The stones commonly known to the Egyptmna for jewellery and engraving are as follows, those not known as engraved being in brackets. These are arranged according to the colours, which would be natural cla.s»ification, and which shows wliat is lialile to be confounded under a single name. Tlio transparent stones are in italics, according to the varieties actually found. BLACK : [hajmatite],
obsidian. El.UE : amclhyst, lazuli. Green : serpentine, felspar, [beryl], jasper, turquoise. Yellow : agnte, jasper. Brown : sard, [corun- dum]. Red: red sard, [garnet], fdspdr, carncli'cn, jasper. White : quartz, milky quartz, chalcedony. Two stones that might reasonal)Iy be expected in early use, but have never yet been found in Egypt before Greek times, are the onyx or nicolo (known to the Romans as .Egyptilla), and the olivine = peridot (modern chrysolite), from tlie Red Sea. And the beryl is rare before Grreeo-Roman times.
The early Greeks, down to Theophrastus, appear to have had much the same series as the Egyp- tians ; but in Roman times, with extended com- merce, more of the stones became known wliich we now class as gems. With these, however, we are not here concerned in OT usage.
ii. Tlie second consideration is the equivalence of the Hebrew and Greek names. For, as we have only a few vague indications of the meanings of the Hebrew names, or connexions of those with other languages, it is really the tradition of the times of the LXX that has to be almost entirely trusted. Of lists of stones there are five to be considered, — The list of the breastplate (Ex 28"--»), that of the king of Tyre (Ezk 28'^), the translation of these two lists in the LXX, and the foundations in Rev 21"'--''. All these lists are certainly connected, as we shall see by the state- ment of them.
3 Bareketh 6 Vahllom 9 'AhlsTimh 12 Yashc-iihch
5 YahJlom
6 Vaslicpheh 09 BarC'kath
The Brkastpuate,
2 I'itdah
6 Sappir
8 .Sheho 11 Shoham
1 'Odem 4 Kophekh 7 lA>licm 10 Turshish
Tub Kiso of Ttrb.
2 I'iUIali 1 'Odem
6 Sliohain 4 Tarshish
8 Nophekh 7 Sappir
BllEASTPLATE A.ND Kl.NO OP TVRE. LX.Y.
3 Smaragdoa 2 Topazion 1 SardioD
OS 6 la^^pis 5 Sappheiros 4 Anthrax
9 AmethystOB 8 Achates 7 Lifrurion
12 Onychion 11 Beryllion 10 Chrysolithos
The Foundations.
2 Sappheiros 3 Chalkedon
; Suniiou » T..p;izif,n 1*2 .\inetliyst08
1 laspis
4 SnianipdoB 5 Sardonyx
7 Chrysolithos S I!cryll..'s
10 Clirysoprasos 11 Hyakinthos
Several iiroblems meet us here. The LXX must either have found the lists of Ex. and ICzek. alike, or else have altered one into conformity with the other. There is one sign of confusion in tlie LXX, where silver and gold are interpolated in the midst of the series (marked S and G here) ; where- as the Ileb. in Ezek. has (j<ild at the end (markeil G here); so far the Hebrew is the more consistent. On the other hand, it is evident that the list in Ezek. has been written with the list in Ex. in view : the first two names being the .same, the '2nd lino being tlie 4th line in ICx., and the 3rd line being .'), 4, 3 of Ex. in inverted order, all show that Ezek. is apparently a corrupted copy of Ex., perhaps changed by the iirophet (luoting from memory.
But liere another dilliculty arises: the yCisluphch 12 in Ex. cannot but be intended by inxpii 6, while the yashephch is 6 in Ezekiel. Here LXX nijrees with Ezek. ; while, in snppir 5 in Ex. and 7 in Ezek., the LXX agrees with Ex. in ,5 sn/i/dieirus. In another point probably Ex. agrees with LXX; bareketh, the 'Hashing' or 'lightning' stone, is probably quartz crystal ; and sinaraijdu.i, whicli It ii.arallels in Ex., is also probably (luartz, as we shall see further on. On the whole, it seems safest to take Ex. and LXX as equivalent lists ;
• The Greek fonna are kept here to avoid confusion with Englisli naincH derived from ttiein, wliich now denote difTonint stones.
620
STONES, PRECIOUS
STONES, PRECIOUS
granting a transposition oi 12 and 6, probab'y in the Hebrew.
iii. Next we come to the third section — tlie meaning of the Greek name? ; and for this we must remember that tlie series should correspond to the stones actually in use in early times, and not to those which may have had those names in Gra?co-Koman writings. (1) Sardios = 'odcin, is the ' blood '-coloured stone (Heb.) ; and as none of the early ones except red jasper can be so de- scribed, it seems that this must be intended.
(2) Tojiazion = pitdah, is reputed to be the peridot, because of its being described as imported from the Red Sea, as of a greenish -yellow colour, and as the softest of precious stones. The diffi- culty in this is that no instance is known of peritlot in Eg}'ptian work ; and this would lead us to look for some similar stone as the earlier repre- sentative of pitdah. The transparent precious serpentine was in use in Egypt, and is of closely the same colour ; in fact, of the same composition, but hydrated. This, then, has the best claim to be the original stone, for which the harder olivine, peridot, was later substituted. The Arabic has asfar, ' yellow,' which corresponds with peridot.