Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/349

 STONES

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STONES

onsidered by the Jews as the most precious; they un- oubtedly serve as the standard of whatever is beau- iful and rich beyond measure; both Ezeeh., xxviii, 13, nd Apoc, xxi," 18-21, are patterned after the model f the rational; no wonder therefore that the stones ntering its composition should have been the ob- jurth century. That such a literature shoulil have risen is of itself convincing proof that the identitica- ion of the stones was no easy problem to sohe. _ It lUst be remembered too that at the time of the Sep- iagint translation the stones to which the Hebrew ames apply could no longer be identified, and the ranslators rendered the same Hebrew name by differ- nt Greek words. 8o also did Josephus who, however, laimed he had seen the actual stones. This, coupled •ith the fact that the late Biblical lists, although isibly depending on that of Exodus, exhibit here nd there notable changes, makes the task of identify- ig the stones a verj- arduous one. It should be no- tones by analyzing their composition and crj'stallme jrms: names were given them from their colour, their se, or the count rj- from which they came. Thus it appens that stones of the same or nearly the same olour, but of chfferent composition or crj-stalline jrm, bear identical names. Another difficulty is due 3 the names having changed in the course of time: aus the ancient chrysoHte is our topaz, the sapphire tones accounted precious in Kg3'pt, Assyria, and iabylonia. Owing to the neighbourhood and to the ifluence of these countries on Palestine, it is highly robable that the score of substances called in the fined in the fairly long list of the precious and orna- lental stones of the AssjTo-Babylonians and the Igj-ptians.
 * cts ol"a considerable amount of literature from the
 * ced that the ancicrits did not chissify theu- precious
 * our lazuli, etc. However, we know most of the
 * ible "desirable stones" (Is., liv, 12) must be con-

This is not the place to enter upon a critical and xegetical discussion of the Biblical passages above re- rill be sufficient to treat briefly of these stones accord- ig to the alphabetical order of the English names.
 * rred to, where lists of precious stones are given. It

Agate, Heb. '0- ; Sept. axirjit; Vulg. achates (Ex., x^'iii, 19; x.xxix, 12, in Heb. and Vulg.; also Ezech., xvni, 13, in Sept.). — This is the second stone of the bird row of the rational, where it verj' probably rep- esented the tribe of Aser. The derivation of the He- irew word is doubtful, but the stone has generally leen acknowledged to be the agate. Fiirst (Hebr. u. ^hald. Worterb.) derives i;f from ::~, "toflame";it aay also be related to Saba (N-i"), whence caravans irought the stone to Palestine. The Greek and Latin lames are taken from the river Achates, the modern )irillo, in Sicily, where this stone was first found Theophrastus, "De lapid.", 3S; Pliny, "Hist, nat.", CXXVII, liv). The stone belongs to the silex family chalcedony species) and is formed by deposits of sili- eous beds in hollows of rocks. To this mode of for- nation are due the bands of various colours which it ontains. Its conchoidal clevage is susceptible of a ligh polish. To this stone various medicinal powers rere attributed until far into the Middle Ages. It fas stipposed to render the action of all poisons void, o counteract the infection of contagious di.seaaes; if leld in the hand or in the mouth it was believed to ille%'iate fever. The eagle, it was said, placed an igate in its nest to guard its vovmg against the bite of •enomous animals. The red agate was credited with he power of sharpening the vision. .\t present agate md onyx differ only in the manner in which the stone 8 cut ; if it is so cut as to show the layers of colour, it is nerly an agate that was banded with well-defined lolours was the onj-x. The banded agate is used for he manufacture of cameos.
 * alled agate; if cut parallel to the lines, onyx. For-

Amethyst, Heb. "'ibnX; Sept. iiUBwrTot, also Apoc, XIV.— 20

xxi, 20, where it is the twelfth and last stone of the foundation of the New Jerusalem. It is the third stone in the third row of the rational, representing the tribe of Issachar (Ex., xxviii, 19; xxxix, 12); the Septuagint enumerates it among the riches of the King of Tyre (Ezech., .xxviii, 13). The Greek name alludes to the popular behef that the amethyst was a preventive of intoxication; hence beakers were made of amethyst for carousals, and inveterate drinkers wore amulets made of it to counteract the action of wine. Aben- esra and Kimchi explain the Hebrew ri?;'rnS in an analo- gous manner, deriving it from zb", to dream; C^n in its first meaning signifies "to be hard" (Fiirst, Hebr. Handworterbuch). We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the translation since we find a general agreement among the various versions; Josephus (Ant. Jud., Ill, vii, 6) also has "amethyst"; the Tar- gum of Onkelos and the Syriac Version have "calf's eye", indicating the colour. The amethyst is a bril- hant transparent stone of a purple colour resembling that of diluted wine and varj-ing in shade from the violet purple to rose. There are two kinds of ame- thysts: the oriental amethyst, a species of sapphire, is very hard (cf. Heb., cVn), and when colourless can hardly be distinguished from the diamond; the occi- dental amethyst is of the silex family, hence different in composition from the oriental stone. But the iden- tity of names is accounted for by the identitj' of col- our. The occidental amethyst is easily engraved. It is found of various sizes. Its shape is different from the round pebble to the hexagonal, pjTamid-capped crystal.

Bertl, Heb. C^""; Sept. ^iJpuXXos; Vulg. heryllus. — In the breastplate this stone occupied the third place of the second row and was understood to represent Nephtali (Ex., xxviii, 19; xx.xix, 13); according to the Septuagint it is the second of the fourth row, and third of the fourth according to the Vulgate; Ezech., xxviii, 13. mentions it in the third place; it is cited also in the Greek text of Tob., xiii, 17, but is wanting in the Vul- gate; Apoc, xxi, 20, gives it as the eighth stone of the foundation of the New Jerusalem. There is great difference of opinion as to the exact Hebrew correla- tive of this word. The best supported i.scS"", though C~i" also does not lack probability. "C-" has likewise been suggested, but without sufficient reason, it seems, for to this Hebrew nst" must correspond jasper, Gr. fao-TTis, hat. jctspis. This mistaken idea mo t probably arose from the supposition that the translated words must have occupied the same position as in the orig- inal. This is not the case, as a comparison of the the Greek and Latin translations shows; in the Vul- gate, indeed, we find jasper in the same position as nci'", whereas the Greek ^^pvWos does not correspond to the Latin beryllus: the same may have happened as regards the translation of the Hebrew into Greek, especially as in the old manner of wTiting the two words cbn* and "Si"* might be easily confused. The authority of Josephus is here of little weight, for he most likely quoted from memory, the position of the words being at variance even in his two lists (Bell. Jud., V, v, 7; Ant. Jud., Ill, vii). Our choice, there- fore, is limited to the two words cV~" and C~i'. By comparing various texts of the Vulgate — the Greek is very inconsistent — we find that z~t' is always trans- lated by onyx; this alone seems sufficient to render fairlv probable the opinion that beryl corresponds to Heb". z'""". That the beryl was among the stones of the rational appears beyond doubt since aU transla- tions mention it. The etymology giving us no special help, by elimination we come to the generally ac- cepted conclusion that beryl and e'T!' stand for each other. The beryl is a sto"he composed of silica, alu- mina, and gluciiia. The beryl and the emerald are of the same .species. The differenc^e between the beryl, the aqua marine, and the emerald is determined by the colouring matter and the peculiar shade of each. The