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,¹ God’s servants’ role in it,² and the Lord’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.³ 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,⁴ 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.⁵ 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.