[69] Diod. Sic., lib. i. c. 75.
[70] “The workmanship of this little gem,” says M. Mariette, “is exceptionally admirable. The ground of the figures is cut in open-work. The figures themselves are designed in gold outlines, into which are introduced small cuttings of precious stones; carnelian, turquois, lapis lazuli, something resembling green feldspar, are introduced so as to form a sort of mosaic, in which each color is separated from its surrounding ones by a bright thread of gold; the effect of the whole being exceedingly rich and harmonious.” The fineness and precision of the work on the back of this pectoral is as remarkable as that on the front.—Notice sur les principaux monuments du Musée de Boulaq, par M. Mariette, p. 262.
[71] A traditional symbolism attached the greatest importance to this division of the twelve tribes and the twelve stones into two unequal numbers. The prophecy of Jacob is divided into two parts by the exclamation into which he breaks forth after the name of the seventh patriarch: “I will look for thy salvation, O LORD” (Gen. xlix. 14). Ezechiel also, in the last chapter of his prophecy, interrupts his narrative after the mention of the seventh tribe by the description of the temple, and then resumes his enumeration of the territories.
[72] With regard to the N pre-formative, see M. Ancessi’s Etudes sur la Grammaire comparée des Langues de Sem et de Cham—the S causative, and the subject N. Paris: Maisonneuve.
[73] On the formation of trihterate radicals see, in the above Etudes, “the fundamental law of the triliterate formation.”
[74] In the Douai version translated “doctrine and truth.”
[75] “Thou shalt make a plate of purest gold, wherein thou shalt grave with engraver’s work, Holiness to the Lord. Thou shalt tie it with a violet fillet, and it shall be upon the borders of the mitre, over the forehead of the high-priest.”—Exod. xxviii. 36-38. The description given by Josephus of the crown of the high priest would lead to the supposition that the fillet of Aaron did not always preserve its primitive simplicity. Speaking of a section of a diadem ornamented with the cups of flowers, which passed round the back of the head and reached to the temples, he adds, however, that in front there was only the golden band engraven with the name of Jehovah. The course of ages, broken by captivity and troubles, as well as successive influences, first Assyrian and afterwards Greek, may have occasioned some modification in the form of the sacred vestments of the Temple; and thus it is not surprising that the descriptions of Josephus sometimes vary from the Mosaic texts.
[76] See Wilkinson, vol. ii. ch. ix. p. 32.
[77] Holk et Schiikil.
[78] Concile de Nicée d’après les textes Coptes. Par E. Revillout. Journal Asiatique, Fev.-Mars, 1873.