2904 Purple Colour. 



blue in this painting, which is, in its way, much tnore vivid and 

 intense than the scarlet, it is not perhaps extravagant to suppose that 

 an interesting enquiry may be raised. On consulting the version of 

 the Septuagint, I find that, in the verse of Ezekiel which has been 

 quoted above, the Hebrew word for blue is rendered by hnakinthos. 

 In preparing the garments in which the Jewish high-priest was to 

 officiate, there is an especial direction that the robe of the Ephod, 

 which is believed to have reached from the head to the feet, should 

 be woven work all of blue ; (Exod. ch. 39, v. 22). In their translation 

 of this verse, also, the Septuagint employ the same word huakinthos 

 for blue, and it is used in like manner by Josephus, the Jewish his- 

 torian, whenever he has occasion to make mention of blue in the ela- 

 borate description which he has left us of all the particular colours 

 and ornaments, which appeared on the official robes of the high- 

 priest of his nation. Borrowing, as may be imagined, from the tradi- 

 tions and the conceits of the Rabbins, he tells us that every part of 

 the garments, and every colour and ornament upon them, had a mys- 

 tical meaning, and a reference to the appearance, the motions, and the 

 objects of the universe. In this way he gives us to understand, that 

 the blue of the robe, of the tiara or turban, and of the other parts of the 

 high-priest's official costume, was intended as emblematical of the fir- 

 maments of heaven ; (Antiquit. Judaic, cap. 8). Now, in the Egyptian 

 painting which has suggested these remarks, the blue is of that deep 

 and beautiful colour, which we are assured by travellers is the usual 

 hue of the heavens in all such climates as that of Judea during the 

 serene and the genial period of the year. Taking all these various 

 circumstances, therefore, in connection, we shall not perhaps be far 

 wide of the truth, if we believe that, in the blue of this most ancient 

 painting, we are looking on the very shade of colour by which, under 

 the injunction of Jehovah himself, the robe of the high-priest of his 

 chosen people was marked. And if this is the case, it is a painting 

 which, by a Christian, will be looked upon with more interest and 

 emotion than if it had indicated, in the most vivid manner, the parti- 

 cular tint of purple of the most costly robe, that was ever put on by 

 the most magnificent monarch of the heathen world. 



James Smith. 



Manse of Monqnhilter, Aberdeenshire. 

 April 291b,. 1850. 



