Biblical Context: The Bleeding Woman

Jesus got up and followed [Jairus], along with his disciples. Many crowds were following and pressing up against him too. A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years, but she couldn’t be healed by anyone. She had suffered much under many doctors, having spent all she had, but nothing had helped. In fact, she had just gotten worse. So after hearing about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched the edge of his coat, saying to herself, “If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be saved.”

Immediately her flow of blood dried up and she felt that she had been healed from the suffering in her body. Jesus felt power going out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

While they were all denying it, Peter said to him, “Master, how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’ when you see the crowds pressing in on you?”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, because I felt power go out from me.”

He looked around to see the woman who had done this. And when the woman, aware of what had happened to her, saw that she couldn’t hide, she was terrified and fell down trembling before him. She told him the whole truth and declared before all the people the reason why she had touched him and how she had been healed immediately. Then he told her, “Courage, daughter. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed of your suffering.” 

– The Story of Jesus 13.3

[Adapted from Mt 9:20-22; Mk 5:25-34; Lk 8:43-48]

According to Moses’ Law, any bloody discharge rendered a woman unclean and therefore excluded her from contact with other Jews (see below). Anyone who touched her would also become unclean. Various medical conditions can cause abnormal bleeding in women, such as endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Most of these start in the teenage years after the onset of a woman’s monthly period. They also typically cause chronic abdominal pain. Additionally, long term bleeding leads to fatigue from iron-deficiency anemia. 

Therefore, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years was likely in her mid-20s, unmarried and socially isolated, living with chronic pain and low energy, and hadn’t been significantly touched by anyone since childhood.

If a woman has bloody discharge apart from menstruation, or if she has discharge beyond menstruation, she’s unclean for the whole time of her impure discharge, as if she were menstruating. Any bed she lies on during the whole time of her discharge will be like her bed during menstruation, and everything that she sits on will be unclean, like her impurity during menstruation. Similarly, whoever touches them will be unclean. He’ll wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he’ll be unclean until that evening. When she’s cleaned from her discharge, she’ll count off seven days and afterwards she’ll be clean…. This is the law for someone with a discharge… whether male or female, or a man who lies with an unclean woman.  

– Leviticus 15:25-28, 32-33

© D. B. Ryen Incorporated, 2019-2025.