GEMS
Gems
SEE GEM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Gems
Gems. See Stones, Precious.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
GEMS
Gems were looked upon by the ancient heathens as having a power, if managed right, and consecrated according to their rituals, to perform great wonders, and especially to prevent delusions, and were therefore thought instrumental in divination; and in particular, as to the administration of justice, to deliver oracles, and shew the truth of any thing present or future.
Hence, in cases of great importance, in the manner of the administration of justice among the Egyptians by the chief judge (who was the first person in dignity after the king f1) when the final sentence was to be given, it was done by the application of an image of gems hanging by a golden chain at the collar of the said judge;f2 and the said image they called truth, or the image of truth.f3
By this may be illustrated the history of Moses about the exaltation of Joseph, who was found to excel in wisdom and discretion all the magicians and wise men of Egypt: “See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharoah took off his ring, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck:”f4 the gold chain, the badge of the chief judge, being for the image of truth; and the ring being not given to seal orders or decrees, but as a magical ring or talisman, to prevent fascinations and delusions, and to divine by.f5
From this use of magical or oracular trials among the Egyptians, it came to pass, that when God, to ease Moses, commanded elders to be appointed as judgesf6 they were divinely inspired, that their sentences being looked upon as oracular, the Israelites, accustomed to Egyptian notions, might comply.
For the same reason, and to keep the Israelites from the use of magic, so much used by the Egyptians, did God order a breast-plate of judgment to be made for Aaron, in which were to be set, in sockets of gold, twelve precious stones, bearing the names engraven on them of the twelve tribes of Israel.
The said breast-plate, so composed of the said stones, was to be used as an oracle upon great emergencies; and the said stones, so placed in the breast-plate, from the use they were put to, were called Urim, fires or lights; and, Thummim, perfections or truth: f7 perfection and truth in the Scripture style being synonymous in sense, f8 because what is perfected is truly done, neither false nor vain, nor yet unexecuted, but accomplished.
The primary notion of (truth), seems to be that of Revelation, or the discovery of a thing which, being hidden before, is no more so: , is ; that is true, which is no more hidden. And therefore Homer f9 calls the Egyptians , upon the account of their skill in divination.
It is farther observable, that the faculty of divination was, by the heathens, called by the name of light, especially that which was ecstatical, and proceeding from possession. Jamblichus commonly calls it light;f10 in some places flash by light, and sometimes fire. The reason of their thus calling inspiration by the name of light, fire, flash, and the like, may be easily found in the authors of the theurgical science. For by the theurgical rites the daemons, being invoked, did affect to appear with some antecedent flashes of fire or light. f11 And hence, because this adjunct of the ecstasy and presence of the daemons was thought to be the cause of the inspiration f12, the inspiration itself was called fire and light; which, because it moved and directed the prophetf13 as the natural light of the luminaries directs men in the common offices of life; hence all government, as well as that which proceeds from oracles, is called light in the symbolical language, which was instituted in those times, and by those men who pretended to rule others by virtue of the power and direction which they had from the gods, communicated in oracles and inspirations by day, and in dreams.
Again, the ecstacies were attended with a very great heat in the bodies of the possessed, arising from the hurry of the animal spirits occasioned by the possession; so that the very first insult of it seemed like a flash of fire, and their bodies glowed as if they had been all on fire.f14
Inspiration therefore, for these reasons, was called light, fire, and heat: and because they looked upon their divinations as able to reach truth, i.e. to foresee the future, therefore with them divinations, and particularly amongst the Egyptians, divinations by gems were lights and truth, Urim and Thummim.
But this being equivocal in them, and only pretended, is really true of God, whose ways are perfect; and therefore his oracles only are Urim and Thummim, as shewing things that shall certainly be perfected. What he predicts, or declares, or commands, is designed to enlighten men, and will certainly come to pass: so that when he gave his oracles or lights of direction to the Israelites, it was in order to bring to perfection all those counsels which he then discovered to them; and agreeable to what has been said is the style of the Sacred Writings. In them, the word, laws, judgment, or oracles of God, are very frequently compared to light and lamps; especially in the Psalms, as particularly Psa 119:130.
Fire also, as well as light, signifies therein the Divine inspiration and oracles. Instead of the expression, ” He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire;”f15 it is elsewhere said only, ” with the Holy Ghost;”f16 the Holy Ghost and fire signifying, by an hendyadis, that Christ would send to them that were baptized, the Holy Ghost, to give them the divine inspirations, and all the operations of the said Spirit, the chief of which was the prophetical light or fire.
At first, the descent of the Holy Ghost was accompanied with light or fire. Hence, says St. Paul, 1Th 5:19, ” Quench not the Spirit.”
Christ also, as the Governor of the world, is the Lightf17 thereof, and “the Way, the Truth, and the Life;”f18 and he is Urim and Thummim, the Disposer of the oracles of God to guide and rule men, and to bring to perfection all the mystery of God, which is to bring men to eternal life.
From what has been said of the use of gems in the administration of justice, and in the delivering of oracles, it appears that gems may, upon the said accounts, be properly used as the symbols of government, and particularly as the symbols of the Divine oracles, especially such as are prophetical; both which they aptly represent upon the account of their light, brightness, and sparkling, by reason whereof they are frequently, by Pliny and other authors, styled lights and fires. Hence a saying of a Chinese: king, “I have four ministers of state, who govern with great prudence the provinces I have committed to them: those are my precious stones; they can enlighten a thousand furlongs.”f19
All the Oriental Oneirocritics, in chap. 258., affirm that precious stones and pearls are the symbols of government; and the Indian, chap. 147., expressly asserts; “That they are for the most part to be interpreted of the Divine oracles, and of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
Precious stones and pearls are also explained by the Egyptians and Persians in chap. 248. of riches and honour.
Further: gems are substances not only bright and glorious and the most valuable, but also the most permanent, insomuch that no other substance preserves its nature without decay like them, as hath been generally believed: and therefore, in relation to the Divine oracles, they denote consequently their permanency and constancy, and what exceeding value we ought to set upon them.f20 For which reason the symbols from gems are not used but about matters which are to be of a constant and long duration.
Lastly, as gems are the symbols of God’s oracles, of his will and commands; so by the colour of the gems may his will, or the disposition of his countenance, be known, whether for good or evil. Thus when God shewed himself, or at least the place of his standing, to Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the Elders of Israel,f21 he stood upon a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness, i. e. he was resolved to shew himself constantly good and kind, and as pleasant as the serene sky. The LXX. have it “as serene and clear as the sight of the firmament above the clouds, not to be broken with any rain;” understanding by it, the wonderful kindness and fatherly affection of God towards them at that time; and this may be confirmed by the exposition of the colours of gems given by the Indian Interpreter in chap. 247., where he explains,
The white colour, of good will and favour; the red, of joy from success in war, and being a terror to enemies; the blue, of joy, from gentleness and moderation; the green, of great renown from constancy, faith, and piety.
It is also observable, that the Egyptians painted their god whom they looked upon as the creator of the world, of a dark blue.f22 And Homerf23 gives the epithet of blue to the eye-brow of Jupiter in granting a request, where the said epithet signifies the same as serene; blue being the colour of the serene sky.
These ideas may throw some light on several passages in the Book of Revelation, particularly Rev 4:4; Rev 21:10, Rev 21:18-21; see also Isa 54:11-12.
F1 Strab. Geogr.
F2 Diod. Sic. Bibl. Hist. Lib. i. p. 48. Confer. p. 31,
F3 Diod. Sic. Bibl. Hist. p. 48.
F4 Gen 41:41-42.
F5 Plin. N. Hist. Lib. 33. c. 1.
F6 Num 11:25.
F7 Exo 28:30
F8 Jos 24:14. acc. to the original.
F9 Homer. Odyss. . ver. 83.
F10 Jamblich. de Myst. iii. c. 6, 7, 8, and elsewhere. See also Plut. (le Defect. Orac. p. 291, 292.
F11 Jambl. de Myst. ii. c. 7, 8. Virgil. n. Lib. iv. ver. 358. Pap. Stat. Theb. Lib. v. ver. 267. cum Not. Scholiast.
F12 Jambl. de Myst. iii. c. 7.
F13 Jambl. de Myst. iii. c. 6.
F14 Vide Ammian. Marcell. Lib. xxi.
F15 Mat 3:11. Luke iii. 16.
F16 Mark i. 8. Acts i. 5, and xi. 16.
F17 John viii. 12.
F18 John xiv. 6.
F19 Moral. Conf. Lib. ii. p. 45.
F20 See Matt. xiii. 45.
F21 Exo 24:10.
F22 Euseb. Prwp. Ev. Lib. iii. p. 69.
F23 Hom. Il. a. ver. 527.