Do Colors Have Any Significance in the Bible?

The Bible is an important book full of essential lessons for the world, for both believing Christians and others. These lessons often feature detailed descriptions, impressive symbols, and beautiful imagery to help readers understand them better. One of the features of these passages is color. Many people wonder if these colors have any significance in the Bible and, if so, what that significance truly means. We’ve simplified color translations, color significance, and an example of color significance across Scripture.

Color Translations

Here at the KJV Store, we believe that the King James Version of the Bible preserves the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God in English. The original Word of God was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, which many people today can’t read. We read the KJV Bible because it is the Word of God in our language and is the most faithful English translation.

The fact that the Bible was translated from three languages into English means that colors were also translated. This is somewhat of a problem because the original languages did not have as many color words as we do. For example, ancient Hebrew did not have a specific word for blue, yet the KJV Bible uses the word blue, such as in descriptions of the tapestries in the palace we see in Esther 1. King James and his translators allowed for these discrepancies because they wanted readers to understand the Bible.

Color Significance

While many colors have significance in the Bible, the importance often depends on the context of the verse. Repeating our above example, there is a description of tapestries in the palace in the first chapter of Esther, including their colors. These descriptions help us understand the wealth and extravagance of the Persian king, but the colors themselves do not have a particular significance.

The color blue does have particular significance in another Biblical passage, though. In Exodus 24, Moses and the elders of Israel hold a ceremony symbolizing the covenant between their nation and God. As the Israel people pass by Moses for a sprinkling of blood, “they [see] the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were paved work of a sapphire stone” (Exodus 24:10). Most sapphire is blue, and since God could choose to personify himself and stand on any color of stone, we know that the color here matters. It most likely helps symbolize the heavens, which is God’s home, and holiness, which God is.

Significance Across Scripture

As we mentioned above, most colors have significance in the verse they’re in and the surrounding context. This means that sometimes a color appears and does not have particular relevance, but sometimes it does. However, when they appear with significance, that significance stays the same.

For example, we mentioned above that blue, in the context of Exodus 24, represented the heavens and holiness. Many Christian scholars believe that the hem of Jesus’s garment in the story of healing the bleeding woman (Luke 8:43-48) was also blue. While the context is different, the color represents Jesus’s holiness. He is set apart from other humans because he is also God, which makes him holy. That is what gives him the power to heal through a single touch of his robe.

Depending on the context, colors do have significance in the Bible. If you want to buy a KJV Bible to explore this significance, you can find one in our online Bible store. Our Bibles come with various features, such as large print and wide margins, so you can easily read and use them.