Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 44. And his sweat became as drops of blood, and so forth This has sometimes happened, though in a lesser degree, to persons under extraordinary grief, if we believe Aristotle, l. iii. Animanium, c. xix. p. 891, and lib. de part. Animalium, c. v. p. 1156. Ed. Aureliæ Allobr. an 1607.—This passage of Christ’s bloody sweat, and of the apparition of the angel, was heretofore wanting in divers both Greek and Latin copies; as appears by S. Jerom, (l. ii. cont. Pelagianos. tom. iv, part 2, p. 521) and by S. Hilary, l. x. de Trin. p. 1062. Nov. Ed. It seems to have been left out by ignorant transcribers, who thought it not consistent with the dignity of Christ. But we find it in the above-said place, in S. Jerom, in Saint John Chrysostom (hom. lxxxiv. in Matt.), in Saint Augustine (in Ps. cxl. tom. iv, p. 1564, and in Psal. xciii, p. 1013.) in S. Epiphan. in Ancorato, p. 36, Ed. Petav. Witham.