The fuller’s field
In ancient times, the task of whitening cloth was involved and valuable enough to be a full-time skilled profession. Those who did this work were called fullers, and their significance is attested to by the frequency and content of the multiple scriptural references to them.
The act of whitening cloth is referred to in terms of sanctification,5 God’s servants’ role in it,6 and the Lord’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.7 It was at the fuller’s field where Hezekiah paid a heavy tribute to the king of Assyria after the people rebelled and refused to keep the covenant given to Moses (see 2 Kings 18:12, 14-17), where Isaiah traveled to meet Ahaz, king of Judah, to tell him not to fear the oncoming attack of the new super alliance formed between the king of Syria and the king of Israel (see Isaiah 7:14), and where the emissary of the king of Assyria shouted taunts against those on the wall and God (see Isaiah 36:1-21).
Cloth was whitened anciently by soaking it in urine, requiring: 1) proximity to enough people to provide the required supply of concentrated urine, 2) enough distance from the same people to avoid the terrible smell,1690 and 3) a substantial supply of running water to rinse the cloth after whitening. The fuller’s field outside of Jerusalem provided all of these qualities.
Fulling provides many rich analogies to elements of the gospel. Fulling was a step in the process of woolen garment manufacture, where a professional would endure putrid conditions to improve the garment beyond the quality it would otherwise remain in. It required interaction with the people who would receive the finished product, but only by contributing your bodily waste, which he would miraculously use to render your clothing more valuable than it would otherwise be. Whitening was performed by stomping on the soaking garments, just as wine was made by stomping on grapes.1691 Fullers were closer to the water source used by city dwellers for drinking, and they used a lot more of it than anyone did for drinking in order to make high-value products for those who lived downstream. Some traditions consider the fuller’s field to be the same location as the Mount of Olives and the place where the sacrificial red heifer was burned.
Whitening cloth is not an event, but a process. The ancients repeatedly soaked garments in new batches of chemicals to whiten them. To describe the whitening of cloth with justification and sanctification language, the complete immersion of a garment into the whitening solution is a justifying event, but the subsequent whitening is a gradual sanctification process. The duration of the soaking and the potency of the solution matters.
Footnotes
- 1. For example, when Lehi said the following, his sons did not believe themselves to be doing anything wrong: “Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.” (2 Nephi 1:23) ↩
- 2. And he heard a voice from heaven, saying: Enoch, my son, prophesy unto this people, and say unto them—Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them; for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off; (Moses 6:27) ↩
- 3. See Acts 27, where in fair weather, Paul warns the captain of the ship to delay the voyage or risk damage to the ship, loss of the cargo, and danger to the passengers. The captain ignores his warning, but begins listening to Paul when the ship is wrecked in a severe unexpected storm. ↩
- 4. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. (Psalm 81:11-14) ↩
- 5. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:7) ↩
- 6. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifer of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:1-3) ↩
- 7. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. (Mark 9:3) ↩