And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
Ver. 6. After the manner of the purifying, &c.] But who required these things at their hands? Men are apt to over do in externals. The devil strove to bring this superstition into the Christian Church by the heretic Ebion, and hath done it by the pseudo-Catholics, with their lustral water and sprinkling of sepulchres, for the rise whereof Baronius refers us, not to the Jews, but to Juvenal's sixth satire.
Containing two or three firkius] For ostentation' sake. Superstition is pompous and ambitious.