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BRAZEN SEA.
In Solomon's Temple a large molten sea of brass was placed on the backs of 12 brazen oxen, these oxen being symbolical of the 12 tribes of Israel. (1 Kings 7:23-26, 44; 2 Kings 16:17; 25:13; 1 Chron. 18:8.) This brazen sea was used for performing baptisms for the living. There were no baptisms for the dead until after the resurrection of Christ.
It must be remembered that all direct and plain references to baptism have been deleted from the Old Testament (1 Ne. 13) and that the word baptize is of Greek origin. Some equivalent word, such as wash, would have been used by the Hebrew peoples. In describing the molten sea the Old Testament record says, "The sea was for the priests to wash in." (2 Chron. 4:2-6.) This is tantamount to saying that the priests performed baptisms in it.
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 103-104
That was the Mormon version, but I wanted to know more:
BRAZEN SEA.
By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ira Maurice Price, Marcus Jastrow, Louis Ginzberg
The brazen laver of the Mosaic ritual; made by Solomon out of bronze captured by David at Tibhath and Chun, cities of Hadarezer (I Chron. xviii. 8). It served the same purpose for the officiating priests of Solomon's Temple as did the layer for those officers at the tabernacle The dimensions of the sea (I Kings vii. 23-26) were as follows: height, 5 cubits; circumference, 30 cubits (consequently it was about 10 cubits in diameter); and a handbreadth in thickness. It was capable of holding 2,000 "baths"; on the smallest calculation, about 17,000 gallons. "Under the brim of it round about there were knops which did compass it, for ten cubits compassing the sea round about; the knops were in two rows, cast when it was cast" (ib. 24). This great brazen vessel was set on the backs of twelve brazen oxen; three of them facing each cardinal point, and all of them facing outward; see illustration, p. 358.
The humiliation of Ahaz before Tiglath-pileser III. and his desecration of the Temple and all sacred things led him to take this sea down from its position on the oxen, and to set it upon a pavement of stone (II Kings xvi. 17). It was finally (II Kings xxv. 13) broken into pieces at the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the material was carried to Babylon.
Bibliography:
The layer contained water sufficient for 150 ritual baths ("miḳwaot"), if forty seahs be taken as the legal measureof such bath. The laver was not entirely round, as might be inferred from Scripture (I Kings vii. 23): the upper two-fifths were round; but the lower three were square ('Er. 14a, b). The symbolism of the brazen sea is described in detail in the Midrash Tadshe. The sea represented the world; the ten ells of diameter corresponded to the ten Sefirot; and it was round at the top (according to the Talmud passage above cited) as the heavens are round. The depth of the sea was five ells, corresponding to the distance of five hundred years' journey between heaven and earth (compare Ḥag. 13a). The band of thirty ells around it corresponded to the Ten Commandments, to the ten words of God at the creation of the world, and to the ten Sefirot: for the world can exist only when the Ten Commandments are observed; and the ten Sefirot as well as the ten words of God were the instruments of the Creation. The two rows of colocynths (knops) below the rim were symbolic of the sun and the moon, while the twelve oxen on which the sea rested represented the zodiac ("mazzalot"). It contained 2,000 baths (cubic measures), for the world will sustain him who keeps the Torah, which was created 2,000 years before the world (Midrash Tadshe ii., ed. Epstein, in "Mi-Ḳadmoniyot ha-Yehudim," xvi., xvii.; Yalḳ., Kings, 185).
BRAZEN SEA - JewishEncyclopedia.com
Brazen Sea
Brazen Sea
(יָם הִנַּחשֶׁת, yam han-neco'sheth, sea of copper, 2Ki 25:13; 1Ch 18:8; also at ,מוּצָקיָם, molten sea, 1Ki 7:23; or simply הִיָּם, the sea, 1Ki 7:24,29; 2Ki 16:17; 2Ch 4:3 sq.), the great round laver, cast of metal (" brass" [q.v.]), placed in the priests' court of Solomon's Temple (1Ki 7:23-26; 2Ch 4:2-5; see Josephus, Ant. 8:3, 5; compare a similar basin of stone discovered in the island of Cyprus, Miller, Archaol. p. 292). See generally Reland, Antiq. Sacr. i, 6, 7 sq.; Schacht, Ad Iken, p. 415 sq.; Keil, Tempel Salomo's, p. 118 sq.; especially Theniiis, Althebr. Ldngen- u. Hlohlmasse, p. 19 sq., 61 sq.; also his Can. iib. d. Ko. ad fin. It was 5 cubits high, and had at the brim a circumference of 30 cubits, or a diameter of 10 cubits. The rim was finished off with the cups of flowers (lilies), and below these ran a double row of gourd-shaped bosses ("knobs" [q.v.]). The edge was a handbreadth in thickness, and the vessel was capable of containing 2000 (according to Chronicles 3000) baths (q.v.). This immense basin rested upon twelve bullocks, also cast of " brass," their hinder parts being turned inward in a radiate form. It was designed for ablution of the priests (2Ch 4:6), i.e. their hands and feet (Ex 30:18 sq.). At the destruction of the Temple it was broken into pieces by the Chaldseans, and so taken in fragments to Babylon (2Ki 25:13; Jer 52:17)....
4. How the priests used this huge bowl for washing in, the Bible does not inform us. It was probably furnished with faucets, by means of which the water was drawn out as occasion required. This latter contrivance is supplied in most representations of the brazen sea; it rests, however, upon no better authority than mere conjecture. SEE SEA, MOLTEN.
Brazen Sea from the McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia.
Every place that the Torah speaks of washing of flesh and laundering of clothing [to purify] from the impurities—nothing other than immersion of the entire body in a mikveh[is meant]. And that which is said of a man with a discharge: “[…] without having rinsed his hands in water” (Lev. 15:11)—that is to say that he must immerse his entire body. And the same is true for all other impure people, that if one immersed his entire body aside from the tip of his small finger—he remains impure.
http://thetorah.com/on-the-origins-of-tevilah-ritual-immersion/
Where was the Brazen Sea located?
In Solomon's Temple a large molten sea of brass was placed on the backs of 12 brazen oxen, these oxen being symbolical of the 12 tribes of Israel. (1 Kings 7:23-26, 44; 2 Kings 16:17; 25:13; 1 Chron. 18:8.) This brazen sea was used for performing baptisms for the living. There were no baptisms for the dead until after the resurrection of Christ.
It must be remembered that all direct and plain references to baptism have been deleted from the Old Testament (1 Ne. 13) and that the word baptize is of Greek origin. Some equivalent word, such as wash, would have been used by the Hebrew peoples. In describing the molten sea the Old Testament record says, "The sea was for the priests to wash in." (2 Chron. 4:2-6.) This is tantamount to saying that the priests performed baptisms in it.
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 103-104
That was the Mormon version, but I wanted to know more:
BRAZEN SEA.
By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ira Maurice Price, Marcus Jastrow, Louis Ginzberg
The brazen laver of the Mosaic ritual; made by Solomon out of bronze captured by David at Tibhath and Chun, cities of Hadarezer (I Chron. xviii. 8). It served the same purpose for the officiating priests of Solomon's Temple as did the layer for those officers at the tabernacle The dimensions of the sea (I Kings vii. 23-26) were as follows: height, 5 cubits; circumference, 30 cubits (consequently it was about 10 cubits in diameter); and a handbreadth in thickness. It was capable of holding 2,000 "baths"; on the smallest calculation, about 17,000 gallons. "Under the brim of it round about there were knops which did compass it, for ten cubits compassing the sea round about; the knops were in two rows, cast when it was cast" (ib. 24). This great brazen vessel was set on the backs of twelve brazen oxen; three of them facing each cardinal point, and all of them facing outward; see illustration, p. 358.
The humiliation of Ahaz before Tiglath-pileser III. and his desecration of the Temple and all sacred things led him to take this sea down from its position on the oxen, and to set it upon a pavement of stone (II Kings xvi. 17). It was finally (II Kings xxv. 13) broken into pieces at the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the material was carried to Babylon.
Bibliography:
- Nowack, Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Archäologie, 1894, ii. 42;
- Benzinger, Arch. 1894, p. 252.
The layer contained water sufficient for 150 ritual baths ("miḳwaot"), if forty seahs be taken as the legal measureof such bath. The laver was not entirely round, as might be inferred from Scripture (I Kings vii. 23): the upper two-fifths were round; but the lower three were square ('Er. 14a, b). The symbolism of the brazen sea is described in detail in the Midrash Tadshe. The sea represented the world; the ten ells of diameter corresponded to the ten Sefirot; and it was round at the top (according to the Talmud passage above cited) as the heavens are round. The depth of the sea was five ells, corresponding to the distance of five hundred years' journey between heaven and earth (compare Ḥag. 13a). The band of thirty ells around it corresponded to the Ten Commandments, to the ten words of God at the creation of the world, and to the ten Sefirot: for the world can exist only when the Ten Commandments are observed; and the ten Sefirot as well as the ten words of God were the instruments of the Creation. The two rows of colocynths (knops) below the rim were symbolic of the sun and the moon, while the twelve oxen on which the sea rested represented the zodiac ("mazzalot"). It contained 2,000 baths (cubic measures), for the world will sustain him who keeps the Torah, which was created 2,000 years before the world (Midrash Tadshe ii., ed. Epstein, in "Mi-Ḳadmoniyot ha-Yehudim," xvi., xvii.; Yalḳ., Kings, 185).
BRAZEN SEA - JewishEncyclopedia.com
Brazen Sea
Brazen Sea
(יָם הִנַּחשֶׁת, yam han-neco'sheth, sea of copper, 2Ki 25:13; 1Ch 18:8; also at ,מוּצָקיָם, molten sea, 1Ki 7:23; or simply הִיָּם, the sea, 1Ki 7:24,29; 2Ki 16:17; 2Ch 4:3 sq.), the great round laver, cast of metal (" brass" [q.v.]), placed in the priests' court of Solomon's Temple (1Ki 7:23-26; 2Ch 4:2-5; see Josephus, Ant. 8:3, 5; compare a similar basin of stone discovered in the island of Cyprus, Miller, Archaol. p. 292). See generally Reland, Antiq. Sacr. i, 6, 7 sq.; Schacht, Ad Iken, p. 415 sq.; Keil, Tempel Salomo's, p. 118 sq.; especially Theniiis, Althebr. Ldngen- u. Hlohlmasse, p. 19 sq., 61 sq.; also his Can. iib. d. Ko. ad fin. It was 5 cubits high, and had at the brim a circumference of 30 cubits, or a diameter of 10 cubits. The rim was finished off with the cups of flowers (lilies), and below these ran a double row of gourd-shaped bosses ("knobs" [q.v.]). The edge was a handbreadth in thickness, and the vessel was capable of containing 2000 (according to Chronicles 3000) baths (q.v.). This immense basin rested upon twelve bullocks, also cast of " brass," their hinder parts being turned inward in a radiate form. It was designed for ablution of the priests (2Ch 4:6), i.e. their hands and feet (Ex 30:18 sq.). At the destruction of the Temple it was broken into pieces by the Chaldseans, and so taken in fragments to Babylon (2Ki 25:13; Jer 52:17)....
4. How the priests used this huge bowl for washing in, the Bible does not inform us. It was probably furnished with faucets, by means of which the water was drawn out as occasion required. This latter contrivance is supplied in most representations of the brazen sea; it rests, however, upon no better authority than mere conjecture. SEE SEA, MOLTEN.
Brazen Sea from the McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia.
Every place that the Torah speaks of washing of flesh and laundering of clothing [to purify] from the impurities—nothing other than immersion of the entire body in a mikveh[is meant]. And that which is said of a man with a discharge: “[…] without having rinsed his hands in water” (Lev. 15:11)—that is to say that he must immerse his entire body. And the same is true for all other impure people, that if one immersed his entire body aside from the tip of his small finger—he remains impure.
http://thetorah.com/on-the-origins-of-tevilah-ritual-immersion/
Where was the Brazen Sea located?
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