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Meaning Of The
Color Crimson
Crimson in the Bible
What does the color crimson symbolize
in the Bible? How is it linked to the building of Jerusalem's temple?
The
vast majority of flags for modern nations do not use crimson.
Nepal
is one of the very few, if only, country which uses the color. Nepal also holds
the distinction of having the only flag in the world that is not rectangular or
square.
In
modern times slight variations of crimson have been created for special uses,
such as colors called Fandango pink, Radical red (created by a crayon company),
Electric crimson, and a variation created especially for a university in the
state of Utah. Pink is considered a pale tint of this color.
Biblical meaning
of the color crimson
In
the King James Version Bible, the word 'crimson' occurs five times, all of
which are in the Old Testament.
The three Hebrew words from which it is derived
are karmity(Strong's
Concordance #H3758), which means a deep red, tola (#H8438), which refers to the maggot from which the dye is derived,
and shaniy (#H8144), which refers to the color's name.
Some
Bible commentaries believe that scarlet and crimson refer to the same color in
Scripture.
In
Joshua 2:18, the Hebrew word translated as 'scarlet' (#H8144) is the same one
translated as 'crimson' in Jeremiah 4:30.
The
word used in Joshua denotes the pigment of the cloth Rehab was to hang outside
her window as a sign to the Israelites not to attack her house.
This
color's use in Scripture lends itself to the symbolically meaning worship of
God (2 Chronicles 2:7,14, 3:14, Jeremiah
4:30) or a person's sins (Isaiah 1:18).
Anciently, the liquid used to create
the dye of this color came from the dried bodies of the cochineal insect
(possibly only from the female grub).
Both
crimson and scarlet were the firmest of dyes and not easily removed from cloth.
Tyre and the Temple
When King Solomon began to plan for the
building of God's temple in Jerusalem, he asked King Hiram of Tyre for help.
Hiram
had a friendly relationship with King David, a friendship that Solomon wished
to continue (2 Chronicles 2:3).
Tyre
at this time was famous for its dyes, dyeing industry and skilled craftsmen.
The
people of Tyre were knowledgeable on the best ways a dyeing cloth a certain
color, especially crimson and purple.
Solomon,
after stating he was building a great house of worship for the great God,
requested Hiram send him a man who could supervise the project and who had
special skills in working with colors.
He
also requested building materials and those skillful in construction.
“Now, therefore,
send me a man skillful to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, and in
iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and one who is skillful to engrave
with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my
father provided. And also send me cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees out
of Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skillful . . .” (2 Chronicles 2:7-8, HBFV).
The Bible says that Hiram responded by
sending just the right "color" person for the job (2 Chronicles 2:13 - 14).
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