Immersion: Rivers of Living Water

Living Waters Shall Go Out From Jerusalem

Zechariah 14:8 prophesies “living waters” flowing from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean and Dead Seas (vs 8) after the "Day of the Lord".

Zechariah 14:

1 ¶ Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south....

...8 ¶ And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

Interestingly this appears to correspond closely to Ezekiel 47’s description of the water which pours from under the threshold of the Millennial Temple, rapidly turning into a river of running waters before flowing to the Dead Sea.

Ezekiel 47:1-12

1 ¶ Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
4 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.
5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
6 And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.
7 Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.
10 And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.
11 But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
12 And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

Arguably this is no co-incidence.

Immersion Required For Ritual Cleanliness

Prior to entering into the Temple, the written Torah prescribes immersion for worshippers to prevent them from defiling the Tabernacle after unclean incidents have occurred. This is explained in Leviticus 15: and Haggai 2:13-14

Leviticus 15:31

31: “Thus shall you separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them”.

The pools of Siloam and Bethesda were probably immersion pools or Mikvahs or Mikveh.

Living Waters Are Prefereable for Immersion

The Mishnah makes it very clear that “living waters” are preferable to static waters for “immersion”.

"1.1 There are six grades among pools of water, one more excellent than another…"

"…8. More excellent are smitten waters [margin: water that is salty or from a hot spring] which render clean such time as they are flowing water. More excellent than they are living waters, for they serve for the immersion of them that have a flux [margin Leviticus 15:13] and for the sprinkling of lepers [margin Leviticus 14:5]".

Source: Mishnah Mikwaoth (“Immersion Pools”)

Leviticus 15:13

13  And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.

Arguably the living waters that flow from the Millennial Temple (Ezekiel 47) and quickly turn into a river deep enough for complete immersion, will be ideal for the purposes of cleansing the ritually impure before they arrive at the Temple, and by so doing preventing worshippers from otherwise profaning the Temple.

Sources of Running Water On The Temple Mount

Several cisterns have been discovered by archaeologists at the Temple Mount, some of which are believed to be Mikveh (Immersion pools) for the Second Temple. Quoting excerpts from:  http://www.ritmeyer.com/2008/11/28/temple-mount-mikveh/

"Zachi Zweig, an archaeologist who is involved with the Temple Mount Sifting project, kindly send me the paper [in Hebrew], which he gave at the recent conference on the Temple Mount at the Bar-Ilan University…"

"… Hamilton dated it to the late Roman period. However, as the remains of a dividing wall can be discerned, Zachi concluded that it could have been a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath)…"

"It is located a little to the east of the underground passage which leads up from the Double Gate to the Temple Mount. Ronnie Reich has identified Cistern 6 and 36 as mikva’ot, but these are located in the original Square Temple Mount. These could have been added in the Second Temple period, as they are located close to the surface and no First Temple period mikva’ot are known."

"This latest one, however, is located much lower down and in the Hasmonean extension of the Temple Mount and may therefore have been one of the earliest mikva’ot in Jerusalem:"

"Worshipers in the Hasmonean period, who had not purified themselves before going to the Temple Mount, perhaps had the opportunity to do so in this mikveh, if it was a mikveh indeed."

Why aren't there sacrifices today?

Return to the start of Paul's Post Crucifixion Temple Sacrifices a Judianity website ?
© www.pauls-post-crucifixion-temple-sacrifices.info March 2006.

Is the the "law of Moses" really "done away" in Galatians? If it was, why in the predominantly Jewish New Testament church wasn't any fuss recorded, yet in Acts only one small and predictable change about the circumcision of gentile proselytes caused massive turmoil?