Immersion by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 16, 1876

Immersion.

By John Norton Loughborough

WHILE conversing with a friend, a short time since, upon immersion as baptism, he objected, urging that the water supply about Jerusalem was insufficient for immersions, especially for so many baptisms as occurred about the day of Pentecost. For the benefit of any who may thus suppose, I wish to quote a few facts from history relative to Jerusalem’s abundant water supply.

First we note a scriptural fact. In the days of Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, purposed to come to Jerusalem to battle. “And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city. And they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the king of Assyria come, and find much water?” 2 Chron. 32 : 2-4.

History confirms this scriptural statement that Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity was abundantly supplied with water. Dr. Hibbard, who contended for sprinkling as baptism, says of Palestine, “It was such a climate that originated the demand for baths, pools, and fountains throughout the East, and made the practice of bathing to be common.”

Horne says, “It was one of the civil laws of the Hebrews that the bath should be used (Lev. 14 : 8 ; 15 : 8, 17 : 15, 16). We may, therefore, consider it as probable that public baths, soon after the enactment of this law, were erected in Palestine, of a construction similar to that of those which are so frequently seen at the present day in the East.”

Josephus supposes the number present in Jerusalem at their annual festivals to be about 2,700,200. This vast multitude, in attending to the requirements of their law, had to bathe their entire body in water. To accomplish this there must have been “much water” in Jerusalem.

Dr. Trail speaks of Jerusalem as follows: “Perhaps upon no city of the ancient world had greater cost been bestowed, or more skill shown, in securing for it an unfailing supply of water ; and such was the repute of Jerusalem in this particular, that its strength as a fortification is frequently alluded to by profane writers as including this grand and indispensable means of sustaining a lengthened siege. Thus Strabo, having mentioned the fact generally that Jerusalem, situated in the midst of a district destitute of water, was itself abundantly supplied therewith, presently afterward, and while referring to the capture of the city by Pompey, states that he took it, notwithstanding its substantial munitions and its being abundant in water, while all around was dry. To the same purport is the often-cited passage in Tacitus (Hist. v, 12) who describes the temple with its porticoes as a fortress; and such, in fact, it was, well fitted to sustain the frequent sieges to which it was liable. ‘Fons perennis aquæ, cavati sub terra montes: et piscinæ cisternæque servandis imbribus.’ ‘A fountain of perennial water, mountains hollowed out underneath, also fish-pools and cisterns—rain water being preserved.’ … The terraced gardens, the ‘paradises’ of the kings and nobles of Jerusalem, have long been desolated ; but even now, around the slopes of the hills may be traced, mile after mile, the aqueducts whence these gardens drew perpetual verdure, and which then poured their superfluous streams into the bosom of Moriah. . . . The series of writers from Strabo down to William of Tyre, use almost the same phrases, at once in describing the aridity of the region, and in attesting the fact that within the city there was always water enough and to spare.”

Eusebius, in the fourth century, quotes Timochares as saying of Jerusalem: “The whole city flowed with water, so that even the gardens were irrigated by those flowing waters out of the city.”

To get a more definite idea, we will notice some of the pools: 1. The Pool of Siloam, mentioned in John 9 : 7, 11. This is now fifty-three feet long, eighteen broad, and although partly broken down, the water is yet two or three feet deep in it. Josephus says of it, “This is the name of a fountain which hath sweet water in it, and that in great plenty.”

2. The Upper Pool, mentioned in 2 Kings 18: 17. Dr. Robinson says it was 316 feet in length, 218 feet in breadth, 18 feet deep, covering more than one acre of ground.

3. The Pool of Hezekiah, mentioned in 2 Kings 20 : 20. Dr. Robinson gives its dimensions as 240 feet long, 144 feet broad, covering three-quarters of an acre of ground. To this day the people freely descend to wash and to fill their water-jars. It is supplied by an aqueduct from the Upper Pool. The bottom is sloping.

4. The Lower Pool of Gihon, mentioned in 2 Chron. 32: 3, 4, 20. Dr. Robinson says it covers more than three acres of ground. In the days of the Crusaders it was well supplied with water. Dr. Barclay gives its dimensions as 260 feet wide by 600 feet long.

5. The Pool of Bethesda mentioned in John 5: 2-4. According to Dr. Barclay the main pool is about 131 feet broad, and 365 feet in length; but its length is continued 142 feet further, where its breadth is only 45 feet. Dr. Barclay does not think that this is the genuine Bethesda.

Dr. Barclay also mentions three pools of Solomon some eight miles from Jerusalem. The upper pool is 380 feet long, 229 feet broad at the upper end, and 236 feet broad at the lower end. Its greatest depth is 25 feet.

The middle pool of Solomon is 423 feet long, 160 feet broad at the upper end, 250 feet broad at the lower end; greatest depth, 39 feet.

The lower of these pools is 582 feet long, breadth at upper end, 148 feet, and 207 feet broad at the lower end; its greatest depth is 50 feet. Dr. Barclay says, “More delightful swimming pools than these, heart could not desire; and that they were formerly used as such is rendered highly probable by the well-arranged flights of steps leading into them.” The Doctor says that the united area of these three pools is ten or twelve acres, presenting all depths at all seasons or stages of the water, from 40 to 50 feet in the center to shallow water at their rocky edges.

The aqueduct leading from these pools of Solomon to the temple, has been recently discovered. Of this, more may be learned in a work entitled, “Recovery of Jerusalem,” pp. 182-3.

For many of the facts above stated we are indebted to a book entitled, “Walks about Jerusalem,” written by Isaac Errett, published by Carroll & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. It seems to us the facts show that Jerusalem and its vicinity had water sufficient for immersion of the 3,000, 5,000, or all the early converts to Christianity in that vicinity.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.