Baptismal fonts

Doing my daily scripture study and came upon this cool little nugget of knowledge in 1 Kings 7:23, 25, 26. They are talking about building the temple of Solomon.

"23.And he made a molten sea...
25.It stood upon twelve oxen...
26. And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths."

What does that sound like to you?

Well, Elder Bruce R. McConkie further explained:

“In Solomon’s Temple a large molten sea of brass was placed on the backs of 12 brazen oxen, these oxen being symbolical of the 12 tribes of Israel. ( 1 Kings 7:23–26, 44 ; 2 Kings 16:17 ; 25:13 ; 1 Chron. 18:8 .) This brazen sea was used for performing baptisms for the living. There were no baptisms for the dead until after the resurrection of Christ.

“It must be remembered that all direct and plain references to baptism have been deleted from the Old Testament ( 1 Ne. 13 ) and that the word baptize is of Greek origin. Some equivalent word, such as wash, would have been used by the Hebrew peoples. In describing the molten sea the Old Testament record says, ‘The sea was for the priests to wash in.’ ( 2 Chron. 4:2–6 .) This is tantamount to saying that the priests performed baptisms in it.

“In this temple building dispensation the Brethren have been led by the spirit of inspiration to pattern the baptismal fonts placed in temples after the one in Solomon’s Temple.” ( Mormon Doctrine, pp. 103–4.)

And again, cool, just cool. Washing being the same as baptizing and the fonts to perform baptisms for the dead are the same in King Solomon's time as they are in our LDS temples today!