PEARL
856
PEARL
ing. He enriched the Widow's College, in the immedi- ate neighborhood of his palace at Bromley, by a dona- tion of £5000. His tracts on theological subjects are numerous and valuable. Of these the principal are, A Coinmenfari/ on the Gospels and A cts of the Apostles (2 vols. 4to), greatly praised by Dr. Adam Clarke and other eminent Biblical scholars: — Letters to Dr. Con- yers Middleton, in Defence of Dr. Wttterland: — A Re- ply to Woolston on the Miracles ; of which Leland saj's that it was a work deservedly much esteemed : — A Re- view of the Text of Milton: — and an edition of Longinus On the Sublime, with a Latin translation annexed ; and another of Cicero's Offices ; also, four volumes of Ser- 7nons, etc. See his Life prefixed to his Commentary; Jones, Christ. Bio(j. s. v.; AUibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authors, vol. ii, s. v.; Perry, Hist, of the Church ofEnfjland, iii, 331, 333. (.1. H. W.)
Pearl ('—^35, fjabish, from a root which in the Arabic means to freeze, but in the Chaldee to collect; Sept. merely Grjecizes, ya/3('f; Vulg. eminentiu'). The Heb. word occurs, in this form, only in Job xxviii, 18, where the price of wisdom is contrasted with that of i-amOth (" coral") and gahisli ; and the same word, with the prefixed syllable el (5X), is found in Ezek. xiii, 11, 13; xxxviii, 22, with ahne, "stones," i. e. "stones of ice" (A. V. " hailstones"). The ancient versions con- tribute nothing by way of explanation. Schultens {Comment, on Job, 1. c.) leaves the word untranslated : he gives the signification of " pearls" to the Heb. term peninim (A. V. " rubies") which occurs in the same verse. Gesenius, Flirst, Kosenmiiller, Maurer, and com- mentators generally, understand " crystal" by the term, on account of its resemblance to ice. Lee (^Comment, on Job, 1. c.) translates ramuth ve-gaMsh, " things high and massive." Carey renders fjabish by " mother-of-pearl," though he is by no means content with this explana- tion. On the whole, the balance of probability is in favor of "crystal," since gabish denotes "ice" (not " hailstones," as Carey supposes, without the addition of abne, " stones") in the passages of Ezekiel where the word occurs. There is nothing to which ice can be so well compared as to crj'stal. The objection to this in- terpretation is that crystal is not an article of much value ; but perhaps reference may here be made to the beauty and pure lustre of rock crystal, or this substance may by the ancient Orientals have been held in high esteem. Pearls (i^iapyapirai), however, are frequently mentioned in the N. T. : comp. Matt, xiii, 45, 4G, where the kingdom of heaven is likened unto " a merchant- man seeking goodly pearls." Pearls formed part of women's attire (1 Tim. ii, 9; Rev. xvii, 4). "The twelve gates" of the heavenly Jerusalem were twelve pearls (Rev. xxi, 21); perhaps "mother-of-pearl" is here more especially intended. In Matt, vii, 6 pearls are used metaphorically for anything of value ; or per- haps more especially for " wise sayings," which in Arabic, according to Schultens (Hariri Consess. i, 12; ii, 102), are called pearls. (See Parkhurst, Gr. Lex. s. v. Majoyopir/jr.)— Smith. Other words supposed by some to mean pearls (besides a"^:'^33 above) are nbna, bedo- lach (" bdellium," Gen. ii, VI), and Tl, dar (" white," Esth. i, 6). See each in its place.
The above intimations seem to indicate that pearls were in more common use among the Jews after than before the Captivity, wliilc they evince the estimation in which they were held in later times (Pliny, Hist. Nat. ix, 54; xii, 41 ; /Elian, Anim. x, 13; comp." Ritter, Krdlcumle, ii, 164; Wellsted, Travels, i, 181 sq.). The island of Tylos (Bahrein) was especially renowned for its fishery of pearls (Pliny, vi, 32 ; comp. Strabo, xvi, p. 7(;7 ; Athon. iii, 93; Heeren, Ideen, I, ii, 244 sq.) ; the Indian Ocean was also known to produce pearls (Arrian, Imlica, p. 194 ; Pliny, ix, 54 ; xxxiv, 48 ; Strabo, xv. p. 717). Heeren feels assured that this imlication must be understood to refer to the strait between Taprobana. or Ceylon, and the southernmost point of the mainland
of India, Cape Comorin, whence Europeans, even at present, derive their principal supplies of these costly natural productions {Ideen, I, ii, 224). — Kitto. See fur- ther, Bochart, Hieroz. iii, GOl sq. ; Hartmann, Hebr. iii, 84 sq. ; Rosenmliller, Allerthum, IV, ii, 458 sq. ; Gesen. Thes. p. 24, 1113.