What is the Greek word behind the English word 'washings' in Hebrews 9:10?
The Greek word translated “washings” in Hebrews 9:10 is baptism. If translators had rendered it as they did elsewhere in the New Testament, the verse would read “meats, and drinks, and baptisms.” It pictured a cleansing, though water itself could not take away sin.
Les explains that the word translated “washings” is baptism, and if the translators had translated the Greek word baptism like they did every other place in the New Testament, Hebrews 9:10 would read, “All of these things stood only in meats, and drinks, and baptisms.” He says the Jew was perfectly aware of what John was doing: it indicated a cleansing, even though the water couldn’t do it. The water couldn’t take away sin, but it was a symbolic gesture indicating the need for a spiritual cleansing. These practices—the sacrificial lamb, the sprinkling of blood, approaching a holy God on holy ground—were all symbolic and stood only in meats, drinks, washings, and carnal ordinances until the time of the Reformation.
Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.