Chapter XXXII: Section XXX: The Facilities requisite

Not only was the rite of immersion without precedent in the domestic customs of Israel. It was wholly impracticable as an observance to be fulfilled with the frequency of the ritual washings of the law. On this point, delicacy forbids unnecessary detail. But an examination of the various requirements on the subject of uncleanness, and especially as contained in the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus, will establish the fact that recourse to those washings, was a matter of constant,—almost daily,—necessity, in every household, and for both men and women. In order to fulfil these obligations, the supposition that immersion was the mode would render two things imperatively necessary in every family,—a very large supply of water;—and a capacious bath-tub or tank in which the immersions might be performed. As to these points, but few words are necessary. The people of Israel did not usually live on their lands in the country; but, like all other populations of the east, were gathered in towns and villages, to which they resorted at night; going forth in the day-time to their labors in the field. This mode of life was rendered necessary to avoid exposure to the depredations of bands of wandering marauders; and was equally congenial to the social disposition and habits of the people. The population of each village was accustomed to depend, for the supply of water, upon a well to which all resorted, and which was usually near the gate of the village. From this source, each household was supplied; the water being carried in pitchers, or jars, on the shoulders of the females of the family.[19] It is unnecessary to protract argument. The facts are of themselves conclusive. The washings can not have been immersions.

This conclusion is confirmed by the absence of vessels of any kind suited to the performance of such a rite. Neither in the Old Testament nor the New, neither in the Apocrypha, Philo, nor Josephus is there any mention of such facilities, or such a rite, nor allusion to them. In fact, with all the advantages and appliances of modern civilization, there is not, and there never was a people on the globe of whom one in a hundred could comply with the law of Moses, if interpreted in the Baptist sense. And it is certain that no primitive people ever adopted that mode of domestic bathing—a mode which implies a very great advance in luxury and its appliances. The Greeks themselves did not use it, except as they sometimes resorted to rivers and streams. In their arrangements for bathing, domestic and public, the immersion bath was unknown until introduced with the luxury of imperial Rome. In Homer’s description of the bath of Ulysses in the palace of Circe, the hero is described as seated in a vessel which contained no water, but was designed to receive that which was poured over him; and the bathing was performed in a manner identical with that which we have seen practiced in Egypt. In the remains of antique Greek art, the bath is frequently represented. But the mode is invariably the same. The bather is placed _beside_ the vessel containing the water, which is taken thence in a dipper or jar, and poured over him.[20]

Footnote 19:

Gen. xxiv, 13.—; Ex. ii, 15-19; Judges v, 11; Ruth ii, 1-4; 2 Sam.
xxiii, 15; 1 Sam. ix, 11; John iv, 7; Matt. xx, 1-7.

Footnote 20:

See Wilkinson, above quoted, and Smith’s Greek and Roman Antiquities,
_article_ “Balneæ;” and below pp. 200, 207.

Homer’s description of the bath of Ulysses is thus rendered by Bryant:

A nymph—“the fourth
Brought water from the fountain, and beneath
A massive tripod kindled a great fire,
And warmed the water. When it boiled, within
The shining brass, she led me to the bath,
And washed me from the tripod. On my head
And shoulders, pleasantly, she shed the streams
That from my members took away the sense
Of weariness, unmanning body and mind.”[21]

Footnote 21:

Bryant’s Odyssey, Book X, 429-437.