TITLE PAGE OF THE EDITION OF MARBODUS ON PRECIOUS STONES, PUBLISHED IN COLOGNE, 1539.
Shows the figure of the High-priest and the names and tribal attributions of twelve stones of the Breastplate.
I. Odem. [אֹדֶם.] The etymology of this word clearly indicates that we have to do with a red stone, most probably the carnelian. We know that in ancient Egypt hieroglyphic texts from the Book of the Dead were engraved upon amulets made from this stone, and it was also used for early Babylonian cylinders. Fine specimens of carnelian were obtained from Arabia. The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, as well as Josephus, in the “Wars of the Jews” (V, 5, 7), and Epiphanius, all translate sardius, the ancient designation of carnelian; in his “Antiquities,” however, Josephus renders odem by “sardonyx.” The Egyptian word chenem was used to designate red stones, and seems to have been applied indifferently to red jasper and red feldspar as well as to carnelian; indeed, the first-named material was more freely used in early Egyptian work than the carnelian. It is, therefore, probable that in Mosaic times odem signified red jasper, while for the fifth century B.C. “carnelian” would be the better rendering. This modern name of the sardius, signifying the “flesh-colored” stone, first appears in the Latin translation of a treatise by Luca ben Costa, who wrote in the tenth century A.D. The name of Reuben is said to have been engraved on the odem stone, which occupied the first place on the breastplate.
II. Piṭdah. [פַּטְדָה.] There seems to be little doubt that this is the topazius of ancient writers, which usually signified our chrysolite, or peridot, not our topaz; for Pliny and his successors describe the topazius as a stone of a greenish hue. A legend related by Pliny gives as the place of origin an island in the Red Sea, called Topazos, from topazein, “to conjecture,” because it was difficult to find. However, the Hebrew piṭdah appears to have been derived from the Sanskrit piṭa, “yellow,” and should, therefore, have originally signified a yellow stone, perhaps our topaz. W. M. Flinders Petrie, probably influenced by this Sanskrit etymology, sees in it the yellow serpentine used in ancient Egypt. If, nevertheless, we admit that a light green stone occupied the second place on the Mosaic breastplate, it was perhaps the light green serpentine. This was called meh in Egyptian, and was often used for amulets. In the case of the later breastplate we may substitute the peridot. On this second stone was engraved the name Simeon.
III. Bareketh. [בָּרֶקֶת.] Here the Septuagint, Josephus, and the Vulgate agree in translating smaragdus, and as we know that emerald mines were worked at Mount Zabarah, in Nubia, before the beginning of our era, and that the emerald was known and used in Egypt, there does not seem to be any reason for rejecting the usual translation “emerald.” Still it must be admitted that smaragdus often designates other green stones than the emerald. The suggestion has been made (by Myers and Petrie) that the passage in Revelation iv, 3, where the rainbow is likened to the smaragdus, indicates that the writer used this name for rock-crystal; but this conjecture is scarcely satisfactory, since it confuses the prismatic effects of light which has traversed the crystal with the crystal itself. There can be little doubt that a stone of brilliant coloration, like the emerald, not a colorless one, like rock-crystal, would be used as a simile of the rainbow. Whether the Mosaic breastplate already contained the emerald is another question, and it seems rather more likely that green feldspar, freely used in ancient Egypt for amulets, and known as uat, was the third stone of the proto-breastplate. The Authorized Version makes “the carbuncle” the third instead of the fourth stone. Upon the bereketh was engraved the name Levi.
IV. Nophek. [נֹפֶךּ.] This name is rendered ἄνθραξ by the Septuagint and Josephus, and “carbunculus” by the Vulgate. This designation, signifying literally “a glowing coal,” was used for certain stones distinguished by their peculiarly brilliant red color, such as the ruby and certain fine garnets. While it is quite possible that the Oriental ruby may have been in the breastplate seen by Josephus, it is almost certain that it could not have been in the original breastplate of Mosaic times, since there is absolutely no proof that this stone was known in ancient Egypt. Hence we are inclined to believe that in the thirteenth century B.C. the name nophek designated the almandine garnet, or some similar variety of that stone. The Authorized Version has “emerald” here instead of in the third place. On this fourth stone of the breastplate was engraved the tribal name of Judah.
CROSS, ATTACHED AS PENDANT TO THE CROWN OF THE GOTHIC KING RECCESVINTHUS (649-672 A.D.).
Forming part of the treasure discovered in 1858 at Guarrazar in Spain. Now in Musée de Cluny, Paris. The cross proper is set with fine sapphires cut en cabochon and eight large pearls. Natural size.