11 Bible Verses about Ritual Washing

I said to him, "You know, my lord." He said to me, "They are the people who come through the great persecution, who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so as to have the right to approach the tree of life and to enter the gates of the city.

Since then, brothers, we have free access to the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, by the new, living way which he has opened for us, through the curtain, that is, his physical nature, and since in him we have a great priest set over the house of God,read more.
let us draw near to God in sincerity of heart and with perfect faith, with our hearts cleansed from the sense of sin, and our bodies washed with clean water.

Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, wiping them with the towel that was about his waist. So he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, "Master, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You cannot understand now what I am doing, but you will learn by and by."read more.
Peter said to him, "I will never let you wash my feet!" Jesus answered, "You will have no share with me unless I wash you." Simon Peter said to him, "Master, wash not only my feet but my hands and my face too!" Jesus said to him, "Anyone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed to be altogether clean. And you are already clean??hough not all of you."

Approach God, and he will approach you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Make your hearts pure, you doubters!

Now there were six stone water jars there, for the ceremonial purification practiced by the Jews, each large enough to hold twenty or thirty gallons.

So a discussion arose between John's disciples and a man from Judea, about purification.

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, and said to him, "Why do your disciples break the rules handed down by our ancestors? For they eat their bread without first washing their hands." But he answered, "Why do you too break God's command for the sake of what has been handed down to you?read more.
For God said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and 'He who abuses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say, 'Whoever tells his father or mother, "Anything of mine that might have been of use to you is given to God," does not have to provide for his father.' So you have nullified what God has said, for the sake of what has been handed down to you. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied finely about you when he said, " 'This people honor me with their lips, Yet their hearts are far away from me. But their worship of me is all in vain, For the lessons they teach are but human precepts.' " And he called the people to him and said to them, "Listen to this, and grasp it! It is not what goes into a man's mouth that pollutes him; it is what comes out of his mouth that pollutes a man."

The Pharisees gathered about him with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. They had noticed that some of his disciples ate their food without first giving their hands a ceremonial washing to purify them. For the Pharisees and all the Jews observe the rules handed down from their ancestors, and will not eat until they have washed their hands in a particular way,read more.
and they will not eat anything from the market without first purifying it by sprinkling it, and they have a number of other observances which have come down to them, in the way of washing cups, pitchers, and basins. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not observe the rules handed down by our ancestors, but eat food without purifying their hands?" But he said to them, "It was about you hypocrites that Isaiah prophesied so finely, in the words, " 'This people honor me with their lips, Yet their hearts are far away from me. But their worship of me is all in vain, For the lessons they teach are but human precepts.' "You give up what God has commanded and hold fast to what men have handed down. "How skilful you are," he said to them, "in nullifying what God has commanded in order to observe what has been handed down to you. For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and again, 'Whoever abuses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Anything of mine that might have been of use to you is Korban," ' that is, consecrated to God, you let him off from doing anything more for his father or mother, and so you nullify what God has said by what you have handed down. You have many such practices." He called the people to him again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand this. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can pollute him. It is what comes out of a man that pollutes him." OMITTED TEXT When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples asked him what he meant by this figure. And he said to them, "Have not even you any understanding then? Do you not see that nothing that goes into a man from outside can pollute him, since it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and then is disposed of?" So he declared all food clean. He went on to say, "It is what comes out of a man that pollutes him. For it is from inside, from men's hearts, that designs of evil come; immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, abusiveness, arrogance, folly??23 all these evils come from inside, and they pollute a man."

When he said this, a Pharisee asked him to lunch with him, and he went to his house and took his place at table. The Pharisee noticed that he did not wash before the meal, and he was surprised. But the Master said to him, "You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.read more.
You fools! Did not the Creator of the outside make the inside too? But give your inmost life as charity, and you will immediately find everything clean.

With these arrangements for worship, the priests used constantly to go into the outer part of the tent, in the performance of their rites, but only the high priest could enter the inner part, and he but once a year, and never without taking some victim's blood, to offer on his own behalf and for the sins committed through ignorance by the people. In all this the holy Spirit was seeking to show that there was no free access to the sanctuary while the outer tent was still standing.read more.
And all this looked toward the present time and was symbolic of the fact that the mere offering of material gifts and sacrifices cannot inwardly qualify the worshiper to approach God, since they have to do only with food and drink and various washings??aterial regulations in force only until the time for the new order. But when Christ came, as the high priest of the better system under which we live, he went once for all, through that greater, more perfect tent of worship not made by human hands nor a part of our material creation, into the sanctuary, taking with him no blood of goats and calves, but his own, and secured our permanent deliverance. For if sprinkling ceremonially defiled persons with the blood of bulls and goats and with the ashes of a heifer purifies them physically, how much more surely will the blood of the Christ, who with the eternal Spirit made himself an unblemished offering to God, purify our consciences from the old wrongdoing for the worship of the everliving God?