Siva and Vishnu

[Stephen Hodge]

N. Ganesan wrote:
> In the Bible or in pre-1000 BC Egypt & Near East materials, are
> the "black, white" colors get mixed with light=good and
> darkness=evil metaphors in religious imagery?

A propos of this, there are some fragments from Qumran of physiognomy
texts to divine the nature of prospective candidates to the Community
(See Vermes "Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" p357-59).What these
texts purport to do is to analyze the percentage of Light and Dark in
a person on the basis of physical characteristics.  Slender
well-proportioned people with fine teeth and sparse body hair are
regarded as having a high ratio of Light to Dark while short, fat and
hairy folk are the reverse.  But note that in all these physical
attributes, skin colour whether light or dark is not mentioned as a
criteria for goodness or evil.  This seems to indicate that a
light-good / dark-bad duality does not necessarily have to spill over
from the spiritual realm to the physical one even it does sadly seem
to in many cultures.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge