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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Crimson
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, shani' (Jer_4:30; elsewhere “scarlet;” fully úּåֹìִòִú ùָׁðַé , crimson-worm, Exo_25:4, or ùְׁðַé úåֹìִòִú , worm crimson, Lev_14:4, or simply úּåֹìִò , the worm itself, Isa_1:15, all rendered, except in this last passage, likewise:' scarlet”), later ëִּøְîַéì , kar'il' (invariably “crimson,” 2Ch_2:7; 2Ch_2:14; 2Ch_3:14; on this Hebrews term, see Lorsbach, Archiv fur morgenlind. Literatur, 2:305; Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 714), a well-known red color (Pliny, 21:22), of a deep hue bordering on purple (q.v.), and in this respect differing from the brighter scarlet (q.v.), yet of a brilliant color (Isa_1:18; comp. Pliny, 33:40; hence ÷ñῶìá ὀîý; so in Mat_27:28, ÷ëÜìõò êïêêßíç = ἐóèὴò ëáìðñÜ in Luk_23:11). highly prized among the ancients for garments and tapestry (Horace, Sat. 2:6, 102), as articles of luxury with the nobility (Jer_4:30; 2Sa_1:24; Pro_31:21; Lam_4:5; comp. Martial, 3, 2, 11; 2:39, 1; 43, 8; Patron. Sat. 32), and with the Romans for the robes of generals and princes (Pliny, 22:3; comp. Mat_27:28, where êïêêßíç ῟ ðõñðýñá in Mar_15:17; Mar_15:20, and Joh_19:4), especially the emperors (Sueton. Domit. 4). Many of the fabrics of the tabernacle and sacerdotal paraphernalia were also woven (Exodus 38; Num_4:8) of threads of this dye (Gen_38:28; Jos_2:18), which was likewise employed for the curtain of Solomon's Temple (2Ch_3:14; comp. Sueton. Nero, 30). The color again occurs in the Mosaic ritual (Lev_14:6; Num_19:6). As to its symbolical significance, Philo (Opp. 1:536; comp. 2:148) and Josephus (Ant. 3, 7, 7) think that it, like the two sacred colors (scarlet and purple), reps resents the element of fire; according to Bahr (Sync. bol. 1:333 sq.), it denotes life (i.e. fire and blood, which are both red); while others find in it other typical allusions. SEE DYE.
Crimson is obtained from the pulverized cochineal berries, i.e. the dead bodies and larve-nests (see Brandt and Ratzeburg's Medicin. Zoologie, Berl. 1831 sq., 2, pl. 26, fig. 15) of a small parasitic insect, the female cochineal-worm ( úּåֹìִòִú , tola') or kermes (the Coccus ilicis of Linn., cl. 4, Tetragynia), which towards the end of April fastens itself, like little raisins, in the form of round reddish or violet-brown berries upon the twigs, less frequently on the leaves, of the palmoak ( ðñῖíïò or ἡ êüêêïò , Ilex aquifolia or coccifera; comp. Theophrastus, Plaut. 3, 16; Pliny, 16:12; Pausanias, 10:36, 1; see Kirby, Entomol. 1:351; Cuvier, Anim. King. 3, 604, 608). This shrubby tree, some two or three feet high, grows abundantly in Asia Minor and Hither Asia (certainly also in Palestine; see Belon, Observ. 2:88), as well as in Southern Europe, has oval, pointed, evergreen, thorny leaves, a grayish smooth bark, and bears round scarlet berries in clustered tufts (Dioscor. 4:48). Among the ancients, the Phoenicians generally supplied the rest of the world with crimson materials, and best under-stood the art of dyeing this color (2Ch_2:7; comp. Pliny, 9:65). (See Beckmann, Beitr. III, 1:1 sq.; Bochart, Hieroz. 3, 524 sq.; Braun, De vestitu sacerd. 1. i, c. 15, p. 215 sq.; Hartmann, Hebr. 1:388 sq.; 3, 135 sq.; Penny Cyclopaedia, s.v. Cochineal.) SEE COLOR.