Gemstones of the Bible, narrated by Dr. R. Mark Shipp

the presentation stones of the Bible especially the stones of the 12 stones of the high priestly breastplate in Exodus 28 and 39 very confusing because in every English translation these various stone lists which I'll mention in a minute are largely different at least half of them are different in any random translation they'll be very different in four to six of them different in every translation no matter which one you look at these are the stone lists in the Bible Exodus 28 and 39 the high priestly breastplate they're identical revelation 21 the foundations of the New Jerusalem in heaven are based on this list but it differs job 28 and Ezekiel 28 those are the five stone lists that are mentioned the Bible what I am a stone list a list of nine to 12 gemstones we're talking what we would call semi-precious gemstones which are prized most of them even to this day they're also ancient Sumerian that's the people of ancient Sumer in the in what we call Iraq today and also the Akkadian speaking people that is the Assyrians and Babylonians they also had lists of stones and that's a list of them they're various of them also the Greeks and the Romans had commentators on gemstones the Greeks Theophrastus talked about stones and the Romans around the time of Christ plenty of the elder wrote his natural history with a chapter on gemstones and all these I have used extensively to try to figure out what the stones are not assuming I knew any of them looking in the original ancient languages to try to figure it out so look at the first stone here real quick in Hebrew the first stone that is on the left of the high priestly breastplate moving right three stones in four rows on the breastplate okay first stone odom in the Septuagint that's what the lxx means there the Septuagint that is the Greek translation of the Old Testament calls it's our Deon sardian what is that well it comes across in latinus sardius and some translations say sardius for this it's the same thing as carnelian that is a red chalcedony which is a type of quartz it's red quartz and so the first thing you notice here is that carnelian is almost universally translated that way except for the ESV which says sardius slight difference in color between the two in the modern-day but it doesn't matter for our purposes what do I call it notice that the at the bottom chip carnelian I agree with all the translations but it's actually a misspelling of the ancient word cornelian which is a red berry also in Assyrian and Babylonian this is based on a stone called Psalm 2 which means red stone so far so good and there is an ancient carnelian red quartz that is that has been inscribed it has been engraved with a picture of a guy writing I believe it's a camel that it's a funny-looking one and this is an ancient from early early centuries ad this particular seal that was engraved where did they find carnelian in antiquity plenty the elder the Roman historian says they found carnelian in Babylon India Arabia and Egypt PRS mori who wrote a book I won't bore you with the details recently in the last 10 years says that ancient sources archaeologically they found carnelian beads and other things cut carnelian in India Iran Turkey Arabia and Egypt well some of those correspond others do not second stone okay so far so good first stone pretty much everybody agrees red quartz second stone in Hebrews called pit da many translations translate this topaz others translate it chrysolite I'm going to sort of agree with the ones that call it chrysolite but not exactly the Septuagint translates that topaz Eon which sounds like topaz but is not topaz Eon means a place hard to find a place are defined and a stone hard to identify I guess in the Assyrian and Babylonian I don't know there private probably this what is topaz Eon in Greek there probably is a stone that I'll get around to saying what it what I think it is but I don't know what it is I have not been able to run that down the NR sve translates pit dot lights what's a chrysolite I'll get there the NIV crystal light the ESV you know more recent topaz the Jewish publication society Old Testament in English the Tanakh translates it chrysolite and ship calls it peridot also known as peridot which is an American stone by the way a lot of it here which it's modern way of a popular way of referring to peridot is crystallites now where do they find these stones where is why topaz neon what is that it's because plenty says the only source he knew of for this stone topaz Eon was the island of topaz EOS in the Red Sea which people couldn't once they found it they never find it again it was hard to find that's why it was called topaz EOS hard to find we know where this island is today it's called Zabar god and in in the Middle Ages they referred to it as st. John's Island that's a picture of st. John's Island which is topaz EOS and plenty says a stone that was found there is the topaz Ian right the Tapatio stone what he's talking about is not our topaz our topaz is a new world stone it is found almost uniquely in North and South America specially South America actually blue topaz is found in Texas in Mason blue topaz real topaz it's extremely light blue not gem quality also Russia there in the Far East there are sources for what we call topaz that is not what the classical writers called topaz what they were talking about is peridot which is also known as olivine it's uncut variety and not Jim qualities for too as olivine gem quality peridot why do I know this he says st. John's island is just loaded or topaz iou's island is loaded with this stone and it is a pale yellow green topaz is never green our modern topaz never there's not a single that I'm aware of of green topaz but peridot is always yellowish greenness where did they find it in antiquity plenty says Egypt Paris maurices Iran either way you know he thinks pit doc comes in fact from the word in Iranian PIPA which means yellow those caught those translations that call taupe that call it topaz as if it's the modern topaz are simply incorrect chrysolite is a modern way of talking about peridot third stone brackets in the Hebrew this is easier than it looks but translations get it fouled up look at this NIV barrel NRSV emerald good for them ESV carbuncle Carmichael is a red stone carbuncle means red hot fiery coal that's what it is our bunk Aeolus means coal a red hot coal emeralds are not red hot coals they're not red they are green it's a mean barrel now the Septuagint refers to it as smoosh the Asaro Babylonian is Barack - and the English emerald and those are all related words barakat Barack - Greek becomes smog dose they're all related believed you'll have to believe me on this one and then smog dose is in fact in Germans Moraga and in Spanish and Portuguese Esmeralda and in English emerald you can see the trend the the development of language which originally was barakat it's an emerald no question it's an emerald with apologies - I guess no one the NIV and the ESV are simply wrong with us they're simply incorrect did they do hard work absolutely are they people of good faith absolutely are the incorrect on the translation absolutely that's an emerald like emeralds are very expensive they're probably the most expensive gemstone more expensive than diamonds to get a good one mostly they're found in Colombia and Brazil some other sites in the world mostly in South America ancient sources a lot including Egypt both of these guys say Egypt and in fact up until the modern times emeralds were mined in Egypt easily get a bowl well if you could find them Skippy a bacteria Egypt Cyprus and maury Iran Turkey India and Egypt a lot of people have said it can't be emerald because they were too tiny and could not be inscribed because they were full of inclusions they were too small well plenty says yeah mostly they're small but there are some bigger ones in fact in antiquity it says that some Emperor's made like entire mirrors out of out of emerald stone out of smog das okay and in recent times they have found enormous huge deposits of emerald they're not great but like 50 meters long by four or five meters wide of emerald not gym quality but emeralds can get big of course no one would want to get that and cut it for any reason it's not good all stones can be ridiculously cheap and all of them can be ridiculously expensive it depends on rarity color perfection right a lot of factors alright next on no thick in Hebrew Septuagint calls it anthrax heard that before anthrax stone or just anthrax it's an illness anthrax means red-hot coal and in Syria Babylonian I'm not sure I believe this is a reference to corundum and the word for that in Assyrian is sha mu like the whale Shamu that is corundum is sapphire and Ruby a ruby is a red corundum a sapphire as a blue corundum they're exactly the same stone they're extremely hard it's been known since way early in antiquity as Emory okay you all know what Emery boards are Emery boards are still used that is corundum crushed-up non gem quality corundum crushed up and used because it's awfully hard it is the hardest thing they knew until Roman times Roman times they discovered diamonds which they referred to I think as uh Tomas you've ever heard of autumn in teen if you seen a Wolverine okay he had these things adamantine skeleton or whatever that's a diamond okay in Roman times but it's after the time of Christ they discovered diamonds and they were harder than Emery or corundum I think what we've got here is what what I'll say in a second this is crazy NRSV turquoise NIV turquoise ESV emerald good for them tonic turquoise because of because the similarity in Egyptian meth ket they thought meth ket was the same as no fake in Hebrew I don't think so was there was there lots of turquoise in Egypt and Sinai yes lots and lots and lots of turquoise to this day and I've been to the turquoise mines many in the the Great Rift Valley south of the Dead Sea easily accessible by Egypt lots and lots of turquoise is that what this is I don't think so ship what a ship say it's a deep red beautiful deep red hard stone turquoise is not hard garnets spinel and rubies are very hard have these ever been confused you tell me garnet spinel in the middle Ruby on the end how would you know and in fact there is a beautiful big beautiful red stone in the Royal jewels in the Tower of London right Queen Elizabeth's jewels and it's called the Royal Ruby or something like that it's a spinel it's not a ruby but you'd only know by subjecting it to chemical analysis by looking they thought it was a ruby in antiquity they did not have chemical analysis they'd look at these and say carbuncle anthrax and carbuncle is and Latin anthrax red-hot coal in in Greek and I think that's what an effect is were these available yes in all of these in all of these places they were a little harder to come by because they're rare garnets and garnets less rare the rubies the most rare the next one is the sup here this up here is looks like sapphire and in fact a lot of english translations call it sapphire because that's the Hebrew word is where we get the word sapphire is this a sapphire no a sapphire is a blue corundum like a ruby they this is a hard call Ruby and Sapphire were used to engrave other stones probably not themselves engraved and the stones of the high priests breastplate were engraved satoshi calls its up Pharaohs which is a cognate similar to SAP this up here or sapphire in Asura Assyrian and Babylonian I think it is a new stone which is lapis lazuli clearly plenty tells us what a sapphire is to the to the Romans he knows exactly what it is you know what it is that lapis lazuli it's a deep beautiful blue stone with iron pyrite gold flecks in it and there are many of these today the the best source for it is Afghanistan to this day and it wasn't in antiquity as well of course the translations are split some recognize that it's lapis and IV got it right okay it's lapis it's clearly lapis and those that say it's sapphire I think are incorrect including the new tonic calls it sapphire I don't understand that so I think it's clearly lapis lazuli the sources we have tell us what it looks like the ancient and more modern sources they all tell us what it looks like sapphires do not have iron pyrite gold inclusions in them at all sapphires do not have that lapis to be lapis must have it okay in ancient sources Afghanistan everybody agrees that's where you got it Russia maybe Iran and Azerbaijan and they had ancient trade routes where these stones and spices and other things could be brought in next stone is the Yahalom in Hebrew Septuagint calls it yah spis which sounds almost like an english word a particular stone jasper this is cognate with english jasper and in classical sources even even the Akkadian calls it Yosh Yosh pay or Yosh poo I don't think the Septuagint is right I think this is the first time the Septuagint Greek missed it and they got some things switched and so there are reasons for that I won't bore you with I think it is onyx I don't think that it is Jasper onyx and Jasper are both varieties of quartz different kinds of inclusions that is colors chemicals that are that are included but notice what happens in the translations moonstone emerald diamond amethyst what should that tell you nobody knows this is my best guess all these other ancient stone lists include onyx black and white onyx and otherwise we don't have that on this list there's another onyx on the list later and I could have these switch it's possible sardonyx is a red black and white onyx and ancient onyx is not brown and white like we know today in Texas a brown and white or caramel and white banded stone they make bookends and things out of most of those are not even onyx they're mostly alabaster and other other things that they call onyx for real onyx true onyx is black and white black and white banded stone there are a couple of kinds of onyx in antiquity that are identified for us who lalu which is black and white stripes pop Rd Lou is black with one white stripe then the scholars say but we'd not sure and I wish I could be sure on the left there is the houl ahlu stone that's several bands of black and white and the other is a single band popper delue stone I think that's what we're dealing with with Yahalom although I could have it mixed up with the other onyx by the way I'm probably one of like two people in the world that's doing this so kind of cool so I need to run them down and this one I want to do some more work with because I'm not absolutely positive ancient sources they're all four they all exist in Arabia okay and in India mainly those two places produced a lot of stones the next stone is the Leshem and Leshem in the septuagint is the Ligurian or some translations call it the Laguerre I think the the King James refers to as the Ligure why because didn't know so it just made up an English word League yu-er what is Ligurian mean links urine okay that's what Ligurian means links urine what is that it is a kind of sickie yellow color just use your imagination plenty tells us what allegory on is he tells us he says it's a soft stone that's a sickie yellow yellowish reddish color and it comes from the baltic from northern germany and it often has insects in it he tells us what the stone is what is that it's amber it's amber is an incredibly rare in the ancient world incredibly rare even rare in the modern times most true amber comes from the northern Germany in the Baltic region some comes from Romania and you have petrified tree resin that's what amber is petrified resin tree sap you have some non amber tree resin from Lebanon that'd be easy for them to get I think the Assyrian and the Babylonian is the Acadian Elm su and I think that's where Leshem and Hebrew comes from I'm the only one who says this no one else has run this down two scholars say that el Michaud in Acadian is in fact amber and I when I found that I went I am justified other people say everything else and now a lot of these guys call it a jacinth and yet what is the Jasin even it's in antiquity it was a blue stone plenty says it was a blue stone in in Greek it's walk and Foss it's not even Ligurian and in in the modern times we think of it as a zircon you all heard of zircons zircons are are a semi-precious stone some some of them absolutely outstanding great wonderful beautiful stones but rather rare and I even though they all agree I'm standing in my own field and I say hogwash it is nothing of the sort it is fossil resin tree sap that's amber now in ancient sources in the ancient Akkadian that is a Syrian and Babylonian sources there is one that refers to the chapel of the odd Mar Duke in the heavens made out of the stone and a lamp was made out of it that because it is translucent and in fact this is a picture of the Amber Room in the ancient the old royal palace in st. Petersburg which the Nazis destroyed I don't know if they took it away they burn the whole building down they may have taken it away it has been restored they've rebuilt the thing is my understanding and check me on that they have actually lamps made out of this stuff and it's very translucent quite beautiful and quite soft ancient sources plenty says he doesn't call it the Baltic but Germania northern Germania and mori says what I said about it I think that's what it is I am probably the only person who thinks this for the reason I think it I'm going to publish this like that hey so there you go the next stone the cheveux the Greek Septuagint calls it aha ace which sounds like what you think it sounds like agates and in fact it is agate in Akkadian it's referred to as shoe boo the NRSV calls it agate NIV agate ESV agate Tanakh agate ship agate in that grade yeah actually the first time the first one Odom the carnelian more or less was the same sardius is basically the same as carnelian so yeah it's nice when everybody agrees several scholars say no that's what scholars do they disagree agate is a red red brown and two blue banded chalcedony which is quartz they're all silicates stone quartz many of these are carnelian escort's amethyst escort's agate is quartz a lot of these are different varieties of silicate quartz it depends on the inclusion and the banding what they're called onyx is quartz and so that is your basic some colors may be rare there may be some yellows here and there main the brownish to reddish to blue and this is a good example of that ancient sources plenty says that's everywhere it is the source where it was originally called agate a hot ace is from the river AHA taste and Sicily and he said though people found it used to be really really expensive and everybody thought it was wonderful and now they find it everywhere and so no one likes it anymore because it's so common so he says we don't consider it important or precious anymore that's like the modern-day agate is so plentiful everywhere in the desert you can walk across the desert and find agate ok I used to go agate hunting in the desert with my grandfather and then Morey says ancient sources Iran India and Turkey why these don't agree I do not know oh well scholars don't agree with each other's what they do why we pay them okhla MA the Septuagint calls it amethyst us which sounds like what it is I think and then the NRSV amethyst NIV amethyst ESV amethyst why the Jewish publication society has to say rock crystal like quartz crystal I do not know amethyst is at purple quartz rock crystal is a colorless quartz that's it oh well in then the Akkadian is Hache manu I think that was heavy lifting to come up with that I believe that's right I could be wrong purple quartz amethyst quite beautiful it can be very expensive typically most amethyst is a very violet light violet that you get in jewelry stores and it's not worth much because it's so common cut a cost more to cut it by far than it does to get it but there are extremely beautiful deep purple deep deep dark purple inclusion 'lest amethyst that are worth their weight in gold ancient sources Arabia Armenia Egypt and glaciers as plenty maurice's maybe Egypt mori maureesa I don't know why he's opposed to amethyst I don't know why so everybody but the Tanakh agrees that Oklahoma's amethyst the next few are going to be troublesome problematical okay Tarshish what does that sound like it sound like a location the Old Testament right Tarshish or Soloff Tarsus homed in on the coast of southern Turkey my guess is Tarshish and Tarsus are the same place a long ways away for them a long way that like that's the end of the universe as far as they know okay maybe the Septuagint calls the Tarshish Crusoe lithos which sounds like chrysolite maybe it is the Assyrian the Babylonian I don't know I found a case or two where it refers in in that in these this this set of languages tuber aloo which i think is Beryl the NRSV calls it Beryl the NIV calls it topaz everybody wants to get topaz in here new world stone sorry can't be right es be Beryl Tanakh Beryl ship Beryl I may change my mind i'ma go with chrysolite here the problem is the difference in color and hardness between a Citroen which is a gold quartz a barrel and chrysolite at peridot slights and in antiquity they can look like the car buckle the anthrax can look very similar and so many have noticed you know what it may have been that color and hardness you know refraction was more important to them than than other features because they didn't have chemical analysis so barrel slash Crystal Light may be the way to go this is a Helia door that is a golden barrel you know barrel by other names a see blue see green barrel what do we call that it's the color of the sea it's beautiful and very very expensive aquamarine a light sea green sea bluish green barrel you know another barrel deep green barrel emerald is a deep green barrel Kingston sources Arabia India although you're on all the likely suspects the Septuagint Greek refers to the shoham as Bayrou Lian there's a problem here the previous stone we think is Beryl but this one is Bayrou Lian in Greek which is Beryl what's the difference when a crystallite in a barrel don't know I think that this is a banded red and white or red black and white onyx which is called sardonyx and shows up in the Bible in the New Testament NRSV calls it onyx and IV onyx ESP onyx I think the previous one Yahalom was actually onyx black and white this one I think is sardonyx and in fact some of the ancient Greek translations call this sardonyx tonic lapis lazuli no no I won't go there some some version of Onyx and you have red and white banded stone is a mushara stone in Akkadian and then red black and white is a Loulou Donny to stone and they get described for us why you wouldn't have a sardonyx on this list I don't know but you do in the New Testament have a sardonyx with foundation stones and so I think that's what's going on could be wrong but I don't think so ancient sources all the likely suspects for and in antiquity the last stone is the Yash pact in in Hebrew which is cognate with yeah spis in Greek and Jasper in English why the Septuagint refers to this as the Onuki on which is onyx I think the entire fourth row is wrong everything is a stone off and the last line of this the last stone of the second line is mixed up with the last stone of the fourth line I think they met I think the translator of the Septuagint messed up because every stone on the bottom row is off all the other ones are dead on I think in in the Greek look what happens in RSV and IV ESP everybody says Jasper because it sounds like Jasper Oh so why go with something weird sounding in an Akkadian Yosh puh okay it should be it should not be a problem but but it is you all know what Jasper is it is of course all stones can be lovely and expensive most Jasper is kind of a junk stone but it plenty said yellow Jasper and blue and blue and gray Jasper were highly prized he only knew of blue Jasper and gray Jasper so that's what I give you here and that yellow was extremely expensive and rare here are examples of all and we normally think of it as kind of a reddish brownish thing with with inclusion ancient sources all the likely suspects here are the stones of the high priests breastplate in four rows three stones per row here's what I think carnelian red peridot yellow green emerald deep green second row red garnet Ruby or spinel probably guarded or spinel probably not Ruby second stone lapis lazuli blue and gold third stone black and white Onyx third row amber yellow yellowish or yellowish red agate and deep purple amethyst fourth row barrel or chrysolite maybe it's just a brilliant yellow gold stone like Beryl is like Citroen is and the other cases I gave you probably not blue it's probably your yellow greenish thing sardonyx red black and white and then Jasper okay that's what I think the stones of the height of the 12 foundation stones in Revelation 21 agree except there there's some differences it has sardonyx instead of onyx which I'm very happy with it has Wacken FOSE which is violet in the modern day but was red in antiquity consider red and that is anthrax in Greek which is a redstone and then instead of a hot ace agate it has Kalkadoon which sounds like the city of calcium which is what it is Kalkadoon is chalcedony which is agate agate is a chalcedony it really doesn't disagree much at all especially with what I've done to reconstruct it but then the fourth one is just crazy that Ligurian links urine right amber not on the list they didn't even necessarily know amber they thought it was mythological it was so rare or people that doesn't exist they replaced it with Chris appraised in Revelation it's a green quartz maybe because it's occurrence in some manuscripts of the Septuagint of Exodus 20:8 replaces Ligurian with Chris appraised instead and then they didn't even necessarily think it existed because it was so rare

Channel: Lipscomb University - Austin Center

Views: 39,968

Rating: 4.816092 out of 5

Keywords: AGST, Austin, Graduate, School, Theology, Grad, seminary, college, university, Austin Grad, Gemstones of the Bible, R. Mark Shipp, Mark Shipp, Pat E Harrell, Old Testament

Id: fscNgjmkvP4

Length: 34min 9sec (2049 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2016