Bible Gems

A 2011 article in the Bulletin for Biblical Research attempts to identify the modern names for the gemstones that are found in the Septuagint. James Harrell, a geologist at the University of Toledo, explains some of the complications.

It won’t do, he argues, to try to identify the Hebrew names with the LXX names, first because there appear to have been different versions of the LXX (Josephus’s list of the gems on Aaron’s breastplate is not from the Hebrew text, but it’s not from our version of the LXX either), and second because there is no consistent match between the Massoretic Text (MT) and the LXX: “the Greek smaragdos in the LXX’s Exod 28:9, 35:27, and 36:17 (39:10 in MT) is variously rendered, respectively, soham, yaspeh, and baraqet in the same MT passages. Similarly for the LXX’s anthrax, the corresponding Hebrew words in the MT are soham in Gen 2:12, tarsis in Ezek 10:9, and nopek in Isa 54:11” (149-50).

Modern translations are often misleading, using names for gemstones well-known to moderns but not so well-known to ancients. This is particularly true of translations that use the names of what we call precious stones, which were very rare before Alexander: “Prior to the Hellenistic period, colored translucent and opaque gemstones were the ones most commonly used, but following Alexander the Great’s eastern conquests in the late fourth century B.C., colored transparent gemstones from India (and Sri Lanka) began flowing into the Mediterranean region. This flow became a torrent by the first century A.D. with the rise of Imperial Rome and its preference for colored transparent gemstones. This development must be kept in mind when using Pliny the Elder’s Natural History from A.D. 77 in identifying the LXX gemstones. The misbelief that all gemstones of Pliny’s day were in common use in the preceding centuries or that the gemstone names had unchanging meanings has led astray many writers on LXX gemstones” (151-2).

The translation of smaragdos as “emerald” is a good example: “this gemstone was not generally available until the latter half of the first century B.c., at which time the first Egyptian emerald mine was opened in Wadi Sikait. It should be noted, however, that emeralds were definitely being used earlier in the Hellenistic period, but this usage is exceedingly rare and restricted to Macedonia and the Black Sea region, with the source of these early emeralds possibly in Russia’s Ural Mountains. Pliny and other Roman writers are often referring to emerald when speaking of smaragdos, but, as will be shown below, the LXX translators had a very different gemstone in mind” (152).

A small thing, it may seem, except that the LXX is one of the most important ancient source concerning gems. It names 22 different stones in 55 passages, more than any other Hellenistic source besides Theophrastus’s On Stones, which is about geology. 

Identifying the stones named in the MT is even more difficult, since there are no treatises on gems to compare to, as there are for the LXX. Harrell’s article holds important cautions for biblical students who (mea culpa) spin off speculations based on questionable modern translations of ancient gem names.

(James A. Harrell, “Old Testament Gemstones: A Philological, Geological, and Archaeological Assessment of the Septuagint,” BRB 21:2 (2011) 141-72.)