One day a friend of mine said "I have always wanted a necklace or bracelet made of the gemstones from Revelation, Chapter 21, in the Bible". And that is when the search began...

This search was not only for the gemstones themselves, hard enough by itself, but also for the Bible references, translations, and folklore surrounding them. We found references to gemstones in the Bible not only in Revelation, but also many (perhaps all) of the same stones were listed in Exodus, High Priest Aaron's "Breastplate of Judgement", and some of them again in Ezekiel, as "the Stones of Fire" on the Mountain of God in Eden. I was amazed at the amount of folklore and legends surrounding these gems; And at the controversy regarding the specific gems refered to...

It has only been since the mid-1800’s that we have begun to identify stones according to their mineral content. In biblical times, stones were identified by color, such as the Hebrew term 'odem' which simply means 'red stone.' This could have been any number of red stones known at the time (i.e. red jasper, sardius, or garnet). Many were named regionally, and sometimes several stones were referred to by the same name. Some carried the name of the city or country of origin, such as Chalcedony (Turkey). Because of this, and the many translations (and retranslations) of the Bible, we found that, while many of the gems can be clearly traced to modern gemstones, others are very controversial regarding the actual stone represented. As more information surfaces, thanks to archaeological findings and the writings of ancient historians such as Elder Pliny (23-79 AD), Josephus (37-100 AD), and Theophrastus (372-287 BC), we are able to come a bit closer to making some positive identifications.

The earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament is the Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century. The hand-written text is in Greek. The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine), and the Old Testament in the version known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors. The twelve Foundation Stones in Revelation in the Greek are: iaspis, sappheiros, chalkedon, smaragdos, sardonux, sardion, chrusolithos, berullos, topazion, chrusoprasos, huakinthos, and amethustos.

The English names of most of the precious stones mentioned in the Bible are adaptations of Greek names through the Latin; for instance, the English word 'topaz' is a modification of the Latin word 'topazius', itself merely a Latin form of the Greek word 'topazion'. It would at first sight appear that the Greek word 'topazion' must be translated into English by the word 'topaz'; However the stones indicated by the words are quite different, although the words are virtually identical. The 'topazion' of the ancient Greeks was a green stone yielding to the action of a file and said to be brought from an island in the Red Sea, whereas the 'topaz' of the present day is not a green stone, does not yield to the action of a file, and has not been brought from an island in the Red Sea, the island of Topazios (today called St. John’s Island off the coast of Egypt). This is the world’s principle source for the peridot (chrysolite). No topaz as we understand it today has been found there. The 'topazion' of the ancient Greeks is really today's peridot, not the topaz; 'Topazion' and 'topaz' are different kinds of stone. For a correct interpretation of the Bible it is necessary to ascertain, if possible, the kind of stone to which a Greek or Hebrew name was applied, at the time when the word was written.

For the interpretation of the Greek names used, much help is given by Elder Pliny's great work 'Naturalis Historia' (Natural History), published 77 AD; It records what was known about precious stones at the very time when John himself was living. It is thus possible, in some cases at least, to ascertain what name is now assigned to a stone mentioned in the New Testament, if the name and description are recorded in the treatise of Pliny; All twelve stones, except chalkedon (chalcedony), are mentioned by Pliny.

In Exodus, depending whose translation of the word or scripture you read (Protestant, Catholic, Hebrew, Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, or Greek), you will note the names of each stone (and it's placement) in Aaron's "BreastPlate of Judgement" differs from other translations and from the Foundation Stones of the New Jerusalum. Despite the confusion surrounding the various names, many believe (as I do) that the gemstones listed as the Foundation Stones of the New Jerusalum are the same sacred gemstones that are in Aaron's "BreastPlate of Judgement", and the same stones from the Mountain of God, "the Stones of Fire".

In Revelation 21:12-13, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written on the twelve gates of the city; However, no order is given in Revelation, making it harder to match the name of a specific tribe to a gemstone. In Exodus, the twelve stones were set according to the names of the twelve tribes of Israel in birth order; Alas, even if we presume that the gemstones are the same, the hebrew names in the Old Testament are much harder to accurately translate into the gemstones we know today. Also, the order is questionable because hebrew is written right to left and any translation into English would have to rearrange the order left to right; So the one we would consider the first stone (on the left side) would actually be the third in hebrew (from the right side). Without any notes detailing whether the order was switched or simply translated word for word, we would at best have a 50% chance of being right on 2/3 of the stones (the middle stone stays the same from left or right).

Revelation 21:14 says "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." Since the twelve gemstones also adorn the foundations of New Jerusalem, many believe the apostles are also tied to the gemstones. One of the earliest writers to tie in the apostles with the symbolism of the twelve gems is Andreas, Bishop of Caesurae. Each of the saints was assigned their own gemstone and all twelve gems match up exactly with those mentioned in the Revelations passage. These are listed on each Gemstone's page.

Below,the twelve Foundation Stones are listed in order, first by the English translation found in most Bibles, then with the Greek Codex Sinaiticus name in italics, and finally with any correction or educated guess in bold.