“… and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
Another famous biblical phenomenon may have occurred in modern times as a girl in Vietnam sweats blood just as was described in this passage in the Book of Luke. Meanwhile, all eyes are on Israel where a biblical prophecy about the birth of a red heifer signaling the beginning of the end of days is being both celebrated and checked for loopholes.
Doctors at the Quyhoa National Leprosy Dermatology Hospital who first examined an 11-year-old girl whose skin bled four times a day diagnosed her with a skin pore infection and started antibiotic treatment. When that didn’t work, they dug deeper to determine why she was suffering from such a biblical disease. Other than getting up and going to find the apostles asleep, the Bible doesn’t give any treatment hints. However, the Internet does and the doctors determined that the unnamed girl was a rare 1-in-10 million sufferer of hematohidrosis.
“It is characterized by blood oozing from skin. The bleeding is due to the rupture of the very small blood vessels of the skin. The cause of hematohidrosis is not well known, but factors include increased vascular pressure, inflammation of the vessels of the skin, bleeding disorders, menstruation and high blood pressure.”
Hospital director Vu Tuan Anh says that while the girl may suffer from some of those conditions, the most likely cause of her hematohidrosis was stress from preparing for exams. (See her photos here.) Dr. Anh prescribed reducing her anxiety along with taking vitamin C, antidepressants and propranolol (to reduce blood pressure). It’s a sad statement that 11-year-olds are suffering from school stress.
Was stress of a different kind the cause of the blood sweat mentioned in the Bible? Good luck getting people to believe that, but the present-day incidence of the disease may increase with the other biblical news this week concerning the birth of a red heifer in Israel.
“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: This is the ordinance of the Torah which the Lord has decreed, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and have them bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke…”
That passage from Numbers 19 started the tradition of using the ashes of a cremated blemish-free red heifer to purify the temple. Nine red heifers was said to have provided the ashes until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, “… and the tenth red heifer will be accomplished by the king, the Messiah.” That is believed to mean that the arrival of the next red heifer is the signal that the Third Temple can be built and the end of times and judgement day will follow.
Are we SURE this is the right red heifer?
“One week after its birth the heifer underwent an extensive examination by rabbinical experts, who determined that the heifer is currently a viable candidate for the Biblical red heifer (para aduma) described in Numbers, chapter 19, and will be examined again in three months time to determine whether it continues to possess the necessary qualifications for the red heifer, a necessary prerequisite for the renewal of the Divine service in the Holy Temple.”
Times sure have changed since 70 CE. The Temple Institute announced the birth on its Facebook page and showed a video of mother and calf on its YouTube page. The calf is the product of the Temple Institute’s “Raise a Red Heifer program” to breed a blemish-free red cow using frozen embryos of red angus cows implanted into traditional Israeli domestic cows. Is that really legal?
The Temple Institute (and red heifer believers) isn’t getting excited just yet. A red heifer was found in 1999 but disqualified for being male and a second born in 2002 was rejected when it grew a patch of white hair. This one could suffer the same fate.
Red tears. Red heifer. Are these signs that people no longer trust the media for news on the end of the world?
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