Baths, bathing places, bathing, and washing

(Exod. 2:5). Bathing and washing were especially frequently practiced among the peoples of the East. Since the inhabitants of the East often went about barefoot or in sandals, upon returning from a journey they washed their feet for cleanliness and refreshment (Gen. 18:4). The feet of members of a household were usually washed by servants; only daughters washed the feet of their parents. Hence the expression “to wash the feet of the saints” signified an act of deep humility and love (1 Tim. 5:10), which in the highest degree was shown to us all, as an example, by the Lord Savior, when He washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper (John 13:8).

The Hebrews commonly washed their hands up to the elbows before partaking of food; they even washed their couches before reclining at table. At the marriage in Cana of Galilee there were in the house of the feast six stone waterpots, filled with water for the washing of the hands of the guests as they entered the feast (John 2:6). Usually the duty of washing the hands and feet of the masters was performed by servants, as we noted above, and how it was performed can be seen from the following words of the Fourth Book of Kings: “Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah” (2 Kings 3:11), so answered one of the servants of the king of Israel to the question of Jehoshaphat.

The same custom is preserved even to this day in the East. There you will nowhere see water prepared beforehand in a vessel for washing; but a servant pours from a pitcher onto the hands of his master. The custom of washing hands before a meal is likewise preserved to the present time. A servant walks with a ewer around the table where the guests are seated, and with a basin to receive the water running from the guests’ hands. The washing of feet was a universal custom in the East. The washing of hands in certain instances was regarded as a solemn declaration of one’s innocence, as we see from the example of Pilate (Matt. 27:24).

In general, purification and washing among the Hebrews were very common, were connected with religious prescriptions, and were prescribed by the Law itself. External washings are often represented in Holy Scripture as an image of moral purification (Ps. 50 [51]:4–9). The words “bath” and “washing” are used by the apostles in the sense of regeneration into spiritual life in the sacrament of baptism (Titus 3:5). Washings and bathing took place among the Hebrews in rivers (2 Kings 5:10), and in private household baths (2 Sam. 11:2; Dan. 13:15).

In later times, among the Hebrews, as among the Greeks and Romans, public baths also came to be built. There were also farms, or hot springs, near Tiberias, used for bathing and considered to have healing properties.