Water Libation

$6.00

Description

Associated with the Feast of Tabernacles was a daily ceremonial of water-drawing. The priest who carried the flagon of water from the Siloam Pool to the Temple was joined on the Altar by another priest who carried the wine of the drink-offering. There were two silver bowls there, one on the west side of the Altar for the water and one on the east for the wine. The bowls were perforated on the bottom to allow the liquid to flow (most probably through pipes) down the brook Kedron, the bowl for the wine having a wider hole as wine flows more slowly than water.
Jesus used the water-libation to arrest the attention of his hearers as recorded in John’s Gospel “in the last day, that great day of the feast.” (John 7. 37,38). Here Jesus points out the greatly superior nature of faith in him “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”