John 19:34Meaning & 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 so that, from what flowed forth, a Bride might be formed for Him.

The Evangelist used a careful word. He did not say, "He pierced His side," "wounded," or anything else, but "opened" it, aperuit.

Thus, in a certain way, the gates of life were opened there. From there the Mysteries of the Church flowed forth, without which one cannot enter into the life that is true life.

That Blood was shed for the remission of sins. The water fills the saving cup. It serves both for Baptism and for drinking.

This was proclaimed beforehand when Noah was commanded to make a door in the side of the ark (Gen 6:16). Through it entered the animals that were not to perish in the flood.

In them the Church was prefigured.

For this same reason the first woman was created from the side of the sleeping man (Gen 2:21-22). She was called Life, that is, Eve, and the mother of the living (Gen 3:20).

This, of course, symbolized a great good before the great evil of faithlessness.

This second Adam bowed His head and slept on the cross, so that a spouse might appear for Him from what flowed out of the side of the Sleeper.

O death, from which the dead recover life! What is purer than this Blood? What is more saving than this wound?

Heavenly riches were poured into each of His members. As soon as the murderers approached them, they were poured forth, to enrich His friends and to avenge Him upon His crucifiers.

I fled to all Your members, O Lord, and from them all I received every gift. Through Your side, pierced by the spear, I entered the enclosed Paradise.

We shall enter Paradise through the spear plunged into the side, because we lost Paradise through the rib that came forth from the side, through Eve.

Since the fire that burned in Adam was kindled in him from his side, the side of the second Adam was opened. From it flowed a stream of water, to quench the fire of the first Adam.

Since every life is born from blood, the Blood also flowed in mercy, as though in a mystery of life-giving. From justice, the One who shed it had deserved the sentence of death.

Through the evil mediator, that is, the devil who deceived the first parents, fire was kindled in men. From the good Mediator, Christ, waters flowed to them and extinguished that fire.

There is nothing worse than the one who deceived Adam, who had done him no harm. No one else can be compared with him except the one who pierced the Lord after death.

Thus malice was conquered by the very thing through which it had conquered.

The Blood flowed, redeeming us from slavery to death. The water also flowed, so that all who approach His saving Blood might wash away the slavery of vice to which they had been subject.

Blood and water flowed, and they signify the Church of Christ, built upon Him, just as Adam's wife was taken from his side.

Adam's side is his wife, and the Lord's Blood is His Church. From Adam's side came death, and from the Lord's side came life.

Christ is the olive tree from which milk, water, and oil flow. Milk is for children, water for youths, and oil for the sick. In the same way, this olive tree in His death gave water and blood.

Envy persecuted David, and hatred and envy persecuted the Son of David.

Saul hurled his spear at David (1 Sam 19:9-10). Although he did not strike him, the wall remained as a witness of his persecution.

So also the crucifiers pierced the Son of David with a spear. Although Christ's power suffered no harm, His body bears witness to His wounds.

David was not pierced, and the Son of David suffered no harm. The wall, the spear, and the cave accuse Saul. The body, the cross, and the tomb convict the Hebrews.

Our Fathers, the interpreters of Scripture, have also given another reason for this event. According to the Gospel, saving Baptism has a twofold power.

One is granted to those being illumined through water. The other is given in persecutions to the holy Martyrs through their own blood.

Therefore blood and water flowed from the Savior's rib. They confirm grace when they confess Christ in illumination and martyrdom.

There is also another explanation concerning the rib. The woman created from the rib was the cause of sin.

Therefore Jesus, who came to grant forgiveness of sins equally to men and women, was pierced in the rib for women, so that He might destroy sin.

If anyone searches, he will find other explanations also. Yet what has been said is enough, both because time is short and so that we may not weary the hearers.

Nevertheless, one should never be burdened by hearing of the crowned Master. This is especially true for those listening on this all-holy Golgotha.

For others only hear, but we both see and touch. Let no one be burdened.

The Church acquired for herself a Chalice in Your life-bearing rib. From it flowed for us a double stream of forgiveness of sins and understanding, our Savior, in the image of both Testaments, the Old and the New.

Ode 4.

No invented natural or physiological explanations of this phenomenon explain the flow of blood and water from the Lord's side.

John himself saw their flow, and he recorded it as blood and water. Whether they flowed together in separate streams, or one after the other, they were in any case clearly visible to the eye as blood and water, not serum.

The Evangelist himself does not speak of this phenomenon as natural. Otherwise he would not have added such strong assurance of its truth, and of the fact that he himself was not mistaken about what he had seen (Jn 19:35).

The only true explanation of this phenomenon is that it stands outside and above natural physiological laws.

It corresponds to the nature of the most pure body of the God-man. Since it was sinless, it could not be subject to the ordinary natural law of bodily organic decomposition.

From the very moment of death it began to enter that state which ended in its Resurrection in a new, glorified, spiritualized form.

Symbolically, by this flow of blood and water from the Lord's body, the mystical manner of believers' union with Him was signified in the mysteries of Baptism and Eucharist (cf. Jn 6:53-56).

"It is also worthy of wonder that blood flows from a dead body. Yet some unbelieving person will say that perhaps there was still some vital force in the body.

But when water also flowed out, the miracle is beyond dispute. This did not happen without purpose.

It happened because life in the Church begins and continues through these two things. By water we are born, and by Blood and Body we are nourished" (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom).

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.