Greek word · G5191
ὑακίνθινος
hyakinthinos
dark blue
An adjective from hyakinthos, a word for a flower (probably a dark iris, larkspur or a similar bloom, not the modern garden hyacinth) and also for a gemstone. As a colour word it means a deep blue shading into violet or purple: dark, dusky, smoky.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
ὑακίνθινος, -η, -ον
(ὑάκινθος), [in LXX for תַּחַשׁ, תְּכֵלֶת ;]
of hyacinth, hyacinthine (see: ὑάκινθος), "doubtless meant to describe the blue smoke of a sulphurous flame" (Swete): Revelation 9:17 (Hom., Eur., al.).†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Revelation 9:17
- Range of meaning
An adjective from hyakinthos, a word for a flower (probably a dark iris, larkspur or a similar bloom, not the modern garden hyacinth) and also for a gemstone. As a colour word it means a deep blue shading into violet or purple: dark, dusky, smoky.
- Against the English
KJV has 'jacinth', NASB 'hyacinth', WEB 'hyacinth blue', BSB/ESV 'sapphire', NIV/NLT 'dark blue'. 'Dark blue' carries the colour best. 'Sapphire' brings in a different gem and a brighter, clearer blue. 'Jacinth' now names a reddish-orange stone, which is close to the opposite of the original colour.
- How it drifted
In English gem names, 'jacinth' and 'hyacinth' later came to mean the orange-red variety of zircon. A modern reader who looks up KJV's 'jacinth' therefore finds a reddish stone, but John's word pointed to dark blue-violet. 'Sapphire' in modern English means blue corundum. The ancient sappheiros was probably lapis lazuli, and in any case it is not the word John used.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), hyakinthos and hyakinthinos regularly translate Hebrew tekhelet, the costly blue-violet dye used for the tabernacle curtains and the high priest's robe (e.g. Exod 25:4; 26:1; 28:31). Hellenistic writers such as Pliny (Natural History bk. 37) describe the hyacinthus stone as violet or blue. Revelation 21:20 names hyakinthos as the eleventh foundation stone of the New Jerusalem.
Similar words
Where it appears
Revelation · 1
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Revelation 9:17 ὑακινθίνους hyacinthine
Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur.
Here: The deep blue-to-violet, dusky colour of the hyacinth flower and of the costly 'blue' dye. Here it matches the dark 'smoke'. The word appears only here in the NT.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.