Purple in the ancient world held common characteristics: symbolic of power, wealth, and beneficence. Purple was also thought to be produced and imported from the Phoenician area, situated along the Levantine coastal shore. Yet between different literature circles, the specifics of purple diverged widely. This article explores the social function of purple-material (and its inherent purple-colour) in the Hebrew Bible in light of wider ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean texts. As with any given cultural material, the meaning of purple is relative; it is differentially significant according to audience, context, subject matter, and the qualities of the material. By utilising a sociological and comparative approach, in the following I consider the use of purple in Homeric epic, ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions and biblical texts. I demonstrate that purple pigments and dyes, as well as the purple-colour of the object to which the pigments/dyes is applied, is a key means to communicate something culturally-specific. In so doing, this ultimately provides fresh insight into the texts and offers a glimpse into the thought processes of ancient society.
Recent scholarship has shown a burgeoning interest in the narrative functions and implications of references to dress and adornment in the Hebrew Bible. Yet the many references to the various clothing items and associated acts of dressing and undressing in the book of Esther have been less explored. In fact, the book of Esther weaves a complex tapestry of garment imagery, and untangling this tapestry is essential to properly interpreting this text. Through dress, characters can communicate their conformity to certain conventional expectations, affecting the ways in which other characters relate and behave towards them. Characters can utilize dress to express their protest, or conversely hide their true intentions. Crucially, differences in clothing develop distinctions between the power and status of the various characters. Clothing therefore has discrete and important functions in the book of Esther, providing new access to understanding characterisation and plot.
In the book of Daniel, Daniel and his friends all adopt foreign dress to succeed in a foreign setting. We might understand this as a kind of colonization, wrought upon bodies. But this raises questions about their ethnic identity: can one remain Jewish if adopting and adapting to foreign embodied practices, including dress, adornment, and diet? By exploring embodied practices as an issue of ethnicity and identity formation in Daniel 1–6, we will argue that these stories make a bold claim about the embodied colonization of the foreign court: underneath their Persian garb, Daniel and his friends remain thoroughly Jewish after all.
1 Samuel 28:14 describes the appearance of the ghost of Samuel, who, upon King Saul's request, was raised by a medium. We identify four key elements of the ghost's visage, all of which relate to the living Samuel or King Saul, or their relationship, and all critique King Saul and foreshadow the loss of the kingship and his demise. The four elements are: the ghost is an "old man," the ghost is "coming up" from the ground, the ghost is "covered," and the ghost is covered by a "robe." Though there are many angelic and divine encounters in the Hebrew Bible, this passage is unique in that it describes an encounter between the living and the dead. The appearance of the ghost is clearly outlined but often overlooked by commentators, who predominantly question the technical aspects of the necromantic ritual and the climax of Saul's narrative. This article examines the passage's representation of ancient Israelite conceptions of divine embodiment, the dead's sartorial preferences, and materiality. We also consider the rewriting and translations in other ancient versions (e.g., LXX; Josephus; LAB) to highlight some of the different associations that this appearance had in ancient interpretations.
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