How does a sprinkling of
water cleanse someone in Ezekiel 36:25? By
Jack
Kettler
In
this study, the meaning of the Ezekiel text
regarding sprinkling will be considered. Are
the sprinkling and cleansing symbolic or
literal? The following citation includes, for
a fuller context, verses 26-27.
“For I will take you
from among the heathen, and gather you out of
all countries, and will bring you into your
own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols, will I
cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep
my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel
36:24-27)
Delving into the original
Hebrew will be helpful in the understanding
of sprinkling.
Definition: be here and
there, scatter, sprinkle, strew.”
The
Hebrew word in the above passage mentioning
sprinkling is zaraq. The word is a verb and
denotes action.
Ezekiel
36:24-25 is looking forward into history by
way of a prophecy. The three following
commentators use the reality of the New
Covenant in Christ to understand Ezekiel’s
prophecy.
Regarding verse 24 from
Ezekiel, it is learned from the Pulpit
Commentary:
“Verse 24. - I will
take you from among the heathen; or, nations.
The first step in the sanctification of
Jehovah's Name. A promise already given
(Ezekiel 11:17; Ezekiel 20:41, 42), and
afterwards repeated (Ezekiel 37:21). The
mention of “all countries” shows the prophet's
gaze to have been directed beyond the present
or immediate future. The Israel of Ezekiel's
time had not been scattered among and could
not be gathered from all, countries; yet in
the years that have passed since then
Ezekiel's language as to Israel's dispersion
has been literally fulfilled. Wherefore the
inference is reasonable that the reassembling
to which Ezekiel refers is an event that has
not yet occurred, at least in its fullest
measure and degree, but will only then be
realized completely and finally when the
scattered members of the house of Israel shall
have been received into the Christian Church
(Romans 11:25, 26). Ezekiel 36:24” (1)
Continuing to verse 25
from Ellicott's
Commentary for English Readers:
“(25) Sprinkle clean
water. — Comp. Hebrews 9:13; Hebrews 10:22.
Ezekiel, the priest, here refers to those
manifold purifications of the Law (e.g.,
Numbers 8:7; Numbers 19:9; Numbers 19:17;
Leviticus 14:5-7; Leviticus 14:9, &c.)
which were performed by means of water; yet he
refers to these as a whole, in their
symbolical signification, rather than to any
one of them in particular. He speaks primarily
of the cleansing from idolatry and such gross
outward sins, and he treats of the people
collectively; yet this purification, as the
following verses show, must necessarily extend
much farther, and be applied to them
individually. It was the same symbolism which
led in later ages to the use of baptism in the
admission of proselytes to the Jewish Church,
a practice adopted by the forerunner of our
Lord in the preparation of the people for His
coming. Baptism is also alluded to by our Lord
Himself in His conversation with Nicodemus
(John 3:5.) and afterwards established by Him
as the initiatory sacrament of the Christian
Church. (Comp. Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5;
Hebrews 10:22.)” (2)
In addition, verse 25 is
learned from Matthew
Poole's Commentary:
“Ye shall
be clean; when sin is remitted, the
person is indeed clean, both in the account of
God and Christ.”
“From all
your filthiness; though they have been
many of all sorts, and among all ranks of men,
yet multitude of sins shall not hinder me from
pardoning.”
“From all
your idols; that notorious great
abomination, your multiplied idolatry, I will
pardon that also, that ye may be clean. Thus,
remission of sin is promised.” (3)
Two New Testament
passages involving sprinkling:
“For when Moses had
spoken every precept to all the people
according to the law, he took the blood of
calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet
wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book,
and all the people.” (Hebrews
9:19)
Strong's
Concordance:
“rhantizó:
to sprinkle
Original word: ῥαντίζω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: rhantizó
Phonetic Spelling: (hran-tid'-zo)
Definition: to sprinkle
Usage: I sprinkle,
cleanse ceremonially by sprinkling.”
“And to Jesus the
mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling, that speaketh better things
than that of Abel.” (Hebrews
12:24)
Strong's
Concordance:
“rhantismos:
sprinkling
Original Word: ῥαντισμός,
οῦ, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun,
Masculine
Transliteration:
rhantismos
Phonetic Spelling:
(hran-tis-mos')
Definition: sprinkling
Usage: sprinkling,
purification.”
The
two New Testament passages above use a verb
and noun form of the same word, which means
ceremonial or purification by sprinkling.
Whereas the Old Testament word for sprinkle
denoted action, the New Testament sheds
further understanding involving ceremonial
purification. In this respect, sprinkling and
baptism are symbolic of cleansing sin.
In regards to Hebrews
12:24, Vincent's
Word Studies says:
“The mediator of the
new covenant (διαθήκης
νέας μεσίτῃ)”
“See Hebrews 7:22;
Hebrews 8:6, Hebrews 8:8, Hebrews 8:9, Hebrews
8:10; Hebrews 9:15. For covenant, see on
Hebrews 9:6 ff. For the new covenant, rend. a
new covenant. Νέα
new, only here applied to the covenant in N.T.
The word elsewhere is καινή.
For the distinction, see on Matthew 26:29. It
is better not to press the distinction, since
νεός,
in certain cases, clearly has the sense of
quality rather than of time, as 1 Corinthians
5:7; Colossians 3:10, and probably here, where
to confine the sense to recent would seem to
limit it unduly. In the light of all that the
writer has said respecting the better quality
of the Christian covenant, superseding the
old, outworn, insufficient covenant, he may
naturally be supposed to have had in mind
something besides its mere recentness.
Moreover, all through the contrast from
Hebrews 12:18, the thought of earlier and
later is not once touched, but only that of
inferior and better; repellency and
invitation; terrors and delights; fear and
confidence. Note that the privilege of
approaching the Mediator in person is
emphasized.”
“Blood of sprinkling (αἵματι
ῥαντισμοῦ)”
“Ῥαντισμός
sprinkling only here and 1 Peter 1:2, see
note. The phrase blood of sprinkling N.T.o.
olxx, where we find ὕδωρ
ῥαντισμοῦ water of sprinkling, Numbers 19:9,
Numbers 19:13, Numbers 19:20, Numbers 19:21.
For the verb ῥαντίζειν
to sprinkle, see on Hebrews 9:13. The mention
of blood naturally follows that of a covenant,
since no covenant is ratified without blood
(Hebrews 9:16). The phrase is sufficiently
explained by Hebrews 9:16-22.”
“Speaketh better things
(κρεῖττον
λαλοῦντι)”
“For “better things”
rend. “better.” The blood is personified, and
its voice is contrasted with that of Abel,
whose blood cried from the ground for
vengeance upon his murderer (Genesis 4:10).
The voice of Christ's blood calls for mercy
and forgiveness.”
“Than that of Abel (παρὰ
τὸν Ἄβελ).”
“Rend. “than Abel.”
Comp. Hebrews 11:4, where Abel himself
speaks.” (4)
In closing:
Ezekiel
36:26 says, “a new heart,also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you: and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh.” Verse 27 says, “I will put my Spirit
within youand cause you to walk
in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgments, and do them.”
Therefore,
sprinkling in verse 25 prophetically pictures
a New Testament conversion which is proved by
verse 26 when it says, “a new heart,” taking
away the heart of stone and “I will give you a
heart of flesh.” In addition, verse 27 says,
“put my Spirit within you and cause you to
walk in my statutes.” The Strong’s Concordance
says, regarding the word “cause” to “do,
make.” Moreover, this caused by God pictures a
regenerated changed heart which is not fully
released until the “born again” conversion of
the New Testament times.
Regarding baptism and its
relationship to Ezekiel:
Baptism
is the sacrament of initiation into the
visible church. Baptism also signifies
regeneration and remission of sin. Sprinkling,
as seen in Ezekiel’s pictures or symbolizes
regeneration that literally would happen in
the New Covenant.
In
the Ezekiel passage, sprinkling is symbolic.
However, in Numbers 19:9, 18-19, the
sprinkling is literal. The cleansing or
purification as a result of sprinkling was
symbolic, looking forward to New Covenant in
Christ where the cleansing by the blood Christ
cleanses. Said another way, the sprinkling in
the Old Testament did not cleanse sin any more
than baptism in the New Testament cleanses
sin. However, both actions symbolize the blood
of Christ that cleanses sin.
Scripture is the best
interpreter of Scripture:
The Greek βαπτίζω
is rendered “dip, plunge, dyed, bathed or
immersed” in the Septuagint. Therefore, the
parallel between sprinkling and baptism (βαπτίζω) does not depend
either upon the Old Testament Septuagint or
the New Testament translation of the word.
Furthermore, just because βαπτίζω does
not in translation mean sprinkling does not
invalidate the intended parallel of sprinkling
and baptism. The Scriptures in Hebrews 9:19,
12:24, Leviticus 14:7, and Numbers 19:18 make
the connection between sprinkling and baptism
as functional parallels.
Likewise,
“In whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God, who
hath raised him from the dead” Colossians
2:11–12. The Colossians passage is analogous
or the functional equivalent between
circumcision in the Older Covenant and water
baptism in the New Covenant.
For more study:
See BAPTISM by Rev.
John Scott Johnson, Ph.D. at,
https://www.all-of-grace.org/pub/others/baptism.html
SPRINKLING IS SCRIPTURAL
by Rev. Prof. Dr. Francis Nigel Lee
https://www.fivesolas.com/sprinkle.htm
“Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
Notes:
1.H.
D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, The
Pulpit Commentary, Ezekiel, Vol. 12.,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans Publishing
Company reprint 1978), p. 245.
2.Charles
John Ellicott, Bible
Commentary for English Readers, Ezekiel,
Vol. 5, (London, England, Cassell and
Company), p. 305.
3.Matthew
Poole's Commentary
on the Holy Bible, Ezekiel, Vol. 2,
(Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985) p. 772.
4.Marvin
R. Vincent, Word
Studies In The New Testament, Hebrews,
Vol. 4, (Mclean, Virginia, Macdonald
Publishing Company), p. 555-556.
Mr.
Kettler has previously published articles in the
Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and his
wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA
Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of books
defending the Reformed Faith. Books can be
ordered online at www. Jack Kettler .com