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( ÷ñõóüò , ÷ñõóßïí , ‘gold’; ÷ñõóüò , ‘golden’; ÷ñõóüù , ‘adorn with gold, ‘gild’)
This mineral may, from one point of view, be classed with ‘any other yellow pebbles’ (Ruskin, Unto This Last, §29), but as a universal standard of value and means of adornment it claims a special attention. Prom the earliest times the imagination of man has been fired by the thought of reefs and sands of gold. There is a naive wonder in the first and last biblical references-‘and the gold of that land was good’ (Gen_2:12), ‘and the street of the city was pure gold’ (Rev_21:21). There are good reasons for the unquestioned supremacy of gold among metals: the supply of it is neither too great nor too small; its colour and lustre are permanent; it is the most malleable and one of the most ductile of substances; it can be melted and re-melted with scarcely any diminution of quantity. In its state of perfect purity it is too soft for most purposes, but a small admixture of copper gives it sufficient hardness for coinage and for jewellery.
Gold is often found in solid masses, but generally in combination with silver and other ores, from which it requires to be purified, Peter (1Pe_1:7) refers to ‘gold proved by fire’ ( ÷ñõóßïõ äéὰ ðõñüò äïêéìáæïìÝíïõ ; cf. Rev_3:18).
‘Strabo states that in his time h process was employed for refining and purifying gold in large quantities by cementing or burning it with an aluminous earth, which, by destroying the silver, left, the gold in a state of purity. Pliny shows that for this purpose the gold was placed on the fire in an earthen vessel with treble its Weight of salt, and that it was afterwards again exposed to the fire with the parts of salt and one of argillaceous rock, which, in the presence of moisture, effected the decomposition of the salt: by this means the silver became converted into chloride’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica 11, art ‘Gold,’ xii.199).
India, Arabia, Spain, and Africa were the chief gold-producing countries of the ancients, Arabia, containing the lands of Seba, Havilah, and Ophir, was the Eldorado of the Hebrews. Herodotus (vi. 47) tells of the Phœnician quest for gold in the island of Thasos: ‘a large mountain has been thrown upside down in the search.’ Pliny describes the gold-mining of Spain (Historia Naturalis (Pliny) xxx. 4. 21). The art of the goldsmith flourished in all the ancient civilizations. The gold-work of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans may be rivalled, but can scarcely be excelled, and that of the Egyptians of 2,000 years earlier was no less exquisite.
Gold was used for many purposes, secular and sacred. Crowns were made of it (Rev_4:4; Rev_9:7; Rev_14:14), rings (Jam_2:2), vessels of great houses (2Ti_2:20), idols (Rev_9:20; cf. Act_17:29). Many articles of gold were in the merchandise of Rome (Rev_18:12); the great city itself was decked with it (Rev_18:16); the scarlet woman’s cup of abomination was made of it (Rev_17:4). Much of the furniture of the real Temple, as of St. John’s ideal one, was of gold-the ark of the covenant (overlaid with it, Heb_9:4), the censer (Heb_9:4, Rev_8:3), the altar of incense (Rev_8:3; Rev_9:13), the bowls full of incense (Rev_5:8), the pot of manna (Heb_9:4), the candlesticks (Rev_1:12-13; Rev_1:20; Rev_2:1). But servants of God have a spiritual rather than a material standard of values; for them ‘the true veins of wealth are purple-and not in Rock, but in Flesh’ (Ruskin, op. cit. § 40). They have been redeemed not with gold, but with blood (1Pe_1:18). Apostles, though poor, have something more precious to offer than gold (Act_3:6). Women have a finer adornment than jewels of gold (1Ti_2:9, 1Pe_3:3). It is assumed that even the noblest metal may be rusted (Jam_5:3), and if this is only a popular fancy, at any rate gold is ultimately as perishable as all other material things (1Pe_1:7).
It is natural, however, that gold should be a universal symbol of purity and worth. The golden age, the golden rule, golden opinions, golden opportunities are in common speech the best of such things. Gold is likewise an inevitable category of apocalyptic prophecy. The Son of Man wears a golden girdle (Rev_1:13), as does each of the seven angels of the seven golden bowls (Rev_15:6-7). The twenty-four elders have on their heads crowns of gold (Rev_4:4). An angel receives a golden reed to measure the New Jerusalem (Rev_21:15), and the city itself is pure gold (Rev_21:18; Rev_21:21; cf. Tob_13:16-17). The gold of the Apocalyptist, moreover, has a transcendent quality; differing from our opaque yellow metal, it is ‘like unto pure glass,’ clear and transparent as crystal. The gold of heaven is liner than earth’s finest.
James Strahan.