Here, an amendment is proposed, in the fifth verse, so as to read,—“the _laver_ (_loutrou_) of regeneration. Bishop Ellicott declares this rendering to be “indisputable.”[88] Other expositors favor it, and the Committees of revision of the New Testament have honored it by inserting the word, in the margin of the Revised Version, here, and in Eph. v, 26. A rendering thus importunate and intrusive, necessitates a critical examination. The first point to be noticed is that the word, laver, is ambiguous; and in the sense which is assumed in its insertion in the text, is without warrant in the Greek language or customs. “We know very little of the baths of the Athenians during the republican period; for the account of Lucian, in his Hippias, relates to baths constructed after the Roman model. On ancient vases, on which persons are represented bathing, we never find any thing corresponding to a modern bath, in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin (_loutēr_ or _loutērion_), resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are represented standing undressed and washing themselves, as seen in the following wood-cut, taken from Sir. W. Hamilton’s vases.”[89] The vessels used by the Greeks in bathing were, (1) the _asaminthos_, in which, sometimes, the bather sat, while the water was poured over him, as we have seen in the bath of Ulysses; (2) the _loutēr_, the _laver_, a vessel neither in size nor proportions adapted to the purposes of immersion, nor ever so employed, but designed and used as a containing vessel for the water; (3) the pitcher or dipper (_arutaina_), with which water was taken from the laver, and poured over the bather. There was no bath tub, nor provision of any kind for immersion. The mode of bathing appears in the story, in Theophrastus, of one who entered the bathroom (_balaneion_), and not being promptly waited on, dipping the ladle, (_arutaina_), poured it over his own person, and declared himself bathed, “no thanks to you.”[90] Footnote 88: