Old Judge River

Water ordeals are a common mythical and ritual theme in the Ancient Near east. Hostile waters threaten the life of someone who is trying to cross, and the fact that the person survives the ordeal is a judgment in his favor, a declaration of innocence.

Morales (The Tabernacle Pre-Figured, 30) quotes Frank Cross: “The cosmic river springing up from the underworld is also ‘Judge River’ . . . as in Mesopotamia the place of the river ordeal, the place of questioning or judgment, as one enters the underworld.”

Morales follows other scholars in arguing that there are signs of a similar pattern in the Hebrew Bible. Yahweh shows His control over the waters by rescuing David from the raging waters or the abyss of Sheol. The result is that the rescued person is “justified . . . vindicated through the ordeal” and “purified” (31). Passing through Judge River gives the justified person access to the cosmic mountain that is the dwelling of God and the place of worship.

Morales suggests that something like this paradigm is behind the various lustrations of the law: “Surviving the ‘river ordeal,’ as considered in the previous section, may perhaps be seen as a prerequisite for the ascent of worship – while the wicked are judged via the waters and consigned to Sheol, the righteous are brought safely through the waters to the mount of the divine Presence,. The ablutions/lustrations may be the cultic counterpart to the mythpoeic idea of the river ordeal, while the statues and/or priests stationed at the gateway of temples represent the mythic creature guarding the mount” (36-7).

Morales doesn’t draw any conclusions regarding Christian rites, but I will: This whole paradigm fits very snugly with what I see Paul doing in those passages that link baptism with union with the death of Jesus and justification (Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 6). Emerging from the waters is a sign of innocence; it is a justification; and it is a justification that is both a declaration and a rescue from the threat of death – it is a deliverdict. Morales does a wonderful job of laying out the cosmic background to Paul’s baptismal theology.