Sweating Blood

[Dactyl]

I was at the zoo today and a information sign near the Hippo sanctuary said that the term "sweating blood" comes from Hippos because they secrete a pink fluid that protects their skin.

This strikes me as rubbish as it doesn't seem to link to the meaning of the phrase at all.

Thoughts?

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

I'd guess the term evolved from the description of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

[Chloe]

That his sweat fell like drops of blood has always struck me as an image of plenitude, not color. Oh, well.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Originally Posted by Chloe

That his sweat fell like drops of blood has always struck me as an image of plenitude, not color. Oh, well.

Indeed, but I've run across depictions that refer to it as blood, especially those reading it as a forshadowing to the crown of thorns.

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by Ryda Wong, EBfCo.

Indeed, but I've run across depictions that refer to it as blood, especially those reading it as a forshadowing to the crown of thorns.

Oh, definitely if you google for it you find all sorts of theories and explanations for why he sweated blood and what it meant, like this one: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t018.html It just seems logically to refer to the sweat rolling off him, though.

[Insensible Crier]

There supposed to be a breed of horses in Asia that sweat blood and there are a lot of legends based around them like Red Hare. According to this article though, the sweating of blood is caused by a parasite and not anything genetic or particular to one type of horse.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/20...5_100885.shtml

[callee]

I've always read that the idiom comes from the Lukan account of Jesus' passion. Interestingly, that line is absent from most of the earliest and most reliable ancient manuscripts, and probably a slight majority of textual critics today conclude that the language is not original to Luke but was added by later scribes. Bart Ehrman argues the addition was intended to combat the heresy of docetism, which argued that, inter alia, Jesus was not fully human. The bloody sweat would, of course, counter that by emphasizing the raw physicality of his humanity. In any case, the greek is quite clear that it is a simile: "and his sweat was like drops of blood." Emphasis on the preposition "like" (gk. osei) which, conveniently, means the same thing in Greek as it does in English, i.e. the sweat was not actually blood, but was like blood.

[dungeondragon18]

I've heard (I can't remember where) that there is actually a medical condition in humans where people under extreme stress can suffer from ruptured cappilleries in their skin, which causes blood to leak into their pores and give the appearance that they are sweating blood. But what I really want to know is where the expression "sweating bullets" came from.

[callee]

Originally Posted by dungeondragon18

But what I really want to know is where the expression "sweating bullets" came from.

it's what chuck norris does.

[Logoboros]

Not sure if this plays into the idiom, but in Old English the word swat is used to mean both "sweat" and "blood", and the adjective swatig can mean both "sweaty" and "bloody." So when we read in Beowulf that his "Sweord wæs swatig" this doesn't mean that his weapon was perspiring, it means it's covered in Grendel's mother's gore.

So there's an underlying linguistic connection between sweat and blood, which might help reinforce the idiom, even if it isn't necessarily the origin of it.

--Logoboros

[Back in a limited capacity for the time being.]

[Casey]

Originally Posted by dungeondragon18

I've heard (I can't remember where) that there is actually a medical condition in humans where people under extreme stress can suffer from ruptured capillaries in their skin, which causes blood to leak into their pores and give the appearance that they are sweating blood. But what I really want to know is where the expression "sweating bullets" came from.

Sweating blood certainly is possible- it's called hemathidrosis. Goes about how you said, with superficial capillaries rupturing near a sweat gland, thus resulting in bloody sweat.