Scarlet

תולעת , Gen 38:28; Exo 25:4. This tincture or colour expressed by a word which signifies worm colour, was produced from a worm or insect which grew in a coccus, or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex kind, which Pliny calls “coccus scolecius,” the wormy berry, and Dioscorides terms “a small dry twig, to which the grains adhere like lentiles:” but these grains, as a great author observes on Solinus, “are within full of little worms or maggots, whose juice is remarkable for dying scarlet, and making that famous colour which we admire, and with which the ancients were enraptured. We retain the name in the cochineal, from the opuntia of America; but we improperly call a mineral colour “vermilion,” which is derived from vermiculus, a little worm. The shrub on which the cochineal insect is found is sometimes called the “kermez oak,” from kermez, the Arabic word both for the worm and the colour; whence “carmasinus,” the French “cramoisi.” and the English “crimson.”

Scarlet [PURPLE]

A color much prized by the ancients, Exo 25:4 26:1,31,36. It is assigned as a merit of Saul, that he clothed the daughters of Israel in scarlet, 2Sa 1:24 . So the diligent and virtuous woman is said to clothe her household in scarlet, Pro 31:21 . The depth and strength of the color are alluded to in Isa 1:18 ; and it is used as a symbol of profligacy in Jer 17:3,4 . This color was obtained from the Coccus Ilicis of Linnaeus, a small insect found on the leaves of a species of oak, the Quercus Cocciferus, in Spain and the countries on the eastern part of the Mediterranean, which was used by the ancients for dyeing a beautiful crimson or deep scarlet color, and was supposed by them to be the berry of a plant or tree. It is the Kermez of the Materia Medica. As a dye it has been superseded in modern times by the cochineal insect, Coccus Cactus, which gives a more brilliant but less durable color. See PURPLE.\par

Scarlet. See Colors.

argaman, the purple juice of the Tyrian shell fish, Murex trunculus. (See PURPLE; TYRE.) Shani tolaath, an insect color from the cocci or semiglobular bodies as large as a split pea, black but dusted with a grey white powder, on evergreen oaks and other trees. The insect is of the order Homoptera, the females have a mouth able to pierce and suck plants. The Arabs call them kermes, from whence come our "caroline" and "crimson". The full grown larva has the dye in greatest abundance. They yield their dye by infusion in water. The dye is fixed by a mordant, anciently alum, now solution of tin.

The double dipping is implied in shunt, differently pointed in Hebrew: Isa 1:18, "though your sins be as scarlet (double dyed, deeply fixed so that no tears can wash them away; blood-colored in hue, i.e. of deepest guilt, Isa 1:15; the color of Jesus’ robe when bearing them, Mat 27:28) they shall be as white as snow" (Psa 51:7) (See ATONEMENT, DAY OF.) Rahab’s scarlet thread was the type (Jos 2:18). Scarlet was also used in cleansing the leper (Lev 14:4). The Mishna says a band of twice dyed scarlet wool tied together the living bird, the hyssop, and the cedar, when dipped into the blood and water. Kurtz makes the scarlet wool symbolize vital health; but Isa 1:18 gives a contrary sense. A glaring, gorgeous color (Nah 2:3); that of the spiritual whore or corrupt church, conformed to that of the beast or God-opposed world power on which she rides (Revelation 17; 18).

Scarlet. Gen 38:28. The Hebrew word tolah signifies a worm, i.e., the coccus worm, from which the color was made.

The word most frequently translated ’scarlet’ is shani, and this is often accompanied by the word tolaath, ’worm or grub,’ apparently intimating that the colour was obtained from some insect, as it is now from the cochineal. Scarlet was much used in the needlework and hangings of the tabernacle, in conjunction with blue and purple; but there it apparently refers to some fabric of the colour of scarlet. If the purple be taken as symbolical of royalty and universal dominion, the scarlet may signify earthly grandeur and Israelitish royalty. Exo 39:1-29; Jos 2:18; Jos 2:21; 2Sa 1:24; Pro 31:21; Son 4:3; Isa 1:18. In the N.T. they clothed the Lord in a scarlet robe, κόκκινος, Mat 27:28 (it is ’purple’ in Mark and John: it may have been an old faded robe that could be called either). Scarlet is also employed with purple to point out the earthly grandeur of Papal Rome. Rev 17:3-4; Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16.

SCARLET.—1. Scarlet, as a dye, was obtained from the body of the female kermes insect (Lecanium ilicis), a native of S.E. Europe, where it lives upon a species of dwarf oak (Qucrcus coccifera). The insect is of the family Coccidae, to which also the cochineal of Mexico belongs. Its Latin name (derived from its appearance) was grana; hence the dye was called ‘grain’ (cf. Milton, Penser. 33, Par. Lost, xi. 242; Spenser, FQ i. vii. I; see Skeat, Etym. Dict. s.v.).

2. The colour is correctly represented by its name. Mat 27:28 is the only passage in the Gospels where the word ‘scarlet’ (κόκκινος) occurs, and it is there a substitute for the ‘purple’ of || Mar 15:17; Mar 15:20, Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5, It is the latter word that has changed its meaning (see art. Purple).

‘The Gr. sense of colour seems to have been so comparatively dim and uncertain, that it is almost impossible to ascertain what the real idea was which they attached to any word alluding to hue’ (Ruskin, Mod. Painters, iii. 225. Cf. also Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, p. 540).

Yet the ancients, as a rule, carefully distinguished scarlet from purple (Becker, Gallus, p. 446). Probably Mt. gives the colour actually used, Mk. and Jn. the colour intended.

3. The ‘scarlet robe’ was undoubtedly a military cloak, either that of a common soldier (sagum) or that of a commanding officer (paludamentum). The latter was longer and of better quality; both were regularly of scarlet (Ellicott, Hist. Lectures, p. 348 n. [Note: note.] ). Westcott (on Joh 19:2; Joh 19:5) emphasizes, in the crown and robe, the idea of victory as well as of royalty: ‘this blood-stained robe was the true dress of a kingly conqueror.… So He was through life the suffering King, the true Soldier.’

F. S. Ranken.

SCARLET.—See Colours, § 4.

skar´let. See COLORS; DYEING.

See Colours.

Gen 38:30 (a) Since Pharez is found in the genealogy of CHRIST, this thread may indicate that Zarah would need the blood to redeem him. (See Mat 1:3).

Exo 25:4 (c) It may be that this color all through the tabernacle equipment served to remind the Israelites that the blood was always essential in every part of life and service.

Lev 14:4 (c) This probably is a picture of the value of the blood in every sacrifice for sin. Sins are put away only by and through the Blood of JESUS.

Jos 2:18 (c) This is usually taken to be a picture of the precious Blood of CHRIST. The woman was sheltered because of the red cord. The sinner is sheltered under the red Blood of the Saviour.

Son 4:3 (a) The smooth, pretty lips of the bride are compared to the scarlet line. It is a picture of the loveliness of the church (the bride) in the sight of the Bridegroom, her Lord.

Isa 1:18 (a) It is used to describe the stain of sin in contrast with the white garments of salvation.

Mat 27:28 (c) It is a sign of royalty, though used here in mockery.

Rev 17:3 (b) It indicates the enormous sin and wickedness of this woman whose stain of sin covered her completely. The woman represents the apostate church.