Sprinkling

Hyssop

Exodus 9:8:  "And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, Take to yourselves handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh."
 
Sprinkling is an ancient custom that goes back to very early times.  Performed in different ways for a variety of  reasons, sometimes the outcome was friendly, and sometimes it was  frightening.  

According to historical accounts,  many early cultures practiced a ritual of sprinkling: or the act of tossing and throwing a variety of substances into the air —or at themselves, or at each other, or at their houses, alters, shrines and temples. 

The most common substances sprinkled were blood, water (scented or unscented) , oil, ashes, dust, and perfumes; all of which were defused by using the fingers, shaking a container designed specifically for releasing liquids, or by dipping a hyssop branch into the substance and  shaking it.  The hyssop plant of scripture was believed to have grown branches 3' to  4' tall and often served as a  useful tool, such as a paintbrush or extension pole.
 
In the Bible, most instances of sprinkling are recorded with enough information to make the event understandable.  Yet, there are three instances where Bible  researchers believe that the act of sprinkling is taking place but there is not enough details given or additional historical information is needed in order to define it as such. 
 

Salting a Newborn
 
Ezekiel 16:4:   And as for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you. And you were not salted, nor swaddled at all.
 
In ancient times, a new baby was sprinkled with either salt or salt water, rubbed, and then washed until all the birth fluids were removed.
 
From Rev. Samuel Burder:  On translating Galen of Pergamon (130 AD -210 AD) from the Latin, "Sale modico insperso, cutis infantis densior, solidiorque redditur;" a little salt being sprinkled upon the infant, its skin is rendered more dense and solid."  ("Oriental Literature Applied to the Illustration of Sacred Scriptures", Vol. 2, p. 183.  Published, London 1822.)
 
From Mary Holderness:  "A Tatar child is swathed from head to foot with no other clothes than a few rags for the first two or three months, and, more than all, the scorbutic humours which almost invariably cover it from a very short time after its birth, make it, of all the infants I ever saw, the most disgusting and uninteresting.  (However) The Greeks in the Crimea preserve the custom of sprinkling a new-born infant with salt." ("Notes Relating to the Customs and Manners of the Crim Tartars", p.20. Published, London 1821.)


Gilding the Hair
 
2 Samuel 14:26:   And he (Absalom) sheared it, and he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, according to the king's weight.
 
From Josephus:  (Describing of the young horsemen who accompanied King Solomon's regal processions.) " The riders (of the royal adorned horses) also were a further ornament to them (the horses), being, in the first place, young men in the most delightful flower of their age, and being eminent for their largeness, and far taller than other men. They had also very long heads of hair hanging down and were clothed in garments of Tyrian purple. They had also dust of gold every day sprinkled on their hair, so that their heads sparkled with the reflection of the sun-beams from the gold."  ("Antiquities of the Jews', Ch. 7, par. 3.  Written, 93 AD;  First Published, 1544.)
 
From Dr. John Kitto:  "We shall find in it also in Solomon's Song, and confirmed by Josephus, who observes that the picked men who formed the guard of that magnificent monarch wore their hair in long flowing tresses, which they sprinkled every morning with gold dust (having first anointed it, of course), so that their heads glittered in the sunbeams, as reflected from the gold. If this were the custom a little earlier (in time), the weight of the unguents with which it (the hair) was saturated, and of the gold dust it contained, may somewhat lessen our surprise at the weight of Absalom's hair, though it must still have been extraordinary.  ("The Pictorial Bible being  the Old and New Testaments ",  Vol. 2, p. 219.  Published, London, 1866.)
 
From John Wesley:  "Weighed: Others understand this not of the weight, but of the price of his hair."  ("Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament ", 2 Samuel 14;26.  Written 1765, Edinburgh.)

​
 Kid Boiled in its Mother's Milk  
 
Deuteronomy 14:21:  For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
 
For centuries, this mandate to Israel has caused much debate among Bible scholars as to its meaning.  Some believe it to be an idiomatic phrase of the day, understood then but indecipherable now.  Others believe that it somehow relates to the Mosaic dietary laws.  Others think it may be an early humane law directed specifically towards the respect of animals in general.  A more plausible correlation can be drawn from an early common pagan practice.
 
From Dr. Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688):  (From a Karaite Jew comment on the Pentateuch,) "Thinking, that by this means, they were made acceptable to their gods and did procure a blessing by it...it was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a kid and boil it in the dam's milk; and then, in a magical way, to go about and besprinkle with it all their trees and fields and gardens and orchards;  thinking by this means they should make them fructify and bring forth the following year. ("The Works of Ralph Cudworth D.D. Containing 'The True Intellectual System of the Universe', Sermons, & etc." by Thomas Birch, M.A.F.R.S.,  Vol. 4, p. 241-242.  Published, Oxford D. A. Talboys  1829.)

​​While sprinkling in the Bible most often occurs in conjunction with a religious ceremony or worship ritual, it could also be performed for reasons of hospitality, grief, anger, medicine, hygiene, grooming, scenting, and magic.

​Scenting
From Proverbs 7:17:  "I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon."
 

French Perfume Sprinkler Bottle
(1560-1570)
Photo by permission of the British Museum

Hospitality
From Rev. Thomas Harmer:  "The tulip which resembles a cup.  Not however a cup for drinking, that appears not to have been his thought, but a vase designed to give out its contained fluids in drops, which kind of vessels are often used in the East, for the sprinkling those they would honor. ("Observations on Various Passages of Scriptures", Vol. 3, p.129. Compiled by Adam Clarke L.L.D. Published, Charlestown, 1817.)

From John Pinkerton:   "I saw… the Lord of the (Cairo) palace, who, beckoning to me to come..(and) making me sit down, (I was) attended (by) ten or twelve handsome young pages, all clad in scarlet, with crooked daggers and scimitars richly gilt.  Four of them came with a sheet of taffety (taffeta)  and covered me ; another held a golden incense with rich perfume, wherewith…(I was) a little smoked.  Next came two with sweet water, and besprinkled me ; after that, one brought a porcelain dish of coffee, which, when I had drank, another served up a draught of excellent sherbet."  ("A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in all Parts of the World", Vol. 10, p.238.  Chapter: "A Voyage into the Levant by Henry Blount in 1634".  Published, London 1811.)


Magic
From Joseph Roberts:   "When the magicians pronounce an imprecation on an individual, a village, or a country, they take ashes of cows' dung (or from a common fire), and throw them in the air, saying to the objects of their displeasure, such a sickness, or such a curse, shall surely come upon you."  ("Oriental Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures Collected from the Manners, Customs, Rites etc., of the Hindoos ", p. 65.  Published, London 1835.)
 
​
Grief
From Rev. James Freeman:  "Throwing dust at a person is an Oriental mode of expressing anger and contempt...There may, however, be some connection between this custom and the practice of persons in trouble putting dust on their own heads in token of grief.  Throwing dust at others may be a symbolic mode of wishing them such trouble and grief that they may feel like covering themselves with dust, as an expression of their sorrow."  ("Handbook of Bible Manners and Customs",  P. 146.  Published, New York 1902.  [First Published 1874])

​In the introductory text, God (through Moses and Aaron) is insulting Pharaoh in the worst way possible.  Sprinkling ashes towards heaven not only served as a public humiliation to the ruler of Egypt,  but also announced to him the extent of God's wrath and the grief he would come to for not obeying Gods will. 

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For the reader's enjoyment:

Dutch Corvette
Zilveren Krais - 1869-1889
Photo courtesy of WIkipedia.

From Edward Balfour:   "The Dutch corvette Triton, in the course of her examination of the S. W. coast of New Guinea, in search of a spot on which to found a settlement, entered an inlet near Cape Valsche which has since proved to be a strait. A party of natives was seen upon the breach, apparently inviting an interview, and an armed boat, containing several officers, among whom was Lieutenant Modera, was sent on shore to communicate with them. “When the boat had reached to within a musket shot’s distance from them, the natives, who were armed with bows, arrows and lances, commenced making a number of singular gestures with their arms and legs. The Ceramese interpreter called out to them in a language composed partly of Ceramese and partly of a dialect spoken by a tribe which dwelt more to the north, but which was evidently quite unintelligible to them, for they answered only by loud
and wild yells.  We endeavored for a long time without success, to induce them to lay aside their weapons, but at length one of them was prevailed on to do so, and the others followed his example, on which we also laid down our arms, keeping them, however, at hand. We now closely approached each other, and the interpreter, dipping his hand into the water sprinkled some over the crown of his head as a sign of peace.  This they seemed to understand, for two of them immediately did the same, on which the interpreter jumped into the shallow water, and approached them with some looking glasses and strings of beads, which were received with loud laughter and yells. " ("Cyclopedia of India and of Eastern And Southern Asia", Vol 4. p.405.  Printed at the Scottish and Lawrences Presses, Madras, 1873.)

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