For if the blood of bulls and of goats
Shed either on the day of atonement, or at any other time: the
former of thee, Pausanias F25 relates, was drank by
certain priestesses among the Grecians, whereby they were tried,
whether they spoke truth or no if not, they were immediately
punished; and the latter, he says F26, will dissolve an
adamant stone; but neither of them can purge from sin:
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the
unclean;
the apostle refers to the red heifer, ( Numbers
19:1-22 ) which being burnt, its ashes were gathered up and
put into a vessel, and water poured upon them, which was
sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop on unclean persons; the ashes
and the water mixed together made the water of separation, or of
sprinkling; for so it is called by the Septuagint, (udwr) (rantismou) , "the water of sprinkling", and in the
Targum in a following citation: this was the purification for
sin, though it only
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh;
the body, or only in an external and typical way, but did not
really sanctify the heart, or purify and cleanse the soul from
sin. The Jews say, that the waters of purification for sin were
not waters of purification for sin, without the ashes F1; and to
this the Targumist, on ( Ezekiel
36:25 ) and on ( Zechariah
13:1 ) refers, paraphrasing both texts thus;
``I will forgive their sins as they are cleansed with the water of sprinkling, and with the ashes of the heifer, which is a purification for sin.''