1 the written book merely as a metaphorical expression, alluding to the records kept in the courts of justice,
'. where the deeds of criminals are registered, and wdiich signifies no more than the purpose of God in reference
; to future events ; so that to be cut off by an untimely
J death is to be blotted out of this book. The not blot-
' ting the name of the saints out of the book of life (Rev.
j iii, 5) denotes their final happiness in heaven.
Blount, Chari.es, a noted English Deist, horn 111 Upper Holloway in 1654. In 1679 he published his Anima mundi, containing a historical account of the opinions of the ancients concerning the condition of the soul after death. This pamphlet created a violent stir, and was condemned by Compton, bishop of Lon- don. In 1680 he published his most celebrated work, viz., the first two books of Philostratus, containing the life of Apollonius of Tyana, with philological notes. This work, said to have been tak"en from the papers of Lord Herbert of Cher bury, was suppressed as soon as it appeared, but it was translated into French and pub- lished in that country. In 1683 his Relifjio Laici ap- peared anonymously. Blount was a vulgar man, of limited learning, and a great plagiarist. He shot him- self in 1693, in despair at the refusal of his first wife's
i sister to marry him. His Miscellaneous Work.*, with a biography, appeared in 1695 (Lond. 12mo). — Macau- lay, Hist. 'Kwj. iv, 281; Mosheim, Ch. Hist, iii, 267;
j Leland, Deisticid Writers, ch. iv ; Landon, ii, 295. Blue (rS:rn, teka'lelh), almost constantly asso- ciated with purple, occurs repeatedly in Exod. xxv- xxxix; also in Num. iv, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12; xv, 88; 2 Chron. ii, 7, 14; iii, 14; Esth. i, 6; vifi, 15; Jer. x. 0; Ezek. xxiii, 6; xxvii, 7, 24; Sept. generally vukivQoq, vaicivOlVOC, and in Ecclus. xl, 4: xlv, 10; 1 Mace, iv, ' 2.'!; and so Josephus, Philo, Aquila. Symmaehus, The- odotion, Vulgate, and Jerome. (In Esth. i, (I, the word translated " blue" is the same elsewhere render- ed "linen.") This color is supposed to have been ob- tained from a purple shell-fish of the Mediterranean, the conchyUum of the ancients, the Jlelic ianthina of
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Linnanis (Syst. Nat. t. i, pt. vii, p. 3645 ; and see Forskal's Descriptio Animal, p. 127), called chilzm' (■"itipn) by the ancient Jews. Thus the Pseudo-Jona- than, in Deut. xxxiii, 19, speaks of the Zebulonites, who dwelt at the shore of the great sea, and caught chilzon, with whose juice they dye thread of a hya-
lliiix Ianthina. cinthine color. The Scriptures afford no clew to this color; for the only passages in which it seems, in the English version, to lie applied to something that might assist our conceptions are mistranslated, namely, "The blueness of a wound" (Prov. xx, SO), and "A blue mark upon him that is beaten" (Ecclus. xxiii, 10), there being no reference to color in the original of either. The word in the Sept. and Apocrypha refers to the hyacinth ; but both the flower and stone so named by the ancients arc disputed, especially the former. Yet it is used to denote dark-colored and deep purple. Virgil speaks of ferruglneos hyac'nthos, and Columella compares the color of the flower to that of clotted blood, or deep, dusky red, like rust (Dc Pe Bust. x, 305). Hesychius defines vukivQivov vTto^iiXari- Z,ov, Trop<bvpic,ov. It is plainly used in the Greek of Ecclus. xl, 4, for the royal purple. Josephus evident- ly takes the Hebrew word to mean "sky-color;" for in explaining the colors of the vail of the Temple, and referring to the blue (Exod. xxvi, 31), he says that it represented the air or sky (War, v, 4); he similarly explains the vestment of the high-priest (Ant. iii, 7, 7; and see Philo, Vita Mods, iii, 148; t. ii, ed. Mangey). These statements may be reconciled by the fact that, in proportion as the sky is clear and serene, it assumes a dark appearance, which is still more observable in an E istern climate. See Purple.
The chief references to this color in Scripture are as follows: The robe of the high-priest's ephod was to be all of blue (Exod. xxviii, 31) ; so the loops of the cur- tains to the tabernacle (xxvi, 4) ; the ribbon for the breastplate (xxviii, 28), and for the plate for the mitre (ver. 37; comp. Ecclus. xlv, 10); blue cloths for va- rious sacred uses (Num. iv, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12); the people commanded to wear a ribbon of blue above the fringe of their garments (Num. xv, 38) ; it appears as a color of furniture in the palace of Ahasuerus (Esth. i, G), and part of the royal apparel (viii, 15); array of the idols of Babylon (Jer. x, 9); of the Assyrian nobles, etc. (Ezra xxiii, 6 ; see Braunius, De Vestitu, i, 9 and 13 ; Bochart, iii, 670). See Color.
Blumhardt, Christian Gottlieb, a German the- ologian, was born at Stuttgardt in 1779, became in 1803 secretary of the "Deutsche Christenthumsgcsell- Bchaft" of Basel, and in 1816 director of the Basel Missionary Society. He died in 1838. He wrote, among other works, a History of Christian Missions (Versuch einer ally mcin< a Missionsycschichte tier Kirche Christi, Basel, 1828-37, 3 vols.), and was for twenty- three years editor of the Basel Missionsmagazin.