COLOR
416
COLOR
tamt the restricted application of our greens) ; when applied to grass, it means specifically the young, frt»h gram (Kl^^, de'$hl, Psa. xxxvii, 2) which springs np in the desert (Job xxtIx, 8). Elsewhere it describes the sickly yellowish hue of mildewed com (Dent. xzyiii,22; 1 Kings viii, 87 ; 2 Chron. vi, 28 ; Amosiv, 9 ; Hag. ii, 17) ; and, lastly, it is used for the entire absence of color prodaced by fear (Jer. xxx, 6 ; oomp. %\(tfp(SCt Horn. //. X, 876) ; hence xkio^dq (Bey. vi, 8) describes the ghastly, livid hue of death. In other passages ^' green" \s erroneoosly nsed in the A.Y. for white (Gen. xxx, 87; Esth. i, 6), young (Ley. ii, 14; xxiii, 14), moigt (Judg. xyi, 7, 8), »appy (Job viii, 16), and unripe (Cant, ii, 18). Thus it may be said that ^reeii is never nsed in the Bible to convey the impres- sion of proper color. See Gbbeit.
The only fundamental color of which the Hebrews appear to have had a dear conception was red; and even this is not very often noticed. They had, there- fore, no scientific knowledge of colors, and we can- not but think that the attempt to explain such pas- sages as Bev. iv, 8, by the rules of philosophical truth must fail (see Hengstenberg, Comm. in loc.). Instead of assuming that the emerald represents ^reen, the Jas- per yellow, and the sardine red, the idea intended to be conveyed by these images may be simply that of pure, brUltarUy irantpcarent light. Tiie emendd, for instance, was chiefly prized by the ancients for its glittering, tciniillating qualities (alyXriHCy Orpheus, De lap, p. 608), whence, perhaps, it derived its name (<rfiapaydog, fh)m fiapnai(t€iv). The jasper a characterized by John himself (Bev. xxi, 11) as being crystal-dear (rpvdraXX^ov), and not as having a certain hue. The sutiine may be compared with the amber of Ezek. i, 4, 27, or the burnished brass of Dan. x, 6, or, again, the fine brass, **as if burning in a furnace," of Bev. i, 16, each conveying the impression of the color of fire in a state of pure incandescence. Similarly the beryl, or, rather, the chryaolite (the Hebrew tarthuK) may be sdected by Daniel (x, 6) on account of its transparen- cy. An exception may be made, perhaps, in regard to the sapphire, in as far as its hue answers to the deep blue of the firmament (Exod. xxiv, 10 ; compare Ezek. i, 26 ; x, 1), but even in this case the pellucidity (nan^, Ubnah% omitted in A. Y., Exod. xxiv, 10) or pol- ish c^the stone (comp. Lam. iv, 7) forms an important, if not the main, element in the comparison. The high- est development of color in the mind of the Hebrew evidently was light, and hence the predominance given to white as its representative (comp. the connection be- tween \ivk6q and lux). This feeling appears both in the more numerous allusions to it than to any other color — in the variety of terms by which they discrim- inated the shades from t^pcde, dull tint (HilS, ieheh^, blackisk, Lev. xiii, 21 sq.) up to the most brilliant splendor (*Ii1't, xo'har, Ezek. viii, 2 ; Dan. xii, 8>— and in the comparisons by which they sought to height- en their ideas of it, an instance of which occurs in the tliree accounts of the Transfiguration, where the coun- tenance and robes are described as like ** the sun" and " the light" (Matt, xvii, 2), "sWning, exceedhig white as snow" (Mark ix, 3), "glistening" (Luke ix, 29). Snow is used eleven times in a similar way, the sun five times, wool four times, milk once. In some in- stances the point of the comparison is not so obvious, e. g. in Job xxxviii, 14^ "they stand as a garment" in reference to the white color of the Hebrew dress, and in Psa. Ixviii, 18, where the glancing hues of the dove*s plumage suggested an image of the briUiant effect of the widie holiday costume. Next to white, black, or rather dark, holds the most prominent place, not only as its opposite, but also as representing the complexion of the Orientsls. There were various shades of it, in- f^luding the brown of the Nile water (whence its name ''>--the reddish tint of early dawn, to which the I
complexion of the bride is likened (Cant vi, lO). « well as the lurid hue produced by a fiiglit of looub (Joel ii, 2>— and the darkness of blackness itself (Lai iv, 8). As before, we have various heightenisg faifr ges, such as the tents of Kedar, a flock at gosts, tk raven (Cant i, 6 ; iv, 1 ; v, 11), and ssckctoth (Ber.i^ 12). Red was also a color of which the Heteevskid a vivid conception; this may be attributed psitlyti the prevalence of th^ color in the outward aip«ct of the conntriea and peoples with which they wbta CniL iar, as attested by the name Edom, and by the vtrii adianah (earth) and adan (man), so termed eitlHr ai being formed out of the red earth, or as bdng ndk comparison with the fair color of the AsByrisss ai the black of the Ethiopians. Bed was regirded m an dement of personal beauty : comp. 1 Sam. xriU; Cant ii, 1, where the lily is the red one ibr wiiicb Srm was famed (Plin. xxi, 11); Cant iv, 8; vi, 7, vboc the complexion is compared to the red fhdt of tfae pomegranate ; and Lam. iv, 7, where the hne of i^ skin is redder than coral (A. V. '* rubies") oontnutiBg with the white of the gonnems before notked. Tls three colors, white, black, and red, were sometimes ib- termixed in animals, and gave rise to the terms "tQ, tsahor^j dappled (A.V. "white'*), piobshly white lad red (Judg. v, 10) ; ^9, afocf , ringstreaied, either vitk white bands on the legs, or white-footed ; 'Ip), nahd', speckled, and vkxa, iala\ spotted, white and black; id lastly ^iSa, barod,' pi^i>ald (A. V. "grizzled"), tk spots being larger tlian in the two fbrmer (Gen. xxx, 82, 86; xxxi, 10); the latter term is used of s bone (Zech. vi, 8, 6) with a symbolical meaning: Bsa^ stenberg (Chrirtol, in loc.) considers the octo itself to be unmeaning, and that the prophet has added tk term strong (A. V. " bay") by way of explsnttioi; Hitzig (Comm. in loc.) explains it, in a peculiar mo* ner, of the complexion of the Egyptians. It remiu for us now to notice the various terms applied to Utw three colors. (See each of the above words in itt pUce.)