Living water (Hebrew: מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים, romanized: mayim-ḥayyim; Greek: ὕδωρ ζῶν, romanized: hydōr zōn) is a biblical term which appears in both the Old and New Testaments. In Jeremiah 2:13 and 17:13, the prophet describes God as "the spring of living water", who has been forsaken by his chosen people Israel. Later, the prophet Zechariah described Jerusalem as a source of "living water", "half east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter" (Zechariah 14:8). The Pulpit Commentary notes that the city of Jerusalem "was, as we know, abundantly supplied with water by many conduits and subterranean channels; but standing, as it does, surrounded by hills higher than itself, it is physically impossible that the waters could literally flow as stated. The description is symbolical …" However, this does not take into the account the various topological changes prophesied in the previous verses, such as Zechariah 14:4: "On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward."
In John's Gospel, the phrase is attributed to Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman whom he meets at Jacob's Well in Sychar:
- "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water" (John 4:10).
In Gnosticism
In the Sethian Gnostic text Zostrianos, the Living Water is personified with the name Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus.
In Mandaeism, living water (fresh, natural, flowing water, called mia hayyi) is a requirement for baptism (masbuta), therefore can only take place in rivers called yardna.
See also
- Water of Life (Christianity)
- Living Waters (disambiguation)
- Yardna in Mandaeism
- Masbuta in Mandaeism
- Five Seals in Sethianism, in which five baptisms are performed in living water
References
- Pulpit Commentary on Zechariah 14, accessed 26 February 2016
- Meyer, Marvin (2007). The Nag Hammadi scriptures. New York: HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-162600-5. OCLC 124538398.
- Drower, Ethel Stefana (1937). The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.
- Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515385-5. OCLC 65198443.