Jeffrey Marsh notes that spiritual anguish and physical pain pressed down upon Jesus so greatly in the garden of Gethsemane that blood oozed from every pore in his body (JST Luke 22:44; Mosiah 3:7). The medical term for such a condition is hematodrosis. Under extreme distress and pressure the capillaries burst and produce a bloody sweat. Christ’s was the most sever instance of hematodrosis every experienced. Because he bled at every pore his attire must have been stained crimson when he left the garden (D&C 133:48). [W. Jeffrey Marsh, His Final Hours, p. 48]
“Blood Cometh from Every Pore”
According to John Welch and Stephen Ricks, the phrase “blood cometh from every pore” (Mosiah 3:7) prophesies the event reported in Luke 22:44 that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood.” Benjamin, in his declaration of the suffering of Christ in Gethsemane and in keeping with the role of the Book of Mormon as “another Testament of Jesus Christ,” affirms the literal nature of Luke’s description. This verse in Luke is unique to his Gospel, and since the times of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, lines have been drawn as to whether this verse was symbolic or literal. Some assert, “in using the expression ’as it were great drops of blood,’ he does not declare the drops of sweat to have been actually drops of blood” (Dionysius, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 5:230). Modern commentators have noted, “Cases are known in which the blood, violently agitated by grief, ends by penetrating through the vessels which inclose it, and driven outward, escapes with the sweat through the transpiratory glands” (Godet, Commentary on Luke, 1981, 476).
Uncertainty has arisen among Bible scholars about Luke 22:43-44 because these words are not present in the earliest New Testament manuscripts of Luke. However, after evaluating textual, stylistic, structure, scribal, and other evidence, Raymond E. Brown concluded: “While clearly the evidence available does not settle the issue of whether Luke wrote 22:43-44, in my judgment the overall import of the five types of evidence or reasoning discussed above favors Lucan authorship” (SBL 1992 Seminar Papers, 159)… . Moreover, Joseph Fitzmyer concludes: there can be at least “no doubt that a tradition about Jesus’ agony in the garden as found in these verses [Luke 22:43-44] is ancient” (Luke, 1985, 1443).
[John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, “Appendix--Complete Text of Benjamin’s Speech with Notes and Comment” in King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom,” p. 548]
“Blood Cometh”
In Mosiah 3:7, we find that in describing Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane, King Benjamin notes that “blood cometh from every pore.” In relation to this statement, the Book of Mormon student might be readily drawn to the New Testament as a confirmation of Benjamin’s words. Luke reports that in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the midst of great agony, Jesus’ “sweat was as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). However, because Luke’s words have been considered by some to be of doubtful authenticity, one might ask, How do we explain Benjamin’s words in a chronological situation many years before the birth of Christ? Perhaps it might be wise to view the larger perspective of the narrative.
The ancient covenant farewell address made by King Benjamin to his people is recorded in chapters two through five of the book of Mosiah. In the third chapter of Mosiah, we find Benjamin relating the details of a vision he had experienced regarding the coming of Christ. In this vision an angel of the Lord delivered the following message:
For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men. (Mosiah 3:5)
More specifically, Benjamin was told by the angel that
[Jesus would suffer] even more than a man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and abominations of his people. And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man … and shall crucify him. And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world … For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned… . For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy; but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent. (Mosiah 3:7-11,18)
What is most striking with this speech on Christ’s mission to earth to atone for the sins of mankind, however, is that right in the middle of delivering his message, the angel alludes to the types and shadows and symbolism behind the Mosaic rituals that, for hundreds of years before Jesus’ actual birth, prefigured his workings among the children of Israel. In regards to the symbolic teachings contained within these Mosaic rituals, the angel said to Benjamin:
[The Lord] appointed unto them [the children of Israel] a law of Moses. And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them … yet they hardened their hearts, and understood not that the law of Moses availeth nothing except it were through the atonement of his blood. (Mosiah 3:14-15)
In view of the context and positioning of these verses, the reader might ask, What would have prompted the angel to insert this comment on the types and shadows of the Mosaic law? or What would have prompted Mosiah to arrange Benjamin’s speech in such a manner? In other words, what specific connection do ideas such as bleeding “from every pore,” “the transgression of Adam” (which brought death and sin into the world), the infant that “dieth in his infancy,” and the “atoning blood of Christ” have to do with the types and shadows of the Mosaic law? In relation to the atonement, most gospel scholars would quickly bring up the example of the Paschal Lamb; however, another illustrative “type and shadow” to the previously cited phrases might be found in the little known and seldom taught ritual sacrifice of the red heifer.
According to Alfred Edersheim, in Mosaic worship everything was symbolical, that is, spiritual realities were conveyed through outward signs; every physical defilement would point to, and carry with it, as it were, a spiritual counterpart. But especially was this the case with reference to birth and death, which were so closely connected with sin and the second death, with redemption and the second birth. Hence, all connected with mortal birth and death implied defilement, and required Levitical purification… . Furthermore, although there was the service of purification connected with the mortal birth, yet it was not nearly so solemn or important as that for the removal of defilement from contact with death… . Hence defilement by the dead was symbolically treated as the greatest of all. It lasted seven days; it required a special kind of purification; and it extended not only to those who had touched the dead, but even to the house or tent where the body had lain, and all open vessels therein… . Because of this, the provision for purification here was exceptional.
According to Numbers 19:1-21, “a red heifer without spot” (v. 2), that is, without any white or black hair on its hide, without “blemish, and on which never yoke [symbolic of worldly bondage] came” (v. 2), was to be sacrificed as a sin-offering (vv. 9,17). Moreover, this ritual was to take place outside the camp, not in the sanctuary [temple grounds], and by the son of, or by the presumptive successor to the high-priest (v. 3). The blood of this sacrifice was to be sprinkled seven times [symbolical of perfection: God=3 + Man=4 makes perfection =7] with the finger, not on the altar, but towards the sanctuary; then the whole animal--skin, flesh, blood, and dung--burned, the priest casting into the midst of the burning heifer “cedarwood, and hyssop, and scarlet” (v. 6). The ashes of this sacrifice were to be gathered by “a man that is clean,” and laid up “without the camp in a clean place” (v. 9)… . When required for purification, a clean person was to take of those ashes, put them in a vessel, pour upon them “living water,” then dip hyssop in it, and on the third and seventh days sprinkle him who was to be purified; after which he had to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh, when he became “clean” on the evening of the seventh day… .
From all these provisions it is evident that as death carried with it the greatest defilement, so the sin-offering for its purification was in itself and in its consequences the most marked… . The ashes of the red heifer are expressly so designated in the words: “It is a singular offering” (Numbers 9:17). It differs from all other sin-offerings. The sacrifice was to be of pure red colour; one “upon which never came yoke,” and a female, all other sin-offerings for the congregation being males (see Leviticus 4:14). But what distinguished it even more from all others was, that it was a sacrifice offered once for all (at least so long as its ashes lasted); that its blood was sprinkled, not on the altar, but outside the camp towards the sanctuary; and that, contrary to the other sin-offerings (see Leviticus 4:11,12,20,etc.), it was wholly burnt, along with cedarwood, as the symbol of imperishable existence, hyssop, as that of purification from corruption, and “scarlet,” which from its colour was the emblem of life. Thus the sacrifice of highest life, brought as a sin-offering, and, so far as possible, once for all, was in its turn accompanied by the symbols of imperishable existence, freedom from corruption, and fulness of life, so as yet more to intensify its significance. But even this is not all. The gathered ashes with running water were sprinkled on the third and seventh days on that which was to be purified. Assuredly, if death meant “the wages of sin,” this purification pointed, in all its details, to “the gift of God,” which is “eternal life,” through the sacrifice of Him in whom is the fulness of life… . Even more remarkable, the sacrifice of the red heifer was to take away the defilement of death, as that which stood between God and man, from outside the sanctuary. In other words, the Mosaic dispensation had within its sanctuary no real provision for the spiritual wants to which the rituals which took place there symbolically pointed. The satisfaction of these spiritual wants lay outside their sanctuary and beyond its symbols. Spiritual death, as the consequence of the fall, personal sinfulness, and personal guilt lay outside the law of Moses and pointed to Him who was to come… . Indeed, because this sacrifice defiled all those who took part in the sacrifice, it signified that there was no one, who, by his own holiness, could bear or take away the sin imputed to this sin-offering… . The ashes of this sin-offering, mixed with living water and sprinkled with hyssop, symbolized purification from that death which separates God and man.
Interestingly, according to the tradition of the Rabbis (see Parah i. ii. ii. iv. ), there was an arched roadway leading from the east gate of the temple out upon the Mount of Olives… . On the Mount of Olives the elders of Israel were already in waiting. First, the priest immersed his whole body, then he approached the sacrifice… . Slaying the sacrifice with his right hand, he caught up the blood in his left. Seven times he dipped his finger in it, sprinkling it towards the Most Holy Place, which he was supposed to have in full view over the Porch of Solomon or through the eastern gate [a location satisfied by the Garden of Gethsemane]… . The burnt remains were beaten into ashes and divided into three parts--one of which was kept in the Temple-terrace, the other on the Mount of Olives, and the third distributed among the priesthood throughout the land. The next care was to find one to whom no suspicion of possible defilement could attach, who might administer purification to such as needed it… . According to Jewish tradition, children were exclusively employed in this ministry. If we are to believe the Mishnah (Parah, ii, 2-5) there were at Jerusalem certain dwellings built upon rocks, that were hollowed beneath, so as to render impossible pollution from unknown graves beneath. Here the children destined for this ministry were to be born, and here they were reared and kept till fit for their service. (Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services As They Were at the Time of Christ, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Reprinted January 1985, pp. 343-355)
Getting back to the original question concerning the historical validity of the phrase “blood cometh from every pore,” the answer might be found in the fact that the sacrifice of the red heifer was a whole and symbolically perfect sacrifice. To the Israelites, the color red was symbolic of not only blood but sin. According to Edersheim, the Mishnah (Parah, i. ii.) states that in the colour of the red heifer’s hide, two white or black hairs springing from the same follicle disqualify it. If the detail of the Mosaic law came down to every “follicle,” could not the detail of the angel‘s message and King Benjamin’s understanding also come down to “every pore”? I believe that it did. Moreover, biblical evidence also demonstrates to us that the sacrificial symbolism of the red heifer was clearly understood not only in New Testament times (see Hebrews 9), but in Old Testament times as well (see Psalm 51:7). [See Alan C. Miner, “The Sacrifice and Purification Ritual of the Red Heifer,” Unpublished] [See the commentary on Alma 7:14]
Mosiah 3:7 Blood cometh from every pore (the location of the garden of Gethsemane at the time of Christ): Map of Jerusalem during the Time of Christ. [Church Educational System, The Life and Teachings of Jesus & his Apostles, p. 209]
Mosiah 3:7 Blood cometh from every pore (the location of the garden of Gethsemane at the time of Christ): Map of Jerusalem at the Time of Herod. [Church Educational System, Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings-Malachi, Introductory pages]