Analogue 36: The Seventy-Two Colors

ANALOGUE 36: The Seventy-Two Colors

The Master went into the dye works of Levi and took seventy-two colors and threw them into a vat, but then what he drew up out of it was entirely white. “This,” he said, “is the way in which the Son of Humanity comes to you as a dyer.”

• Dyeing with seventy-two colors illustrates the work of the Son of Humanity.
• Is there a historical similarity to Rumi’s experience with Shams?
• The names of Matthew and Levi are associated in the Gospel tradition and part of the priestly tribe. 
• The number 72 is a sacred number with a rainbow of hues.
• All colors contribute to white on the spectrum of light. 
• Turning towards whiteness in contrast to Analogue 34’s focus on darkness. 

COMMENTARY

The Dye Works of Levi

This is the seventh and last in a series of what appear to be unrelated vignettes, each one seemingly sitting apart from all the rest, but all perhaps linked by the author’s flow of thought or internal interpretive seeing. Individually and collectively they will become necessary elements for what follows later in the text. Dyeing and dye works have already been mentioned earlier (in Analogue 26) where we were told that the heart of the matter is to receive color that is permanent. The difference here is that there are seventy-two separate colors which have been mixed in a vat. Ordinarily, whether using paints or dyes, this would become a muddy mess, probably turning into some shade of brown. The Master is said to have performed a miracle of colors where the unexpected happened — the mixture of seventy-two colors created a white garment. This has a startling similarity to the way in which the colors in the spectrum of light interact: what we call white light is in fact made up of a rainbow of colors. Is this a reference to the Son of Humanity becoming clothed in white light, or coming to clothe us all in garments of light?

Parable or Miracle?

The dye works are said to belong to Levi, which is a common Hebrew name, so it’s not clear if this is the tax-collector Levi of the canonical Gospels or another figure altogether. Since there is no other historical narrative beyond this that is found in Philip’s Gospel, perhaps we should assume that this is a lesser-known parable of Yeshua’s. Or is this the description of Yeshua’s actions in some miraculous way? Similar elements are found in stories told about masters of other spiritual traditions. Shams of Tabriz, the spiritual Master and Initiator of Jalaluddin Rumi, for example, upon meeting him, was said to have taken a book which Rumi was reading and cast it into a well. This would be expected to have destroyed it, making it unreadable, yet when it was pulled out of the water, it was both readable and dry. This so shocked Rumi’s sensibilities that he instantly submitted himself to Shams-e Tabrizi as a disciple and student. 

If Philip is not relating a parable, but describing an event witnessed by Yeshua’s students, the effects could have been similar to Rumi’s on his own students. His actions would certainly have been meant to change the perceptions of the witnesses to this event. It would have forced an inner re-evaluation in them, making them more receptive to the work that Yeshua was seeking to accomplish—bringing openness and illumination to the inner being of the seeker. It would also illustrate the creation of another kind of garment, which will be explored later on in this Gospel.

Whiteness

One does not normally immerse cloth into a vat of dye to produce whiteness but rather another color. With Yeshua, however, as in many of his mystery teachings, the reverse is true. The Gospel says that it is the Son of Man (the child of the Anthropos) who is doing this, working with a palette of many colors to accomplish the task. This may indicate that Yeshua is creating a unity from a wide diversity, or that the diversity itself is essential to the one, purified unity. Hues and shades are mixed together to produce an uncommon whiteness. In contrast to the implied darkness of the previous analogues where the common path of humankind is spent on worthless pursuits that create suffering, this is illustrative of the pathway toward unity and liberation. 

In the Hebrew tradition of Gematria (sacred numbers assigned to the Hebrew alphabet), the number 72 is sometimes associated with the sum of the divine Names, that is, the totality of the Names of God. Whether or not this association existed in the time of this Gospel, it is interesting that in some traditional tellings, the so-called 72-lettered name of God was said to have been invoked by Moses to split the Red Sea. The name of God is associated with the waters there as it is here in the dye works of Levi. Some traditional and historical understanding appears to be hidden beneath the surface of this passage. 

Understood in this way, perhaps acting as the new Moses, Yeshua is casting everything into the dye works of the Sea, and what emerges out of it is a new form of clarity, purity or perfection. It takes the rainbow of possibilities to create this new essence which contains all and yet moves into an unexpected brightness. This could then be a summary of how Yeshua approaches the work of his own ministry, which is a form of baptism that takes into account every kind and color, releasing it into the living water (which he has talked about and personally known). The whole cloth that emerges out of it is dazzling beside every other hue. Whether this is a report of Yeshua’s historical actions or the telling of a vision or a dream that Yeshua shared with his students in private, we’re given a metaphor for Yeshua’s grand design. In it, what appears foolish to us and likely to yield nothing but muddy results, will in fact produce a vastly different outcome by mixing this rainbow of colors.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. The particular interpretive approach taken in this commentary suggests that this is a mystery teaching. Its origins are unknown, perhaps coming from Yeshua’s own visionary experiences. This is certainly not the only way to read or interpret this text. What other possibilities do you see from your own reading and reflections? Do you feel that this describes a historical event, a parable of some kind, a dream of Yeshua’s, or something else? Journal your insights.
2. Use this story as a Lectio Divina, practicing a form of inner seeing where you visually follow the action described and record your own responses to it. Allow the passage to speak to you in new ways. Read it from the perspective of Yeshua or of Levi. Experience it as if you were one of the colors or the cloth itself. What do you find important in each case?
3. If you saw this scene with your own eyes, would it appear to be a miracle? If you dreamed it, what would its message be for you?
4. You might want to do an online search on Jewish Gematria, researching further the sacred number 72, and journaling your findings.  

Notes for Further Reference and Study

1. In the spiritual traditions, particularly of the Middle East, wisdom teachers were master storytellers using parables illustratively as a means of guidance. However, some individuals were also able to turn their own daily experiences into opportunities for teaching. Jalaluddin Rumi’s experience is told throughout the Sufi world, particularly in the Mawlana (Mevlevi) Order of dervishes which he founded after his encounter with Sham-e Tabrizi. Shams had been instructed that he would be given a student who would come to understand and transmit his teaching. As it is told, a day arrived when Rumi was reading a valuable manuscript beside a well when Shams took the text from his hands and threw it into the well, only to recover it unharmed and dry. This incident profoundly changed the direction of Rumi’s life and he became a devoted follower of Shams. Yeshua is said to have done similar things in the lives of his own students, appearing to them in strange ways on many different occasions to pique their interests and turn them definitively toward a new path. This analogue appears to present another instance of this. 
2. Gematria is a Jewish form of numerology in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are substituted with corresponding numbers. The first ten letters are given numerical values that increase consecutively from 1 to 10. Gematria is often used as an alternative to Arabic numerals when recording numbers. The substitution of numbers for letters of the Hebrew alphabet was also a favorite method of doing biblical exegesis. It was used by medieval Kabbalists to derive mystical insights into the sacred writings and then to obtain fresh interpretations of the texts.
3. We now know that light acts to combine colors of the whole spectrum of the rainbow to create white light. Was this known in the time this analogue was written? Could this be a breakthrough insight on the part of Yeshua, which is used to illustrate the garments of light that are being created for each being in the realm of transcendence?

Notes for the Translation

1. It is not clear from the text whether he drew the colors back out of the vat or from the cloth that was being dyed. However, whatever emerged was entirely white.
2. The term “the Son of Humanity”, translated in the authorized English versions as “Son of Man”, is from the original “Son of the Anthropos” or even better, “Child of Adam”—Adam Kadmon.