All Things Color Series: All Things Purple. In this post I will talk about the color purple and how it is mentioned in the Bible and what the color means. #Purple

All Things Purple

I guess it depends on what screen you are this graphic looks blue, but remember purple is made by blue and red. See All Things Red and All Things Blue.

All Things Purple: When we think about the color Purple we think of grapes. I am sure some people will say Prince and his song “Purple Rain.”

Or maybe that purple dinosaur, Barney.

We even think of purple as royalty. Purple was a color that was worn by royalty, like in their robes and such.

Even at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, they put a purple robe on Him. Jesus said he was the King of the Jews. These people put the robe on Him to mock Him. So this can show that purple was linked to being in the king’s palace and royalty. See John 19:2, verse below.

And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe.

Even Mark 15:17 makes an account of this too.

We know that Jesus is the King of All Kings. He is the ruler of His Kingdom which is both in Heaven and Earth.

Below are the responses I got when I asked people on Facebook this questions. When you think about the color Purple what do you think about?

1. Whoopi Goldberg
2. Jesus robe
3. Barney
4. Oprah Winfrey.
5. Divine Royalty
6. Prince
7. Royalty and kingdom living
8. Jesus robe
9. Plums
10. Advent
11. Royalty
12. The new guitar I’m rebuilding right now
13. Jesus
14. Royalty, my birthstone, favorite color, bruises, February, violets, lilacs, the movie the color purple, and, grape juice.
15. My mom
16. Purple Rain
17. Devine Royalty

In the Jelly Bean Prayer The Color  purple is for the hour of sorrow.  (See below)
PURPLE – Purple is for the hour of sorrow.

Number of times used in the Bible

So I used biblegateway.com to look up how many times the word “Purple” is used in the Bible. Below is the number of times.

New King James Version (NKJV) – 53 times
King James Version (KJV) – 48 times
New International Version (NIV) – 51 times
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) – 52  times
English Standard Version (ESV) – 53 times

All the translations listed above use the word “Purple” around the same amount of times.

Just like the color blue, this was used for thread, yarn, garments, etc. Especially through the book of Exodus.

Lexicons for Purple

H710

אַרְגְוָן ‘argĕvan (arg·ev·än’) – purple

H713

אַרְגָּמָן ‘argaman (ar·gä·män’) – Purple – Red-Purple

G4209

πορφύρα porphyra (por-fü’-rä) – the purple fish, a species of shell fish or mussel & a fabric colored with purple dye, a garment made from purple cloth. Red-Blue color and a garment dyed with it.

G4210

πορφυροῦς porphyrous (por-fü-rü’s) – purple, dyed in purple, made of purple fabric. Blueish-Red

There is a total of 5 Lexicons for purple. 2 for Hebrew and 3 for Greek. There was even a word for a female seller of purple cloth. Click to see all the Lexicon usages. This will even take you to that Lexicon to see.

That seller was found in Acts 16:14, see the verse below.

Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

So for the most part the color purple was used in clothing and color dye.

ALL THINGS COLOR SERIES
Introduction | Black | Orange | White | Red | Blue | Yellow | Purple | Green | Pink | Teal

About the Author

Steve Patterson

A Christian Blogger that enjoys blogging about the Bible, Theology, God, Jesus Christ, Christian Music, Family, Cats, Odd Holidays, sewing and much more. I have been blogging since 2004, however, I have been blogging on Courageous Christian Father since 2012. I enjoy listening to Christian Music. I am married with 1 daughter, 2 step-sons and a step daughter.

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