LDS The Brazen Sea (as explained by McConkie)

[Rescued One]

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:

• 
  
  
  • Nowack, Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Archäologie, 1894, ii. 42;
  • Benzinger, Arch. 1894, p. 252.

—In Rabbinical Literature:
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?

 

[mmksparbud]

Exo_30:18 Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.
Exo_30:19 For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:
Exo_30:20 When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD:
Exo_30:21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.
Exo_40:12 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.
Exo_40:30 And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal.

There is no mention of baptism. Washing was washing. It was for the priests, for if they did not wash, they could not enter into the temple and would die if they did so.
For that matter, they were to wash the animals also
Lev 1:8 And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:
Lev 1:9 But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.


This does not mean that clothes were to be baptized:
Lev_11:25 And whosoever beareth ought of the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.

 

[Dave-W]

There is no mention of baptism. Washing was washing. It was for the priests, for if they did not wash, they could not enter into the temple and would die if they did so.
For that matter, they were to wash the animals also
Lev 1:8 And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:
Lev 1:9 But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

The Hebrew term is tevilah (to immerse). There were many sins and situations of uncleanness (tamay) which are NOT sinful that needed to be cleansed by tevilah.

Yes the priests had to immerse before performing their Temple duties. The worshipers who entered the temple had to be immersed as well. About 1500 mikvaot (immersion pools) have been excavated just outside the Temple area.

 

[mmksparbud]

Yes----just don't mention the word "baptism" to a Jew--right??!

"Long before the word “baptism” existed, there was a Hebrew word connected with a Jewish ritual. That word is “tevilah” (pronounced teh-vee-LAH). A regular part of Jewish life was immersion in water as a part of a ritual of cleanliness, purification, and separation. Even today, observant Jewish people immerse themselves at special times of the year, i.e. before Shabbat and the Fall Feasts. Jewish women immerse themselves before marriage, and after their monthly cycle. Converts to Judaism must be immersed in water as well.

In the Tanakh, priests were required to be immersed. The Lord said to Moses, “And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests…And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.” (Exodus 29:1; 4). This was a spiritual cleansing, indicating a change in status as well as a separation unto the Lord. An outward act was required to demonstrate an inward change. Immersion was the first step in the consecration of the kohanim (priests). On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the High Priest experienced multiple washings, or immersions, as he made atonement for the sins of Israel."

Immersion in Judaism can be summed up in three concepts: purification, separation, and change in status—with both physical and spiritual aspects. Aryeh Kaplan in Waters of Eden comments on immersion as follows, “The water is not washing away any filth. Rather, the mikveh is changing the individual’s spiritual status from that of tomeh (unclean) to that of tahor (clean).”
"The Hebrew word mikveh literally means a collection or gathering together, “a gathering or pool of water for the purpose of ritual cleansing.” The source of the word is from Genesis 1:10 where the Lord says, “…to the gathering (mikveh) of waters, He called seas.” In ancient times, the building of the mikveh was so important that it was said to take precedence over the construction of a synagogue. Hundreds of mikva’ot (plural of mikveh) have been found throughout Israel. The mikva’ot on the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount are very impressive. When they were discovered, the world understood how 3000 Jewish people could be immersed on Shavuot (Pentecost: see Acts 2:41) since archeologists have discovered there were many mikva’ot there."
Water Immersion: The Jewish Root - August 2015 - Jewish Jewels

This is only tooooo sad for words:

The Origins of the Inquisition, Professor B. Netanyahu quotes an eyewitness account: “Those who refused to accept baptism were immediately slain, and their corpses, stretched in the streets and the squares, offered a horrendous spectacle.” This was the result of forced mass conversions of Jewish people that accompanied the “Christian” conquest of Spain. Many of the Jews who converted did so only outwardly, continuing to practice Judaism in secret. But the Inquisition found them, and baptism was the final test. A typical consequence was: Be baptized or burn! No wonder Jewish people throughout the centuries are repulsed at the mention of believers being “baptized.”

 

[Rescued One]

The Hebrew term is tevilah (to immerse). There were many sins and situations of uncleanness (tamay) which are NOT sinful that needed to be cleansed by tevilah.

Yes the priests had to immerse before performing their Temple duties. The worshipers who entered the temple had to be immersed as well. About 1500 mikvaot (immersion pools) have been excavated just outside the Temple area.

Thank you for this information.

 

[Rescued One]

"The mikva’ot on the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount are very impressive."

The mikva’ot was outside the temple because no one who was impure could go in without the ritual washing.

Matthew 15
1Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, 2Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.3But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? 4For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 5But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; 6And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 7Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

8This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

What Defiles a Man

10And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: 11Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

12Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? 13But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. 14Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

15Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 16And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? 17Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.