silk Summary and Overview

Heb. demeshek, "damask," silk cloth manufactured at Damascus, Amos 3:12. A.V., "in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch;" R.V., "in the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed" (marg., "in Damascus on a bed"). Heb. meshi, (Ezek. 16:10, 13, rendered "silk"). In Gen. 41:42 (marg. A.V.), Prov. 31:22 (R.V., "fine linen"), the word "silk" ought to be "fine linen." Silk was common in New Testament times (Rev. 18:12).

The only undoubted notice of silk in the Bible occurs in #Re 18:12| where it is mentioned among the treasures of the typical Babylon. It is however, in the highest degree probable that the texture was known to the Hebrews from the time that their commercial relations were extended by Solomon. The well-known classical name of the substance does not occur in the Hebrew language.

SILK . The only undoubted reference to silk occurs in Rev 18:12. It is a question whether the Hebrews knew anything about it, although there are two passages in which a word so translated is employed. Prov 31:22; Eze 16:10, 2 Kgs 11:13. The "silk" of the A.V. is rather byssus, or fine linen. But in N.T. times silk was common.

The English is derived by the change of r and l from sericum, the manufacture of the Chinese (Seres): Revelation 18:12. Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. is the first who positively mentions the import of the raw material to the island Cos in the Mediterranean (H. A. 5:19). In Proverbs 31:22 (shesh) translated "fine linen," not silk. The texture silk was probably known much earlier in western Asia, considering its intercourse with the far East by various routes, namely, from southern China by India and the Persian gulf, or across the Indus through Persia, or by Bactria the route of central Asia, for the SINIM (Isaiah 49:12) are the Chinese. Meshi, the other Hebrew term for silk, occurs in Ezekiel 16:10; Ezekiel 16:13, from maashah "to draw," fine drawn silk (Pliny 6:20; 11:26, describes the manner). The Bombyx mori, the caterpillar of a sluggish moth, feeding on the mulberry tree, produces the oval-yellow cocoon of silk wound around its own body.