The Murex Purple in Naturalis Historia and Holy Bible

摘要

The murex purple (Tyre Purple) extracted from murex was extreme famous in Roman times.According to unearthed archaeological findings,the murex purple was not only applied on textile dyes,but also widely used on pottery,architect,and fresco paintings.In ancient animal purple dying system,it has the widest range of application.The most important articles on researching murex purple include Animal History from Aristotle,Naturalis Historia from Pliny The Elder,and Holy Bible.The latter two provide numerous first-hand data on the history of murex purple and research on dying.However,description in Naturalis Historia has certain limitation and errors,such as the classification and naming of the murex species,and the documenting of dying.Moreover,it is worth noting that murex purple has frequent appearance in the Holy Bible,where "violet"appeared 49 times,and "purple" appeared 38 times.What was more,these two colors mainly appeared on Tabernaculum construction supply lists with gold,silver,and carmine,as well as dying sacred clothes.The highest-level priest's cloak,shoulder girdle,and head band only use violet color.According to Biblicist Jacob Milgrom,blue tassel in Jews'gown is extended from the violet from Holy Bible.