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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 21:20 - 21:20
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Sardonyx (σαρδόνυξ)
The most beautiful and rarest variety of onyx. Pliny defines it as originally signifying a white mark in a sard, like the human nail (ὄνυξ) placed upon flesh, and both of them transparent. Onyx is called from the resemblance of its white and yellow veins to the shades in the human finger-nail. The early Greeks make no distinction between the onyx and the sardonyx.
Sardius
See on Rev 4:3.
Chrysolite (χρυσόλιθος)
From χρυσός gold and λίθος stone. Lit., gold-stone. Identified by some with our topaz, by others with amber. Pliny describes it as “translucent with golden luster.”
Beryl (βήρυλλος)
Pliny says that it resembled the greenness of the pure sea. It has been supposed to be of the same or similar nature with the emerald.
Topaz (τοπάζιον)
Compare Job 28:19. The name was derived from an island in the Red Sea where the gem was first discovered. The stone is our peridot. The Roman lapidaries distinguished the two varieties, the chrysopteron, our chrysolite, and the prasoides, our peridot. The former is much harder, and the yellow color predominates over the green. The modern topaz was entirely unknown to the ancients.
Chrysoprasus
Rev., chrysoprase. From χρυσός gold and πράσον a leek; the color being a translucent, golden green, like that of a leek. According to Pliny it was a variety of the beryl.
Jacinth (ὑάκινθος)
See on Rev 9:17.
Amethyst (ἀμέθυστος)
From ἀ not and μεθύω to be drunken in wine, the stone being supposed to avert intoxication. Pliny distinguishes it from the jacinth, in that, in the latter, the violet hue of the amethyst is diluted. The stone is the amethystine quartz, or rock-crystal, colored purple by manganese of iron.