Scholar’s Study: The Great Tekhelet Debate
In the Archaeological Views column “The Great Tekhelet Debate—Blue or Purple?” (BAR, September/October 2013), Baruch and Judy Taubes Sterman of the Jerusalem-based Ptil Tekhelet Foundation suggest that God’s chosen color for the ancient Israelites was a sky-blue derived from murex dye. In a letter to BAR, Professor Zvi C. Koren, director of the Edelstein Center for the Analysis of Ancient Artifacts at the Shenker College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan, Israel, criticizes the Stermans’ analysis, to which the Stermans responded. In a letter published on January 2, 2014, Koren replied to the Stermans’ letter. Read about tekhelet and follow the correspondence between Baruch and Judy Taubes Sterman and Professor Zvi C. Koren in Bible History Daily:
• Regarding the Color of Tekhelet by Zvi C. Koren
• Baruch and Judy Taubes Sterman Respond
• Zvi C. Koren’s Reply to the Stermans’ Response
BAS Library Members: Read “Archaeological Views: The Great Tekhelet Debate—Blue or Purple?” by Baruch and Judy Taubes Sterman as it appeared in the September/October 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.
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It’s is about what the color means, not the snail. The murex species snails of the Red Sea that the Redeemed Israelites crushed
crushed under foot produces a darker blue. Blue represents the end result of righteousness under pressure/fire. The
Israelites under pressure produced the sapphire blue dye. Sapphires are produce by earth with aluminum under fire.
The tekhelet represents the name of God in the midst of his word that has been proven under fire.
Purple is a mixture of Red and Blue. Red the color of exposed blood thus sin is an impure representation. The culture
And relevant context should always be a major portion of scientific study. I greatly am appreciate of this article. Todah for
Sharing it.
Ben Emmet
The Phoenicians kept secret their source of the Romans ‘royal purple’ which they sold in trade.The Phoenicians, neighbors of the Israelis, also spoke Hebrew. They were the foremost traders of the ancient world, going all the way to Britain for Tin, and also to Africa. Carthhage was a colony.
I have trouble believing that an unclean animal was (and apparently still is) used to obtain a dye for manufacturing one of Yahweh’s Commandments (tsitsith).
Leviticus Chapter 11 clearly outlines what creatures are clean and which are unclean. Snails are among the unclean. One could have a pet snail while it is still alive, but the unclean creatures’ carcasses are not to be touched, they are abhorrent and detestable. As I understand it, the snails are crushed (killed), producing carcasses in the process of squeezing out a drop of blue dye to be collected. Isn’t this dye (part of the guts?) essentially part of the carcass?
Lev. 11:10 “But whatever is in the seas and in the rivers, that do not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you,
11 and they shall be abhorrent to you; you may not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses you shall detest.
12 ‘Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is abhorrent to you.
35 ‘Everything, moreover, on which part of their carcass may fall becomes unclean; an oven or a stove shall be smashed; they are unclean and shall continue as unclean to you.”
Using and wearing part of a snails carcass is almost as bad as making a Bible cover out of pig skin, and saying that it doesn’t matter (Bible covers that are Berkshire Leather are described by Ingram Publishing as “High-quality pigskin…”, the same as well for their “Genuine Leather” Bible covers, they are made from the swine’s skin).
I am reminded of the abominable act of Antiochus IV Epiphanes slaughtering a pig on the Altar in the Temple at Jerusalem, thereby defiling the whole place! Detestable!
Please convince me that I am wrong about the dye. Meanwhile, I will continue to wear tsitsiths that are made with regular blue dyed strings purchased from the local stores.
I am in agreement with Tom. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Job 14:4 says ‘who can bring something clean from something that is unclean?’
Yep.
I have trouble seeing how anyone could argue for an extramundane presence, perhaps even out of the universe, which acts upon human history. If you equate god and universe–or better Buddhist emptiness–you are not concerned with a personality and thus don’t have to so spectacularly fly in the face of reason. That said, if we have a universe that is interconnected and we don’t have do go outside of it, then how in the world could such a universe be in the slightest way ever intervene in our lives–it IS us, all, and it not above it. Such a universe couldn’t possibly care about the exact color of a religious’s groups so-called sacred things, could it? Such biblical literalism as I just have read about the type of blue, the prohibition of the murex as dirty and unclean–the whole argument seems utter silly and made of the stuff that brings all religious groups to periodically indulge in ethnic cleansing of their so-called impure, heretical, or pagan neighbors. Please folks. A little compassion and common sense please.
Tom,
Scientists say that we only use about 10% of our brain. Einstein perhaps used 15%. So, for us average ten-percenters, it is difficult for us to believe LOTS of different things, simply because the so called “ten-percenters” have not got the necessary brain power to arrive at the truth of the matter.
to tom regarding the verse in job it means who can make from unclean clean …exept for u oh G-Dgd the one who constantly daes it semen is ucnlean yet a human baby born from that is clean and pure as far as the snail the bible tells to make techelet we dont kno what it is the talmud says we have a tradition from moses. G-D told him it is to be made from this snail called chilazon a not pure fish that can not be eaten but GD chosethe this fisha for itu praduces the colourbbq of thethe sky so weim should producehave string that remindis us he iswas the one above – now have scientific confirmation of our tradtiond that that was used
All names from before 8th century are fictions, literary devices- says JHWE- use your brain, divine one (Genessis 1:27); also Moses!
Krzysztof, your claim concerning “names”, as you call them, is demonstrably false. The ruler lists of Genesis have been verified.
Moses and his family were Horites (Horim) and the sacred blue of the Horites was indeed a sky blue. It appears on the murals of ancient Egyptian monuments. This was dye from the Nile Hexaplex trunculus. The Tyrian method for producing purple dye from Hexaplex trunculus has not been successfully reproduced because the purple hue quickly degrades, resulting in blue only. The Tyrians most certainly added something to stabilize the purple hue, probably a plant substance.