260 CHEV. W. P. JERVIS, P.G.S., ON THE MINERALS AND 



text of the Bible as to what stones were employed, no one has 

 ever been able to identify unquestionably more than a few of 

 them. The rest have been doubtfully attributed to several 

 mineral species, mineralogy being so recent a science ; and it is 

 reasonable to assume that the word of the Hebrew scriptures 

 for such stones was but that by which they were known to the 

 Egyptians. Can they therefore be ever mterpretated by us ? 

 One only solution seems to present itself as logical, which is to 

 take the earlier understood and more recent Greek text 

 descriptive of the heavenly Jerusalem ; for, be it remembered, 

 that all the Mosaic ceremonies were essentially typical. In the 

 priestly breastplate the names of the 12 tribes of Israel were 

 severally engraved, while the wall of the City had 12 

 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 Apostles of the 

 Lamb. Now let us give the parallel texts in the Old and New 

 Testament, and compare them together, holding that the stones 

 were identical in either case. Should such an explanation be 

 accepted a slight advance would be possible. 



B.C. 1491. — " Thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment 

 with cunning work ; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make 

 it, of gold, of blue, and of purple, and scarlet, and of fine twined 

 linen shalt thou make it. Four square shall it be being doubled. 

 And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of 

 stones. The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle ; 

 and the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a 

 diamond; and the third row a ligvre, an agate, and an 

 amethyst ; and the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper. 

 And the stones shall be with the names of the children of 

 Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of a 

 signet, every one with his name shall they be, according to the 

 12 tribes . . . And Aaron shall bear the names of the children 

 of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart " 

 (Ex. xxviii, 15-29). It may here be observed that the order in 

 which these stones are given in the Septuagint Greek trans- 

 lation differs greatly from the original Hebrew. 



In the apostle John's vision of the new Jerusalem " the 

 building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the foundations of 

 the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious 

 stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the 

 third a chedcedony, the fourth an emerald, the fifth a sardonyx, 

 the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the 

 ninth a topaz, the tenth a chrysoprasus, the eleventh a jacinth, 

 the twelfth an amethyst." (Eev. xxi ; 18-20.) 



Udcm, translated sardius, adphtov in S. ; adphio^'m E,,is serd 



