Purple
PURPLE
The famous and costly Tyrian purple, the royal color of the ancients, is said to have been discovered by the Tyrian Hercules, whose dog having by chance eaten a shellfish called Purpura, and returning to his master with his lips tinged with a purple color, occasioned the discovery of this precious dye. Purple, however, is much more ancient than this, since we find it mentioned by Moses in several places. Two kinds of purple are mentioned in the Old Testament:1. Argamon, rendered in our version “purple,” denoting a reddish purple obtained from a species of muscle or shellfish found on the coasts of the Mediterranean.2. Techieleth, rendered in the English Bible “blue.” This was a bluish or cerulean purple, likewise obtained from another species of shellfish. The “scarlet” or “crimson,” for the two words denote essentially the same color, was produced from the coccus in sect, coccus ilicis. All these were sacred colors among the Jews; and the latter was used for the highpriest’s ephod, and for veils, ribbons, and cloths, Exo 26:1,4,31,36 28:31 Num 4:6-12 15:38.The “purple” of the ancients seems to have included many different tints derived originally from the shellfish, and modified by various arts in which the Tyrians excelled. As each fish yielded but a few drops of coloring matter, the choicest purple bore a very high price. Purple robes were worn by the kings and first magistrates of ancient Rome, and Nero forbade their use by his subjects under pain of death. Our Savior was clothed with a royal robe of purple, in mockery of his title, “The King of the Jews” Joh 19:2,5 . Compare also Jdg 8:26 Gen 8:15 Pro 31:22 Dan 5:7 Luk 16:19 . Moses used much wool dyed of a crimson and used much wool dyed of a crimson and purple color in the work of the tabernacle, and in the ornaments of the high priest, Exo 25:4 26:1,31,36 39:1 2Ch 3:14 . The Babylonians also clothed their idols in robes of a purple and azure color, Jer 10:9 Eze 23:15 27:7,16.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Purple
See Colours.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
purple
An emblem of penance. used during the penitential seasons of Lent and Advent, except on saints’ days and on the two Sundays when rose may be substituted.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Purple
(, aryaman, from the Sanscrit raga, red; see (esen. Thes. s.v.; Chald. , ayrevdn, from the same root, in 2Ch 2:7; Dan 5:7; Dan 5:16; Dan 5:29; Sept. and Greek Test. ; Vulg. purpura) occurs in Exo 25:4; Exo 26:1; Exo 26:31; Exo 26:36; Exo 27:16; Exo 28:5-6; Exo 28:8; Exo 28:15; Exo 28:33; Exo 35:6; Exo 35:23; Exo 35:25; Exo 35:35; Exo 36:8; Exo 36:35; Exo 36:37; Exo 38:18; Exo 38:23; Exo 39:1-3; Exo 39:5; Exo 39:8; Exo 39:24; Exo 39:29; Num 4:13; Jdg 8:26; 2Ch 2:14; 2Ch 3:14; Est 1:6; Est 8:15; Pro 31:22; Son 3:10; Son 7:5; Jer 10:9; Eze 27:7; Eze 27:16; Sir 45:10; Bar 6:12; Bar 6:72; 1Ma 4:23; 1Ma 8:14; 1Ma 10:20; 1Ma 10:62; 2Ma 4:38; Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20; Luk 16:19, Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5; Act 16:14; Rev 17:4; Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16. In many of these passages the word translated purple means purple cloth, or some other material dyed purple, as wool, thread, etc.; but no reference occurs to the means by which the dye was obtained, except in 1Ma 4:23, where we have , purple of the sea (comp. Diod. Sic. iii, 68; Josephus, War, v, 5, 4). There is, however, no reason to doubt that it was obtained, like the far-famed Tyrian purple, from the juice of certain species of shell-fish. Different accounts are given by the ancients respecting the date and origin of this invention. Some place it in the reign of Phoenix, second king of Tyre, B.C. 500; others at the time that Minos I reigned in Crete, B.C. 1439, and consequently before the Exodus (Suidas, s.v. , ii, 73). But the person to whom the majority ascribe it is the Tyrian Hercules, whose dog, it is said, instigated by hunger, broke a certain kind of shell-fish on the coast of Tyre, and his mouth becoming stained of a beautiful color, his master was induced to try its properties on wool, and gave his first specimens to the king of Tyre, who admired the color so much that he restricted the use of it by law to the royal garments (Pollux, Ononm. i, 4; Achilles Tatius, De Clitoph.; Palaephat. in Chronicles Paschal. p. 43). It is remarkable that though the Israelites, as early as the first construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness, appear to have had purple stuff in profilsion (Exo 25:1-4), which they had most likely brought with them out of Egypt, yet no instance occurs in the pictorial language of the Egyptians, nor in Wilkinson’s Ancient Manners and Customs, of the actual process of dyeing either linen or woollen, although dyes similar to the Tyrian were found among them. These facts agree, at least, with the accounts which ascribe the invention to the earliest of these two periods, and the pre-eminent trade in it to the Tyrians.
The Greeks attributed its first introduction among themselves to the Phoenicians (Eurip. Phoen. 1497). Their word , Phoenix, means both Phenician and purple. The word is, according to Martinius, of Tyrian origin. Though purple dyes were by no means confined to the Phoenicians (comp. Eze 27:7, purple from the isles of Elisha, supposed to mean Elis, and from Syria, Eze 27:16), yet violet purples and scarlet were nowhere dved so well as at Tyre, whose shores abounded with the best kind of purples (Pliny, Hist. Nat. 9:60, p. 524, ed. Harduin), and which was supplied with the best wool by the neighboring nomads. The dye called purple by the ancients, and its various shades, were obtained from many kinds of shell-fish, all of which are, however, ranged by Pliny under two classes: one called buccinum, because shaped like a horn, found, he says, in cliffs and rocks, and yielding a sullen blue dye, which he compares to the color of the angry raging sea in a tempest; the other called purpura, or pelagia, the proper purple shell, taken by fishing in the sea, and yielding the deep-red color which he compares to the rich, fresh, and bright color of deep-red purple roses and to coagulated blood, and which was chiefly valued (ibid. c. 61,62). The latter is the Murex trunculus of Linnaeus and Lamarck (see Syst. Nat. p. 1215, and Animaux sans Vertebres [Paris, 1822], 7:170). Both sorts were supposed to be as many years old as thev had spirals round. Michaelis thinks that Solomon alludes to their shape when he says (Son 7:5), The hair of thine head is like purple, meaning that the tresses (Sept. , Vulg. comoe capitis) were tied up in a spiral or pyramidal form on the top. Others say that the word purple is here used like the Latin papuureus, for beautiful, etc., and instance the purpurei olores, beautiful swans of Horace (Carm. 4:1, 10), and the u purpureus capillus of Virgil (Georg. 1, 405); but these phrases are not parallel.
The juice of the whole shell-fish was not used, but only a little thin liquor called the flower, contained in a white vein or vessel in the neck. The larger purples were broken at the top to get at this vein without injuring it, but the smaller were pressed in mills (Aristot. Hist. An. v, 13, 75; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 9:60). The Murex trunculus has been demonstrated to be the species used by the ancient Tyrians by Wilde, who found a concrete mass of the shells in some of the ancient dye- pots sunk in the rocks of Tyre (Narrative [Dublin, 1840], ii, 482). It is of common occurrence now on the same coasts (Kitto, Physical History of Palestine, p. 418), and throughout the whole of the Mediterranean, and even of the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean, the countries most celebrated for purples were the shores of Peloponnesus and Sicily, and in the Atlantic the coasts of Britain, Ireland, and France. Horace alludes to the African (Carm. ii, 16, 35). There is, indeed, an essential difference in the color obtained from the purples of different coasts. Thus the shells from the Atlantic are said to give the darkest juice; those of the Italian and Sicilian coasts, a violet or purple; and those of the Phoenician, a crimson. It appears from the experiments of Reaumur and Duhamel that the tinging juice is perfectly white while in the vein; but upon being laid on linen, it soon appears first of a lightgreen color, and, if exposed to the air and sun, soon after changes into a deep green, in a few minutes into a sea-green, and in a few more into a blue; thence it speedily becomes of a purple red, and in an hour more of a deep purple red, which, upon being washed in scalding water and soap, ripens into a most bright and beautiful crimson, which is permanent. The ancients applied the word translated purple not to one color only, but to the whole class of dyes manufactured from the juices of shell-fish, as distinguished from the vegetable dyes (colores herbacei), and comprehending not only what is commonly called purple, but also light and dark purple, and almost every shade between.
Various methods were adopted to produce these different colors. Thus, a sullen blue was obtained from the juice of the buccinum alone; a plain red, yet also deep and brown, from the pelagia; a dark red by dipping the wool, etc., first in the juice of the purpura, and then in that of the buccinum; a violet (which was the amethyst color so much valued by the Romans) by reversing the process; and another, the most valued and admired of all-the tyriamethystus-by again dipping the amethyst in the juice of the pelagia. This Pliny calls diblapha Tyria; so named, he says, because bis tincta (Hist. Nat. 9:39). No reference to this process occurs in the Scriptures, but it is often alluded to in Roman authors. Thus, Horace (Epod. 12:21): Muricibus Tyriis iteratae vellera lanue (the wools with Tyrian purple double dyed). Other varieties of color may have been produced by the use of various species of mollusks, and of those from different coasts. The Phcenicians also understood the art of throwing a peculiar lustre into this color by making other tints play over it, and producing what we call a shot color, which seems to have been wonderfully attractive (Pliny, 9:41).
Purple was employed in religious worship both among Jewns andl Gentiles. It was one of the colors of the curtains of the tabernacle (Exo 26:1); of the veil (Exo 26:31); of the curtain over the grand entrance (Exo 26:36); of the ephod of the high-priest (Exo 28:5-6), and of its girdle (Exo 28:8); of the breastplate (Exo 28:15); of the hem of the robe of the ephod (Exo 28:33); (comp. Sir 45:10); of cloths for divine service (Exo 39:1; comp. Num 4:13), resumed when the Temple was built (2Ch 2:7; 2Ch 2:14; 2Ch 3:14). The material upon which the Jews used purple and other brilliant colors, at least in their sacred paraphernalia, seems to have been exclusively wool, which, it is well known, takes colors better than linen. SEE TABERNACLE.
Pliny records a similar use of it among the Romans: Diis advocatur placandis (Hist. Nat. 9:60; Cicero, Epist. ad Atticumtni, ii, 9). The Babylonians arrayed their idols in it (Jer 10:9; Bar. 12:72). It was at an early period worn by kings (Jdg 8:26). Homer speaks as if it were almost peculiar to them (II. 4:144; 1Ma 8:14). Pliny says it was worn bv Romulus and the succeedilg kings of Rome, and by the consuls and first nagistrates under the republic. Suetonius relates that Julius Caesar prohibited its use by Roman subjects, except on certain days; and that Nero forbade it altogether, upon pain of death. The use of it was bestowed by kings upon favorites, etc.; Josephus says by Pharaoh on Joseph (Ant. ii, 5, 7). It was given by Ahasuerus to Mordecai (Est 8:15); to Daniel by Belshazzar (Dan 5:7; Dan 5:16; Dan 5:29). It was the dress of an ethnarch or prince, and as such given by Alexander to Jonathan (1Ma 10:20; 1Ma 10:62; 1Ma 10:64-65; comp. 2Ma 4:38). In the last chapter of the Proverbs it is represented as the dress of a matron (2Ma 4:22). It was at one time worn by Roman ladies and rich men (Livy, 34:7, and Valerius Max. ii, 1). See also the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luk 16:19). In Est 1:6, it appears as part of the royal furniture of Ahasuerus; and in Son 3:10, as the covering of the royal chariot; and Pliny refers to its general use, not only for clothes, but carpets, cushions, etc. (ix, 39). The robe in which the Prnetorian guard arrayed the Saviour, called by Mat 27:28, and by Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20, and by Joh 19:2, and which appears to have been the cast-off sagum of one of their officers, was no doubt scarlet-that is, proper crimson, as will hereafter appear of a deeper hue and finer texture than the sagum or chlamys of the common soldier, but inferior in both respects to that of the emperor, which was also of this color in the time of war, though purple during peace. The adjectives used by the evangelists are, however, often interchanged. Thus a vest, which Horace (Sat. ii, 6, 102) calls rubro cocco tincta, in 1, 106 he styles purpurea.
Braunius shows that the Romans gave this name to any color that had a mixture of red (De Vestitu Sacerdotun [Lugd. Bat. 1680], i, 14). Ovid applies the term purpureus to the cheeks and lips (Amor. i, 3). In Act 10:14, reference is found to Lydia, of the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple cloth. The manufacture seems to have decayed with its native city. A colony of Jews which was established at Thebes in Greece in the 12th century carried on an extensive manufactory for dyeing purple. It ultimately became superseded by the use of indigo, cochineal, etc., whence a cheaper and finer purple was obtained, and free from the disagreeable odor which attended that derived from shell-fish (Martial, 1, 50, 32). The method of the ancients in preparing and applying it, and other particlars respecting its history, uses, and estimation, are most fully given by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 9:36-42). The best modern books are Amati, De Restitutione Puiypuracrum (3d ed. Cesena, 1784); the treatise by Capelli, De Antiqua et Nupera Purpura, with notes; and Don Michaele Rosa, Dissertazione delle Porpore. etc. (1768). See also Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, 43, 219, etc.; Bochart, edit. Rosenmuller, iii, 675, etc.; Heeren, HistoricalResearches, translated (Oxford, 1833), ii, 8, etc. Steger, De Pupura, Sacroe Dignitatis Insigni (Lips. 1741).
Crimson (leb. karmiil’, , a Persian word akin to Sanscrit krimi, Eng. crimson. It occurs in 2Ch 2:7-14; 2Ch 3:14; Sept. , Vulg. coccinum). This word is by some supposed to signify another kind of shell-fish, yielding a crimson dye, so called because found on the shore near Mount Carmel. If so, these words (Son 7:5), thine head upon thee is like Carmel, may contain another reference to the shape of some sort of purpura (Bochart, iii, 661, etc.). Gesenius says it is a mword belonging to later Hebrew, and most probably of Persian or Armenian origin.
The purple dye itself was a liquor, contained in a vein situated in the neck of the animal, which when first opened resembled cream in color and consistence. Small shells were collected and bruised in mortars, butt the larger ones were opened singly, the fluid carefully removed, and mingled with salt to prevent decomnposition. It was diluted with five or six times as mmuclh water, and kept moderately hot in leaden or tin vessels for eight or ten days, during which the liquor was often skimmed, to separate all the impurities. After this, the wool to be dyed, being first well washed, was immersed, and kept therein for five hours, then taken out, cooled, and again immersed, and continued in the liquor till all the color was exhausted (Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i, 91). Prior to the researches of Mr. Wilde, noticed above, it had been concluded that the purpura of Plinly was the Murex trunculus of Linnaeus from indirect evidence. The buccinum uof the same ancient writer is thought to be the Purpurat patula of Lamarck; and probably the P. lapillus, one of the most abundant of species on the rocky shores of Europe, including Great Britain, may have been the chief of the smaller sorts. It has been supposed by some that the conchyliu;m of Pliny, which gave a paler and bluer purple, was our Janthina fragilis; but this is out of the question, because though this snail-like mollusk discharges a violet fluid, it is exceedingly volatile, and therefore wholly unfit for dyeing, whereas unalterable permanency characterized the Phoenician purples. Scalaria clathrus, another European shell-fish whicl discharges a coloring fluid, is liable to the same objection, unless the ancients had some mode of fixing what we find evanescent. Colonel Montagu instituted some experiments on this. The purple juice, he says, may be collected either from the recent or dried animal, by opening the part behind the head; and as much can be procured from five individuals as is slufficient, when mixed with a few drops of spring-water, to cover half a sheet of paper.
Neither volatile nor fixed alkali materially affects it; mineral acids turn it a bluish green or sea-green; sulphuric acid renders it a shade more inclining to blue; vegetable acids probably do not affect it. since cream of tartar did not in the least alter it. These colors, laid on paper, were very bright, and appeared for some months unchanged by the action of the air or the sun; but being exposed tor a whole summer to the solar ravs in a south window, they almost vanished. The application of alkali to the acidulated color always restores it to its primitive state, and it is as readily changed again by mineral acid (Montagu, Testacea Brit. Supp. p. 122). The circumstance that the fluid effused by Janthina and Scalariat is purple from the first is conclusive against its being the purple dye of the ancients, who tell us distinctly that this was white or cream-like while within the vein. This agrees accurately with the genera Murex and Purpura, as may be readily tested in the case of P. lapillus, the common dog-whelk of the British coast. Montagu thus records the result of his experiments on this species: The part containing the coloring-matter is a slender longitudinal vein, just under the skin on the back, behind the head, appearing whiter than the rest of the animal. The fluid itself is of the color and consistence of cream.
As soon as it is exposed to the air it becomes of a bright yellow, speedily turns to a pale green, and continues to change imperceptibly, until it assumes a bluish cast, and then a purplish red. Without the influence of the solar rays, it will go through all these changes in the course of two or three hours; but the process is much accelerated by exposure to the sun. A portion of the fluid, mixed with diluted vitriolic acid, did not at first appear to have been sensibly affected; but, by more intimately mixing it in the sun, it became of a pale purple, or purplish red, without any of the intermediate changes. Several marks were now made on fine calico, in order to try if it were possible to discharge the color by such chemical means as were at hand; and it was found that after the color was fixed at its last natural change, nitrous no more than vitriolic acid had any other effect than that of rather brightening it; aqua regia, with or without solution of tin, and marine acid, produced no change; nor had fixed or volatile alkali any sensible effect. It does not in the least give out its color to alcohol, like cochineal, and the succus of the animal of Turbo (Sclariat) clathrus; but it communicates its very disagreeable odor to it most copiously, so that opening the bottle has been more powerful in its effects on the olfactory nerves than the effluvia of assafetida, to which it may be compared. All the markings which had been alkalized and acidulated, together with those to which nothing had been applied, became, after washing in soap and water, of a uniform color rather brighter than before, and were fixed at a fine unchangeable crimson (Test. Brit. Sulpp. p. 106). The changes of color are absolutely dependent on the stimulus of light.
Dr. Bancroft found that linen stained with the fluid of the Purpura might be kept for years shut between the leaves of a book witllout any visible change, which at the expiration of its incarceration presently passed through all the changes, under the influence of light, to a glowing purple (On Perman. Col. i, 145). Reaumur asserts that the immature egg-capsules of the same mollusk will yield the dye more abundantly, and with more facility. than the animal itself (Hist. Acad. Sci. 1711). It would appear as if the knowledge of this art had never been lost, but had been perpetuated even in Great Britain from the classical ages. Bede, in the 8th century, alludes to it familiarly, and with admiration of the brilliancy and permanency of the hue (Hist. Ecclesiastes Ang. i, 1); and Richard of Cirencester speaks of it in the 14th (Descr. of Brit. p. 28). About the same time the following description was given in a translation of Higden’s Polychronicon: Ther is allso of shel that we dyeth with fine reede. The reednesse ther of is wondre fayre and stable and steyneth nevyr with colde withwith hete ne with drie but ever the eldere the hew is fayrere (Of Bretacyne, i, 38). Three hundred years later the art was practiced for profit by persons on the coast of Ireland, who guarded it as an heirloom secret. Cole, however, found that the Purpura lapillus was the shell employed. See Bible Educator, 3, 327 sq.; 4:217; and SEE COLOR.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Purple
argan. Obtained by the Tyrians from the shell fish Murex purpura, and Murex conchylium. (Exo 25:4; Exo 35:25; Jdg 8:26; Pro 31:22).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Purple
PURPLE.The adj. had originally no connexion with a particular colour either by derivation or by use (see Liddell and Scotts Lex. s.v. ). Similarly in the Latin poets purpureus regularly stands for nothing more than bright. In Greek, after the discovery of the purple dye, the notion of colour became inherent. The gradations of colour were (darker shadespurple to crimson), (brighter red, rosy), (scarlet). In Mat 27:28, Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20, Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5, the last two words are used indiscriminately for the same colour (see art. Scarlet). Manufactured purples were of various kinds, all extracted from the juice of sea molluses. The following is a summary of their varieties, though the terms employed to describe them were not always confined to their proper use.
(1) Purple proper; of a bright red hue; obtained from the purple-snail (, purpura). This was used sometimes pure (called blatta), sometimes diluted (conchylium). Of the pure there were two sorts(a) Tyrian, the most celebrated, which was twice-dyed; (b) amethystine, of a paler tint. One pound of wool dyed with Tyrian purple cost 1000 denarii, with amethystine 100 (Plin. HN ix. 38, 63). The use of such purples (especially the former) is mentioned frequently in satirists and historians as a feature of ancient luxury (cf. Juv. Sat. vii. 134 ff.; Mart. viii. 10, etc.); hence Christs expression in Luk 16:19.
(2) Common purple; of a violet hue (i.e. rather than ); obtained from the trumpet-snail (). This was much less esteemed. Its colour apparently could even be compared to the dark blue of an Eastern sky (Josephus Ant. iii. vii. 7): but probably there were different tints.
The fiery-red purple (proper) of antiquity had practically no resemblance, as a colour, to the modern purple: the latter could never be described, even approximately, as scarlet (Mat 27:28). Yet, independently of the hue, the name carries with it in both cases the distinction of being the royal colour. Under the Roman Empire restrictions were imposed from time to time as to its general use; and the purple toga was the garb of the Emperor alone. It was as the badge of kingship that the purple formed part of the soldiers mockery (Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20 ||).
Literature.Becker, Gallus, Excursus ii. p. 446 ff.; Schmidt, Forschungen auf dem Gebiet des Alterthums, pp. 96212. An older work upon the subject is Amati, de Restitutione Purpurarum.
F. S. Ranken.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Purple
PURPLE.See Colours, 5.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Purple
purp’l (, ‘argaman; Chaldaic , ‘argewan (2Ch 2:7); compare Arabic ‘urjuwan, and Persian ‘arghawan; , porphura, , porphureos Septuagint and New Testament)):
Purple dye was manufactured by the Phoenicians from a marine mollusk, Murex trunculus. The shell was broken in order to give access to a small gland which was removed and crushed. The crushed gland gives a milky fluid that becomes red or purple on exposure to the air. Piles of these broken shells still remain on the coast at Sidon and Tyre. The purple gland is found in various species of Murex and also of Purpura.
Purple cloth was used in the furnishings of the tabernacle (Exo 25:4, etc.) and of Solomon’s temple (2Ch 2:14; 2Ch 3:14); in the palanquin of Solomon (Son 3:10); and in the hangings of the palace of Ahasuerus (Est 1:6). The kings of Midian had purple raiment (Jdg 8:26); the worthy woman of Pro 31:22 has clothing of fine linen and purple. Mordecai was clothed with purple by Ahasuerus (Est 8:15); Jesus by the Roman soldiers (Mar 15:17, Mar 15:20; Joh 19:2, Joh 19:5). The rich man of Luk 16:19 and the scarlet woman of Rev 18:12, Rev 18:16 were arrayed in purple. In Son 7:5 the bride has hair like purple. Purple is in the merchandise of Babylon (Rev 18:12). It is surprising that Ezekiel speaks of the Tyrians as obtaining purple from the isles of Elisha (Eze 27:7) and from Syria (Eze 27:16). See COLORS; DYE, DYEING.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Purple
A colour often mentioned with blue and scarlet in connection with the tabernacle. Exo 25:4, etc. Among the spoils taken from the Midianites under Gideon was “purple raiment that was on the kings,” and it is used as a symbol of royalty. Jdg 8:26. In derision the soldiers put a crown of thorns and a ‘purple’ robe on the Lord, as king of the Jews. Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20; Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5. The rich man in Luk 16:19 was clothed in purple; and papal Rome is seen as a woman clothed in purple and scarlet, royalty and splendour. Rev 17:4; Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Purple
Purple. Exo 25:4. The purple dye so famous among the orientals of ancient days was produced from a species of shellfish peculiar to the Mediterranean Sea. As each fish yielded but a few drops of coloring matter, the choicest purple bore a very high price. Purple robes were worn by the kings and first magistrates of ancient nations. Est 8:15. Comp. Luk 16:19.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
PURPLE
(1) Used in the Tabernacle
Exo 25:4; Exo 28:5; Num 4:13
(2) Rich Clothing
Est 8:15; Pro 31:22; Jer 10:9; Dan 5:7
–SEE Rich Apparel, DRESS
Scarlet, SCARLET
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Purple
originally denoted the “purple-fish,” then, “purple dye” (extracted from certain shell fish): hence, “a purple garment,” Mar 15:17, Mar 15:20; Luk 16:19; Rev 18:12.
“purple, a reddish purple,” is used of the robe put in mockery on Christ, Joh 19:2, Joh 19:5; in Rev 17:4 (in the best texts; some have No. 1); Rev 18:16, as a noun (with himation, “a garment,” understood).
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Purple
, Exo 25:4, &c; , Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20; Luk 16:19; Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5; Rev 17:4; Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16. This is supposed to be the very precious colour extracted from the purpura or murex, a species of shell fish; and the same with the famous Tyrian dye, so costly, and so much celebrated in antiquity. The purple dye is called in 1Ma 4:23, purple of the sea, or sea purple; it being the blood or juice of a turbinated shell fish, which the Jews call . (See Scarlet.) Among the blessings pronounced by Moses upon the tribes of Israel, those of Zebulun and Issachar are, They shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of the treasures hid in the sand, Deu 33:19. Jonathan Ben Uzziel explains the latter clause thus: From the sand are produced looking glasses, and glass in general; the treasures, the method of finding and working which, was revealed to these tribes. Several ancient writers inform us, that there were havens in the coasts of the Zebulunites, in which the sand proper for making glass was found. The words of Tacitus are remarkable: Et Belus amnis Judaico mari illabitur, circa ejus os lectae arenae admixto nitro in vitrum excoquuntur. The river Belus falls into the Jewish sea, about whose mouth those sands mixed with nitre are collected, out of which glass is formed. But it seems much more natural to explain the treasures hid in the sand, of those highly valuable murices and purpurae which were found on the sea coast, near the country of Zebulun and Issachar, and of which those tribes partook in common with their Heathen neighbours of Tyre, who rendered the curious dyes made from those shell fish so famous among the Romans by the names of Sarranum ostrum, Tyrii colores. In reference to the purple vestment, Luk 16:19, it may be observed that this was not appropriately a royal robe. In the earlier times it was the dress of any of high rank. Thus all the courtiers were styled by the historians purpurati. This colour is more properly crimson than purple; for the LXX, Josephus, and Philo, constantly use to express the Hebrew , by which the Talmudists understood crimson; and that this Hebrew word expressed, not the Tyrian purple, but that brought to the city from another country, appears from Eze 27:7. The purple robe put on our Saviour, Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5, is explained by a Roman custom, the dressing of a person in the robes of state, as the investiture of office. Hence the robe brought by Herod’s or the Roman soldiers, scoffingly, was as though it had been the pictae vestes usually sent by the Roman senate. In Act 16:14, Lydia is said to be a seller of purple. Mr. Harmer styles purple the most sublime of all earthly colours, having the gaudiness of red, of which it retains a shade, softened with the gravity of blue.
Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary
Purple
Son 7:5 (c) In this passage the color of our Lord’s hair is purple. In the fifth chapter it is black, while in Revelation 1 it is white. These three colors of His hair represent three wonderful characteristics of our Lord.
– the black hair tells us that He is a young King upon His Throne, with mighty power, vigor, vision and activity.
– the purple hair reminds us that He is the King of kings, Lord of lords, and the sovereign of eternity. He is part of the royal family. He has a right to wear the purple because of His majestic greatness.
– the white hair reminds us of His ageless life. He was from the past eternity through the coming eternity. He is the Ancient of days. He has wisdom, knowledge, discretion and understanding. He has experience of every kind. He is the Eternal One.
Joh 19:2 (c) The purple was placed upon our blessed Lord in mockery. He had claimed to be their King, but the Romans derided His claim, and in order to insult Him and show their hatred they clothed Him in mockery with the royal garments. Thus they exposed the wickedness of their hearts. (See also Mar 15:17).
Rev 17:4 (c) The royal color on this woman represents apostate Christendom. It indicates that she takes the place of being a royal ruler, even as the Roman Catholic church does today. This church exercises sovereign and supreme power in many countries. Her gorgeous robes, her magnificent processions, her priceless images and idols, her marvelous temples, her cruel power, her secret procedures all tell the story of a church that seeks to be king of kings, and lord of lords in the place of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. One day she will be utterly destroyed, as this chapter reveals.