Typology in the Blood of the Pierced Jesus

Typology in the Blood of the Pierced Jesus

 

 Verse 34 tells the reader that a soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear to ensure His death. Furthermore, water and blood gushed from Jesus’ side. John, no doubt, saw a spiritual meaning in the amount of blood and water that he saw come out of the side of Jesus. Augustine related the blood and the water to the holy sacraments of the church. In Augustine’s estimation, the blood of Jesus represented the blood for the remission of sins and the water represented baptism. He goes on to compare the opening of the side of Jesus to the opening of the doors of Noah’s ark before the Great Flood. Relating the water symbolically to the Holy Spirit would be more preferable, since Jesus did reveal the Spirit as water throughout the book of John (John 4:10, 11, and 7:38).

    

Some modern medical and Biblical scholars would deduce the water and the blood to some kind of medical reasoning, which very well may be, but one would be wise to realize that God has a history of using natural occurrences to show His mighty powerful acts. Whether humanity can explain the wonders of God’s power is irrelevant to the majesty of the event.

            Perhaps the water and the blood are what John was referring to in 1 John 5:7-8. However, this verse mentions that the three testimonies of Jesus as the Christ is the Spirit, the water, and the blood, separating the Spirit and the water. The Spirit testifies to the truth in 1 John 5:6. The access to the Holy Spirit would probably be symbolic to the water Jesus offered the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10. Hence, one must finally concur with Leon Morris that whatever the reasoning behind the blood and the water, the ultimate fact is that this is the evidence that Jesus indeed had died. This is the ultimate intent of the writer of the Gospel.

            During the latter part of the first century, Gnosticism and Docetism were the new cults of the day. Perhaps John’s emphasis on the symbol of the water and blood flowing from Jesus’ side would combat this heresy which suggested Jesus was not fully human. D. A. Carson suggests that Jesus’ side being pierced fulfills Zechariah 12:10, understanding the “on me” and “on him” to mean that God is the one being pierced. It also coincides with the consummated eschatology in Revelation 1:7.  Jesus quoted Zechariah 12:10 in the Olivet Discourse in Matt. 24:30.

 

Ibid, Morris, pg. 674.

Philip Shaff (1819-1893) editor, St. Augustine of Hippo, “CXX,” Ccel.org, July 13, 2005, www. ccel.org/ccel/shaffnpnf107.iii.cxx.i.html. (accessed 1/13/07). This is, of course, very typical of the allegorical method that Augustine was known for. Regardless of the romantic notion of the allegory, one would find it difficult reading into the water as relating to Noah and the flood.

Morris, Expository Reflections on the Gospel of John, pg. 675.

Constable, Soniclight.com, pg. 286.

Carson, The Gospel According to John, pg. 627.

Constable, Soniclight.com, pg. 288.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my contemplations.

With Much Joy,
©Darla J. Smith
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