Embroidery And Needlework

VIEW:48 DATA:01-04-2020

EMBROIDERY AND NEEDLEWORK.—Embroidery is the art of working patterns or figures on textile fabrics with woollen, linen, silk, or gold thread by means of a needle. The process was exactly described by the Romans as painting with a needle (acu pingere).
The Hebrew word for embroidery (riqmah) is rendered by AV [Note: Authorized Version.] in Jdg_5:30 and Psa_45:14 by ‘needlework,’ for which RV [Note: Revised Version.] substitutes ‘embroidery,’—in the former passage, however, render ‘a piece of embroidery or two’ for ‘embroidery on both sides,’—and in Eze_16:10; Eze_16:13; Eze_16:18; Eze_27:7; Eze_27:16; Eze_27:24 by ‘broidered work’ or ‘broidered garments,’ which RV [Note: Revised Version.] retains. Similarly in connexion with certain fabrics of the Tabernacle and the high priest’s girdle, for ‘wrought with needlework’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] has the more literal rendering ‘the work of the embroiderer’ (Exo_26:36; Exo_27:16; Exo_28:39 etc.), whom AV [Note: Authorized Version.] also introduces in Exo_35:35, Exo_38:23.
An entirely different word, the real significance of which is uncertain, is also rendered in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] by ‘embroider.’ ‘thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen’ (Exo_28:39), for which RV [Note: Revised Version.] has: ‘thou shalt weave the coat in chequer work’ (for which see Spinning and Weaving). So for a ‘broidered coat’ (Exo_28:4) RV [Note: Revised Version.] has ‘a coat of chequer work.’
The art of embroidery was an invention of the Babylonians, from whom it passed, through the medium of the Phrygians, to the Greeks and the other nations of the West. Mummy cloths are still preserved showing that the art was also practised in Egypt. No actual specimens of Babylonian embroidery have survived, but the sculptures of Assyrian palaces, notably a sculptured figure of Ashurnazirpal. show the royal robes ornamented with borders of the most elaborate embroidery. The various designs are discussed, with illustrations, by Perrot and Chipiez, Hist. of Art in Chaldœa and Assyria, ii. 363 ff.
If, as is generally believed, the Priests’ Code was compiled in Babylonia, we may trace the influence of the latter in the embroideries introduced into the Tabernacle screens and elsewhere (reff. above). In the passages in question the work of ‘the embroiderer’ (rôqçm) is distinguished from, and mentioned after, the work of ‘the cunning workman’ (chôshçb, lit. ‘designer,’ in Phœnician ‘weaver’), who appears to have woven his designs into the fabric after the manner of tapestry (see Spinning and Weaving). The materials used by both artists were the same, linen thread dyed ‘blue, purple, and scarlet,’ and fine gold thread, the preparation of which is minutely described, Exo_39:3.
An illustration in colours of the sails which Tyre imported from Egypt, ‘of fine linen with broidered work’ (Eze_27:7), may be seen in the frontispiece to Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

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