And a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years.
Speaking about this woman, the Evangelist sets before us another kind of suffering. She had a flow of blood for twelve years. This means a long-lasting, exhausting, humiliating illness that also brought ritual uncleanness. She was not only weakened physically, but was also, socially and religiously, kept from full participation. Such an illness made a woman continually frail and often isolated. Thus her pain was twofold—of body and of soul.