Precarious Hues: On Chromophobia, Chromophilia, and Transitions between Chromatic and Achromatic Colours in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

In 2000, David Batchelor utilized chromophobia to describe how achromaticity has been favoured among Western intelligentsia since Aristotle. In contrast to white, hues have been linked to the feminine, the dangerous and the chaotic, and they have often been perceived to be something to abandon or control. The ominous associations remain the same when hues are desired (chromophilia), but in these instances, one desires to lose oneself to the somewhat ominous realm of colour. By approaching the Hebrew Bible with Batchelor’s framework, and with a view to human agency, various texts of transitions between chromaticity and achromaticity are examined (Ps 51:9; Isa 1:18; Jon 3:6; Lam 4:7–8; Num 12:10; Exod 25–31). It is argued that colours, in some cases, are abandoned and controlled and that they receive a specific evaluation depending on whether an agent voluntarily desired or involuntarily suffered a transition between chromaticity and achromaticity.

1. A Fascination with Colour

In recent years, the theme of colour has set sail on the sea of popular curiosity. Book titles, such as The Secret Lives of Colour (St Clair 2016), Chromotopia: An Illustrated History of Color (Coles 2018) and The Word According to Colour: A Cultural History (Fox 2021) are just a select few monographic examples that have caught readers’ attention in the last decade. In various ways, the artfully made books accentuate how colour has mesmerized people throughout time and how it continues to captivate the contemporary human being. Within Hebrew Bible scholarship, colour has similarly attracted renewed attention. While Roland Gradwohl initiated a monographic exploration of colour lexemes in 1963 (Gradwohl 1963), and Athalya Brenner later utilized the framework of Basic Colour Terms to discuss the emergence of colour terminology in ancient Israel (Brenner 1982),1 new themes of the materiality of colours and the multisensory experience with them have emerged (e.g., Lyell 2020; Ureña et al. 2022). One reason for the renewed interest in colour within exegesis is that monographs on the theme primarily have engaged colour semantics, that is, they have attempted to establish to which visual colours and hues the Hebrew terms refer (cf. Hartley 2010; Ureña et al. 2022), and this focus has left the door open for other considerations on colour, e.g., colour symbolism (cf. Koenig 2012). The present contribution is a small step in the symbolic direction as it attempts to identify some cultural attitudes toward colours in the Hebrew Bible. However, the approach is slightly unconventional as specific colour terms are only engaged when they occur in contexts of transitions, that is, in contexts where chromatic colours (e.g., red) change to achromatic colours (e.g., white) and vice versa. Furthermore, the approach to the selected texts focuses on agents who voluntarily or involuntarily shift between these two colourful environments. By looking at human agency in relation to colourful transitions, it is possible to tease out some cultural meanings related to chromaticity and achromaticity. To frame the entire endeavour, David Batchelor’s theories on chromophobia and chromophilia are utilized (Batchelor 2000, pp. 21–49). Unlike Brenner’s earlier study of colour terms, the following pages do not engage possible diachronic changes in the semantics of colour terms. Instead, the focus turns to texts in which different colourful states are contrasted and compared. This approach offers small glimpses of colour’s symbolic meaning in different texts.

After a clarification of Batchelor’s ideas, the selected texts from the Hebrew Bible are sorted into sections that consider whether the transitions between chromatic and achromatic colours were voluntarily sought or involuntarily suffered by an agent.2 With these preliminary remarks, the focus can turn to the observations made by a Scottish artist.

2. David Batchelor on Chromophobia and Chromophilia

In a concise and very pink book called Chromophobia, David Batchelor reflects on colour and how it has been the victim of “extreme prejudice in Western culture” (Batchelor 2000, p. 22). By utilizing a weighty vocabulary, Batchelor states that colour has been “systematically marginalized, reviled, diminished and degraded” since antiquity (Batchelor 2000, p. 22), and he labels this intentional aversion toward colour chromophobia. At this point, it is necessary to pause to delineate what Batchelor means by colour. Throughout his book, Batchelor uses colour that, in a quotidian use, frequently refers to any wavelength on the electromagnetic spectrum that can be perceived in the rainbow, that is, anything from red to violet (ca. 700–400 nm). However, the colourful elements represented in the Noahtic covenant-sign are often termed hues or chromatic colours since the broad term colour is a culturally sensitive term that can include saturation, tone, brightness, etc. (Biggam 2012, pp. 3–7). For example, Umberto Eco refers to the Hanunóo language spoken by the Mangyans in the Philippines where “freshness” and “succulence” are part of the colour vocabulary (Eco 1985, pp. 168–70), and it has often been accentuated that shininess is a significant colour category in Akkadian texts (e.g., Thavapalan 2020, pp. 36–40). This culturally sensitive parting of the colour spectrum is linked to the concept that practices select pertinences, that is, specific practices (e.g., finding fresh leaves) in a specific culture require specialized linguistic categories (Eco 1985, p. 163). For this reason, Batchelor’s terminology could be changed to huephobia, a rather dull coinage, which means the catchier chromophobia prevails and is utilized throughout this study. Thus, for the present purposes, chromatic refers to colours with hues, achromatic refers to colours without hues, and chromophobia refers to the fear of hues.

Although he later realized that chromophobia was not coined by himself (Batchelor 2014, p. 11), Batchelor used his brief book to explore how the term concerns a predominantly masculine attitude toward hues as if hues are something to purge from culture. The purging can be done by assigning vibrant hues to some ‘‘foreign body—usually the feminine, the oriental, the primitive, the infantile, the vulgar, the queer or the pathological”, or relegate them to the “superficial, the supplementary, the inessential or the cosmetic” (Batchelor 2000, pp. 22–23). Hues are thus conceived as either dangerous or trivial. One of the most prominent examples of this disdain for colour has been described by art historian John Gage. In a few succinct lines, Gage addresses the startling event when archaeologists in the 19th century found that sculptures of ancient Greece with their noble characteristics of “dazzling purity of white marble” were once polychrome (Gage 1993, p. 11). Since the Renaissance, the whiteness of these statues was perceived to be “one of the noblest characteristics of ancient art” (Gage 1993, p. 11), and the idea that various colours had adorned the Hellenistic sculptures was staggering. This surprise speaks of an attitude where the “disdain for colour has been seen as a mark of refinement and distinction” (Gage 1999, p. 31).

The unease with hues can also be noticed in the writings of one of the staunchest supporters of achromatic colours presented in Batchelor’s book: the 19th-century French art critic Charles Blanc. He conceived colour as something to be “contained and subordinated—like a woman” (Batchelor 2000, p. 23). For Blanc, hues were associated with the foreign sphere (Chinese painters) and “lower forms of nature” (Batchelor 2000, p. 25), and he thus echoed a general attitude of Western intelligentsia toward ‘primitives’ at the turn of the 20th century (e.g., E. B. Tylor and James Frazer; cf. Jahoda 1999). According to Blanc, the Western world evolved out of colour, away from hues and perfected the achromatic drawing. While his cultural-evolutionary framework was, and still is, exceedingly problematic, Blanc forwarded an idea that hues are something to either abandon or control (Batchelor 2000, p. 27). Does such an unease toward hues exist (e.g., in contemporary minimalism or trends of rainbow-sorted interiors)? And, if so, is that only among Western intellectuals in the 19th century?

Traces of chromophobia can be noticed among prominent Western male thinkers, such as Kant, Rousseau, and Darwin (Gage 1999, pp. 30–31; Batchelor 2000, pp. 29–30), but it can also be sensed in the work of Aristotle, which brings us closer to the time of the Hebrew Bible. In the Poetics, Aristotle describes how the plot is the soul of the tragedy (ψυχὴ ὁ μῦθος), whereas the characters hold second place (Poet. 1450a). The philosopher compares his narratological theory to a painting and states that a white, chalky outline resembles the plot and provides more pleasure than the character-like colours that fill whatever the line frames (Poet. 1450b). In other words, the colours are secondary and ornamental in comparison to the structural whiteness of the chalk. For Aristotle, the bearing element in the narrative is thus the white outline, the essence of the plot. Again, as noticed in Blanc’s views, hues are somewhat better if they are controlled and kept within the boundaries of an achromatic outline. With Aristotle, chromophobia appears to have significant historical roots. But what about chromophobia’s opposite? Is there a desire for colour, a chromophilia?

According to Batchelor, chromophilia is not chromophobia’s opposite because the foreign, dangerous, and cosmetic connotations of hues are still present with chromophilia (Batchelor 2000, p. 71). Chromatic colours are thus still perceived as something other than neutral. What changes with chromophilia is the attitude towards hues. Instead of controlling them, one surrenders to them or loses oneself to them. By referring to Aristotle’s intoxicating word for colour, that is, φάρμακον (Poet. 1450b) and by utilizing Aldous Huxley’s descriptions of taking the hallucinogenic drug mescaline, Batchelor describes how chromophilia can be a kind of “[i]ntoxication, loss of consciousness, loss of self” (Batchelor 2000, p. 32). In other words, by delving into colour, one becomes something other-than-self, something removed from the achromatic neutral.

With this concise overview of chromophobia and chromophilia, the Hebrew Bible can be engaged with three guiding questions: Are hues conceived as foreign, secondary and/or dangerous? Are they to be controlled or abandoned? And can an agent lose oneself to the world of hues? As a disclaimer, it is important to clarify that Batchelor’s terminology and accompanying theory rely on Western art history. Batchelor does not consider a Semitic context, but his musings on ambivalent conceptions of colour can be applied as a hermeneutical lens to perceive sources from other places and times. Furthermore, Batchelor’s theory cannot be utilized to make sense of all texts in which chromatic and achromatic colour appear in the Hebrew Bible. Contexts are always relevant for meaning, and stating that a general aversion toward hues is found in the Hebrew Bible is as simplified as to argue that all modern artists have an aversion toward acrylic paints. Also, just as colour semantics are sensitive to contexts, colour symbolism can only be teased out by carefully inspecting the chosen texts’ literary contexts. For example, red (or orange or brown) is an ambivalent hue in the ancient Near East as it signifies both positive fertility and negative defilement (Noegel 2016, pp. 25–34; cf. Thavapalan 2020, pp. 152–53).3 Still, the terminology provided by Batchelor provides a hermeneutical lens through which transitions between chromatic and achromatic colours in the Hebrew Bible can be perceived. Moreover, it provides a perspective on the agent navigating between these contexts. The biblical texts below and the symbolism of colourful transitions are thus approached by thinking with Batchelor.

3. Leaving Hues: The Voluntarily Transition to Achromatic Colours

The first category of texts concerns contexts in which agents voluntarily seek an achromatic state. The few times the root לבן appears in hiphil or hithpael in the Hebrew Bible are pertinent for analysing this transition (Isa 1:18; Joel 1:7; Ps 51:9; Dan 11:35; Dan 12:10). However, approaching texts in which “become white” or be “made white” appear is only one avenue toward clarifying the various transitions to achromatic colours. There is also the voluntary transition to black/grey, e.g., in mourning rituals or rituals of repentance in which the agent sits in ashes and/or applies (or is urged to apply) ashes on oneself (e.g., Jer 6:26; Job 2:8; Jon 3:6; Esth 4:1; cf. Schroer and Staubli 1998, p. 94). While grim circumstances trigger the latter transitions, they still concern the voluntary choice to abandon a previous state for achromaticity. With these preliminary remarks, the exploration through voluntary transitions to achromatic colours begins with a psalm ascribed to a remorseful David.

3.1. Psalm 51:9

In the oft-cited individual lament found in Psalm 51, processes of cleansing, purification and renewal take centre stage. Although the psalm is often categorized as a lament, the expressed desires of the speaking I also make the psalm a prayer of petition (Hossfeld and Zenger 2005, p. 15), and in one of these petitions, a transition between chromatic and achromatic colours appears.

• Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,
• Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow! (Ps 51:9)

The parallelism in Ps 51:9 speaks of the desire of the psalmist, and it creates an inclusio-structure with Ps. 51:4, where the imperatives “clean” (טהר) and “wash” (כבס) are uttered by the speaking I (Hossfeld and Zenger 2005, pp. 16–17). The inclusio frames a parade of negative words that describe the state from where the speaker is calling on God (אלהים). The speaker is in a state of sin (חטאת and חטא, Ps 51:4.7), a state that partly is entered as a result of the speaker’s indefinite iniquities (עון, Ps 51:4), transgressions (פשע, Ps 51:5) and evil-doings (רע, Ps 51:6). It is thus not the sinful acts that are the main issue for the speaker, but the “sinful condition” in itself (Newsom 2021, p. 86). This state is not explicitly assigned a specific hue, but Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger argue by reference to Ps 35:13–14 and Isa 1:18 that the speaker desires a “liberation from the blackness of sorrow over the death of sin that has seized him […], and from the scarlet of violent deeds that weighs upon him” (Hossfeld and Zenger 2005, p. 21). While black and red are not explicitly mentioned in this psalm, the speaker expresses a desire to be delivered from blood (or bloodguilt, דם in plural) in Ps 51:16 so that his tongue can praise God’s righteousness. If blood implicitly refers to a red hue (cf. Noegel 2016, p. 25), the negative state of unrighteousness is red, and the desire of the speaker is to escape, or be delivered from, this chromaticity. Furthermore, Scott B. Noegel argues that red, blood and stigmatized sexual behaviour occur in clusters within the Hebrew Bible (Noegel 2016, p. 5), and a hint of such a red-hued cluster can be sensed with the added heading in Ps 51:1, where David’s illegitimate sexual relation with Bathsheba is referenced. Even without an explicit reference to a chromatic colour, the negative state of the speaking I appears to be a red one, not a black one. But what is the state that the speaker desires?

The parallelism in Ps 51:9 creates a semantic link between “and I shall be clean” (ואטהר) and “and I shall be whiter than snow” (ומשלג אלבין). First of all, the desired state has an achromatic colour of whiteness, which is noticed by the use of לבן in an imperfect hiphil as well as the comparison with snow (שלג, cf. Dan 7:9). The latter comparison restricts “the colour conveyed by the root לבן” (Hartley 2010, p. 93), which accentuates that the achromatic colour of pure whiteness is in view, not simply a whiteish colour. The whiteness is linked to cleanness (טהר) in the parallelism, which widens the achromatic colour’s connotations to the ritual cleanness and the aspects of purification meticulously described in Leviticus (e.g., Lev 13; cf. Newsom 2021, p. 86). Purification is also in view since hyssop (אזוב), possibly origanum syriacum, a green plant with tiny white leaves (Naudé et al. 2021, p. 347), is the object with which the speaker becomes clean. While it might have served a concrete and advantageous function as a brush due to its hairy leaves, hyssop’s cleansing abilities, aside from its function as a tool, are noticed in Num 19:6. In this verse, hyssop is burned together with cedar and crimson material in the fire that consumes the red heifer to make a solution for purification. What specific role hyssop plays in this colourful ritual needs further research, but it might have been added due to its minty oils that were considered to have a medicinal function (cf. Naudé et al. 2021, p. 347).4 In any case, with the aid of hyssop, the speaker desires a pure, clean, and white state.5

The verb clean (טהר) implies some additional shimmering aspects to the transition since the verb can be used when someone purifies silver (e.g., Mal 3:3).6 This feature of brilliance in combination with white and snow will be revisited in the subsequent section, but it is important to notice that the transformation in Ps 51:9 is more complex than a simple transition from chromatic to achromatic colours; it is also a transition from less to more lustre. Whether the transition is performed on the spectrum of hue or luminosity, the transition is desired by the speaker, but it is not possible for the speaker to achieve this achromatic and shiny state without God. By echoing prophetic traditions, the speaker calls on the deity to wash away his sins (DiFransico 2015, p. 556), and it is God who is the implied hyssop-wielding purifier. Although the transition is not within the agent’s power, the speaker still searches and works towards the goal of achromaticity.

Although uncleanness does not necessarily entail sin in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Klawans 2000, pp. 21–42), the speaker conflates the two and implicitly assigns this combination of uncleanness and sin to a red sphere from where the ‘I’ is speaking. The cleanness linked to whiteness/lustre and the uncleanness/sin linked to redness thus reveal a sort of chromophobia. First, the redness of bloodguilt, which, in this context, possibly refers to the fear of being a victim (Nielsen 2002, p. 195), plays on dangerous timbres, and it is something from which the speaker needs deliverance. In other words, the dangerous state needs to be deserted. Second, just as bloodguilt is something one can acquire from outside due to one’s illegitimate actions (cf. 1 Sam 25:30), the redness implied in Ps 51 seems to have a secondary character, something (dangerously) inessential that is involuntarily added to the speaker. The whiteness is found underneath the bloody redness, and the additional layer needs removal to bring out a renewed and purified self. While it is tempting to be inspired by Aristotle and conceive whiteness as the essence, or the indispensable outline, of the speaking I,7 the transition to achromaticity is part of a complete renewal of the person (cf. Newsom 2021, p. 87). The person needs a clean heart (לב טהור) and a firm spirit (רוח נכון), which speaks of a transformation of the person’s self rather than a return to an essence. Still, the state of redness problematizes the speaker’s relationship with God, and it has to be rinsed off for the speaker’s transformation to take place.

Before transitioning to the following prophetic example, it is necessary to mention the unfortunate reception verses such as Ps 51:9 can suffer. For example, Randall C. Bailey has brought attention to how the term “becoming white” can be used by white supremacists to argue for their superiority (Bailey 1996; cf. Devanesan 2004). It is critical to accentuate that Ps 51:9, Isa 1:18 or Dan 11:35 and 12:10 do not refer to a positively valued change in the agent’s skin colour but concern a change in the agent’s existential situation (cf. Lyell 2020, pp. 101–2; Brenner 1982, p. 190). Bailey is correct in criticising and dismantling receptions of biblical texts used to claim superiority over others, but his suggestion that “made white as snow” is a curse formula in the Hebrew Bible is untenable (cf. Bailey 1996, p. 108). This interpretation of לבן in hiphil diminishes the positive nuances of purification and cleansing that the transition to achromaticity implies (cf. Hartley 2010, p. 95). Nevertheless, Bailey’s article is an ever-relevant reminder for exegetes and readers of the Bible to be aware of the glasses with which one reads an ancient text. Furthermore, it serves as a powerful warning to use religious texts for malicious agendas.

3.2. Isaiah 1:18

The imagery in Ps 51:9 possibly draws on the colourful imagery used in Isa 1:18–20 (cf. Brenner 1982, p. 92), where Yhwh leaves the door open for the collective of Judah to abandon their wicked ways. Here, tucked among prophetic oracles, a hope of a future transition to achromatic colours is expressed. However, the allurement of whiteness is not articulated by an individual petitioner. Instead, Yhwh refers to Judah’s possible transition from red to white as a hope of renewal for a disobedient people.

• ‘Come now, let us argue’, says YHWH:
• ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall become white like snow;
• Though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.’ (Isa. 1:18–20)

After Yhwh’s invitation to reason with Judah, the deity uses a set of colourful parallelisms to frame the possible future and establish hope among a disillusioned collective (Oswalt 1986, p. 101). The contrasting colours in Isa 1:18 resemble Ps 51:9 but in the prophetic text, both the chromatic and achromatic colours are explicitly mentioned. In the two antithetical parallelisms, “white like snow” (כשלג ילבינו) is the positive opposite of the negative scarlet (שני), and the positive wool (צמר) is structurally opposed to the negative “red like crimson” (יאדימו כתולע). While “white like snow” refers to glistening and “brilliant white” (Hartley 2010, p. 95), the colour of wool is more ambiguous as it can imply the natural greyish tone of wool. However, Brenner writes that when wool occurs together with לבן, it refers to “bleached or cleaned wool” (Brenner 1982, p. 84). For this reason, the positive sphere of hopefulness spoken into being by Yhwh is, in this context, an achromatic one.

The contrast to the whiteness of snow and wool is the intense red colours of scarlet (שני) and crimson (תולע). Scarlet refers to the concentrated red dye extracted from the female kermes insect (Kermes vermilio) and thus the exquisite textiles dyed in this colour (Hartley 2010, p. 197; Brenner 1982, p. 147). Here, it is critical to notice how the meaning of colour changes with context. When scarlet material occurs together with purple materials in the tabernacle (e.g., Exod 26–28), it expresses positive connotations of sanctity, exclusivity and magnificence (Lyell 2020, p. 95; Imes 2019, p. 38; Noegel 2016, p. 7). The positive connotations are also noticed in 2 Sam 1:24, where David laments Saul’s death and urges the daughters of Jerusalem to weep because the dead king had clothed them luxuriously (עדן) in scarlet (cf. Hartley 2010, p. 196). In Song 4:3 and Prov 31:21, where scarlet describes the attractive lips of the woman and the praiseworthy actions of the exemplary wife, respectively, the hue carries positive connotations. However, in Isa 1:18 and Jer 4:30, that is, in the prophetic texts, scarlet is used negatively. In Jer 4:30, the prophet mockingly points out how Judah vainly wears fancy scarlet robes, jewellery and makeup to woo her lovers. The positive connotations of luxury are still there, but they are subverted and used as criticism (cf. Quick 2021a, p. 19).8 Judah’s problematic relationship to colourful or bright adornment is also seen in the large metaphor of the adulterous wife in Ezek 16 (e.g., 16:8–14), where beauty of clothing is used for illegitimate sexual propositions, i.e., attempts at political alliances. Although Isa 1:18 differs in its use of red hues, the prophetic texts seem to be more chromophobic, at least toward scarlet, than the rest of the canonical texts when they concern the human sphere. In other words, the prophets articulate the uneasy relationship with scarlet’s chromaticity. Scarlet is thus not necessarily dangerous, but it is ornamental, and it can become vulgar and assigned to the sexual and female promiscuity (cf. Stulman 2005, p. 71). Furthermore, even though the extra-prophetic texts carry positive connotations of scarlet, it is possible to sense some chromophobic, or perhaps chromophilic, connotations of the red-hued material. The wealthy and important people wear the hue, or it is a hue assigned to a specific and meticulously described place for the deity. In other words, the hue is a controlled hue. While John Hartley might be right that there is no evidence for “a restriction on the wearing of scarlet in the kingdom of Judah and Israel” as seen among Mediterranean nobility (Hartley 2010, p. 196), it was not just anyone who was economically able to wear this costly hue. In this sense, it is a restricted hue, a restriction used to demarcate hierarchy.

Scarlet is, however, just one of the two red-hued colours explicitly mentioned in Isa 1:18, the other being crimson. Crimson often occurs together with scarlet tautologically (Brenner 1982, p. 143), and in Isa 1:18, it is possibly used for variation as it appears as a semantic parallel to scarlet. In Isa 1, scarlet and crimson are accompanied by other implicit red hues. The entire chapter that depicts Judah’s present situation of disobedience and lack of righteousness is set with a red backdrop. If Noegel’s abovementioned cluster of redness is used as a lens, the prophet mentions fresh and untreated wounds (Isa 1:6), pointless sacrificial blood (Isa 1:11), blood-soiled praying hands (Isa 1;15) and illegitimate sex (Isa 1:10.21) to describe the red and sorry state of Judah (Noegel 2016, pp. 9–10).

Where the later-dated Ps 51 is focused on the sinful situation that needs a chromatic transition, Isa 1:18 describes the sins (חטאיכם) as the thing that changes colour. This might speak of a different nuance in the conception of selfhood because the prophetic text focuses on the agent’s actions while the individual psalm accentuates states (cf. Newsom 2021, pp. 85–88). Still, the image of a positive turn to whiteness remains the same. It is peculiar how Isa 1:18 conceives the sins to remain through the transition; they just changed colour. The scene begs to be read in connection with the act of washing oneself in Isa 1:16, which implies that the sins no longer have potency. Perhaps the non-control of sins resembles how uncleanness can become dangerous if it is not contained or purified (Milgrom 2004, p. 101). In any case, the sins are, in a chromophobic light, portrayed negatively and somewhat ominous by using the red hue while they are harmless when they are white.9

The next observation concerns the question of agency. Ps 51 orbits an individual speaker who desires a new sin-free state but is unable to reach it without godly intervention. In Isa 1:18, it is not a first-person speaker who expresses hopes about one’s future. Instead, the voice of Yhwh utters a hope of whiteness for his people, and this expression is intended to serve as a (very white) carrot on a stick for Judah. This does not entail that Judah is without agency. While Yhwh presumably is the one that changes the colour of Judah’s sins, the collective inhabitants are capable of changing their ways, cease to do evil (רעע, Isa 1:16) and reach an achromatic state if they help the oppressed, bring justice or plead the widow’s cause (Isa 1:17). They are also to eat the goods of the land if they are willing and obeying, while they will be consumed by the sword if they remain to do rebellious actions (Isa 1:19–20). In this way, the positive change to achromaticity is within the collective’s power. They can change their disobedient ways and reach the goal articulated by Yhwh (cf. Brenner 1982, p. 76). Although the collective does not explicitly mention the desire for a transition, the oracle presents the departure from redness as something the collective would desire.

As noted above, the transition to whiteness parallels the purification process of silver. The connection between the transition to brilliant whiteness and the transition to purified silver is sensed in Isa 1:22 and Isa 1:25, where Yhwh first describes the dross (סיג) of Judah’s silver and later how he will smelt it away.10 Preferred and desired whiteness thus resembles preferred shiny silver. The link between whiteness and purification of metals can also be sensed in Dan 11:35 and Dan 12:10, where the ones who are knowledgeable (שׂכל, part.) will be cleaned (ברר, hithpael), made white (לבן, hithpael), and refined (צרף, niphal).11 Finally, it should be noted that whiteness’ connection to luminous purification plays into the preference for light over darkness (expressed via negativa in, e.g., Joel 2:30; 3:15, cf. Janowski 2024). However, these initial observations on silver, whiteness and luminosity must be left for further research as the voluntary transitions to blackness must be attended.

3.3. Jonah 3:6

In the short but exciting narrative of Jonah, the inhabitants of Nineveh engage in a known ritual of putting on sackcloth to show how they repent from their evil ways (Jon 3:5–10). Much to the reluctant prophet’s disappointment, the symbolic action has a positive effect since Yhwh relents his punishment on the Assyrian capital. All the breathing inhabitants engage in the act of repentance: the people, the animals and the king refrain from eating and drinking while wearing sackcloth. The latter also rises from his throne and sits in ashes, and this voluntary action touches on a transition from one state (perhaps one of chromaticity) to an achromatic one.

And when the word reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. (Jon. 3:6)

The single verse uses four verbs in wayyiqtol, forms a chiasm and accentuates the quick succession of the king’s actions. The utilization of wayyiqtol that rapidly drives the narrative forward accentuates that the king is in control of his actions and that his “authority is never diminished by these pious acts” (Sasson 1990, p. 250). In other words, he is not coerced and does not suffer the actions of others. At this point in the narrative, the result of any divine punishment of Nineveh is absent. Although it is a potentially dangerous situation that motivates his actions, the king voluntarily performs the transition from the throne to ashes because the symbolic act of repentance has an apotropaic function. Now, is it possible to see the king’s transition as a chromatic one? This largely depends on what hues the undescribed robe and sackcloth are understood to have, and whether אפר should be translated as either “dust” or “ashes”.12 To clarify these materials and their possible hues, the king’s move from one sedentary position to another will be addressed first.

In the verse, the king quickly gives up his throne (כסא), which refers to the king’s physical chair, not the metaphorical sense of rulership (cf. 2 Sam 3:10). Various types of thrones are known from the ancient Near East. For example, a Neo-Assyrian and Nineveh-related example is found on the Lachish reliefs that portray Sennacherib sitting on his ornate throne, whose seat consists of three levels and each is equipped with four miniature humans (BM 124911). While the reliefs themselves possibly were coloured to decorate the throne room in Nineveh, the colour of the throne is difficult to identify. However, both in the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the interiors of temples and palaces in the ancient Near East could be layered with ivory, gold or silver (e.g., in Carchemish; Dietrich 2022), and a throne in such an environment was possibly constructed similarly. This is implied in Amos 3:5 and 6:4, where the prophet critiques the wealthy northerners under Jeroboam II for having ivory-clad furniture. Also, Salomon’s throne is imagined to be made of ivory and overlaid with gold (זהב, 1 Kgs 10:18; cf. Eichler 2021, pp. 553–54). While ivory implies whiteness and gold dabbles in the red-yellow sphere, it is likely that the materials’ lustres are more important than their hues. For example, ivory can be distinguished from bone because of its shine, and it is beautiful when polished (cf. Song 5:14). In ancient Mesopotamia, gold was possibly chosen for its bright characteristics more than its hue (Thavapalan 2020, p. 221). Whatever throne the author(s) of the book of Jonah imagined, it is possibly conceived similarly, which entails that the Ninevite king abandons his lustrous position for a temporary matt existence created by ashes (or dust). In any case, he regresses from a prominent (high) seat to a (low) place of matt achromaticity.

Occasionally, אפר appears in a sort of alliterative hendiadys with עפר (Gen 18:27; Job 30:19), a noun that solely refers to dust. This construction appears when Abraham barters with Yhwh about the number of just people that are necessary for the salvation of Sodom. In this situation, Abraham humbles himself by describing himself as dust and ashes. For this reason, the alliterative construction can refer to the fleeting characteristics of their powdery consistency, not necessarily their colour. Also, if the combination of words is conceived as a hendiadys, then “dust” seems to be a fitting translation. However, when אפר occurs independently, as in Jon 3:6, “ashes” is often the preferred translation (cf. Num 19:9). Yet, “ashes” does not necessarily bring us closer to its colour. Ashes (and dust, for that matter) can appear in different achromatic tones. For example, אפר appears in a parallelism with wool (צמר) and is scattered like frost (כפור) in Ps 147:16, which implies a whiteish tone. However, it also appears in connection with the leftovers of the burned heifer (Num 19:9–10) and with the burned part of a log in Isa 44:20, which indicates the black carbon left after organic material has been set alight. אפר is thus a material with an ambiguous colour, but it seems safe to assume that it is an achromatic one. For the present purposes, אפר is translated as “ashes” and conceived to have a black achromatic colour. This conception is due to the connotations of ashes above, but also because the rituals of mourning imply a transition to blackness, less luminosity or darkness (cf. קדר, Ps 35:14; Janowski 2019, p. 84; Hartley 2010, p. 48). While there might be a difference between mourning rituals and rituals of repentance, the elements of wearing sackcloth, fasting, and putting ashes/dust on one’s head look similar (e.g., Gen 37:34; 2 Sam 1:12; Dan 9:3). For this reason, the Ninevite king voluntarily strips his previous state to enter achromatic darkness.

In the movement from throne to ashes, the king manages to remove his robe (אדרת) and put on sackcloth (שק). This kind of robe usually is “a cloak of skin” or the cloak of prophets (2 Kgs 2:13) and “not necessarily precious”, but the context in the book of Jonah implies its splendour (Sasson 1990, pp. 250–51). The robe should possibly be seen in the light of other fancy robes in the Hebrew Bible, e.g., the purple (ארגמן) one given to Mordechai (תכריך, Esth 8:15). While it is difficult to assign a specific hue to the robe, a precious robe of colour and decorations could be in the imaginations of the author(s) since colourful and dazzling clothes mainly were reserved for the nobility (and gods) in the ancient world (cf. Thavapalan 2020, p. 192; Neyrey 1998, p. 22). In any case, the robe functions as something extra, something additional that can be stripped from its important bearer. Taking this status symbol off is thus a removal of the “social skin” (Turner 2012; cf. Janowski 2019, p. 513), and the king transitions to a sackcloth. The sackcloth functions as another social skin, a skin that is equal to any other person who mourns or repents. Therefore, just like the intentional movement from throne to ashes indicates a flattening of the vertical distinction between king and commoner, the sackcloth makes the regent flow into the ocean of Nineveh’s repentant people and animals. The common sackcloth worn by the entire city’s breathing beings was not intended for clothing but was functional for transporting goods. It was made of camel hair or goat hair, crudely constructed and void of bright hues (Isa 50:3; cf. Hartley 2010, p. 54). In other words, it is the opposite of the king’s robe, and he uses it, like other kings, to humble himself in front of Yhwh (cf. 1 Kgs 21:27–29).

Just as the transition to whiteness simultaneously involves a transition in lustre, the king’s transition to blackness involves more than hues. He voluntarily alters his embodied position and changes the quality of the material he wears. Furthermore, he abandons the (possible) brightness of his throne and robe for an existence among the ashes together with everyone else. In this case of severe repentance, chromophobia appears as an abandonment of cosmetic elements, a stripping of the secondarily added extras that the king uses to mark him as different from others. Even though blackness can have ominous connotations, the transition to ashes is, in this case, a positively valued abandonment of hues and brightness because it is made voluntarily. However, when the transition to blackness is involuntary, the tone receives dire connotations of something uncontrollably sad.

4. Losing Hues: The Involuntary Transition to Achromatic Colours

This category of transitions contains texts in which agents suffer a loss of hues. In these cases, the transition from chromatic to achromatic colours is not desired, which strains a comprehensive utilization of the framework of chromophobia. Hues are thus not necessarily perceived as foreign, secondary or dangerous, but they represent a more neutral state. Therefore, the achromatic colours can become marked in the semiotic sense of standing out from the norm (of colour) (cf. Chandler 2017, p. 114). As will be seen, the achromatic colours sometimes become too much, they become monstrously marked. However, the aversion toward achromaticity occurs when the agent involuntarily suffers the transition.

4.1. Lamentations 4:7–8

To continue where the previous section left off, the involuntary transition to blackness occurs in texts that describes dire and hopeless situations. For example, in Job 30:30, the suffering protagonist bemoans how his skin has turned black (שחר). In the long and final speech of Job, the hopeless sufferer uses the verb שחר in the perfect aspect to describe how his skin has darkened and is falling off. To ponder about a specific skin ailment is unnecessary because the achromatic and marked colour is a negative contrast to the light that appears in Job’s summarizing of his pre-afflicted situation. For example, Job 29:3 describes God’s illuminating lamp (ניר) and light (אור) that shines on the praiseworthy protagonist. Much could be written about Job’s involuntary transition to blackness and the accompanying alienation from the centre of society, but here, attention is directed to a suffering and hueless collective that describe their situation in the slipstream of Jerusalem’s destruction.

• ⁷Her elect13 were brighter than snow, whiter than milk;
• their limbs were red like corals,
• their hair like lapis lazuli.
• ⁸Now their form has become dark like soot,
• they are not recognized in the streets.
• Their skin has shrivelled on their bones;
• it has become dry as wood. (Lam 4:7–8)

The two verses represent the ז and the ח in the acrostic poem that makes up Lam 4, and they colourfully describe the reversal of a previous glory to present gloom. It is not simply in these verses that such changes take place since the entire acrostic poem orbits the reversal of colour and brightness: the gold (זהב and כתם) has changed and grown dim (Lam 4:1); the sons of Zion are now compared to earthen pots instead of refined gold (פז; Lam 4:2) and the ones who were brought up in crimson (תולע) now embrace the ashes (Lam 4:5). However, Lam 4:7–8 is the chapter’s colourful epicentre since all the positively valued facets of brightness (זכך), whiteness (צחח), redness (אדם) and blueness (ספיר) collapse into the darkness (חשך) of black soot (שחור). This reversal is emphatically involuntary. No one desired a transition from chromaticity to achromaticity, and a sense of chromophobia among the authors is more difficult to identify. Here, all valuable, colourful and bright things are lost when the collective descends into darkness.

The previous chromatic state of positiveness is described as brighter than snow and whiter/purer than milk, which tentatively implies a white achromatic colour (Brenner 1982, p. 30). However, similar to Isa 1:18, the comparison to snow in the first description also plays on facets of glistening ice crystals, not necessarily the tone of snow. Sparkling cleanness seems to be implied, since the rare verb זכך, that only occurs here and in Job, also appears in connection with the gleam of stars (cf. Job 25:5). Furthermore, the parallel verb in the second description, צחח, simultaneously touches on aspects of whiteness and lustre since it is compared to (glistening) milk.

While the two first descriptions portray a whiteish gleam, the following two descriptions concern the red and blue hues of the elects’ bodies. Their limbs, or bones (עצם), are described as red like corals (פנינים). The comparison is slightly unhelpful since the undefined פנינים can refer to both pearls, corals and perhaps rubies (Hartley 2010, p. 110), but it appears to be the hue of red that is the element of comparison (cf. Harrell et al. 2017, pp. 35–36). In any case, the redness (אדם) that occurs in combination with the lustre in the first descriptions and comparisons concerns “youthful good looks” (Brenner 1982, p. 79), a visual and healthy complexion of the skin that is also recognized in Song 5:10. In connection with this healthy shine and youthful reddish vigour, it is worth noticing that male bones are more fertile and healthier when they are wet, not dry (Job 21:24; Lilly 2019, p. 440). Similar to watered surfaces, bones can be perceived to be glistening with moisture. This feature harmonizes with the colourful transition from glorious health to darkened sickness since the collective’s shrivelled skin on the bones is compared to dry wood (Lam 4:8). In this way, the transition between colours is, in these specific verses, accompanied by a transition on the spectrum of lustre and moist fertility.14

The final colourful element in the positive pre-achromatic description is lapis lazuli (ספיר), or sapphire, which describes the collective’s hair. Although the noun is etymologically linked to the gemstone known as sapphire (blue corundum), ספיר more likely refers to lapis lazuli in the Hebrew Bible, a semi-precious stone of lazurite with “golden specks of pyrite and white patches or veins of calcite” (Harrell et al. 2017, pp. 18–19). The abstract term “blue” eludes the Hebrew language (Schellenberg 2024; cf. Thavapalan 2020, pp. 322–25), but lapis lazuli refers to the material stone and thus implies the stone’s hue that frequently is a deep darkish blue (cf. Akkadian uqnû, cf. Thavapalan 2020, p. 310). In the entire ancient Near East, the stone was often used as ornate inlays in jewellery (see, e.g., the burial mask of Tutankhamun), and it possibly represented the cloudless night sky since the metallic yellow pyrite in the dark blue lazurite could resemble the stars in the firmament (cf. Exod 24:10). The decision to translate גזרה as “hair”, not “bodies” (cf. NJPS), is based on the elusive root’s meaning of “separateness” (Ezek 41:12), which could imply separate hair strands instead of a carved image (cf. Berlin 2004, p. 107). Furthermore, it was common that kings, gods and the deceased were portrayed with blue hair in ancient Egypt (Griffiths 2005, p. 332). For example, both Anubis and the dead are artfully portrayed as having blue hair in the Tomb of Tawosret found in the Valley of the Kings (Wilkinson 2003, p. 189). As for the unfortunate collective in Lamentations, the colourful, gleaming and mesmerizing hair of lapis lazuli is lost together with their healthy redness and shine.

The present state of their bodies, or forms (תאר), is described as “dark like soot” (חשך משחור). This comparative construction intensifies the darkness that now covers their outline. The noun שחור occurs only here in the entire Hebrew Bible, but it refers to “something black” (Hartley 2010, p. 70), which also is implied in the LXX that reads ἀσβόλη (“soot”). Similar to the Ninevite king in Jon 3:6, the colours can be stripped from the collective “elect” without them losing their outline (תאר). In other words, the nobility, who hardly represent the neutral state of normalcy, is still there but without their secondary colours, and this observation emits a shimmer of chromophobic tendencies. It is the excess of colour that is blackened. Furthermore, the colours were possibly limited to the elect in the first place, which touches on the control of hues, a control that now has been reversed in chaotic darkness. In any case, the stripping of their colour and gleam reveals that the involuntary transition to matt reflection and black achromaticity is unwanted. But what about involuntary transitions to white? To examine this query, the transitional experience of Moses’ sister demands attention.

4.2. Numbers 12:10

In the odd little narration of Num 12, it is told how Miriam and Aaron speak to Moses because of his marriage to a Cushite woman and how Miriam is leprously punished for challenging Moses’ authority. Aaron is exceptionally good at dodging penalties (cf. Exod 32:21–25), and the punishment is solely aimed at Miriam, who appears to be the “principal instigator” (cf. the feminine singular in Exod 12:1; Milgrom 1990, p. 93). As a result of challenging Moses and Yhwh, Miriam is turned leprous like snow, and this is a terrifying involuntary punishment that touches on colourful transitions.

• The cloud moved from over the tent, and see, Miriam was leprous like snow.
• And then Aaron turned to Miriam, and see, she was leprous. (Num 12:10)

Yhwh punishes Miriam after the deity has accentuated Moses’ authority, and in a combination of strange weather phenomena, Yhwh’s cloudy presence leaves, and Miriam is left leprous like snow (מצרעת כשלג). There is an accentuated focus on the transition to Miriam’s new state, which is noticed by the double use of the particle הנה (“see”) that triggers the visual perception and calls attention to her altered situation. It has been discussed if “like snow” indicates the flaky texture of psoriasis-stricken skin rather than whiteness (Brenner 1982, p. 82; Milgrom 1991, p. 786). However, even if this is the case, the white colour should not be ruled out (Lyell 2020, p. 103). For example, the whiteness seems implied due to the dark Cushite wife (cf. Jer 13:33; Kiesow 2003, pp. 147–49), whose presence creates a contrast to Miriam’s marked skin colour. In this way, the contrast makes the whiteness a monstrous and unnerving white. Batchelor touches briefly on the monstrous aspects of white by referring to Melville’s Moby Dick and comments how “there is an instability in the apparent uniformity of white” (Batchelor 2000, p. 16). In other words, the all-covering boundary-erasing whiteness becomes problematic because it annihilates distinctions. It is a whiteness of death, and it is for this reason that Batchelor brings attention to chromophobia because its ominous goal is the erasure of the chromaticity associated with life. Miriam’s flaky white skin is a sign of her body “wasting away” (Milgrom 2004, p. 129; cf. Num 12:12), and it signifies a blurring of her embodied boundaries. Furthermore, Jacob Milgrom stresses that the disease in which Miriam is suddenly covered has its place in the impurity system because “the bearer is treated like a corpse” (Milgrom 2004, p. 128). Miriam thus transitions into a state of excessive deadly whiteness that is a provocation to regularity. This kind of whiteness is also noticed when Moses (with Yhwh’s help) performs the magic trick of a hand that turns leprously snowy in Exod 4:6–7, or when the lying Gehazi is punished by Elisha (2 Kgs 5:27). Although it is implied that Miriam’s skin disease recedes after a seven-day quarantine, the brief narrative shows that the involuntary transition to achromaticity is an undesired one. But can a person in the Hebrew Bible also suffer a transition to hues? An attempt to answer this question brings this analysis on a hunt for transitional texts in Leviticus.

5. Suffering Hues: The Involuntary Transition to Chromatic Colours

This section is not accompanied by a textual example. Instead, the section functions as a short intermission that completes the structure of two sections that concern voluntary and involuntary transitions to achromaticity and two sections that concern voluntary and involuntary transitions to chromaticity. Isa 1:18 (and Ps 51:9) could be revisited here since the sinfully red hue that needs to be washed away is implied to be involuntarily received by the agent. Texts, such as Joseph’s acceptance into the house of the pharaoh (Gen 41:42), Mordechai’s honouring by Ahasuerus (Esth 6:7–9), or Daniel’s reward by Belshazzar (Dan 5:29), could also have been analysed since they involve positive chromatic transitions exemplified by changes in clothes or the bestowal of gold.15 However, even if these scenes describe the passive bestowal of colour and lustre on successful Israelites at foreign courts, they are difficult to assign to the involuntary sphere since aspects of voluntary acceptance are at play.

It is difficult to find texts where an involuntary and non-desired transition to hues is described in detail.16 Perhaps the most pertinent examples are found in Leviticus. For example, the involuntary experience of having menstruation, where the blood implies an involuntary transition to red-hued uncleanness for the things with which the blood has come into contact (Lev 15:18–30; Milgrom 2004, p. 141). However, albeit it results in a longer impurity period, menstruation, together with semen, could be an issue of life-fluids emitting from the body or of men controlling “women’s reproductive system” (Niditch 2023, p. 32), not an issue of an involuntary transition to hues (cf. Milgrom 1991, p. 767). Milgrom also highlights that menstruation is “invisible”, in contrast to leprosy, which entails that the woman can remain at home while she is unclean (Milgrom 2004, p. 129). The focus on hues is thus minimized.

Another example echoes the previous section on Miriam’s skin disease. The irregular whiteness of hairs and swellings makes a person unclean (e.g., Lev 13:10–11), but if the entire body is covered in white scales, the person is pure (Milgrom 2004, p. 129). Other discolourations also mark the skin as different, for example, reddish (אדמדם) boils (Lev 13:18), burns (Lev 13:24), or patches on the head (Lev 13:42) need to be examined by the priest as they are possible sources of uncleanness.17 Lev 13 resembles a guide for medical examination of symptoms, and a marked discolouring identifies the symptomatic anomaly in the unmarked skin. It is thus not solely the involuntary transition to chromatic discolourations that are problematic, since whiteness and brightness (cf. בהרת, Lev 13:24) also are potential sources for uncleanness. However, no matter if the symptoms are excessive whiteness or reddish spots, the secondary element added to one’s body is potentially dangerous. In the end, the involuntary transition that occurs in the suffering of leprosy is negatively valued.

6. Entering Hues: The Voluntary Transition to Chromatic Colours

The final category for this venture into colour transitions concerns the voluntary choice to enter colours. The section orbits the single but colourfully detailed theme of the tabernacle and the high priest’s vestments. With the collection of biblical texts from Exod 25–31, aspects of chromophobia and chromophilia can be sensed since the hues of the tabernacle, on the one hand, are controlled and, on the other hand, represent a world in which the high priest loses himself.

Exodus 25–31

The most detailed descriptions of any building and any piece of clothing in the entire Hebrew Bible are found in the meticulous instructions to build the tabernacle and its equipment in Exod 25–31 (cf. Exod 35–40). Therefore, a translation of a specific text snippet is not helpful for this section since the descriptions of the colourful equipment span several pages. For this reason, a brief presentation of the tabernacle’s hues and materials and the high priest’s vestments serves as an entrance to discuss how Aaron is absorbed into colours.

All structural elements of the tabernacle are made of acacia wood (שטה, Exod 26:15.26), which probably is the Vachellia tortilis that has brown-reddish bark. Similarly, the ark (Exod 25:10), table (Exod 25:23), the altar of incense (Exod 30:1) and the altar of burnt offering (Exod 27:1) as well as their accompanying poles for transportation (Exod 25:13.28; 27:6; 30:6) are made of this kind of wood. The hue of acacia seems to play no important role in the aesthetics of the tabernacle since all structural elements are covered in gold (זהב, Exod 26:29) and have silver bases (כסף, e.g., Exod 26:19). The ark, the table and the altar of incense (with their poles) are similarly covered in gold (Exod 25:11.13.24.29; 30:3.5) so that they match the utensils (Exod 25:29) and the lampstand (Exod 25:31) that are made of pure gold (זהב טהור). Unlike the equipment intended for the interior of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering, which is placed in the court of the tabernacle, is covered in bronze (נחשת), which matches its bronze utensils and the bronze basin (27:1.4.6; 30:18). While all these metals can have shiny surfaces, the gradation in materials could accompany a gradation in holiness (Jensen 1998, p. 175; Gudme 2014, p. 4; cf. Amzallag 2019, pp. 299–301). Gold is reserved for items closer to Yhwh’s presence, whereas bronze is further away, and bronze is generally conceived as less valuable than gold (e.g., Isa 60:17; cf. נחש in Dan 2:32.39).

The fabrics used within the tabernacle are made of fine twisted linen (שש משזר) and dyed textiles in two nuances of purple (תכלת and ארגמן, cf. Hartley 2010, p. 190 and 203) and crimson (תלעת שני; Exod, 26:1). These fabrics are sewn together to make two large coverings, each consisting of five pieces of valuable cloth. Gold clasps combine the two pieces to make one single hole of intense colours and lustre (Exod 26:1–6). Together with the golden equipment, the colourful fabrics dominate the insides of the tabernacle.18 Above the dyed fabrics, a large cover of goats’ hair encapsulates the tabernacle (Exod 26:7). The intense colours are thus contained under the less hue-dominated goats’ hair. The cover of goats’ hair is subsequently covered in tanned rams’ skin and finally with another type of leather (תחש, perhaps porpoise or dolphin), whose hue is difficult to define. “Tanned” is the translation of the pual participle made from the root אדם and refers to the result of a (perhaps water-proofing) process that leaves the rams’ skins with a red hue (Hartley 2010, p. 110). Still, even if this skin cover is left with a reddish-brownish hue, the final layer with the undefined but possibly subtle brownish hue is placed above it. Finally, the entire construction of the tabernacle and its coverings are encircled by fine white linen (שש, Exod 27:9; cf. Imes 2019, pp. 35–37; Noonan 2019, pp. 215–16; Brenner 1982, p. 90). In other words, the intensely chromatic centre is framed, contained and controlled by an achromatic outline. The high priest’s vestments aside,19 the only intensely colourful fabric seen by outsiders is the screen to the tabernacle and the screen to the court, which are made of the same combination of materials as the insides of the tabernacle (Exod 26:36; 27:16). In this way, the fabric of intense and costly hues simultaneously conceals and represents gateways which serve as rabbit-holes into a chromatically different world that is increasingly restricted and dangerous. Only one person can enter all the gateways, and he is covered in complimentary intense hues and lustre.

The high priest’s vestments have been diligently examined in previous scholarship (e.g., Quick 2021b, pp. 103–20; Imes 2019; MacDonald 2019; Ellman 2013, pp. 107–11), but a brief overview of the hues and materials of the garments needs to be presented before discussing Aaron’s glorious disappearance.20 The high priest’s vestments are distinguished from all other clothing among the wandering Israelites. The first described element is the ephod (אפד), a type of apron that is attached by a band (חשב) (Exod 28:6–8; Imes 2019, pp. 32–33). The ephod and the band are woven in the same purple and crimson fabrics as the insides of the tabernacle. This combination of material is also used for the breastpiece (חשׁן, Exod 28:15) and the sash (אבנט, cf. Exod 39:29). The ephod is equipped with two stones attached in gold (זהב) with engraved names (Exod 28:9–11). The שהם-stones have been identified as both onyx or carnelian, but they might be classified as a purplish amethyst or a reddish sardonyx version of agate (Harrell et al. 2017, p. 29). The breastpiece contains twelve different gemstones that are set in gold (Exod 28:17–20). What specific gemstones are referenced are difficult to identify, but hues of turquoise (נפך), red (carnelian, אדם), blue (ספיר) and green (green jasper, ברקת) might all be implied (Harrell et al. 2017, p. 45). In any case, these gemstones do not have a material or chromatic parallel in the tabernacle (Imes 2019, p. 37), which accentuates their otherness in the tabernacle; they are to be noticed by Yhwh.

The pricy robe (מעיל) that goes underneath the ephod and breastplate mimics the aristocratic class and is made entirely in one nuance of purple (תכלת, Exod 28:31; MacDonald 2019, p. 441). Its hem, however, is made with the same combination of fabrics as the other clothing items. The hem is also equipped with golden bells that serve an apotropaic function since it is lethal to be in the proximity of Yhwh (Exod 28:35; Ellman 2013, p. 110). The ornate breastplate might have a similar apotropaic function (cf. Wis 18:24–25). In any case, the bells signify that the intensely chromatic centre of the tabernacle is dangerous. In other words, a sort of chromophobia is at play since the colourful tabernacle is both contained and threatening.

The high priest is also equipped with a turban-attached rosette that is made of pure gold (זהב טהור) and kept in place by a purple (תכלת) string (Exod 28:36–37). On the lustrous rosette, “Holy for Yhwh” (קדש ליהוה) is engraved to signify Aaron’s responsibility on behalf of the Israelites and to obtain Yhwh’s favour (Exod 28:38). Under all his vestments, he wears a tunic (כתנת) made of white linen (שש, Exod 28:39) and thus reverses the order of hues and fabrics found in the tabernacle.

For the high priest to enter the restricted other-worldly tabernacle, he must transition into his colourful vestments. But why is this transition necessary? And what role does his agency play? Carmen Imes writes that the vestments are a signal of the high priest’s “status and responsibility” and that they “distinguished him from every other Israelite” (Imes 2019, p. 30; cf. MacDonald 2019, pp. 446–47), but the focus on the magnificence of the clothing might not be the whole story. In Exod 39:32–41, all the elements of the tabernacle are presented in list form. The science of lists is known from the entire ancient Near East, and paratactic and hypotactic lists create order and categorise things conceived to belong together (cf. Dietrich 2020). The listed items in Exod 39:32–41 represent a whole and follow a development from inside to outside, that is, from the tabernacle and its furnishings to the priests’ clothing. However, the list is not a list of gradation. Instead, it is a summarizing list that encapsulates the equipment that belongs to the tabernacle. This might not be a novel observation, but it is relevant because the listing of the high priest’s vestments accentuates that the worn hues are closely intertwined with the tabernacle’s equipment (MacDonald 2019, p. 442). This belonging is also implied when the outfit has to be passed on to the next high priest after the death of the former (Exod 29:29–30), when it is sanctified by blood sprinkling similar to the altar (Exod 29:20–21; cf. Lev 8:22–24) or when it, in later texts, is described as worthless without the temple (1 Macc 3:50–51; cf. MacDonald 2019, p. 442). In this way, when wearing the vestments, the high priest does not necessarily signal his status, but Yhwh’s. He becomes a piece of Yhwh’s furniture, an item that can move around within the tabernacle. He thus voluntarily disappears, loses himself, and transitions into a glorious camouflage as he blends with the inside’s colour scheme and becomes part of Yhwh’s chromatic and lustrous equipment (cf. Nihan and Rhyder 2018, p. 50; MacDonald 2023, p. 127). Inside the tabernacle, he functions as a divinely instructed automaton that performs the same rituals daily to keep Yhwh present among the Israelites. The only items that fail to blend effortlessly with the surroundings are the gemstones and the illustrious rosette. Both these items need to catch Yhwh’s eye so that he remembers the Israelites and recognizes that the high priest and the offerings belong to the deity (cf. the possessive ל in ליהוה inscribed on the rosette; Ellman 2013, p. 109). In this way, the high priest simultaneously disappears and represents someone other than himself. In Laura Quick’s words, the high priest is “no longer a private individual” as he personifies the larger community through his uniform (Quick 2021b, p. 110). The vestments provide a glorious camouflage.

In the end, Aaron (and any other high priest after him) voluntarily loses his individuality to Yhwh’s hues and the Israelites’ representative gemstones, which echoes a chromophilia where the dangerous colours of luring otherness are entered purposefully. For the sake of the Israelites, the high priest dons an intensely chromatic outfit that has its home in the colourful, contained and dangerous epicentre of holiness, a place no one but him is allowed.

7. Conclusion: Precarious Hues

The colourful transitions examined above show the difficulty in isolating hues from other transitory elements. An agent’s transition between chromaticity and achromaticity is often combined with alterations in luminosity, quality of material, fertility, holiness and/or existential situations. Batchelor’s chromophobic framework is thus only partly helpful. However, there is some uneasiness with hues that can be caught by using this terminology in combination with a view to human agency. Hues might not always be dangerous, promiscuously feminine, or luxuriously inessential, but chromatic colours can be abandoned when they are linked to sinfulness and stripped when they are excessive. There is also a sense of chromophilia when someone loses oneself to colours, e.g., the high priest, who enters a restricted area of chromaticity. In this way, the attitude toward hues and their meanings are entangled with what kind of agency the transitioning person has in the situation. If hues are given up voluntarily, the achromatic world promises something better or opens a hueless world where one expresses repentance, mourning, or humbleness. However, if hues are involuntarily lost, it is a sign of sickness, chaos and abnormality. When hues are involuntarily received, it can be a result of sinful behaviour or the more harmless but potentially polluting impracticalities of having skin diseases. Finally, when colours are voluntarily entered, the transition has positive connotations, even though one might lose oneself to chromaticity. Therefore, the negative experiences with chromatic or achromatic colours are closely tied to the agent, who is not in control of the transition. Several nuances of colour are yet to be considered, and this contribution only provides a limited view into the transitions between colours. More explorations can be engaged, more texts can be analysed, and the chromophobic theory is just one way to frame facets of perception and polychromy in the Hebrew Bible.