The story of Jesus in the dyer’s shop

In the apocryphal Syriac Infancy Gospel a story is told in which the young Jesus enters the shop of a dyer named Salem and proceeds to throw away all the cloth given to the dyer for dyeing in a vat containing indigo dye. The dyer, convinced that his business was ruined, became furious with Jesus and began to scold him. Jesus, however, kept his cool and assured the dyer that he would color each piece of cloth the color it was supposed to be. Jesus then proceeded to remove each piece of cloth from the tub, and miraculously, as Jesus removed each piece of cloth from the tub, it changed color to the color the dyer had originally intended to dye it.

On the surface (excuse the pun), the story seems to simply describe what might be called a “parlor trick.” But it seems clear that, on closer inspection, there is much more to the story than meets the eye. The indigo dye in the vat, in fact, was most likely the dye used, among other things, to dye the blue tassel threads, known as tzitzit, attached to the four corners of prayer shawls. The dye was made from sea creatures known as chilazon. Unfortunately, it is not known which sea creature the chilazón originally referred to, but modern researchers have suggested that it was cuttlefish or sea snails, since a dye can be synthesized that will produce blue or purple depending on whether the dyed cloth is or is. No. quickly exposed to light. It should also be noted that the dye itself does not appear indigo but more like a grayish color; the blue or purple color that the dye produces appears only after a cloth soaked in the dye is removed from the dye and exposed to air.

Therefore, it would appear that the miracle described in the Syriac Infancy Gospel is nothing more than the result of natural chemical transformations associated with the dye chilazon, known as tekhelet. But again, I think it would be unfortunate if one were to casually dismiss the story as explained entirely by natural phenomena, and thus, lacking evidence for miracles, unimportant. There is, in fact, a deep religious meaning in the act of transforming something that was originally gray, the color of lifelessness, into something full of color, which represents life. And to attribute Jesus as the source of the relevant transformations is essentially to suggest that Jesus is both breath (air) and light, a message that is unequivocally Christian.

One might be tempted to argue that the author of the Syriac Infancy Gospel secretly intended to convey the idea that Jesus was the breath and light that brought to life what was dead; but I think that would be a bit of an exaggeration. The author seems to have been totally unaware of what the indigo dye was and represented, otherwise he would probably have mentioned it. More importantly, the author did not describe the two distinct transformations (gray to purple, purple to blue) that are uniquely associated with the dye, knowledge of which is essential to bring to light what appears to be the otherwise hidden meaning. the history. The process used to make chilazon dye, like the Ark of the Covenant before it, was in fact lost after the Roman destruction of the Jewish state following the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century, long before the given date of the 5th or 6th century. the Syriac Infancy Gospel by modern scholars.

What seems likely, however, is that the event described in the Syriac Infancy Gospel occurred and was witnessed by someone who, like the author of the text, was similarly unaware of the chemical transformations associated with the carazon dye. They witnessed the “parlor trick” and were convinced enough that it was a miracle to report it as such. And the most likely candidate (or, more likely, candidates) for them to have recounted the event would be one or more of the children who, according to the Syriac Infancy Gospel account, had been playing with Jesus just before he enter to. the dyer’s shop. Thus, while the Syriac Infancy Gospel may have been composed on the fifth or sixth floor, the story itself appears to date from the time of Jesus, when the chilazon dye was still in use. Note also that for one or more of the children to have reported the incident, they must have already regarded young Jesus as some kind of anomaly.

Thus, for those willing to accept it, the story of the young Jesus in the dyer’s shop and the chilazón dye together ultimately serve as an ark from the past that bears within it evidence of the physical existence of Christ.