Dye

Dye and dyeing, though not described in procedural detail in the Bible, are attested throughout the scriptural narrative through the colored fabrics that formed part of Israel's sacred and domestic life. The tabernacle curtains and priestly vestments required threads of blue (tᵊḵēlet), purple (ʾargāmān), and crimson/scarlet (tôlāʿ shānî)—all dyed materials produced by complex dyeing processes (Exod. 26:1; 28:5–6; 35:6). Blue was derived from the snail Murex trunculus; purple from the Murex shellfish (the celebrated Tyrian purple of antiquity); and crimson from the dried bodies of the coccus ilicis insect (kermes).

The association of purple with wealth and royalty appears throughout Scripture: Judges 8:26 notes the purple garments of Midianite kings; Proverbs 31:22 describes the capable wife's garments of purple; Luke 16:19 uses purple as the marker of the rich man's luxury. Acts 16:14 introduces Lydia of Thyatira as "a seller of purple goods"—a dealer in the luxury textile trade who was Paul's first convert in Europe and whose household became the nucleus of the Philippian church. Revelation 17:4 and 18:12–16 use purple as an emblem of Babylon's imperial wealth and excess.