Levites

• sent delegation to John the Baptist

135:6.6In May of this year, while he still lin­gered at Beth­any ford, the priests and Levites sent a del­e­ga­tion out to in­quire of John whether he claimed to be the Mes­siah, and by whose au­thor­ity he preached. John an­swered these ques­tion­ers by say­ing: “Go tell your mas­ters that you have heard ‘the voice of one cry­ing in the wilder­ness,’ as spo­ken by the prophet, say­ing, ‘make ready the way of the Lord, make straight a high­way for our God. Ev­ery val­ley shall be filled, and ev­ery moun­tain and hill shall be brought low; the un­even ground shall be­come a plain, while the rough places shall be­come a smooth val­ley; and all flesh shall see the sal­va­tion of God.’”

• officiated in Jerusalem temple

162:4.2This was the feast of feasts, since any sac­ri­fice not made at the other fes­ti­vals could be made at this time. This was the oc­ca­sion of the re­cep­tion of the tem­ple of­fer­ings; it was a com­bi­na­tion of va­ca­tion plea­sures with the solemn rites of re­li­gious wor­ship. Here was a time of racial re­joic­ing, min­gled with sac­ri­fices, Levit­i­cal chants, and the solemn blasts of the sil­very trum­pets of the priests. At night the im­pres­sive spec­ta­cle of the tem­ple and its pil­grim throngs was bril­liantly il­lu­mi­nated by the great can­de­labras which burned brightly in the court of the women as well as by the glare of scores of torches stand­ing about the tem­ple courts. The en­tire city was gaily dec­o­rated ex­cept the Ro­man cas­tle of An­to­nia, which looked down in grim con­trast upon this fes­tive and wor­ship­ful scene. And how the Jews did hate this ever-pres­ent re­minder of the Ro­man yoke!

162:4.3Sev­enty bul­locks were sac­ri­ficed dur­ing the feast, the sym­bol of the sev­enty na­tions of hea­then­dom. The cer­e­mony of the out­pour­ing of the wa­ter sym­bol­ized the out­pour­ing of the di­vine spirit. This cer­e­mony of the wa­ter fol­lowed the sun­rise pro­ces­sion of the priests and Levites. The wor­shipers passed down the steps lead­ing from the court of Is­rael to the court of the women while suc­ces­sive blasts were blown upon the sil­very trum­pets. And then the faith­ful marched on to­ward the Beau­ti­ful Gate, which opened upon the court of the gen­tiles. Here they turned about to face west­ward, to re­peat their chants, and to con­tinue their march for the sym­bolic wa­ter.

162:4.4On the last day of the feast al­most four hun­dred and fifty priests with a cor­re­spond­ing num­ber of Levites of­fi­ci­ated. At day­break the pil­grims as­sem­bled from all parts of the city, each car­ry­ing in the right hand a sheaf of myr­tle, wil­low, and palm branches, while in the left hand each one car­ried a branch of the par­a­dise ap­ple—the cit­ron, or the “for­bid­den fruit.” These pil­grims di­vided into three groups for this early morn­ing cer­e­mony. One band re­mained at the tem­ple to at­tend the morn­ing sac­ri­fices; an­other group marched down be­low Je­ru­sa­lem to near Maza to cut the wil­low branches for the adorn­ment of the sac­ri­fi­cial al­tar, while the third group formed a pro­ces­sion to march from the tem­ple be­hind the wa­ter priest, who, to the sound of the sil­very trum­pets, bore the golden pitcher which was to con­tain the sym­bolic wa­ter, out through Ophel to near Siloam, where was lo­cated the foun­tain gate. Af­ter the golden pitcher had been filled at the pool of Siloam, the pro­ces­sion marched back to the tem­ple, en­ter­ing by way of the wa­ter gate and go­ing di­rectly to the court of the priests, where the priest bear­ing the wa­ter pitcher was joined by the priest bear­ing the wine for the drink of­fer­ing. These two priests then re­paired to the sil­ver fun­nels lead­ing to the base of the al­tar and poured the con­tents of the pitch­ers therein. The ex­e­cu­tion of this rite of pour­ing the wine and the wa­ter was the sig­nal for the as­sem­bled pil­grims to be­gin the chant­ing of the Psalms from 113 to 118 in­clu­sive, in al­ter­na­tion with the Levites. And as they re­peated these lines, they would wave their sheaves at the al­tar. Then fol­lowed the sac­ri­fices for the day, as­so­ci­ated with the re­peat­ing of the Psalm for the day, the Psalm for the last day of the feast be­ing the eighty-sec­ond, be­gin­ning with the fifth verse.