“There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was so bowed together, that she could in no wise lift up herself, and Jesus laid his hands on her, and she was freed from her infirmity, and immediately made[137] strait.” [137] _Luke, Chap. xiii. v. 11, &c._ This woman was συγκύπτȣσα, that is, _stooping forward_; being unable ἀνακύψαι, or _to lift up her head_. Now that spirit, according to the common way of speaking of the jews, was satan. For thus Christ himself, answering the ruler of the synagogue, who was angry that the woman had been cured on the sabbath day, says, that _satan had held her bound these eighteen years_. And exactly in the same sense saint Mark employs πνευμα ἄλαλον for a _spirit, which obstructed the faculty of speech_.[138] [138] _Chap. ix. v. 17._ This infirmity often befalls those, who have been very long afflicted with a disorder of the loins: whence the muscular fibres of that part become contracted and rigid. Wherefore it is very probable, that this tedious disease proceeded from that very cause, and was curable by the divine assistance only. CHAPTER XIII. _The bloody sweat of Christ._ Saint Luke relates of Christ himself, that, “when he was in an agony by the fervency of his prayers, his sweat was like drops of blood falling down on the[139] ground.” [139] _Chap. xxii. v. 44._ This passage is generally understood, as if the Saviour of mankind had sweated real blood. But the text does not say so much. The sweat was only ὡσεί ϑρόμβοι ἁίματος, as it were, or like drops of blood; that is, the drops of sweat were so large, thick and viscid, that they trickled to the ground like drops of blood. Thus were the words understood by Justin Martyr, Theophylactus and Euthymius. And yet Galen has observed, that _it sometimes happens, that the pores are so vastly dilated by a copious and fervid spirit; that even blood issues thro’ them, and constitutes a bloody sweat_.[140] [140] _Lib. de utilitate respirationis._ CHAPTER XIV. _The disease of Judas._ In the number of diseases, I rank the death of Judas, the wicked betrayer of Christ; of which I shall treat the more willingly, because very learned interpreters of the holy scriptures have run into different opinions concerning it. And about fifty years ago, two famous professors of history in the university of Leyden, Jacobus Gronovius and Jacobus Perizonius, handled this controversy in print with too much passion. For polite literature does not always polish its admirers.