Siva and Vishnu

[David Salmon]

----- Original Message -----
From: "N. Ganesan" <naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2000 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: Siva and Vishnu


>
> In the poems from the Book of Job quoted, good = light
> and evil = darkness. In Job, or Sons of Light and Darkness myth, etc.,
> is there mention of good = "white" and evil = "black"?

The earliest reference that I can find using "white" as an image for "good"
is Isaiah 1:18, but the contrast is with "red" (probably denoting
bloodstains), not "black":

    "'Come now, let us reason together,
        says the Lord,
    Though your sins are like scarlet,
        they shall be white as snow;
    Though they are red like crimson,
        they shall be like wool . .  .'"  (Isa. 1:18.)

There is continuing controversy over the dating of the various parts of
Isaiah, but it at best barely predates the exile, i.e., 6th cent. B.C.

Job does use "black" in close association with a discussion of the evil that
befell him, but the context is ambiguous and may only be descriptive of the
illness that had afflicted him:

    "Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
        when I looked for light, then came darkness.
      The churning inside me never stops;
        days of suffering confront me.
      I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
        I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
      I have become a brother of jackals,
        a companion of owls.
      My skin grows black and peels;
        my body burns with fever.
      My harp is tuned to mourning,
        and my flute to the sound of wailing."  (Job 30:26-31.)

David