In biblical times, purple garments were a powerful symbol of wealth, royalty, and high status, derived from a rare and labor-intensive dye extracted from the murex snail, which made the color extremely expensive and accessible only to the elite. The dye, known as Tyrian purple, required approximately 10,000 snails to produce a single gram, and its production was so costly that it could be worth up to 20 times its weight in gold. This scarcity elevated purple to a status symbol across the ancient Mediterranean world, with Roman emperors later reserving certain shades exclusively for themselves.
The color held significant religious and symbolic meaning in Israelite culture. In the Old Testament, purple was an integral part of the Tabernacle and its furnishings, used in the curtains, veils, and the priestly ephods, signifying holiness and the sacred presence of God. Exodus 26:1 specifies that the Tabernacle curtains were to be made of finely twisted linen, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them, emphasizing the divine majesty and the sanctity of the space. Similarly, the high priest’s garments included purple, reflecting both his spiritual authority and his role as a mediator between God and humanity.
Purple was also associated with royalty and leadership. In Judges 8:26, the kings of Midian are described as wearing purple garments, highlighting their power and wealth. King Solomon, in his request for skilled artisans to build the Temple, specifically asked for someone trained in working with purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, underscoring the importance of the dye in sacred construction. The Phoenician city of Tyre became a major center for the production and trade of purple cloth, which was exported throughout the ancient world, including to Israel.
In the New Testament, purple continued to symbolize affluence and social standing. The rich man in the parable of Dives and Lazarus is described as being “clothed in purple and fine linen,” emphasizing his luxurious lifestyle. The most poignant use of purple in the New Testament occurs during Jesus’ trial, when Roman soldiers mockingly dressed Him in a purple robe and placed a crown of thorns on His head, unaware that their act of ridicule was fulfilling a deeper prophetic truth—Jesus, the true King of kings, was being crowned in mockery. This moment underscores the theological tension of purple as both a symbol of earthly power and divine sovereignty.
In apocalyptic literature, such as the Book of Revelation, purple is used to depict moral decay and the excess of corrupt empires. The “great harlot” Babylon is described as being “arrayed in purple and scarlet,” symbolizing her luxurious yet sinful state, and her fall is mourned by merchants who lost their profitable trade in purple, fine linen, and other luxuries. This reversal of meaning reflects a broader biblical theme: purple, once sacred, can also be used to represent worldly power that opposes God.
The discovery of purple-dyed wool fabric at Timna in southern Israel, dated to the 10th century B.C.E., provides the first direct archaeological evidence of such textiles from the time of Kings David and Solomon, confirming the historical presence of this prestigious dye in ancient Israel. These findings reinforce the biblical accounts and highlight the cultural and economic significance of purple in the ancient Near East.
Purple dye in biblical times was made from the mucus of murex sea snails, primarily harvested by the Phoenicians along the Mediterranean coast, especially near Tyre—hence the name Tyrian purple. Thousands of snails were needed to produce just a small amount of dye, making the process extremely labor-intensive and costly.
The process involved extracting a gland from the snail, which secreted a clear or milky fluid. When exposed to sunlight and air, this liquid underwent a chemical reaction, transforming into a rich, colorfast purple or reddish-purple dye. The dyeing process itself required simmering the fabric in a mixture of the snail secretions and salt brine for several days in lead-lined vats, which helped stabilize the color.
Due to the foul odor of decomposing snails, dye workshops were typically located outside city limits. The rarity and expense of the dye meant that purple garments were reserved for royalty, high priests, and the wealthy elite, symbolizing status, power, and divine favor.
Tyrian purple (Ancient Greek: πορφύρα porphúra; Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple, imperial purple, imperial dye, or simply tyrian, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to the city of Tyre in ancient Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon). It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name Murex (Bolinus brandaris, Hexaplex trunculus and Stramonita haemastoma). In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labor, and as a result, the dye was highly valued. The colored compound is 6,6′-dibromoindigo.
A 20th-century depiction of a Roman triumph celebrated by Julius Caesar. Caesar, riding in the chariot, wears the solid Tyrian purple toga picta. In the foreground, two Roman magistrates are identified by their toga praetexta, white with a stripe of Tyrian purple.
Biological pigments were often difficult to acquire, and the details of their production were kept secret by the manufacturers. Tyrian purple is a pigment made from the mucus of several species of murex snail.
Production of Tyrian purple for use as a fabric dye began as early as 1200 BC by the Phoenicians, and was continued by the Greeks and Romans until 1453 AD, with the fall of Constantinople.
In the same way as the modern-day Latin alphabet of Phoenician origin, Phoenician purple pigment was spread through the unique Phoenician trading empire. The pigment was expensive and time-consuming to produce, and items colored with it became associated with power and wealth.
This popular idea of purple being elite contributes to the modern day widespread belief that purple is a “royal color”. The color of textiles from this period provides insight into socio-cultural relationships within ancient societies, in addition to providing insights on technological achievements, fashion, social stratification, agriculture and trade connections. Despite their value to archaeological research, textiles are quite rare in the archaeological record. Like any perishable organic material, they are usually subject to rapid decomposition and their preservation over millennia requires exacting conditions to prevent destruction by microorganisms.
Tyrian purple may first have been used by the ancient Phoenicians as early as 1570 BC. It has been suggested that the name Phoenicia itself means ‘land of purple’. The dye was greatly prized in antiquity because the colour did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. It came in various shades, the most prized being that of black-tinted clotted blood. Because it was extremely tedious to make, Tyrian purple was expensive: the 4th century BC historian Theopompus reported, “Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon” in Asia Minor. The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols, whose use was restricted by sumptuary laws. The most senior Roman magistrates wore a toga praetexta, a white toga edged in Tyrian purple. The even more sumptuous toga picta, solid Tyrian purple with gold thread edging, was worn by generals celebrating a Roman triumph.
By the fourth century AD, sumptuary laws in Rome had been tightened so much that only the Roman emperor was permitted to wear Tyrian purple. As a result, ‘purple’ is sometimes used as a metonym for the office (e.g. the phrase ‘donned the purple’ means ‘became emperor’). The production of Tyrian purple was tightly controlled in the succeeding Byzantine Empire and subsidized by the imperial court, which restricted its use for the colouring of imperial silks. Later (9th century), a child born to a reigning emperor was said to be porphyrogenitos, “born in the purple”.
Some speculate that the dye extracted from the Bolinus brandaris is known as argaman (ארגמן) in Biblical Hebrew. Another dye extracted from a related sea snail, Hexaplex trunculus, produced a blue colour after light exposure which could be the one known as tekhelet (תְּכֵלֶת), used in garments worn for ritual purposes.
Production from sea snails
Two shells of Bolinus brandaris, the spiny dye-murex, a source of the dye
The dye substance is a mucous secretion from the hypobranchial gland of one of several species of medium-sized predatory sea snails that are found in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. These are the marine gastropods Bolinus brandaris the spiny dye-murex (originally known as Murex brandaris Linnaeus, 1758), the banded dye-murex Hexaplex trunculus, the rock-shell Stramonita haemastoma, and less commonly a number of other species such as Bolinus cornutus. The dye is an organic compound of bromine (i.e., an organobromine compound), a class of compounds often found in algae and in some other sea life, but much more rarely found in the biology of land animals. This dye is in contrast to the imitation purple that was commonly produced using cheaper materials than the dyes from the sea snail.
In nature, the snails use the secretion as part of their predatory behaviour to sedate prey and as an antimicrobial lining on egg masses. The snail also secretes this substance when it is attacked by predators, or physically antagonized by humans (e.g., poked). Therefore, the dye can be collected either by “milking” the snails, which is more labor-intensive but is a renewable resource, or by collecting and destructively crushing the snails. David Jacoby remarks that “twelve thousand snails of Murex brandaris yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment.” The dye is collected via the snail-harvesting process, involving the extraction of the hypobranchial gland (located under the mollusk’s mantle). This requires advanced knowledge of biology. Murex-based dyeing must take place close to the site from which the snails originate, because the freshness of the material has a significant effect on the results, the colours yielded based on the long process of biochemical, enzymatic and photochemical reactions, and requires reduction and oxidation processes that probably took several days.
