About
the Book
Table of Contents
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
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Part V: The Meaning of Sweat
as Part of the Curse
Chapter 3
The Uniqueness of the Brow
AND SO WE come,
finally, to the few significant statements which are found in
Scripture on the subject of sweating. They are few indeed: Genesis
3:19; Ezekiel 44:18; and Luke 22:44. The first is a most familiar
passage; the second seems almost incidental; and the third might
not refer to sweating in the ordinary sense at all. Not much
to go on, but. . . .
The least-involved
reference is in Ezekiel 44:18 which speaks of the priests of
the temple:
They
shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen
breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with
anything that causes sweat.
There are several
points of interest here. Linen is far superior to wool for clothing,
if one desires to avoid overheating. The technical reasons for
this need not be entered into here except perhaps to state that
the layer
of trapped air in a woolen garment (and still air is a good insulator)
is much greater than in a linen one. Furthermore, it is much
harder to remove substances secreted from the body, whether sweat
or oil, from a woolen garment unless one has the proper kind
of soap. In Deuteronomy 22:11 it was specifically stated that
garments made up from a mixture of wool and linen were not to
be used. In those days the method of washing a linen as opposed
to a wool garment was quite different and could not be successfully
applied to a mixture of wool and linen. Moreover, fibers of a
wool garment may also stimulate reflex sweating by their microscopic
stroking action against the skin. Altogether the clear object
of this injunction to the priests was
the avoidance of the less pleasant phenomena associated with
sweating, namely, odours and stained garments. The garment of
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righteousness which is
to be provided for the saints is a linen garment (Revelation
19:8). The only garment we are capable of providing is one "spotted
by the flesh" (Jude 23), "spotted" without a doubt
by the sweat of the curse. I think the allusion is clear, for
such a garment is not soiled from the outside but spotted by
the flesh itself.
Genesis 3:19
directly associates with the Fall the sweating of one particular
area of the body, namely, the face. (2) Facial sweating is very largely limited (in many
people entirely so) to the brow. It is important to notice this
circumscribed association because, as we have seen, even unfallen
man would have sweated over the general body surface. It is clearly
the brow that is singled out here. Since Ezekiel 44:18
is aimed at avoiding the outward evidences of the Fall, reference
is made not merely to the loins where thermal sweating occurs,
but also to the brow where emotional and mental sweating occur,
for the bonnet likewise was to be of linen.
Why is the brow so important? Why
does the curse single it out? The answer to this is partly physiological
and partly spiritual. We are concerned here mainly with the physiological
aspects of the problem.
It may be recalled that on the
palmar region sweating may be due to the mental or thermal stress,
and in the axillary region (under the arms) sweating may be due
to emotional or thermal stress. In each case there is possibly
something in the way of dual innervation. In the brow region
a unique situation exists, for here sweat glands respond to all
three kinds of stress: thermal, emotional, and mental.
The innervation must be highly complex, and the actual details
are not yet clear. One thing known with reasonable certainty
is that, of all areas
of the body where temperature regulation occurs by modifying
the blood flow or by sweating, the brow region is maintained
with the greatest stability. It appears to be highly important
that this area be kept at the proper temperature. Why is this
so?
The vital structure, the metabolic
activities of which may cause a rise of temperature in this region,
is that section of the brain comprising the frontal lobes which
may very well be the main feature in the central nervous system
distinguishing man from the animals. It is here that man's powers
of abstraction seem to be concentrated
2. Regarding the translation of "face" as "brow"
in Genesis 3:19. The Hebrew word 'aph here rendered "face" literally
means "nostril" and is usually found in the plural form as in
Genesis 2:7. However, it came to mean any part of the face and more especially
the forehead, which was touched to the ground in the oriental form of
greeting described in Genesis 19:1. In the Septuagint the word is regularly
rendered by the Greek prosopos, meaning "face."
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or localized, if one
can speak of localization. The power which provides man with
a means of exercising faith, of seeing with the mind what cannot
be seen with the eye, of formalizing a system of beliefs with
respect to his God that satisfies his rational mind, and of communicating
this to others by the written or spoken word is dependent upon
his ability to think in abstract terms. He is uniquely man for
this reason. All human activity which is above that of other
animals finds its inspiration and ultimately depends upon its
direction through this forepart of the central nervous system
lying behind the brow. The metabolic activity here is quite high,
and the temperature sustained during mental exercise must be
held within narrow limits to assist the processes of thought.
Regulation of temperature in this area is not merely a simple
matter of preventing a temperature rise. Rather, it is a matter
of maintaining a certain ideal level, for a reduction in temperature
is no more desirable than an elevation.
The defense against a temperature
rise in this area is provided by evaporative cooling and is so
adequate that if the sweating were distributed over the whole
body for evaporative cooling, as much as two thousand calories
could be removed per hour -- a truly fantastic heat loss! It
is found by contrast that in the only domesticated animals so
far examined for differential sweating rates over the whole body
surface, the lowest sweating rates are in the forehead region.
Evidently for such animals it is not vitally important to regulate
the temperature here within closely defined limits, for within
the skull in this region there are no higher centers of supreme
importance comparable to man's frontal lobes that require special
protection against overheating.
The whole of man's vital activities
-- physical, mental, and emotional -- are here in the closest
association integrated and consummated. The Fall has affected
the whole man. While the sweat of his body might have shown him
to be a decadent creature physiologically considered, and the
sweat of his hand decadent mentally, or the sweat of the armpit
emotionally so, the sweat of his brow means simply that the whole
man is fallen. There is no way in which Adam could have known
this fact except by revelation, and the very latest findings
of physiological research bear out the eminent appropriateness
of the statement, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread."
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Finally
we come to Luke 22:44, where it is written:
And being in an agony He prayed
more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood
falling down to the ground.
Luke was a physician,
and Luke's Gospel portrays the Lord Jesus Christ pre-eminently
as the Son of Man, the Last Adam. There is no specific statement
in the text that this bloody sweat appeared on the Lord's forehead.
Yet it has always been reasonably assumed that only if it were
so could an observer have noticed it and reported it with such
careful attention to detail. The First Adam under the curse was
to sweat ordinary sweat from his brow. The Last Adam, the only
other person mentioned in Scripture as having sweated, was not
yet under the curse, and therefore the question arises whether
we are here dealing with a physiological phenomenon that is in
any way comparable. Was this ordinary sweat, or even sweat at
all?
It may be known to the reader that
Luke 22:43, 44 are missing in some manuscripts. However, one
of the strongest arguments for their genuineness is the fact
that this particular event is described in what may be called
strictly medical terminology. In his book, The Medical Language
of St. Luke, W. K. Hobart has shown that the Greek word rendered
"sweat" peculiar to Luke was much used in medical language,
the nature and quantity of sweat being considered by early physicians
of great diagnostic value. Hippocrates frequently refers to this
fact and, much later in history, Galen followed suit. The second
part of the passage, "drops of blood," also peculiar
to Luke, was likewise an expression very common in medical language.
In fact, Aristotle himself uses the term "bloody sweat."
But it appears that many of these early physicians recognized
such a sweat as merely comparable to blood and not identical
with it. Luke seems to recognize this when he speaks of it being
"as it were" rather than simply being "in fact"
a bloody sweat.
Luke, of course, was not present,
so he is supplying interpretive information under inspiration
which the original reporter presumably was not able to do. Evidently
one of those present in Gethsemane observed this strange sight
and was able under Luke's questioning to provide the latter with
sufficient detail that he could express it in strictly medical
terminology.
Man may actually sweat blood in
the most literal sense, but only after extreme dehydration, i.e.,
a loss of about 20 percent of his body weight as water. In a
sense this is not really sweating but rather the periodic escape
of blood through fractures in the cutaneous layer which results
from its extreme dryness. Even when this
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occurs, it does not usually
occur in the forehead region but in those parts of the body where
there is a considerable flexing of the skin, as in the cheeks,
the lips, or the neck.
There are some animals which are
said by local people to sweat blood, such as the hippopotamus.
However, this is not really blood at all but rather a highly
coloured form of sweat resulting from excitement and containing
compounds that render it chromidrotic. It looks like blood. The
same phenomenon has been observed from time to time in humans
in periods of extreme emotional stress, a phenomenon which has
led some religious people to associate it with our Lord's bloody
sweat. The Roman Catholic Church, referring to these local manifestations
of coloured sweating as stigmata, have even used them to establish
"sainthood," as in the case of the so-called palmar
bleeding reported of Theresa of Konnersreuth.
In his textbook, Anthropology,
Alexander Goldenweiser refers to the fact that the performance
of a shaman involves considerable psychological energy and is
not simply an act. The shaman feels himself driven to perform,
and if he resists this "drive" he may sweat blood and
his actions become those of a madman, his suffering being acute.
This is rather remarkable, because the inspiration here spoken
of is surely of demoniac origin. When he resists this demonian
inspiration, the effort may be so great as to cause a bloody
sweat. However we interpret it, the spiritual battle is real
enough.
We are not really any closer to
an understanding of what occurred in Gethsemane. All that can
be said with assurance is that the Last Adam in some way comprehended
in His own divine mind all the forms of toil of man as He prepared
Himself to be the sacrifice which would be sufficient, and as
He battled with spiritual forces. Beyond this it does not seem
possible to penetrate. But of the importance of the brow in the
light of man's fallen state and the fact that the Lord did indeed
sweat uniquely in this unique area, there can be no doubt whatever.
Even in this circumstance, the Plan of Redemption is somehow
beautifully and appropriately rounded out.
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Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All
rights reserved
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