purple

A distinctive dye color associated with royalty or wealth. Such dye was a product of the Syrian and Phoenician coastal zone, whose people maintained a monopoly on the item through much of history. It derived from a distinctive combination of colors acquired from gastropods that lived in Mediterranean waters of the region. Biblical references to blue and scarlet together with purple are extensive (Exod 25:4; Exod 36:35), and the colors were prized for priestly vestments in Israel’s tradition. A good wife was clothed in purple (Prov 31:22), Solomon’s palanquin seat was purple (Song 3:10), Jesus was temporarily cloaked in purple during his preexecution incarceration (Mark 15:17-20; John 19:2-5), the rich man’s clothes included purple in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19), Lydia of Thyatira was a trader of purple goods (Acts 16:14), and purple figured in the eschatological vision of a condemned harlot, who symbolizes Rome (Rev 17:4; Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16).