📖 Biblical Definition
The bronze washing basin in the tabernacle court, between the bronze altar and the holy place. Exodus 30:17-21 specifies the requirement: priests had to wash their hands and feet in the laver before entering the tabernacle or approaching the altar to serve, that they die not (Ex 30:20). The laver was made from the bronze mirrors donated by the women who served at the door of the tabernacle (Ex 38:8) — a beautiful sacrificial gift. Solomon's temple expanded this with the great molten sea (1 Kgs 7:23-26) plus ten smaller lavers on movable stands. The typology runs forward: Christ's washing of the disciples' feet (John 13) reframes the priestly washing as ongoing cleansing within an already-clean relationship; baptismal washing (Acts 22:16; Eph 5:26: that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word); the eschatological sea of glass before the throne (Rev 4:6) is the consummated reality. Approach to God requires cleansing.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Bronze basin for priestly washing.
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The bronze basin in the tabernacle court between the bronze altar of sacrifice and the entrance to the Holy Place, where priests washed hands and feet before ministering — a symbol of the cleansing required for service before God.
📖 Key Scripture
Exodus 30:18-21 — "Thou shalt also make a laver of brass... and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: when they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not."
Exodus 38:8 — "And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking glasses of the women assembling."
John 13:8 — "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Forgotten as ritual furnishings; missing how Christ takes up its function in foot-washing and how the Word washes the church (Eph 5:26).
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Priests had to be washed before service. Christ stoops at the Last Supper to wash His disciples' feet — fulfilling the laver in Person. Ephesians 5 describes the Word as the washing of water that sanctifies the church. The bronze laver theology runs deep.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew kiyor — basin.
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['Hebrew', 'H3595', 'kiyor', 'basin, laver']
['Hebrew', 'H7364', 'rachatz', 'to wash']
Usage
"Be washed before service."
"Christ Himself is our laver."