The Dyeing of Puiple in Ancieyit Israel 31 



coast belonging to the great Hittite Empire in Northern Syria. 



In view of the tradition crediting Phoenicia with the 

 invention of purple-dyeing, and of the high esteem in which 

 Tyrian purple was universally held in antiquity,* it is i-ather 

 startling to find Ezekiel (XXVII, 7) referring to the Isles (or coast 

 lands) of Elisha as furnishing Tyre with tekelet and argainan. 

 This sounds like bringing coals to Newcastle. Where are those 

 isles or coast lands of Elisha % 



] am inclined to agree with Professor Sayce (Hasting's 

 Dictionary of the Bible, S.V. Elisha) that Elisha adjoined the 

 Mediterranean coast land. It may very well have been a 

 Phoenician settlement, which would seem to have excelled about 

 the time of Ezekiel, in the manufacture of purple. It would 

 thus appeal' that the universally renowned Tyrian pre-eminence 

 in purple production is subsequent to Ezekiel (died about 571 

 B.C.). 



A classical source! names Sarepta, Caesarea, Neapolis and 

 Lydda as cities supplying purple, thus indicating that the industry 

 covered an area comprising the coasts of Syro-Phoenicia, Galileo, 

 Samaria and Judaea. Migdal-Sabaja in the neighbourhood of 

 Lydda (Lud) would seem to have contained an important purple 

 market. 



The question in how far the manufacture of tekelet in 

 particular may have been affected by the imperial edicts issued 

 from time to time concerning the fabrication of purple, its sale 

 and use, is discussed at considerable length in my work on 

 tekelet. For centuries after the destruction of the Second 

 Temple extra-Palestinian Jewry was wont to procure tekelet 

 for the " fringes " from the Jewish dye-houses in the Holy Land. 

 There is a record of the importation of ritual tekelet into 

 Babylonia about 506 C.E. It may safely be asserted that at 

 the time of the completion of the Babylonian Talmud (c.E. 570) 

 tekelet still continued in practice for the sisit or fringes. On 

 the other hand in the Sheltot d' Eabbi-Ahai, a ritual work 



* (Cf. for instance, Strabo, XVI, li). 

 t Geog. Gr. Minores, II 5-13, 29. 



