Vaginal discharge, like during menstruation. Leviticus 15 discusses laws that God gave to Moses about genital discharges. A woman with vaginal bleeding was ceremonially unclean during bleeding and seven days afterwards. While unclean, she could not either worship in the tabernacle or temple or go into the street or market. Anyone who touched her or her belongings was also unclean (Leviticus 15:19–28). Intercourse was not allowed while the woman was unclean. Seven days after her bleeding stopped, a woman could give two turtledoves or pigeons to the priest as offerings to atone for the time that she was unclean (Leviticus 15:29–30).
Jesus’s healing of a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years is recorded in three gospels (Matthew 9:20–22; Mark 5:25–34; Luke 8:43–48). If she was bleeding vaginally, her long period of uncleanness (and her separation from others) must have been very difficult. Besides her anxiety and discomfort, she would have been unable to become pregnant. She had “borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail” (Mark 5:26). Finally, she ignored the rules about uncleanness and went through a crowd to touch Jesus. When she touched him, her bleeding totally stopped.
Bloody stools. Publius’s father suffered from some form of dysentery (Acts 28:8).
Blood, Flow of
This term has multiple meanings in the Bible:
From Tyndale Bible Dictionary, adapted by Mission Mutual. CC BY-SA 4.0.