SEV Biblia, Chapter 19:34
pero uno de los soldados le abri el costado con una lanza, y luego sali sangre y agua.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - John 19:34
Verse 34. With a spear pierced his side] The soldier who pierced our Lord's side has been called by the Roman Catholic writers Longinus, which seems to be a corruption of logch, lonche, a spear or dart, the word in the text. They moreover tell us that this man was converted-that it was he who said, Truly this was the Son of God-that he traveled into Cappadocia, and there preached the Gospel of Christ, and received the crown of martyrdom. But this deserves the same credit as the other legends of the Popish Church. Whether it was the right or the left side of Christ that was pierced has been a matter of serious discussion among divines and physicians; and on this subject they are not yet agreed. That it is of no importance we are sure, because the Holy Ghost has not revealed it. Luke Cranache, a famous painter, whose piece of the crucifixion is at Augsburg, has put no wound on either side: when he was asked the reason of this-I will do it, said he, when I am informed WHICH side was pierced.
Blood and water.] It may be naturally supposed that the spear went through the pericardium and pierced the heart; that the water proceeded from the former, and the blood from the latter. Ambrose, Augustin, and Chrysostom, make the blood an emblem of the eucharist, and the water an emblem of baptism. Others represent them as the emblems of the old and new covenants. Protestants have thought them the emblems of justification, which is through the blood of the Lamb, and sanctification, which is through the washing of regeneration; and it is in reference to the first notion that they mingle the wine with water in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. The piercing appears to have taken place because his legs were not broken; and, as the law in this case stated that the criminals were to continue on the cross till they died, the side of our Lord was pierced to secure the accomplishment of the law; and the issuing of the blood and water appears to be only a natural effect of the above cause, and probably nothing mystical or spiritual was intended by it. However, it affords the fullest proof that Jesus died for our sins. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that there is a reference here to the rock in the wilderness which Moses smote twice, and which, according to the Jews, Shemoth Rabba, fol. 122, "poured out blood at the first stroke, and water at the second." Now St. Paul says, 1 Corinthians x. 4, That rock was Christ; and here the evangelist says, the soldier pierced his side, and there came out blood and water. St. John therefore, in what he asserts in the 35th and 36th verses, wishes to call the attention of the Jews to this point, in order to show them that this Jesus was the true Messiah, who was typified by the rock in the wilderness. He knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 34. But one of the soldiers , etc.] Whose name some pretend to say was Longinns, and so called from the spear with which he pierced Christ: with a spear pierced his side ; his left side, where the heart lies; though the painters make this wound on the right, and the Arabic version of Erpenius, as cited by Dr. Lightfoot, adds the word right to make the miracle the greater: this the soldier did, partly out of spite to Christ, and partly to know whether he was really dead; and which was so ordered by divine providence, that it might beyond all doubt appear that he really died, and was not taken down alive from the cross; so that there might be no room to call in question the truth of his resurrection, when he should appear alive again: and forthwith came there out blood and water ; this is accounted for in a natural way by the piercing of the pericardium, which contains a small quantity of water about the heart, and which being pierced, a person, if alive, must inevitably die; but it seems rather to be something supernatural, from the asseverations the evangelist makes. This water and blood some make to signify baptism and the Lords supper, which are both of Christs appointing, and spring from him, and refer to his sufferings and death; rather they signify the blessings of sanctification and justification, the grace of the one being represented by water, as it frequently is in the Old and New Testament, and the other by blood, and both from Christ: that Christ was the antitype of the rock in the wilderness, the apostle assures us, in ( 1 Corinthians 10:4) and if the Jews are to be believed, he was so in this instance; Jonathan ben Uzziel, in his Targum on ( Numbers 20:11) says that Moses smote the rock twice, at the first time amda tpyja , blood dropped out: and at the second time abundance of waters flowed out.
The same is affirmed by others elsewhere in much the same words and order.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 31-37 - A trial was made whether Jesus was dead. He died in less time tha persons crucified commonly did. It showed that he had laid down his life of himself. The spear broke up the very fountains of life; n human body could survive such a wound. But its being so solemnl attested, shows there was something peculiar in it. The blood and wate that flowed out, signified those two great benefits which all believer partake of through Christ, justification and sanctification; blood for atonement, water for purification. They both flow from the pierced sid of our Redeemer. To Christ crucified we owe merit for ou justification, and Spirit and grace for our sanctification. Let thi silence the fears of weak Christians, and encourage their hopes; ther came both water and blood out of Jesus' pierced side, both to justif and sanctify them. The Scripture was fulfilled, in Pilate's no allowing his legs to be broken, Ps 34:20. There was a type of this is the paschal lamb, Ex 12:46. May we ever look to Him, whom, by our sins we have ignorantly and heedlessly pierced, nay, sometimes agains convictions and mercies; and who shed from his wounded side both wate and blood, that we might be justified and sanctified in his name.
Greek Textus Receptus
αλλ 235 CONJ εις 1520 A-NSM των 3588 T-GPM στρατιωτων 4757 N-GPM λογχη 3057 N-DSF αυτου 846 P-GSM την 3588 T-ASF πλευραν 4125 N-ASF ενυξεν 3572 5656 V-AAI-3S και 2532 CONJ ευθυς 2117 ADV εξηλθεν 1831 5627 V-2AAI-3S αιμα 129 N-NSN και 2532 CONJ υδωρ 5204 N-NSN
Vincent's NT Word Studies
34. With a spear (logch). Only here in the New Testament. Properly, the head of a spear. So Herodotus, of the Arabians: "They also had spears (aicmav) tipped with an antelope's horn sharpened like a spear-point (logchv)" (vii. 96). Used also, as here, for the spear itself.Pierced (enuxen). Only here in the New Testament. The question has been raised whether the Evangelist means to describe a gash or a prick. Another verb is rendered pierced in ver. 37, the quotation from Zechariah xii. 10, ejxekenthsan, which occurs also at Apoc. i. 7, with reference to Christ's crucifixion, and is used in classical Greek of putting out the eyes, or stabbing, and in the Septuagint of Saul's request to his armor-bearer: "Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith" (1 Chronicles x. 4). The verb used here, however, nussw, is also used to describe severe and deadly wounds, as in Homer:
"As he sprang Into his car, Idomeneus, expert To wield the ponderous javelin, thrust (nux) its blade Through his right shoulder. From the car he fell, And the dark night of death came over him."
"Iliad," v. 45-47.
It has been suggested that the body was merely pricked with the spear to ascertain if it were yet alive. There seems, on the whole, no reason for departing from the ordinary understanding of the narrative, that the soldier inflicted a deep thrust on the side of Jesus (compare xx. 25, 27); nor is it quite apparent why, as Mr. Field urges, a distinction should be kept up between the two verbs in vv. 34 and 37.
Blood and water. It has been argued very plausibly that this was a natural phenomenon, the result of a rupture of the heart which, it is assumed, was the immediate cause of death, and which was followed by an effusion of blood into the pericardium. This blood, separated into its thicker and more liquid parts, flowed forth when the pericardium was pierced by the spear.
I think, however, with Meyer, that John evidently intends to describe the incident as something entirely unexpected and marvelous, and that this explanation better suits the solemn asseveration of ver. 35. That the fact had a symbolic meaning to the Evangelist is evident from 1 John v. 6.
