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Bible Dictionaries
Wool
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (ἔριον)
The two passages in which wool is mentioned in the NT (Hebrews 9:19, Revelation 1:14) call for little comment. In Hebrews 9:19 the writer alludes to the symbolic and ceremonial use of scarlet wool in the Mosaic ritual, while in Revelation 1:14 the hair of the Son of Man in compared to white wool. White wool, here as elsewhere (cf. Psalms 147:16, Isaiah 1:18, Daniel 7:9), is the emblem of purity. St. John clearly has in view the locus classicus, Daniel 7:9, where, however, the white hair belongs to the Ancient of Days. The transference of the metaphor to the Son of Man is noteworthy, in view of the strict adherence to Daniel’s account in the Apocrypha (cf. Enoch, xlvi. 1).
Wool has always been an important article of commerce in Syria. In early days the sole measure of a man’s wealth was the number of flocks and herds in his possession. Among these the sheep was the most important and was valued especially for its wool. At a time when silk was unknown and flax was scarce and hardly obtainable out of Egypt, wool formed the principal material for clothing. The region of Gilead, Moab, and Ammon was pre-eminently the land of sheep-pasture as it is to-day.
Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible10, London, 1911, p. 133ff.; W. M. Thomson. The Land and the Book, new ed., do., 1910, p. 313; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, do, 1903, pp. 12, 81-84; R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1893, p. 127; B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews 2, London, 1892, p. 267 f.; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John 2, do., 1907. p. 16; SDB , p. 977; HDB iv. 937; EBi iv. 5353.
P. S. P. Handcock.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Wool'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/w/wool.html. 1906-1918.
