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Summary
- In the Bible, white is the color of what God makes clean and of the glory that surrounds him, as in Isaiah 1:18 and the white robes of Revelation.
- The King James Bible uses “white” 75 times, and more than half are in two books: Leviticus 13, on skin disease, and Revelation.
- White is not always good in Scripture: it marks leprosy in Leviticus, Miriam and Gehazi, and Jesus calls hypocrites “whited sepulchres”.
- Every white robe in Revelation is given, and the saints “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
- At the Transfiguration Jesus’ clothes became whiter than any fuller on earth could make them, and the Bible never describes the color of his skin.
- Catholic and United Methodist churches use white at Christmas and Easter, and the Catholic rite gives the newly baptized a white garment as a sign that they have put on Christ.
- Scripture gives no meaning for white in dreams; it asks us to test dreams against God’s word.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Holy Bible, King James Version, quoted from BibleGateway: Genesis 30:37; Exodus 16:31; Leviticus 13:3, 13:13, 13:45–46; Numbers 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27; Esther 8:15; Psalm 51:7; Psalm 68:14; Ecclesiastes 9:8; Isaiah 1:18; Isaiah 53:2; Jeremiah 23:28; Daniel 7:9; Zechariah 6:3; Matthew 17:2; 23:27; 28:3; Mark 9:3; 12:43–44; 16:5; John 4:35; 20:12; Acts 1:10; 8:35; 23:3; Galatians 3:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Revelation 1:14; 2:17; 3:4–5; 3:18; 6:2; 6:11; 7:9; 7:14; 19:8; 19:11; 19:14; 20:11. Word counts made on the Project Gutenberg King James text (eBook 10). https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/King-James-Version-KJV-Bible/
- Reina-Valera 1960, Marcos 12:42, BibleGateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Marcos+12%3A42&version=RVR1960
- The Holy Bible, King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook 10. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Strong’s Hebrew 3836, laban, with the Brown-Driver-Briggs entry, Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3836.htm
- Strong’s Greek 3022, leukos, with Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/greek/3022.htm
- Strong’s Greek 1102, gnapheus (fuller), Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/greek/1102.htm
- Strong’s Greek 3016, lepton (mite), Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/greek/3016.htm
- Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española, “blanco, blanca”, sense 23. https://dle.rae.es/blanco
- General Instruction of the Roman Missal, paragraph 346, Holy See (2003 English text). https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html
- The United Methodist Church, “Glossary: colors, liturgical”, from A Dictionary for United Methodists (Abingdon, 1991). https://www.umc.org/content/glossary-colors-liturgical
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1243, Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3J.HTM
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