Water

Water serves a multitude of ceremonial purposes in the temple environment:

• The tabernacle laver contained water, which was used for ceremonial washings of the priests (Ex. 40:12).
• The large molten sea of the temple of Solomon, which stood on the backs of twelve oxen, served temple officiants (1 Kgs. 7:23–25).
• Members of the priesthood washed certain portions of select sacrificial animals (Lev. 8:21; see also Lev. 1:9, 13).
• Priests used water to wash blood that had splattered on their garments.
• In the New Testament period, priesthood officiants conducted baptisms for the dead (1 Cor. 15:29).
• “Living water” was utilized in a number of temple ceremonies; “for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water [the Hebrew reads, “living water”] shall be put thereto in a vessel” (Num. 19:17; see also Lev. 14:5, 6, 50–52; 15:13).
• Ezekiel 47 prophesies that water will issue from Jerusalem’s future temple and heal the waters of the Dead Sea (Ezek. 47:1, 8, 12).

Certain temples give prominence to water features on the temple grounds, such as this water feature belonging to the Oakland California Temple.

Perhaps most significantly, water symbolically cleanses individuals from sin. The symbolic value of the water points to Jesus Christ, who is “the fountain of living waters” (Jer. 17:13; see also 2:13). Compare also Jesus’s teachings in the New Testament, where He employed the expression “living water” (John 4:10–11; 7:38).