Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WATER

A primary requirement for the support and survival of plant and animal life. With bread, water has long been understood as the minimum sustenance necessary for human life (cf. Gen. 21:14; Exod. 23:25); lack of either spells dire need and eventual death (Isa. 3:1; Ezek. 4:17; cf. Isa. 30:20). Water is also used extensively for bathing, washing, and ceremonial cleansing.

Physical Aspects

Palestine is largely dependent upon rainfall for moisture. Unlike Mesopotamia and Egypt, with their large rivers fed by mountain watersheds, a slight variation in annual rainfall in Palestine can produce a serious drought. Indeed, famine-producing droughts were a particular problem throughout biblical times (Gen. 26:1; 1 Kgs. 17:1).

In normal years, Palestine has a fall and winter rainy season, separated by a summer dry spell (Ps. 32:4). The amount of rain varies widely throughout Palestine, but the coastal plain averages ca. 56 cm. (22 in.) per annum. Generally, northern and western Palestine get the most rain, as do the slopes of mountains that face the sea. Southern Palestine is a virtual desert, especially in the region around the Dead Sea.

Palestine not only lacks large rivers and watersheds, but also adequate natural storage sites for water reserves. Thus historically its inhabitants had to use a variety of human-made storage facilities. Wells (Gen. 21:30; 29:2-8; John 4:11-12) are deep holes which have been dug in the ground to the depth of the water table in order to provide year-round water. Generally the well is surrounded by a stone wall above ground for safety and below ground to keep the well from caving in or needing to be redug. Cisterns (2 Chr. 26:10; Jer. 2:13), also dug in the ground, were fed by conduits that directed the rainwater from the roofs or ground surface. Generally both wells and cisterns were covered in order to prevent evaporation or contamination. Pools (2 Sam. 2:13; Isa. 7:3; John 5:2-7), usually left uncovered, were made by damming springs or constructing a shallow pond of masonry.

Theological Importance

Cosmology

From time immemorial, ancient people must have been aware that water existed above and below the earth. It descended from above in the form of rain and it could be obtained, if one were willing to dig deep enough, from the depths of the earth. In many ancient Near Eastern societies this apparent paradox was explained by the story of the primordial battle between the hero-god and the dragon of chaos. In the Babylonian version, the victorious Marduk splits the body of the female Tiamat. Then he creates the earth from her body, placing the earth in the womb of chaos below the waters of heaven and above the waters of the deep (cf. Heb. tĕhôm; Akk. tiâmtu, “Tiamat”).

The OT acknowledges this basic understanding of the universe, or cosmogony, but modifies it in the light of Israelite monotheism (the Creation account, Gen. 1:1-10; the Flood account, 7:11; cf. Exod. 20:4; Deut. 4:18; 2 Sam. 22:14-17; Job 26:5-13; Ps. 104:3-6; 136:6; 148:4-7; Jer. 10:11-13; Amos 9:5-6; Jonah 2:2-6). So the “waters of heaven,” or cosmic waters, are the waters above the earth held back by the firmament. Rain falls when God opens the floodgates in the firmament (Gen. 7:11; 8:2). The sky is blue (the color of the ocean) because the waters can be seen through the transparent crystal firmament (cf. Ezek. 1:26, which pictures God as seated above the firmament on a throne the color of lapis lazuli [blue or turquoise] — the color of deep water and the sky).

Ritual

The Israelites also reflected a common ancient Near Eastern conception by extending in a metaphysical sense the physical property of water as the primary cleansing agent: water also has the power to make one ceremonially clean. The interpretation of Ezek. 16:4, e.g., hinges upon this twofold cleansing property.

The OT ritual for cleansing, in its most basic form, involves bathing, washing one’s clothing, and waiting until evening (Lev. 15:5-27; 16:26-28; 17:15; 22:6; Deut. 23:10-11). Thus Aaron and his sons are required to wash with water before they put on the priestly garments (Exod. 29:4-9; cf. 30:17-21; 40:12-15, 30-32). Water is also used for purification in other types of rituals: cleansing the entrails and the legs of a calf or sheep before sacrificing it as a burnt offering (Lev. 1:9, 13), or cleansing a garment or metal vessel from the blood of a sin offering (6:27-28[MT 20-21]).

Because the water itself could become contaminated (Lev. 11:32-36), later rabbis established the minimum amount of water needed for a ceremonial cleansing bath as forty seahs (264 1. [280 qts.; m. Miqw. 1:1-8; cf. John 2:6). This amount of water, they felt, guaranteed that the water’s natural cleansing power would not become nullified through an inordinate amount of uncleanness.

The most serious cases of uncleanness were cleansed by using “living water” (or running water) — water that flowed in such a manner that it was continually renewed and therefore could not be made unclean (Lev. 11:32-36; cf. m. Miqw. 1). “Living water” was used for the cleansing of a leper or a house contaminated by leprosy. The priest took two birds, slaying the first over running water. Then he dipped hyssop, cedarwood, scarlet cloth, and the other, living bird into the mixture of blood and water, and sprinkled the fluid seven times on the house or individual. Afterwards, he released the living bird into a nearby field (Lev. 14:1-7, 48-53).

“Living water” is also an element of the “water of bitterness” and the “water for impurity.” The “water of bitterness (Heb. mê hammārîm hamʾārărîm; Num. 5:18-19) was administered by the priest to a woman suspected of adultery (vv. 16-29; cf. Exod. 32:19-20). The priest wrote curses on a slate to which the woman responded, “Amen, Amen” (cf. John 1:51; 3:3, 5). He then washed the slate and mixed the dirty water with dust from the tabernacle and this “holy” water (mayim qĕḏōšîm, probably running water). The woman was then forced to drink the water. If she was innocent there would be no damage, but if she were guilty the water would cause her abdomen to swell and her thigh to waste away.

The “water for impurity” (Heb. mê niddâ; Num. 19:9) was also water combined with several other ingredients to make its cleansing power more efficacious. A priest offered a red heifer as a burnt offering outside the camp together with cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet cloth according to proper ceremony (Num. 19:1-22). He then mixed the ashes from the fire with running water and sprinkled this “water for impurity” over anyone or anything that had touched a dead body. This was done on the third and the seventh day. After bathing on the seventh day, the offending party was considered ceremonially clean. The Israelites also used the “water of impurity” to purify the Midianite booty they had captured (Num. 31:23). The “water of expiation” used to purify the Levites (mê haṭṭāṯ; Num. 8:7) is probably identical with the water of impurity.

References to water in the NT occur frequently in connection with both Christian baptism (Acts 8:36-39; Heb. 10:22; 1 Pet. 3:20) and John’s baptism of repentance (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Acts 1:5; 11:16). Baptism is a rite of passage that initiates the convert from the world into the community of the regenerate, and hence, in its primary association, an initiatory cleansing ritual. The symbolism of water is particularly appropriate in this ritual. Here the initiate is submerged in the water (reminiscent of the waters of the underworld, and thus symbolic of death). Then he rises to new life (perhaps like the newborn baby emerges from the womb with a burst of water [cf. John 3:5] or reminiscent of the creation of the world “out of water” [Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12]). Baptism is also a cleansing ritual; the initiate emerges with his body “washed with clean water,” a symbol of an inner cleansing (Heb. 10:22).

Holy Spirit

Several OT passages figuratively use water for the spirit of God (Isa. 44:3-4; cf. Ezek. 36:25-26; Joel 2:23, 28[3:1]) or for God himself (Jer. 2:13; 17:13). Even more passages refer to the Spirit in terms normally used of a fluid (šāpaḵ, “pour out,” Ezek. 39:29; Joel 2:28-29[3:1-2]; yāṣaq, Isa. 44:3; nāḇaʿ, Prov. 1:23; ʿārâ, Isa. 32:15; mālēʾ, “be filled,” Exod. 31:3; 35:31; Deut. 34:9). Also the Spirit is active in creation, where it is found hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2).

The spirit of God may have come to be associated with the water that gives life or with cleansing (cf. m. Soṭa 9:15). Or there may be a deeper, more mythological association between the spirit of God and the cosmic waters (cf. Gen. 1:2; Ezek. 1:26).

The NT uses the water for spirit in all of these connections. Luke-Acts, especially, continues the “fluid-oriented” vocabulary of the Spirit (“pour out,” Acts 2:17-18; 10:45; “filled,” Luke 1:15, 41, 67; Acts 2:4; 4:8; Eph. 5:18).

The most complex water symbolism in the NT may be that of the Gospel of John, where water occurs as a focal point of several incidents. In addition to the baptism of Jesus (John 1:26-33), seven of these “water” pericopes are unique to John: the transformation of water to wine (2:7-9; 4:46), Jesus’ conversations with Nicodemus (3:5) and the Samaritan woman (4:7-15), the healing of the man at the pool of Bethzatha (5:3-7), Jesus’ proclamation at the Feast of Tabernacles (7:38), the washing of the disciples’ feet (13:5), and the blood and water that flowed from the crucified Jesus’ side (19:34). John uses water almost exclusively to express his theology of the Spirit, which is closely linked to the activity of the Spirit (John 1:32-33; 3:5-8; 7:38-39; cf. 19:30) or to the ceremonial cleansings that it displaces (2:6; 13:10-11). The key to this understanding lies in the water libation ritual of the Feast of Booths, which was accompanied by a prayer of the “latter rain” of fall — which the early Church believed to be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4, 16-21; cf. Joel 2:28-32[3:1-5]). Jesus announces that he is the source of such “living water” at this very ceremony (John 7:38-39; cf. in this light the water that flows from the side of the crucified Lord; 19:34; cf. Zech. 12:10; 13:1).

“Water of life” (Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17; cf. 7:17, “living water”) denotes genuine, everlasting life, life eternal, for which those in this earthly life thirst. The image points not only to an ever-flowing source of water but also to its quality, which contains, creates, and communicates life.

Timothy P. Jenney

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WATER

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)