Strange Water Series

In 2004 I created a series of assemblages entitled "Strange Waters" highlighting some particular, and peculiar, stories in the Old and New Testament that involved transformations of water by God's power.  Four of them are pictured below.

Waters of Impurity (3 1/2" x 4 1/4" x 12 1/4")

The regulation which this piece illustrates is found in Numbers 5.  Anyone who becomes ritually unclean by touching a dead body or coming into contact with human bones may have an uncontaminated person sprinkle a slurry of ashes on him and his house using a hyssop branch.  Such purity laws may seem foreign to us today, but they helped instill in the Jewish people the notion of God's absolute otherness, or holiness--a concept that we tend to take too lightly today.

Waters of Testing (10 3/4" x 5" x 3 1/2")

The above assemblage is based on the unusual procedure outlined in Numbers 5 by which a suspicious husband may determine his wife's fidelity. She is to appear before the priest with her hair unloosed and holding a grain offering. After pronouncing an oath of innocence, she is then to drink from a mixture of dust, ink and water.  If she has lied, she will suffer from a fallen uterus. There are, of course, obvious spiritual and supernatural elements present in this ritual.  But, in addition, it should be noted that the trial, by its very nature, is heavily weighted in favor of the wife (unlike other trials by ordeal) and probably discouraged husbands from making baseless accusations.

Bitter Waters (8" x 3 1/4" x 2 1/2")

Exodus 15 records the story of Israel in the wilderness after escaping from Egypt. At Marah, the only water they found was too bitter to drink. God revealed to Moses that the waters would be sweetened if he threw in a particular piece of wood. There have been attempts to find a naturalist explanation for this event.  For example, it is known that activated charcoal will remove impurities from water.  But at the least, the revelation to Moses of the knowledge of how to accomplish this purification should be regarded as a miracle. When this work was half completed, I decided that the inclusion of a bottle would be appropriate. I came across an antique medicine bottle in my collection with the inscription "Atwood's Jaundice Bitters Formerly Made By Moses Atwood."  Such "chance" happenings have occurred often enough in my various creative enterprises to convince me of the continuing guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Transformed Water (9 3/4" x 2" x 8 1/2")

Moving to the New Testament, the first recorded miracle of Jesus involves water-- the transformation of water into wine at the wedding in Cana.  One may safely disregard the several ludicrous attempts to explain this as a purely naturistic event.  However, as C. S. Lewis points out, this miracle (as the other New Testament miracles) is not merely arbitrary but demonstrates God's telltale modus operandi.  It simply accomplishes in a speeded-up manner what God also carries out through natural processes in the vineyard and through fermentation.  Appropriately, this piece is constructed using materials from a water testing kit.