The white blood of Jesus

In Red Tree, White Tree, Wendy Berg maintains that Humans have red blood, Faeries have white blood, and Jesus had both.

The Bible makes reference to two streams of blood issuing from Christ's side: "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe."

We find it easy to accept that one of the streams of fluid that came from Christ's side was blood, but the exact nature of the other fluid is less obvious. . . . John's suggestion that it was water can also hardly be true: Christ's veins were not filled with water. Yet they contained two different, life-supporting fluids.

The only other clue to the identity of this mysterious fluid lies in the tradition that Joseph of Arimathea brought two cruets with him to Glastonbury, each containing one of the fluids which flowed from Christ's side. One of these contained red liquid and the other, a white fluid. . . .

Throughout this study we have noted the many descriptions of the white, shining appearance of the Faery race, as if the life-sustaining fluid within their bodies was white. The two streams of blood that flow from the living Christ are equally relevant to both the human and Faery races.

As its title suggests, Wendy Berg's book also has to do with two trees, one red and the other white, and these are the two trees of Eden. The red Tree of Knowledge bears the fruit "which makes you human." The white Tree of Life is the Faery tree that gives immortality.

Near the end of the book, Berg suggests that the "fruit" of the Tree of Life might actually be more like a liquid. (Coincidentally, I gave the fruit of the other tree a similar interpretation in my April 6 stanza "Garden," in which the bitter cup Jesus drank before his execution was "the juice of Eden's bitter tree," rendering him mortal.) She cites an Ophite reference to being "anointed with the white chrism which flows from the tree of life" and comments:

This suggests that the fruit of the Tree of Life is actually a substance excreted by the tree, perhaps a kind of sap which, when consumed, has an effect on the human body such that it does not age in the normal manner.

After citing several more references to the white chrism, she concludes:

The similarity between the white fire called chrism, and the white fire which is the life-sustaining substance, the blood of the Faery race, is persuasive.

In other words, the white liquid from the Tree of Life and the white liquid that issued from Christ's side may be essentially one and the same.

In speculating that immortal Beings have something other than red blood in their veins, we are on solid Mormon grounds. Joseph Smith is reported to have taught:

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, or the kingdom that God inhabits, but the flesh without the blood, and the spirit of God flowing in the veins in the stead of the blood, for blood is the part of the body that causes corruption.

The idea of Jesus having white blood is also consistent with the many references -- mainly in the Book of Mormon but also in the Bible -- to garments being made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14; 1 Ne. 12:10-11; Alma 5:21, 27; 13:11; 34:36; Morm. 9:6; Ether 13:10).

In the Fourth Gospel, the second stream that flows from Jesus' side is called "water." This is interesting in connection with these other references from the same Gospel:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38).

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).

This "living water" is spoken of as flowing inside a person's body, almost as if it were a second sort of blood.

Interesting, "living waters" are referenced only once in the Book of Mormon, and the Tree of Life is their source:

And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God (1 Ne. 11:25).

For Joseph Smith, the second blood is "the spirit of God flowing in the veins." This may be relevant to John 6 where, after speaking of the need for others to eat his flesh and drink his blood, Jesus says -- confusingly, after this insistence on the vital importance of eating his flesh -- "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63).

The flesh and blood of Jesus seem to be interchangeable with the fruit and juice of the Tree of Life. This is consistent with 1 Nephi 11, where Nephi, wanting to know the meaning of the White Tree, is shown by way of explanation a white virgin with a child:

I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white. . . . And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.

And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?

And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things (1 Ne 11:13, 20-22).

Some of the language -- "sheddeth," "in the hearts" -- seems to reinforce the "blood" connection.