Stones of the Breastplate
No. 560. Stones of the Breastplate.
PLEASE give the colors of the stones mentioned in Ex. 28: 17-20, and quote the best authority on the same. I. B. B. The Common Version and margin of Revised Version differ, as do other “authorities.” See plate under “Gems” in Standard Dictionary. Adam Clarke, following the Common Version, gives as follows: Sardius, “fine deep red color,” “a blood red color;” Topaz, “pale dead green,” “sometimes of a fine yellow;” Carbuncle, “a deep red color,” in the sun “like a piece of bright burning charcoal;” Emerald, bright green color; Sapphire, “fine blue color,” “some blue or green, . . . and some white;” Diamond, he gives no color, for, pure, it is colorless; Ligure, “dead red or crimson color,” with “mixture of yellow;” Agate, “white agates have reddish, yellowish, greenish ground;” Amethyst, “a purple, composed of a strong blue and deep red,” some are dove colored, others purple, “and others white like diamonds;” Beryl, “a bluish green color;” Onyx, “darkish horny color,” often “bluish white spots are in it;” Jasper, “bright green,” “sometimes clouded with white, and spotted with red and yellow.” And then he gives fifteen different colors of it. No man knows the colors of the stones of the breastplate. For most of the stones we might as well ask the color of the modern rose, which varies all the way from white to black, or the pansy. These stones run through all indescribable shades and mixtures of colors.