Jesus Christ bled from every pore

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Criticism

The Book of Mormon contains a reference to the intense agony endure by Jesus Christ in performing the Atonement:

And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. (Mosiah 3:7, emphasis added.)

Critics claim that the reference to blood coming from a pore is anachronistic, since Nephite authors would not have known about skin pores. Joseph Smith, it is claimed, would have known about pores, and so the Book of Mormon's addition of the word "pore" to the Bible's account of Christ's suffering reflects Joseph's worldview, and not that of an ancient author.

Response

When were skin pores discovered?

Contrary to the critics' assertion, the medicine of antiquity had long speculated and written about "pores."

• Empedocles, a Greek philosopher who lived from about 490–430 B.C., belived that air and vapour could pass into or out of the body via pores.^[1]
• Late

Endnotes

None

Further reading

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide:

External links

E.T. Renbourn, "The Natural History of Insensible Transpiration: A Forgotten Doctrine of Health and Disease," Medical History 4/2 (April 1960): 135–152.*