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Precious stones are stones remarkable for their colour, brilliancy, or rarity. Such stones have at all times been held in high esteem everywhere, particularly in the East where their use and adornment have served ceremonial, ritualistic and stylistic purposes. Sacred Scripture illustrates that very early on the Eastern civilizations appropriated them for diverse ornamental uses: rings, bracelets, collars and necklaces. The crowns of kings, their garments and those of their officers and of the priests were all set with precious stones, often as engraved gems, a major art form throughout the ancient Near East. ==Origins== The Hebrews obtained their precious stones from the Middle East, India, and Egypt. At the time of the Exodus Egypt was flooded with riches, and the Israelites on leaving the land possessed themselves of many precious stones, according to the commandment of God (Ex., iii, 22; xii, 35-36). Later when they were settled in Palestine they could easily obtain stones from the merchant caravans travelling from Babylonia or Persia to Egypt and those from Saba and Reema to Tyre (Ezech., xxvii, 22) King Solomon even equipped a fleet which returned from Ophir laden with precious stones (III Kings, x, 11). The precious stones of the Bible are chiefly of interest in connection with the breastplate of the high-priest (Ex., xxviii, 17-20; xxxix, 10-13), the treasure of the King of Tyre (Ezech., xxviii, 13), and the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Tob., xiii, 16-17, in the Greek text, and more fully, Apoc., xxi, 18-21). The twelve stones of the breastplate and the two stones of the shoulder-ornaments were considered by the Jews to be the most precious. Both Ezech., xxviii, 13, and Apoc., xxi, 18-21, are patterned after the model of the rational and further allude to the twelve tribes of Israel. The stones composition were the objects of a considerable amount of literature from the fourth century. That such a literature should have arisen is of itself convincing proof that the identification of the stones was no easy problem to solve. At the time of the Septuagint translation the stones to which the Hebrew names apply could no longer be identified, and the translators rendered the same Hebrew name by different Greek words. So also did Josephus who, however, claimed he had seen the actual stones. This, coupled with the fact that the late Biblical lists, although visibly depending on that of Exodus, exhibit here and there notable changes, makes the task of identifying the stones a difficult one. The ancients did not classify their precious stones by analyzing their composition and crystalline forms: names were given in accordance with their colour, use, or their country of origin. Therefore stones of the same or nearly the same colour, but of different composition or crystalline form, bear identical names. Another problem is nomenclature; names having changed in the course of time: thus the ancient chrysolite is our topaz, the sapphire is our lazuli, etc. However, we know most of the stones were precious in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia. Owing to the neighbourhood and to the influence of these countries on Palestine, it is highly probable that the score of substances referred to in the Bible as "desirable stones" (Is., liv, 12) must be contained in the fairly long list of the precious and ornamental stones of the Assyro-Babylonians and the Egyptians. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of precious stones in the Bible」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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