Ablution or washing, was practiced,

¹when a person was initiated into a higher state: e.g., when Aaron and his sons were set apart to the priest's office, they were washed with water previous to their investiture with the priestly robes (Leviticus 8:6).

²Before the priests approached the altar of God, they were required, on pain of death, to wash their hands and their feet to cleanse them from the soil of common life (Exodus 30:17-21). To this practice the Psalmist alludes, Psalms 26:6.

³There were washings prescribed for the purpose of cleansing from positive defilement contracted by particular acts. Of such washings eleven different species are prescribed in the Levitical law (Leviticus 12-15).

⁴A fourth class of ablutions is mentioned, by which a person purified or absolved himself from the guilt of some particular act. For example, the elders of the nearest village where some murder was committed were required, when the murderer was unknown, to wash their hands over the expiatory heifer which was beheaded, and in doing so to say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it" (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). So also Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Jesus by washing his hands (Matthew 27:24). This act of Pilate may not, however, have been borrowed from the custom of the Jews. The same practice was common among the Greeks and Romans.

The Pharisees carried the practice of ablution to great excess, thereby claiming extraordinary purity (Matthew 23:25). (Mark 7:1-5) refers to the ceremonial ablutions. The Pharisees washed their hands "oft," more correctly, "with the fist" (R.V., "diligently"), or as an old father, Theophylact, explains it, "up to the elbow." (Compare also Mark 7:4; Leviticus 6:28; 11:32-36; 15:22)

(See WASHING.)

Exodus 19:10,14;
Matthew 15:2;
Mark 7:2-5,8,9;
Luke 11:38;
Hebrews 9:10

Of priests
Exodus 29:4; 36:18-21; 40:12,31,32;
Leviticus 8:6; 16:4,24,26,28;
Numbers 19:7-10,19;
2 Chronicles 4:6

Of burnt offerings
Leviticus 1:9,13; 9:14;
2 Chronicles 4:6

Of the dead
Acts 9:37

Of infants
Ezekiel 16:4

Of the face
Matthew 6:17

Of the feet
Genesis 18:4; 19:2; 24:32; 43:24;
Exodus 30:19,21; 40:31;
Judges 19:21;
2 Samuel 11:8;
Song of Solomon 5:3;
Luke 7:38,44;
John 13:5

Of the hands
Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-32

Of the hands, as a token of innocency
Deuteronomy 21:6;
Psalms 26:6;
Matthew 27:24

For defilement:

Of lepers
Leviticus 14:8,9

Those having bloody issue
Leviticus 15:5-13

Those having eaten that which died
Leviticus 17:15,16

Traditional forms of, not observed by Jesus
Luke 11:38,39

See PURIFICATION

See DEFILEMENT

FIGURATIVE
Psalms 51:2,7; 65:3; 73:13; 79:9;
Proverbs 16:6; 20:9;
Isaiah 1:16,18; 4:3,4;
Daniel 12:10;
Zechariah 13:1;
John 13:8;
Acts 22:16;
1 Corinthians 5:7; 6:11;
2 Corinthians 7:1;
Ephesians 5:26;
Titus 3:5,6;
Hebrews 1:3; 9:14; 10:22;
James 4:8;
2 Peter 1:9;
1 John 1:7,9;
Revelation 1:5; 7:14; 22:14

See REGENERATION

CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE