The adjective χλωρος (chloros) is usually translated with green — it describes the color of grass (Mark 6:39). It also describes the color of one of the four horses of the apocalypse (Revelation 6:8), but, since red and green are a complementary color pair, the green horse obviously functions to contrast the red one (6:4), just like the black horse (6:5) contrasts the white one (6:2). Some commentators have observed that green horses don't exist, and helpfully imagine a more realistic ashen-grey horse. Anyone familiar with the rest of Revelation would quickly recognize the folly in that (to use a very mild word). The Revelator parades a wild cast of characters and a green horse fits right in (much weirder: the four horses of Revelation are clearly self-similar to the four natural forces, see here for more, and the green horse appears to correlate to the Weak Force, where radioactive decay comes from: hence the green horse trailing Hades and pestilence).

It must be remembered that color protocols in antiquity differed strongly with those of ours. Homer famously spoke of the sea being wine-faced (οινοπσ, oinops, from οινος, oinos, wine, and ωψ, ops, meaning eye or face), evidently not so much to describe it as dark or red but rather as wild and lawless as a wine-addled drunkard. He likewise spoke of "green" honey (μελι, meli; Il.11.631) and Sophocles even mentioned "green" sand, in an obvious contrast to the wine-red sea.

Our adjective χλωρος (chloros) appears to derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root "ghelh-" from which English gets words like gold and glitter, and German the words Gelb (yellow) and Geld (money). This has emboldened some translators to interpret our adjective χλωρος (chloros) as "greenish-yellow" or "pale-yellow" but the overwhelming usage of this word in the classics points toward a core meaning of fresh, young, juicy, and hence anything feeble, wet-behind-the-ears, cowardly, easily frightened or bent like a sprig with any prevailing breeze. This in turn implies that Homer didn't describe the honey as green or goldy-yellowy but rather as fresh and highly liquid, as opposed to old, congealed and crystalized or even processed and fermented. A similar fresh and sweet drink was γλευκος (gleukos), a kind of sweet and non-alcoholic wine.

Our adjective χλωρος (chloros) does not simply mean green, but rather denotes anything fresh, new or unprocessed (like an unsalted fish): anything floral that is not wood (the old and dead part of a plant) and not red flowers or red fruits (the mature, nutritious and reproductive parts). Redness typically signifies the very beginning of maturity (a barely red μορον, moron, mulberry, is still one step up from the perpetually green ελαια, elaia, olive) and is the color of excitement and early learning (see our article on Rhodes and Red Sea), which yields its connotation of rudeness and primitivity (see our article on ερυθρος, eruthros, red). Intellectual maturity is signified by calm blue and purple (πορφυρα, porphura).

Red is also the color of blood (αιμα, haima), in which is seated a living thing's soul (Genesis 9:4-5). This suggests that green denotes a kind of sub-life, or mentally speaking, a sub-wisdom, the kind of intuition and instinctive intelligence we find in animals (animals have the same hormones and microbiomes and comparable brains, so their emotions are the same as ours; but they have no words, and therefore no nominal reason: see ονομα, onoma, name or noun, and κοσμος, kosmos, world-order).

Plants form the basis of the food chain, and do that through their amazing ability to turn sunlight into organic matter (which is an obvious metaphor for turning wisdom into practical applications: see our article on φως, phos, light). Grazing animals eat the green of plants. Humans don't do that (apart from some specifically bred vegetables). Humans eat fruit and bake bread (αρτος, artos). When the Revelator saw the fruit-bearing Tree of Life (Revelation 22:2), he noted that in the restored world, the New Jerusalem is the central hub, and the nations are healed by the leaves of the Tree of Life (φυλλον, phullon, leaf). This implies that the nations are the animals to the shepherd that is Jerusalem.

Our adjective χλωρος (chloros) is used 4 times; see full concordance.