He is commonly understood to be God the Father ; but some understand the triune God.*
83. Jasper stone. The last of the twelve stones in the High- Priest’s breastplate (Exod. xxviii. 20; xxxix. 13), and the first of the twelve enumerated in the foundation of the New Je- rusalem (Apoc. xxi. 19). Also the stone employed in the super- structure of the wall of the Heavenly City (ch. xxi. 18). The stone itself was of different colors, the best being purple. Ac- cording to ch. xxi. 11, it represents a crystalline brightness.
Sardine. Rev., Sardius. The sixth foundation-stone of the Heavenly Jerusalem in ch. xxi. 20. A red stone, supposed to answer to our cornelian. Pliny derives its name from Sardis where it was discovered. Others from the Persian sered, yel- lowish red. The exact meaning of the symbolism must remain uncertain, owing to our ignorance of the precise meaning of “jasper,” a name which seems to have covered a variety of stones now known under other classifications. Some interpret- ers, assuming the jasper to be sparkling white, find in it a rep- resentation of the holiness of God, and in the fiery sardius a representation of His wrath.
Rainbow (pss). Only here and ch. x. 1. The word is identical, and seems to have had some original connection with Iris, the deity known as the messenger-goddess of Olympus. In Homer the word is used in both senses.
6‘ And if thou wishest now to ask of me, No dream I am, but lovely and divine : Whereof let this be unto thee a sign, That when thou wak’st, the many-colored bow Across the world the morning sun shall throw. But me indeed thine eyes shall not behold. Then he, awaking in the morning cold, A sprinkle of fine rain felt on his face, And leaping to his feet, in that wild place,
* So Professor Milligan, who thinks that the whole scene is founded on Isa. vi., which, he remarks, is always justly regarded as one of the greatest adumbrations of the Trinity contained in the Old Testament.