COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
See Methodists, IV., 8.
COLORS IN THE BIBLE.
I. Color-Perception and Color-Nomenclature. II. Coloring-Materials. Purple (§ 1). Scarlet (§ 2). III. Symbolical Significance. White (§ 1).
Scarlet, Purple, and Blue (§ 2).
I. Color-Perception and Color-Nomenclature: A
Midrash story {Bamidhbar Rabbah xii.) indicates that red, blue, purple, and white fire were collectively a symbolic representation of the being of God. In the old Semitic scale of colors green and blue were not distinguished, so that sea, grass, and sky appeared of the same tint. The Semite has as yet no distinct word for the blue of heaven. People remaining in primitive conditions paint themselves either red or yellow. But among the
Colors in the Bible Columba
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Semites there is nowordfor "yellow, "and that color plays no part in the eultus. The same word in the Old Testament applies to the green of the leaf, the yellow of the grain, and the paleness of the countenance; another word is used for the blood-red or brown skin-color of men, the brown of the horse or the cow, and the yellow-brown of the lentil; still another stands for the raven-blackness of the hair, for the color of the skin [when tanned by exposure], and for the gray of the morning twilight.
II. Coloring-Materials : At the head of coloringmaterial in the Bible stands purple. For this the Old Testament had no appellative; it had only special words for the purple-red, to which as a dye it gave a name, and for purple- violet, to which it applied the name of the shell-fish. The Septuagint and Latin translations render the latter by hyacinthus and use the word for both the blue stone and a blue flower. Purple was an early monopoly of the artistic Phenicians of the Mediterranean coast.
The mussel which produced it was
1. Ptxrple. afterward found on other coasts
(Ezek. xxvii. 7, where " Elisha " probably means the Lacedaemonian coast). Thyatira was later celebrated for its purple (cf. Acts xvi. 14), though Tyre was the place where it was first made. The mounds near the latter place prove what the shell-fish was from which the dye was obtained. There are a number of varieties of fish which furnish a red or violet liquid, but their product fades on exposure to light and air. The varieties which furnished the old purple dye were the Murex trunculus and the Murex brandaris. The dye is not the blood, but a slimy secretion. At first this is not purple or red, but whitish, changing through yellowish and greenish tints to purple and making an unfading dye. Pliny says {Hist, nat., ix. 62) that the purple of Tyre was best when it was like coagulated blood and when looked at from above ran into black while from the side it reflected the light. Of the purple-blue he said that it was a cold color, like the angry sea.
Scarlet is a red which has more of yellow or brown in it than has the purple. It was obtained from an insect {coccus ilicin) which fed on oaks and shrubs, supposed to be a product of the tree, hence called coccus, " berry," and the oak on which it was found was called the " berry-bearing oak." The Pentateuch recognizes the insect and names it the " shining worm." The Persian name /cirm, found its way into late Hebrew (II Chron. ii. 6, 13; iii. 14); and the word scarlet, since the Middle Ages the name of the coloring obtained from this insect, is a loanword from the Turkish. This was
2. Scarlet, among Greeks and Romans the color
of the outer garments of soldiers, hence according to Matt, xxvii. 28 the soldiers put a scarlet cloak on Jesus (Mark xv. 17; John xix. 2 makes it purple). The coccus ilicis is still a source for this coloring-matter, though less extensively used than the coccus cacti of Mexico and Peru. Another red coloring-matter, " vermilion," is mentioned as a material for painting walls and images (Jer. xxii. 14; Ezek. xxiii. 14). This is a mineral red, in the Septuagint iniltoK, elsewhere meaning " crayon," also " oxid of lead " and " minium."
These four mineral reds were used by the ancients, who did not always discriminate in their employment of the names. The henna used in the East as a means of beautifying the person is not mentioned in the Oltl Testament. The Talmud and Targum wrongly find in Isa. iii. 16 a hint at painting the eyes with a red or yellow-red powder, though kohl, used to darken eyelids and eyebrows, was a favorite cosmetic among the Hebrews (Ezek. xxiii. 40; II Kings ix. 30). When it is said that the Lord will make the foundations of the New Jerusalem of sapphires, the pinnacles of rubies, and the gates with carbuncles the question arises why sapphire-blue is appropriated to the foundation and fiery-red to the battlements and walls, and it also leads to the problem of the symbolism of Biblical representations and to that of the eultus founded upon the Pentateuch. The Babylonians divided the various colors among the " seven lights of earth," and (Herodotus, i. 98) the seven concentric walls of Ecbatana had each its own color.
III. Symbolical Significance: Purple, blue, scarlet, and white are the four colors of the Mosaic eultus. Philo and Josephus associate these colors with the four elements, the sea (purple), the fire (scarlet), the air (blue), the earth (white), combinations which are purely arbitrary. The four colors were used in the outer curtains, the veil, the entrancecurtain, and the gate of the court, as also in the ephod, girdle, and breastplate of the high priest. The first three were used in the pomegranates about the hem of the robe of the high priest. Exclusively blue were the robe of the high priest, the lace of the high priest's breastplate, the lace on his miter, and the fifty loops of the curtains. Exclusively white were the breeches and miter of the high priest. The cloths for wrapping the sacred vessels were blue, scarlet, or purple. White were also the clothes of the lower priests. Add to this the blue ribbon and the fringe of the Hebrew dress, and there is seen at once the use and application of the colors employed in the Hebrew service. The red is used only once (Ex. xxvi. 14); the sealskins which covered the tabernacle were dyed that color. Black is excluded everjrwhere, as well as yellow and green. That purple, blue, scarlet, and white only were used is not accidental, but the outgrowth of the consciousness of tlieir significance. The reason for the use of the white to the total exclusion of the black is easy to perceive. Black, as it absorbs all colors and thus buries the light, is the symbol of death. But activity, life, light, holiness, and joy, on the one hand, and cessation, death, darkness, malice, and sorrow, on the other hand, are Biblical contrasts, of which white and black are the representatives of this twofold series of opposites. White, however, reflects the light; hence it symbolizes purity and victory. While the third rider of the Apocalypse sits on a l)lack horse, bringing with him famine and death (Rev. vi. 5), the Persian'horses in the eighth vision of Zechariah aro white, be-
r. White, cause no worldly power had ever shown a more noble disposition toward Israel than the dynasty of the Achnnuenidie, which set I the exiles free and promoted the building of the