Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - PURPLE

 PURPLE*

It is said that in the Bible there are few, if any, details which are not of some significance. In that case, one has to wonder why the colour purple is used so frequently; is it just because we consider it to be the colour of royalty?

Purple is really the combination of two primary colours - blue and red. It is mentioned 26 times in the book of Exodus alone and always in association with both blue and red or scarlet. In the New Testament, the colour purple is used either by itself or in association with scarlet but never with the colour blue.

So does this little detail have any real significance or not? In Exodus, the instructions for the curtains in the tabernacle were given.

Moreover you shall make the tabernacle 

with ten curtains of fine woven linen, 

and blue, purple, and scarlet thread; 

with artistic designs of cherubim you shall weave them. 

(Exodus 26:1)

The purple colour would come about because the blue and scarlet threads would be so tightly woven together that it would appear as purple thread. Thus, the two other colours meeting together would produce the third colour.

In the times of the Exodus, the tabernacle was the tent of meeting; the place where the two main entities of life at that time, God and man, could come together. In such a place and time, blue represented the heavens, i.e.: God, and so was always stated as coming first. And of course, red represents the colour of the earth of the Middle East and it was from earth man came and it was to earth he would return. In addition it should be noted that the Hebrew word for man is Adam which derives from another Hebrew word meaning red.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground… 

(Genesis 2:7)

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread 

Till you return to the ground, 

For out of it you were taken; 

For dust you are, 

And to dust you shall return. 

(Genesis 3:19)

As a result, scarlet not only represented the earth but also the sin and guilt of the earthy life. Thus, from the very beginning, existed this symbol of the desire for there to be a reconciliation between God and mankind. So, as it is only by a tight union of the blue and scarlet threads that one can obtain a purple colour, likewise it is only by a tight relationship that a true reconciliation can be achieved between God and man.

The possibility of this was realized at the time of the crucifixion and was in turn symbolized when a purple robe was placed on Christ.

…and they put on Him a purple robe. 

(John 19:2)

Then Jesus came out, 

wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

And Pilate said to them “Behold the Man!” 

(John 19:5)

Not only behold the Man but also behold God, for man and God had again become one; reconciled at last. The blue of heaven and the crimson of earth had become joined in the purple of eternity - man and God reconciled.

Surely something to think about.    

 

*The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn, p.g. 289.