M.L.GLIKMAN, Israel
A few thousand years have passed since the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, but the question of the High Priest's breastplate stones ( HOSHEN) still excites researches and commentators of the Holy Scriptures. There are 12 names of precious stones in Hebrew and dozens of options for their translation into the language of mineralogy.
In the book of Prophet Ezekiel, dating back to the sixth century BC are mentioned the nine gems of the Garden of Eden, protecting (in the translations " adorned" or "covering ") the King of Tyre (chapter 28, line 13):
" …in Eden ,the garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering;……" (King James Bible/Cambridge Ed./).
This is followed by the names of the stones written in line and grouped into three. Their names are exactly the same as the names of the stones on Hoshen.
אדם פטדה ויהלם תרשיש שהם וישפה ספיר נפך וברקת
The order of the stones is different from Hoshen and three stones are missing (לשם שבו ואחלמה). The Seventy (Septuagint) translation of the book of Prophets into Greek was amended: the number of stones brought to 12 and their order restored according to the Book of Exodus (chapter 28 ,line 17-20).
Regarding the amount of stones protecting the King of Tyre, G.F.Kunz (1913) wrote that "there is some reason to attribute a Hindu origin to the nine gems, "the covering " of the King of Tire, enumerated by Ezekiel" ( p.231).
A talisman, very popular in India, Burma, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka, is NAVARATNA. It consists of nine gems- nine conductors of planetary energy to a person (each stone is connected to its planet). The ornament can be presented in the form of medallion, ring or bracelet on the arm( see http://www.agt-gems.com/agt-gallery/721.html, etc.).The rules for manufacturing this jewelry item are described in ancient Indian treatises translated and published in the works of L. Finot(1896),G.F.Kunz (1913), K.A. Nowotny (1969),Harish Johari (1987),R.S.Brown (1995) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navaratna
Ruby is placed in the center and the other stones are placed clockwise (from left to right) as follows: diamond, pearl , red coral, hessonite (gomeda), blue sapphire, cat's eye, yellow sapphire, emerald. In addition to the basic list of stones it was allowed to use other ,less expensive ones, for manufacturing NAVARATNA. They were referred to in the UPA-RATNA.(http://www.p-g-a.org/9gems-german.html, etc)
For subsequent comparative analysis of the talisman we present a list of gems from the Garden of Eden and NAVARATNA in the form of table ( see Table1 and 2 ) and then combine them by putting one table over the other ( see Table 3 ).
Table 1.The gemstones of the Garden of Eden. King of Tyres talisman.
יהלם
|
פטדה
|
אדם
|
ישפה
|
שהם
|
תרשיש
|
ברקת
|
נפך
|
ספיר
|
Table 2. The gemstones of NAVARATNA talisman.
Diamond
|
Pearl
|
Coral
|
Emerald
|
Ruby
|
Hessonite
|
Yellow sapphire
|
Cat's eye
|
Sapphire
|
Table 3. NARATNA- the key to the nine stones of Hoshen.
Diamond
יהלם
|
Pearl
פטדה
|
Coral
אדם
|
Emerald
ישפה
|
Ruby
שהם
|
Hessonite
תרשיש
|
Yellow sapphire
ברקת
|
Cat's eye
נפך
|
Sapphire
ספיר
|
As a result of our graphic calculations ,the lists of the stones on the two talismans have merged into one, and the nine gems of the Garden of Eden obtained their mineralogical names. Using the UPA-RATNA and the methods of historical gemology (gemmochronology) proposed by Бобылев В.В. (2005), we can move on to deciphering the stones of the High Priest's breastplate in the follow-up study.
The book Bamidbar Rabbah ( www.hebrewbooks.org ) pointed out that each Israeli tribe had a flag and its colour matched the stone on the Hoshen ,belonging to this tribe. Let's draw a table (similar to the Hoshen) and fill in the colours of the stones on the basis of "NAVARATNA key" (see Table 4).
Table 4. The colours of the hoshen stones ( according to NAVARATNA key)
ברקת
Yellow
|
פטדה
milky-white
|
אדם
red(dark-red)
|
יהלם
White
|
ספיר
blue
|
נפך
sky-blue
|
אחלמה
-------
|
שבו
-------
|
לשם
--------
|
ישפה
Green
|
שהם
red
|
תרשיש
brown-red
|
The colours of the second row of stones coincides with the banners of Judah (sky-blue -נפך),Issachar (blue- ספיר), Zebulun (white –יהלם),and, therefore, these names were placed on Hoshen in that order. Continuing the reconstruction, we have got the pattern for positioning of Israeli tribes' names on the stones of Hoshen (see Table 5).
Table 5. Placement of the tribes' names on the Hoshen stones.
Gad
|
Shimon
|
Reuben
|
Zebulun
|
Issachar
|
Judah
|
Benjamin
|
Menashe
|
Ephraim
|
Asher
|
Naftali
|
Dan
|
Reuben has a red flag-אדם, Naftali-the colour of red wine-שהם, Asher- green-ישפה etc.
Conclusion. When comparing the names of stones on King of Tyre and NAVARATNA talismans, we obtained the key to determining the mineralogical meaning of the Hoshen stones. Using the key ,we created the pattern for positioning the Israeli tribes' names on the High Priest breastplate.
Bibliography.
1.Бобылев В.В. Камни-самоцветы Библии.Москва,2005
2.Brown R.S. Ancient astrological gemstones talismans.AGT Ltd, 1995
3.Finot Luis. Les lapidaries India.Paris 1896
4.Harish Johari . Die sanfte Kraft der edlen Steine .Windpferd Verlagsgeselschaft mbH,1987
5. Kunz G.F. The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. New York, 1913 (1971)
6.Nowotny K.A. Beitrage zur Geschichte des Weltbildes.1969
