Blood and Water

Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (John 19:34 NIV)

Over two decades ago, when I was a young pastor, I remember distinctly choosing my very first series of sermons to preach on: the Gospel of John. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my home church, The Life Christian Church, had decided to study John for its first trimester this year in 2021. Likewise, I was privileged to lead my TLCC Scripture Study LIFE group on Wednesday evenings through the gospel chapter by chapter from February to June with some very eager Bible students. I was pleasantly surprised because this gave me the opportunity to come back to this portion of Scripture and "read the Bible again for the first time" as Marcus Borg would say.
When I preached through John the first time, my standard commentaries back then were the likes of Leon Morris, Don Carson, F. F. Bruce and Merrill Tenney (in the EBC first edition). The first thing you will notice is that the commentaries today are thicker and longer. Among the best commentaries recommended by Don Carson in his latest (2013) New Testament Commentary Survey are J. Ramsay Michaels' at about 1000 pages and Craig Keener's at about 1600 pages (in two volumes total). At church, Pastor Terry Smith was using Frederick Dale Bruner's commentary at about 1200 pages. My colleague, Max Lee at North Park Seminary, recommended Marianne Meye Thompson which was the most recent of the bunch but the shortest at about 500 pages.

It was in one of our Bible studies, that someone asked what is the meaning of the "flow of blood and water" in Jn. 19:34? We didn't really have time to address it then so I have taken the time to address it here on my blog with a view towards examining what the various commentaries have to say.

Of course, the context is the death of Jesus on the cross. He had already died upon uttering the final words, "It is finished." The Jews of the day in honoring Jewish custom asked Pilate to remove the bodies of the men from their crosses before the Sabbath which was even a special Sabbath for Passover week. In order to do this, the Romans would often break the legs of the victims to hasten their demise. They called this procedure crurifragium. After breaking the legs of the two men beside Jesus, they came upon him only to observe that he was already dead and therefore did not need to have his legs broken and then we have our verse in question. It is important to note that this flow of blood and water was unusual in some sense and must have had great meaning for John for he immediately writes: "The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true" (John 19:35 NIV). Western readers tend to focus on the materialistic aspects of the scene. The NIV Study Bible, for example, comments that the flow of blood and water is: "The result of the spear piercing the pericardium (the sac that surrounds the heart) and the heart itself." But isn't John's statement more than an observation of anatomy and physiology?

Here come the commentaries! Of the recent ones mentioned, Keener's is the earliest published in 2003. He argues on the basis of the powerful use of and imagery of water in the gospel of John, that the water symbolizes the gift of the Holy Spirit promised in Jn. 7:37-39:

• On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37–39 NIV)

After a rather speculative and confusing theory based on a variant reading in Matthew that the spear thrust occurred before Jesus' death (in Matthew; see pp. 967-969), J. Ramsey Michaels (2010) believes that the flow of blood and water symbolizes the invitation to life in Jesus as promised in such potent passages as:

• but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14 NIV)
• Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  (John 7:38 NIV)
• Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53 NIV)

Frederick Dale Bruner (2012) has the most commentary on this verse including a section on historical interpretation from the early church fathers to modern times. He outlines three interpretations and agrees with all of them:

1. The flow of blood and water is John's way of pointing out the true humanity of Jesus so as to combat the early Christian heresy of Docetism which teaches that Jesus only appeared to be human but was not in reality. This is in accord with 1 Jn. 4:1-3 " Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God."
2. Blood and water symbolize the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' sacrificial death and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Just as the blood of a sacrificial lamb provides provisional forgiveness of sins to the people of Israel, the blood at Jesus' death provides forgiveness for all humankind. On the gift of the Spirit, see Keener above.
3. Blood and water symbolize the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and water baptism. "  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit" (John 3:5).  "Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53 NIV). 

After an illuminating discussion of crurifragium in Roman times, Marianne Meye Thompson (2015) believes that the blood and water symbolize "the purificatory and life-giving power of Jesus' death" (p. 404). The blood symbolizes death and the water represents multiple aspects of the life-giving work of Jesus whether the Spirit (7:37-39), cleansing (13:1-11) or new birth (3:3, 5). This is similar to Michaels' interpretation above.

It is a bit ironic that at least on this particular passage (Jn. 19:34), the best and fullest commentary of the four happens to be Bruner's. Don Carson rather pan's his work as "uneven" and exegetically weak (in his NTCS). And he does have some rather extreme translations like:

• Amen, amen, I want to tell you something very important: The individual who is not coming into the sheepfold through the Gate but who is climbing in another way – that person is a thief and a rip-off artist. (Jn. 10:1)
  
• And the sign was written in Hebrew, in Latin and in Greek. The Senior Pastors of the Jewish people were urging Pilate … (Jn. 19:20-21)
  

But Bruner provides all the options and the fullest information whether you agree with him or not.

So, what is the meaning of the flow of blood and water in Jn. 19:34? In my estimation, it makes sense to tie this to 1 Jn. 4 and John's emphasis on the real humanity and real death of Jesus on the cross. But the fourth gospel is also a spiritual gospel and the most theological of all. From the beginning, we hear Jesus say "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days." (Jn. 2:19) referring to his body. The blood and water must also signify something else. The blood most certainly symbolizes his death and the water most probably the Holy Spirit á la Keener. The sacramental interpretation fits nicely and neatly (communion and baptism) but nothing in the context would necessarily trigger such an association.