Keluaran 30:18-21

30:18 “You are also to make a large bronze ¹  basin with a bronze stand ²  for washing. You are to put it between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it, ³  30:19 and Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and their feet from it. ⁴  30:20 When they enter ⁵  the tent of meeting, they must wash with ⁶  water so that they do not die. ⁷  Also, when they approach ⁸  the altar to minister by burning incense ⁹  as an offering made by fire ¹⁰  to the Lord, 30:21 they must wash ¹¹  their hands and their feet so that they do not die. And this ¹²  will be a perpetual ordinance for them and for their descendants ¹³  throughout their generations.” ¹⁴ 

Keluaran 40:12

40:12 “You are to bring ¹⁵  Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.

Imamat 8:6

Clothing Aaron

8:6 So Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water.

Imamat 14:8

The Seven Days of Purification

14:8 “The one being cleansed ¹⁶  must then wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water, and so be clean. ¹⁷  Then afterward he may enter the camp, but he must live outside his tent seven days.

Ulangan 23:11

23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.

Yehezkiel 36:25

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ¹⁸  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.

Yohanes 13:8-10

13:8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” ¹⁹  Jesus replied, ²⁰  “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ²¹  13:9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, wash ²²  not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” 13:10 Jesus replied, ²³  “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, ²⁴  but is completely ²⁵  clean. ²⁶  And you disciples ²⁷  are clean, but not every one of you.”

Efesus 5:26

5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her ²⁸  with the washing of the water by the word,

Titus 3:5

3:5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Ibrani 10:22

10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ²⁹  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ³⁰  and our bodies washed in pure water.

Ibrani 10:1

Concluding Exposition: Old and New Sacrifices Contrasted

10:1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. ³¹ 

Pengkhotbah 3:21

3:21 Who really knows if the human spirit ³²  ascends upward,

and the animal’s spirit descends into the earth?

Wahyu 1:5-6

1:5 and from Jesus Christ – the faithful ³³  witness, ³⁴  the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free ³⁵  from our sins at the cost of ³⁶  his own blood 1:6 and has appointed ³⁷  us as a kingdom, ³⁸  as priests ³⁹  serving his God and Father – to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! ⁴⁰  Amen.

[30:18]  ¹ sn The metal for this object was obtained from the women from their mirrors (see Exod 38:8).

[30:18]  ² tn Heb “and its stand bronze.”

[30:18]  ³ tn The form is the adverb “there” with the directive qamets-he ( ָה).

[30:19]  ⁴ tn That is, from water from it.

[30:20]  ⁵ tn The form is an infinitive construct with the temporal preposition bet (ב), and a suffixed subjective genitive: “in their going in,” or, whenever they enter.

[30:20]  ⁶ tn “Water” is an adverbial accusative of means, and so is translated “with water.” Gesenius classifies this with verbs of “covering with something.” But he prefers to emend the text with a preposition (see GKC 369 §117.y, n. 1).

[30:20]  ⁷ tn The verb is a Qal imperfect with a nuance of final imperfect. The purpose/result clause here is indicated only with the conjunction: “and they do not die.” But clearly from the context this is the intended result of their washing – it is in order that they not die.

[30:20]  ⁸ tn Here, too, the infinitive is used in a temporal clause construction. The verb נָגַשׁ (nagash) is the common verb used for drawing near to the altar to make offerings – the official duties of the priest.

[30:20]  ⁹ tn The text uses two infinitives construct: “to minister to burn incense”; the first is the general term and expresses the purpose of the drawing near, and the second infinitive is epexegetical, explaining the first infinitive.

[30:20]  ¹⁰ tn The translation “as an offering made by fire” is a standard rendering of the one word in the text that appears to refer to “fire.” Milgrom and others contend that it simply means a “gift” (Leviticus 1-16, 161).

[30:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and [then] they will wash.”

[30:21]  ¹² tn The verb is “it will be.”

[30:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “for his seed.”

[30:21]  ¹⁴ tn Or “for generations to come”; it literally is “to their generations.”

[30:21]  sn The symbolic meaning of washing has been taught throughout the ages. This was a practical matter of cleaning hands and feet, but it was also symbolic of purification before Yahweh. It was an outward sign of inner spiritual cleansing, or forgiveness. Jesus washed the disciples feet (Jn 13) to show this same teaching; he asked the disciples if they knew what he had done (so it was more than washing feet). In this passage the theological points for the outline would be these: I. God provides the means of cleansing; II. Cleansing is a prerequisite for participating in the worship, and III. (Believers) priests must regularly appropriate God’s provision of cleansing.

[40:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is “bring near,” or “present,” to Yahweh.

[14:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר [taher, “to be clean”]).

[14:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he shall be clean” (so ASV). The end result of the ritual procedures in vv. 4-7 and the washing and shaving in v. 8a is that the formerly diseased person has now officially become clean in the sense that he can reenter the community (see v. 8b; contrast living outside the community as an unclean diseased person, Lev 13:46). There are, however, further cleansing rituals and pronouncements for him to undergo in the tabernacle as outlined in vv. 10-20 (see Qal “be[come] clean” in vv. 9 and 20, Piel “pronounce clean” in v. 11, and Hitpael “the one being cleansed” in vv. 11, 14, 17, 18, and 19). Obviously, in order to enter the tabernacle he must already “be clean” in the sense of having access to the community.

[36:25]  ¹⁸ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[13:8]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “You will never wash my feet forever.” The negation is emphatic in Greek but somewhat awkward in English. Emphasis is conveyed in the translation by the use of an exclamation point.

[13:8]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Jesus answered him.”

[13:8]  ²¹ tn Or “you have no part in me.”

[13:9]  ²² tn The word “wash” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Here it is supplied to improve the English style by making Peter’s utterance a complete sentence.

[13:10]  ²³ tn Grk “Jesus said to him.”

[13:10]  ²⁴ tn Grk “has no need except to wash his feet.”

[13:10]  ²⁵ tn Or “entirely.”

[13:10]  ²⁶ sn The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet. A common understanding is that the “bath” Jesus referred to is the initial cleansing from sin, which necessitates only “lesser, partial” cleansings from sins after conversion. This makes a fine illustration from a homiletic standpoint, but is it the meaning of the passage? This seems highly doubtful. Jesus stated that the disciples were completely clean except for Judas (vv. 10b, 11). What they needed was to have their feet washed by Jesus. In the broader context of the Fourth Gospel, the significance of the foot-washing seems to point not just to an example of humble service (as most understand it), but something more – Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross. If this is correct, then the foot-washing which they needed to undergo represented their acceptance of this act of self-sacrifice on the part of their master. This makes Peter’s initial abhorrence of the act of humiliation by his master all the more significant in context; it also explains Jesus’ seemingly harsh reply to Peter (above, v. 8; compare Matt 16:21-23 where Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan”).

[13:10]  ²⁷ tn The word “disciples” is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb. Peter is not the only one Jesus is addressing here.

[5:26]  ²⁸ tn The direct object “her” is implied, but not found in the Greek text. It has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the passage.

[10:22]  ²⁹ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ³⁰ sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).

[10:1]  ³¹ tn Grk “those who approach.”

[3:21]  ³² tn Heb “the spirit of the sons of man.”

[1:5]  ³³ tn Or “Jesus Christ – the faithful one, the witness…” Some take ὁ πιστός (Jo pistos) as a second substantive in relation to ὁ μάρτυς (Jo martus). In the present translation, however, ὁ πιστός was taken as an adjective in attributive position to ὁ μάρτυς. The idea of martyrdom and faithfulness are intimately connected. See BDAG 820 s.v. πιστός 1.a.α: “ὁ μάρτυς μου ὁ πιστός μου Rv 2:13 (μάρτυς 3); in this ‘book of martyrs’ Christ is ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς (καὶ ὁ ἀληθινός) 1:5; 3:14; cp. 19:11 (the combination of ἀληθινός and πιστός in the last two passages is like 3 Macc 2:11). Cp. Rv 17:14.”

[1:5]  ³⁴ sn The Greek term translated witness can mean both “witness” and “martyr.”

[1:5]  ³⁵ tc The reading “set free” (λύσαντι, lusanti) has better ms support (̹⁸ א A C 1611 2050 2329 2351 Ï^A sy) than its rival, λούσαντι (lousanti, “washed”; found in P 1006 1841 1854 2053 2062 Ï^K lat bo). Internally, it seems that the reading “washed” could have arisen in at least one of three ways: (1) as an error of hearing (both “released” and “washed” are pronounced similarly in Greek); (2) an error of sight (both “released” and “washed” look very similar – a difference of only one letter – which could have resulted in a simple error during the copying of a ms); (3) through scribal inability to appreciate that the Hebrew preposition ב can be used with a noun to indicate the price paid for something. Since the author of Revelation is influenced significantly by a Semitic form of Greek (e.g., 13:10), and since the Hebrew preposition “in” (ב) can indicate the price paid for something, and is often translated with the preposition “in” (ἐν, en) in the LXX, the author may have tried to communicate by the use of ἐν the idea of a price paid for something. That is, John was trying to say that Christ delivered us at the price of his own blood. This whole process, however, may have been lost on a later scribe, who being unfamiliar with Hebrew, found the expression “delivered in his blood” too difficult, and noticing the obvious similarities between λύσαντι and λούσαντι, assumed an error and then proceeded to change the text to “washed in his blood” – a thought more tolerable in his mind. Both readings, of course, are true to scripture; the current question is what the author wrote in this verse.

[1:5]  tn Or “and released us” (L&N 37.127).

[1:5]  ³⁶ tn The style here is somewhat Semitic, with the use of the ἐν (en) + the dative to mean “at the price of.” The addition of “own” in the English is stylistic and is an attempt to bring out the personal nature of the statement and the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ death – a frequent refrain in the Apocalypse.

[1:6]  ³⁷ tn The verb ποιέω (poiew) can indicate appointment or assignment rather than simply “make” or “do.” See Mark 3:14 (L&N 37.106).

[1:6]  ³⁸ tn See BDAG 168 s.v. βασιλεία 1.a for the idea of “he made us a kingdom,” which was translated as “he appointed us (to be or function) as a kingdom” (see the note on the word “appointed” earlier in the verse).

[1:6]  ³⁹ tn Grk “a kingdom, priests.” The term ἱερεῖς (Jiereis) is either in apposition to βασιλείαν (basileian) or as a second complement to the object “us” (ἡμᾶς, Jhmas). The translation retains this ambiguity.

[1:6]  ⁴⁰ tc Both the longer reading τῶν αἰώνων (twn aiwnwn, “to the ages of the ages” or, more idiomatically, “for ever and ever”; found in א C Ï) and the shorter (“for ever”; found in ̹⁸ A P 2050 pc bo) have good ms support. The author uses the longer expression (εἰς [τοὺς] αἰῶνας [τῶν] αἰώνων, ei" [tou"] aiwna" [twn] aiwnwn) in every other instance of αἰών in Revelation, twelve passages in all (1:18; 4:9, 10; 5:13; 7:12; 10:6; 11:15; 14:11; 15:7; 19:3; 20:10; 22:5). Thus, on the one hand, the style of the author is consistent, while on the other hand, the scribes may have been familiar with such a stylistic feature, causing them to add the words here. The issues are more complex than can be presented here; the longer reading, however, is probably original (the shorter reading arising from accidental omission of the genitive phrase due to similarity with the preceding words).