Revelation 21:19

οἱ θεμ. Text. Rec[844] has καὶ οὶ with א* 1.

[844] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

ὁ πρῶτος. א has ὁ εἷς.

19. θεμέλιοι … κεκοσμημένοι. From the next sentence we are to understand that they are adorned by being constructed of these stones, not that stones are fastened on merely for ornament.

λίθῳ τιμίῳ. See Isaiah 54:11-12 where however there is less detail than here, and what there is is not quite the same: a warning against expecting too minute a symbolism in the details. It is true that contemporary superstition ascribed mystical meanings and magical virtues to the various stones, and it is possible that the revelation made to St John was given in terms of these beliefs, which he and his readers may have known of or even have held. But though not a priori incredible, this is hardly likely: these superstitions had, it seems, much less hold on the popular mind in St John’s day than some centuries later: and at all times they were too vague and too variable to give us a key to the interpretation. There may be a definite meaning in each of the stones named, but the general meaning of the whole is all that we can be sure of. As St Hildebert says,

Quis chalcedon, quis jacinthus,
Norunt illi qui sunt intus.

ὁ πρῶτος. See on Revelation 21:14. If the two descriptions are to be combined the enumeration probably begins at one of the angles, and goes round the wall in order. It is useless to guess which Apostle’s name was on which stone, but it may be presumed that St Peter’s would be on the first. But in no two of the canonical lists of the Apostles are their names given in the same order; and, so far as there is any order among them, they are arranged in three groups of four, not, as is here required, in four groups of three.

ἴασπις. Like the superstructure on the wall Revelation 21:18. But it can hardly be meant, that the Church is built more solidly on to St Peter than to any other of the twelve. If the twelve foundations are twelve courses it would be quite natural that the stone used for the superstructure should also be used for the lowest course.

σάπφειρος. Lapis-lazuli, the colour of which gives the modern name to the blue jacinth, see on Revelation 9:17.

χαλκηδών. A green stone like an emerald from the copper mines of Chalcedon. It is uncertain whether our Chalcedony gets the name from Pliny’s Chalcedonius Jaspis, or from his Carchedonius (a kind of carbuncle), which was often written by mistake with Cal-; for our chalcedony sometimes is like an inferior fire opal, and in Marbod we read

Pallensque Chalcedonius
Ignis habet effigiem.