Him who conquers the laws of nature.

For example, see Cyprian, On the Resurrection, and Theophylact on Job ch. 19.

For us, as for everyone, and as for the soldier who by his act fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah, one thing must be clear.

At that moment on the hill of Golgotha, on the cross, there remained only the body of the Only-begotten Son of God, who had died for the whole world.

Only one soldier, unwilling to leave either himself or the Sanhedrin in doubt about Jesus' death, struck Jesus in the rib with a spear. Immediately afterward blood and water flowed from the wound.

To explain the severity of the blow, there is no need to insist that it was delivered into the left side, that is, into the heart or near the heart.

There is even less need because, according to ancient tradition, the blow was delivered into the right side.

The instrument and the force of the blow show by themselves that it was mortal. The depth and width of the wound are evident from the words of the Apostle Thomas.

Into the wounds of the Savior's hands and feet he wanted to place only his finger. Into the wound of the ribs he expected to put his hand (Jn 20:25, 27).

With such a blow and such a broad and deep wound, seeing no movement in the body, every physician would be assured that there was no longer life in the body.

The blood and water that flowed from Jesus' rib finally left no doubt, even for a physician, that Jesus had already died.

Blood will not flow from a body long grown cold. The decomposition of the blood does not begin at the same time in every dead person. Yet in no one does it begin earlier than a quarter-hour after death.

Therefore the blood and water that flowed from Jesus' pierced rib testified by themselves that Jesus had died at least a quarter-hour before the blow that drew out blood and water.

For us this consideration is fully confirmed by the Evangelists' account of the circumstances of the Savior's burial.

According to the Law of Moses, a body hung on a tree could not be buried later than sunset, and therefore later than six o'clock in the evening (Deut 21:23).

Now take into account that Joseph, and then the centurion, had to spend about two hours traveling back and forth between Pilate's praetorium and Golgotha. About an hour had to be spent on the burial.

Jesus died at the beginning of the ninth Jewish hour, according to our reckoning in the first half of the fourth hour.

It is therefore clear that the soldier's blow followed no later than five o'clock in the evening. Consequently, it happened no later than half an hour after Jesus' death.

At that time blood and water, witnesses of death, could flow from Jesus' pierced rib.

The action of the soldier, raising his spear to make sure of the death of the Crucified One and piercing His side, accords entirely with the rough manners of Roman soldiers. Yet it too had been foretold by the prophets, and the soldier was unknowingly only the fulfiller of prophecies.

But the blow of the spear calls forth a miracle of special meaning. From the wound in the side of the Lord's most pure body two streams flow: blood and water.

It was not decomposed blood that flowed out, but pure blood and water. For in the most honorable body, which was to be glorified by the Resurrection, there was not death, but life.

The Lord's human spirit had been delivered into the hands of the Father. Yet the living blood and water bore witness to the incorruption of the body, which in the Resurrection again received the human spirit.

After descending in His soul into Hades to free those who awaited Him, the Lord, in His appearance to His disciples, was again in the full and glorified human form.

Thus the blood, water, and spirit bore witness to Him on earth. On the Cross was His most honorable body, dead in the eyes of the soldiers, yet for mankind it was a source of life.

From it flowed water, cleansing from sin, and blood, reuniting with God. The spirit that gave life to the Lord's most pure body was in the bosom of the Father and was bringing regeneration to life to "the spirits in prison" (1 Pet 3:19).

The most pure body was dead on the Cross, yet in it there was life for men. It rose because death could not hold the Author of life.

This Author of life grants eternal life also to man, who is to rise together with the Lord, not only in his soul but also in his body. This is for the sake of the Lord, the great Lamb offered before God for the sins of the world, and risen in the fullness of human existence.

His most pure body pours forth blood, and He said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves" (Jn 6:53-56).

Water flows from His most pure side, and He said, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5).

And in His last discourse with His disciples He spoke of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Who was to come and teach them all things (Jn 15:20; 16:7-15).

Therefore, in the sign of blood and water flowing from the Lord's side, we see an indication of the holy mysteries of Baptism and of communion in the Body and Blood of Christ.

These are accompanied by the illumination of the human spirit and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, both in these and in the other mysteries of Christ's Church.

"Not without meaning, and not by chance, did these fountains flow forth," says Saint John Chrysostom concerning the piercing of the Lord's honorable side. "Rather, it was because the Church is composed of both.

Those initiated into the mysteries know this: by water they are regenerated, and by blood and flesh they are nourished. Thus our mysteries take their beginning from this.

Therefore, when you approach the dread chalice, approach as though you were drinking from the very side of Christ."

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, having in mind Christ's martyrs, points to a twofold baptism that can be by water and by blood in the following words:

"The Savior, redeeming the world by the Cross, was pierced and poured forth from His side blood and water. Thus some in times of peace might be baptized with water, and others in times of persecution might be baptized in the blood of their own death."

Tertullian expressed the same thought (De Pudicitia, ch. 22). Cyril also, pointing to the signs of blood and water under Moses, compares them with the last of all signs, the flowing of blood and water from the side of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Besides the many other meanings of this sign, of which we spoke above, he adds: "There is another reason for the piercing of the Lord's side.

Since Eve, created from the side, became the first cause of sin, Jesus, Who came to grant forgiveness to men and women together, had His side pierced for the sake of women, so that remission of sins might be given them."

Macarius the Great says the same. Euthymius Zigabenus and Theophylact of Bulgaria both adhere to Chrysostom's explanation, but add some thoughts of their own about the event of the piercing of the Lord's side and the flowing of blood and water.

Zigabenus says: "This event is beyond nature and therefore clearly indicates that the One pierced was more than man. For blood cannot flow from a dead man, even if he were pierced ten thousand times.

It should also be noted that our Savior was pierced with a spear in the side because Adam's side had been pierced by sin, that is, by Eve. The Lord healed the wound in Adam's side by the wound in His own side.

He pours forth blood and water, signifying two baptisms: one by blood, that is, martyrdom, and the other by the water of regeneration. By the stream of these two currents He washes away the stream of sin."

Theophylact of Bulgaria, in addition to the meanings indicated by Cyril of Jerusalem and John Chrysostom, also points to the flowing of blood and water, recalled in the mingling of water and wine in the chalice of Christ.

At the same time he reproaches the Armenians for not observing this: "Let those be ashamed," he says, "who do not mix water with wine in the holy mysteries.

They seem not to believe that water flowed from the most pure side together with blood, which constitutes the very highest part of the miracle. I understand the blood to have been a sign that the Crucified One was man.

But the water was a sign that He was more than man, that He was God."

We find a very fine observation in Tertullian, who likens the Lord's death on the Cross to Adam's sleep during the creation of his wife from his side (Gen 2:21).

He says, "The Lord died so that from the wound inflicted on His most pure side the Church, the true mother of the living, might be formed."

Blessed Augustine also makes a comparison between Eve, "the mother of all living," and the second Eve, the Church of Christ, created from the pierced side of the Lord.

John calls himself the witness of the miracle of blood and water flowing from the Lord's pierced side, though according to his custom he does not name himself.

As an eyewitness of the events, he records them. As one made wise by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, he points to their meaning in his Epistles and in his Revelation. Compare 1 Jn 5:6-8, and also Rev 1:5; 5:9; 21:6; 22:17.

In the following two verses he links these events with the prophecies spoken concerning them.