By using an interdisciplinary approach, archaeologist Juris Zarins believes he's found it--and can pinpoint it for us. The author, a frequent contributor, met Dr. Zarins and his Eden theory when writing of Saudi archaeology (September 1983) and has followed his work since.
"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed" (Genesis 2:8). Then the majestic words become quite specific: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris]: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates" (Genesis 2:10-14).
But where now are the Pison and the Gihon? And where, if indeed it existed as a geographically specific place, was the Garden of Eden? Theologians, historians, ordinary inquisitive people and men of science have tried for centuries to figure it out. Eden has been "located" in as many diverse areas as has lost Atlantis. Some early Christian fathers and late classical authors suggested it could lie in Mongolia or India or Ethiopia. They based their theories quite sensibly on the known antiquity of those regions, and on the notion that the mysterious Pison and Gihon were to be associated with those other two great rivers of the ancient world, the Nile and the Ganges.
Another favorite locale for the Garden had been Turkey, because both the Tigris and the Euphrates rise in the mountains there, and because Mount Ararat, where Noah's Ark came to rest, is there. In the past hundred years. since the discovery of ancient civilizations in modern Iraq, scholars have leaned toward the Tigris-Euphrates valley in general, and to the sites of southern Sumer, about 150 miles north of the present head of the Persian Gulf, in particular (map, above).
To this southern Sumerian theory Dr. Juris Zarins, of Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, would murmur: "You're getting warmer. For Dr. Zarins, who has spent seven years working out his own hypothesis, believes that the Garden of Eden lies presently under the waters of the Persian Gulf, and he further believes that the story of Adam and Eve in-and especially out-of the Garden is a highly condensed and evocative account of perhaps the greatest revolution that ever shook mankind: the shift from hunting-gathering to agriculture.
No single scholarly discipline will suffice to cover the long, intricate road Zarins has followed to arrive at his theory. He began, as many another researcher has, with the simple Biblical account, which "I read forward and backward, over and over again." To this he added the unfolding archaeology of Saudi Arabia (SMITHSONIAN, September 1983), where he spent his field time for more than a decade. Next he consulted the sciences of geology, hydrology and linguistics from a handful of brilliant 20th-century scholars and, finally, Space Age technology in the form of LANDSAT space images.
It is a tale of rich complexity, beginning 30 millennia before the birth of Christ. Of climatic shifts from moist to arid to moist, with consequent migrations eddying back and forth across, and up and down the Middle East. And of myriad peoples. There were hunter-gatherers whom agriculturists displaced. There were prehistoric Ubaidians who built cities, Sumerians who invented writing and the Assyrians who absorbed Sumer's writing as well as its legend of a luxuriantly lovely land, an Eden called Dilmun. Finally there were Kashshites in Mesopotamia, contemporaries of the Israelites then forming the state of Israel.
An endless search for food
There are two crucial if approximate dates in reconstruction. The first is about 30,000 B.C., with the transition from Neanderthal to modern Man. This, some anthropologists believe, took place along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas and in Iraq. At that time the Great Ice Age still held most of Eurasia in its grip, and it caused the sea levels to fall by 400 feet so that what is now the Persian Gulf was dry land, all the way to the Strait of Hormuz. It was irrigated not only by the still-existing Tigris and Euphrates but also by the Gihon, the Pison and their tributaries from the Arabian peninsula and from Iran. It seems reasonable that technologically primitive but modern Mm, in his endless search for food, would have located the considerable natural paradise that presented itself in the area where the Gulf now lies.
But Eden wasn't born then. That came, Zarins believes, about 6000 B.C. In between 30,000 and 6000 B.C., the climate varied. From 15,000 B.C., rainfall diminished drastically. Faced with increasing aridity, the Paleolithic population retreated, some as far as the area known to us as the "Fertile Crescent" (north along the Tigris and Euphrates, westward toward the moist Mediterranean coast, south to the Nile), and also eastward to the Indus River valley. Others, perhaps wearied by the long trek, made do with the more austere conditions of central Arabia and continued foraging as best they could.
Then, at about 6000 to 5000 B.C., following a long arid stretch, came a period called the Neolithic Wet Phase when rains returned to the Gulf region. The reaches of eastern and northeastern Saudi Arabia and southwestern Iran became green and fertile again. Foraging populations came back to where the four rivers now ran full, and there was rainfall on the intervening plains. Animal bones indicate that in this period Arabia had abundant game. Thousands of stone tools suggest intensive, if seasonal, human occupation around now dry lakes and rivers. These tools are found even in the Rub al-Khali or Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia. And so about 6000 to 5000 B.C. the land was again a paradise on Earth, provided by a bountiful nature-God---and admirably suited to the foraging life.
This time, however, there was a difference: agriculture had been invented. Not overnight-"It was a very gradual process, not an event," Zarins emphasizes. It grew up along the Mediterranean coast and in today's Iran and Iraq as groups of hunter-gatherers evolved in-to agriculturists. Foragers from central Arabia, returning to the southern Mesopotamian plain, found it already resettled by these agriculturists. Because the process occurred before writing was invented, there is no record of what upheavals the evolution caused, what tortured questions about traditional values and life-styles, what dislocations of clans or tribes. Zarins posits that it must have been far more dramatic than the infinitely later Industrial Revolution, and an earthquake in comparison with today's computer-age discombobulation of persons, professions and systems.
"What would happen to a forager when his neighbors changed their ways or when he found agriculturists had moved into his territory?" Zarins asks. These agriculturists were innovative folk who had settled down, planted seeds, domesticated and manipulated animals. They made the food come to them, in effect, instead of chasing it over hill and dale. What would the forager do if he couldn't cope? He could die; lie could move on; he could join the agriculturists. But whatever happened, he would resent it."
Eden, Adam, and the birth of writing
The crunch came, Zarins believes, here in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys and in northern Arabia, where the hunter-gatherers, flooding in from less hospitable regions, were faced with more technically accomplished humans who knew how to breed and raise animals, who made distinctive pottery, who seemed inclined to cluster in settled groups. Who were these people? Zarins believes they were a southern Mesopotamian group and culture now called the Ubaid. They founded the oldest of the southern Mesopotamian cities, Eridu, about 5000 B.C. Though Eridu, and other cities like Ur and Uruk, were discovered a century ago, the Ubaidian presence down along the coast of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia has been known for little more than a decade, when vestiges of their settlements, graves and distinctive pottery turned up.
It was in Saudi Arabia that Zarins encountered the Ubaidians, and there that he began developing his hypothesis about the true meaning of the Biblical Eden. One clue lies in linguistics: the term Eden, or Edin, appears first in Sumer, the Mesopotamian region that produced the world's first written language. This was in the third millennium B.C., more than three thousand years after the rise of the Ubaid culture. In Sumerian the word "Eden" meant simply "fertile plain." The word "Adam"
also existed in cuneiform, meaning something like "settlement on the plain." Although both words were set down first in Sumerian, along with place names like Ur and Uruk, they are not Sumerian in origin. They are older. A brilliant Assyriologist named Benno Landsberger advanced the theory in 1943 that these names were all linguistic remnants of a pre-Sumerian people who had already named rivers, cities-and even some specific trades like potter anti coppersmith-before the Sumerians appeared.
Landsberger called the pre-Sumerian language simply Proto-Euphratian. Other scholars suggest that its speakers were the Ubaidians. However it was, the existing names were incorporated into Sumerian and written down for the first time. And the mythology of the lush and lovely spot called Eden was codified by being written.
"The whole Garden of Eden story, however, when finally written, could be seen to represent the point of view of the hunter gatherers," Zarins reasons. "It was the result of tension between the two groups, the collision of two ways of life. Adam and Eve were heirs to natural bounty. They had everything they needed. But they sinned and were expelled. How did they sin? By challenging God's very omnipotence. In so doing they represented the agriculturists, the upstarts who insisted on taking matters into their own hands, relying upon their knowledge and their own skills rather than on His bounty.
There were no journalists around to record the tension, no historians. But the event did not go unnoticed. It became a part of collective memory and at long last it was written down, highly condensed, in Genesis. It was very brief, but brevity doesn't mean lack of significance."
How did it happen that an advanced people would perpetuate a myth making their own ancestors the sinners? It may be that the Ubaidians, who are known to have sailed down the east coast of Arabia and colonized there, ran into descendants of foragers displaced from a drowning Eden, from them heard the awful story of the loss of paradise and repeated it until it became their own legend. Or it may be that, responding to the increasing pressures and stresses of a society growing in complexity, they found comfort in a fantasy of the good old days, when life had been sweeter, simpler, more idyllic. However, it was a tale firmly established in Ubaidian mythology, then adopted and recorded by the Sumerians.
LANDSAT spots a "fossil river"
At this stage in his thesis, Zarins goes back to geography and geology to pinpoint the area of Eden where he believes the collision came to a head. The evidence is beguiling: first, Genesis was written from a Hebrew point of view. It says the Garden was "eastward," i.e., east of Israel. It is quite specific about the rivers. The Tigris and the Euphrates are easy because they still flow. At the time Genesis was written, the Euphrates must have been the major one because it stands identified by name only and without an explanation about what it "compasseth."
The Pison can be identified from the Biblical reference to the land of Havilah, which is easily located in the Biblical Table of Nations (Genesis 10:7, 25:18) as relating to localities and people within a Mesopotamian-Arabian framework. Supporting the Biblical evidence of Havilah are geological evidence on the ground and LANDSAT images from space. These images clearly show a "fossil river," that once flowed through northern Arabia and through the now dry beds, which modern Saudis and Kuwaitis know as the Wadi Riniah and the Wadi Batin. Furthermore. as the Bible says, this region was rich in bdellium, an aromatic gum resin that can still be found in north Arabia, and gold, which was still mined in the general area in the 1950s.
It is the Gihon, which "compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia," that has been the problem. In Hebrew the geographical reference was to "Gush" or "Kush." The translators of the King James Bible in the 17th century rendered Gush or Kush as "Ethiopia"---which is further to the south and in Africa--thus upsetting the geographical applecart and flummoxing researchers for centuries. Zarins now believes the Gihon is the Karun River, which rises in Iran and flows southwesterly toward the present Gulf. The Karun also shows in LANDSAT images and was a perennial river which, until it was dammed, contributed most of the sediment forming the delta at the head of the Persian Gulf.
Thus the Garden of Eden, on the geographical evidence, must have been somewhere at the head of the Gulf at a time when all four rivers joined and flowed through an area that was then above the level of the Gulf. The wording in Genesis that Eden's river came into four heads" was dealt with by Biblical scholar Ephraim Speiser some years ago: the passage, he said, refers to the four rivers upstream of their confluence into the one river watering the Garden. This is a strange perspective, but understandable if one reflects that the description is of a folk memory, written millennia after the events encapsulated, by men who had never been within leagues of the territory.
It was Speiser again who suggested that the mysterious Gush or Kush should be correctly written as Kashshu and further that it refers to the Kashshites, a people who, in about 1500 B.C , conquered Mesopotamia and prevailed until about 900 B.C. This Zarins considers a vital clue. "At the time the Kashshites were in control in Mesopotamia, the nation of Israel was being formed. The Hebrews must certainly have encountered them, and learned the handed-down traditions of early Mesopotamia, the myths and tales. They must have heard the words Eden and Adam."
The name Eve does not appear in Sumerian but there is a most intriguing link---the account of Eve's having been fashioned from Adam's rib in the Garden story. Why a rib? Well, in a famous Sumerian poem translated and analyzed by scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, there is an account of how Enki the water god angered the Mother Goddess Ninhursag by eating eight magical plants that she had created. The Mother Goddess put the curse of death on Enki and disappeared, presumably so she couldn't change her mind and relent. Later, however, when Enki became very ill and eight of his "organs" failed, Ninhursag was enticed back. She summoned eight healing deities, one for each ailing organ. Now the Sumerian word for "rib" is "ti.," but the same word also means
"to make live." So the healing deity who worked on Enki's rib was called "Nin-ti" and, in a nice play on words, became both the "lady of the rib" and the "lady who makes live." This Sumerian pun didn't translate into Hebrew, in which the words for "rib" and "to make live" are quite different. But the rib itself went into the Biblical account and as "Eve" came to symbolize the
"mother of all living."
This and other ties with Sumerian myth are very clear, and Zarins finds it telling that although the Hebrews had close associations with Egypt, their earliest spiritual roots were in Mesopotamia. "Abraham journeyed to Egypt, Joseph journeyed to Egypt, the whole Exodus story is concerned with Egypt, but there is nothing whatever Egyptian about the early chapters of Genesis," he points out. "All these early accounts are linked to Mesopotamia. Abraham indeed is said to have come from Ur, at the time near the Gulf, and the writers of Genesis wanted to link up with that history. So they drew from the literary sources of the greatest civilization that had existed, and that was in Mesopotamia. In so doing they turned Eden into the Garden, Adam into a man, and a compacted history of things that occurred millennia before was pressed into a few chapters."
Long before Genesis was written, Zarins believes, the physical Eden had vanished under the waters of the Gulf. Man had lived happily there. But then, about 5000 to 4000 B.C. came a worldwide phenomenon called the Flandrian Transgression, which caused a sudden rise in sea level. The Gulf began to fill with water and actually reached its modern-day level about 4000 B.C., having swallowed Eden and all the settlements along the coastline of the Gulf. But it didn't stop there. It kept right on rising, moving upward into the southern legions of today's Iraq and Iran.
"The Sumerians always claimed that their ancestors came 'out of the sea,' and I believe they literally did," says Zarins. "They retreated northward into Mesopotamia from the encroaching waters of the Gulf, where they had lived for thousands of years."
Their original "Eden" was gone but a new one called Dilmun, on higher ground along the eastern coast of Arabia, enters the epics and the poems in the third millennium i.e. The by then ancient mythology of a land of plenty, of eternal life and peace, had lodged firmly in the collective mind and in a specific geographical area.
The scholarly world first heard about Dilmun a little more than a century ago, when scholars were able to decipher cuneiform tablets unearthed by archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in Nineveh, an Assyrian stronghold in today's Iraq. Its earliest mention was in economic texts referring to traffic in people and goods. On later tablets, to their astonishment. scholars began reading, in literature, not only about Eden and Adam and the "lady of the rib" but also about a Great Flood, a Sumerian hero called Gilgamesh and his search for the Tree of Life. There was even a serpent. Gilgamesh had gone "down" from Sumer to the Gulf area where he had been told he would find a plant that would give him eternal life. "What he found may have been coral, which in antiquity was a symbol of eternal life,"
Zarins explains. "And after his labors he went to sleep and a serpent came along and stole his eternal life--his coral, maybe. Now it may not have been a serpent as we think of one, but instead one of those beautiful feathery creatures that Assyrians depicted in reliefs. But the descriptions of Dilmun are of an area that fits what I've been saying, where societies could exist at the will and bounty of God, in a beautiful setting."
A land for commerce and consecration
There is a curious dichotomy in Dilmun as economic center and also as hallowed place of legend. Its exact location has been a debated issue. It is Zarins'---and most scholars'---conviction that it was the islands of Bahrain and Failaka and the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. "The island of Bahrain was the Hong Kong of its era," lie says, "a rich hub of international trade, with ships coming and going between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilization. Both there and on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia are tens of thousands of tumuli---far more than the sparse indigenous population would have accounted for-some very rich tombs, most dating to the period 2500 to 1900 B.C.
Some suggest close ties with the Sumerians. Eden was gone so they would want to go to the paradise land of Dilmun either for pilgrimages or as the site of their final resting place. After all, if riches or eternal life were to be had in this area, they might as well get in on it."
One final question must be asked. Why, when the Israelites accepted the ancient stories of Mesopotamia-Arabia, with all their freight of long-forgotten struggles, climatic changes, half-forgotten traditions, did they choose the word Eden instead of Dilmun?
"Perhaps they never heard of the wordDilmun," says Zarins. "We don't really know. Archaeologist Daniel Potts is working on that problem right now...
Did the word Dilmun exist in Hellenistic times? There was a linguistic break in Alexander the Great's time. The wedgelike cuneiform was replaced by the alphabetic writing of the Greeks, a much more efficient system. Power passed from the East to the West, to Greece and Rome. The old stories, the old words, faded into obscurity because power goes to those who have it. Until the discovery of the Nineveh tablets, Assyrian cuneiform was dead. Early translators never heard of it. The name and concept of Eden were transmitted not through the Sumerian language of Dilmun but through the Hebrew-Hellenistic one of Eden."
It is an accident of history, of archaeology, of translation, perhaps, that Dilmun was lost and Eden remained. It should not shake the faith of any intelligent human being. If Zarins is correct, there is embedded in the Bible a very ancient folk memory, not only the story of Creation but also the story of Man's emergence from total dependence to perilous self-reliance, with all the man-made dangers incipient therein.
First appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Volume 18. No. 2, May 1987.
The Nine Orders of Angels -
Current mood: blown away
First Hierarchy (Choir) Clustered around the central core of purity.
SERAPHIM: The uppermost section of the hierarchy, these are the angels closest to the throne of God. It is they who unceasingly chant the Trisagion, "Holy, holy, holy..." and encircle the throne, existing off the love emanated by God. It is this fiery love which gives them the term 'fiery serpents'. In this form of fiery serpents, it is said that the light they give off is so intense, that not even other divine beings may look upon them. There is said to be four of these angelic beings. They are listed as the four holy beasts in the book of Revelation and are also described as angels with four faces and six wings.
CHERUBIM (Cherub, singular for Cherubim): Second to only the seraphim, the Cherubim hold the knowledge of God. It is also they who are often sent to earth with the greatest of tasks; the expulsion of Man from the Garden of Eden and the Annunciation of Christ were both performed by Cherubim. Spirits of the Harmonies. The guardians of the fixed stars, keepers of celestial records, bestowers of knowledge. Chief rulers are Ophaniel, Rikbiel, Zophiel, and, before his fall, Satan.
In the Cabala, Cherub is one of the angels of the air. In name as well as in concept, the Cherubim are Assyrian or Akkadian in origin. The work, in Akkadian, is karibu and means "one who prays" or "one who intercedes", although Dionysius declared the word to mean knowledge. In ancient Assyrian art, the Cherubim were pictured as huge, winged creatures with leonine or human faces, bodies of bulls or sphinxes, eagles, etc. They were usually placed at entrances to palaces or temples as guardian spirits. In early Canaanitish lore, the Cherubim were not conceived of as angels. [Cf. view of Theodorus, Bishop of Heracleaa, who declared, "these Cherubims not to be any Angelical powers, but rather some horrible visions of Beasts, which might terrify Adam from the entrance of paradise", from Salkeld, "A treatise of Angels". It was only later that the Cherubim began to be regarded as heavenly spirits. To Philo ("On the Cherubim") they symbolized God's highest and chiefest potencies, sovereignty, and goodness. They are the 1st angels to be mentioned (and to be construed as angels) in the Old Testament (Genesis 3:22). They guarded with flaming sword the Tree of Life and Eden, hence their designation as the "flame of whirling swords." In Exodus 25:18 we find 2 Cherubim "of gold," one on either side of the Ark (see picturization in Schaff, "A Dictionary of the Bible"). [Cf. "cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat" in Hebrews 9"5.] In Ezekiel (10:14) 4 Cherubim, each with 4 faces and 4 wings, appear at the river Chebar where the Hebrew prophet glimpses them. In I Kings 6:23, the 2 Cherubim in Solomon's temple are carved out of olive wood. In Rabbinic and occult lore, the Cherubim are prevailingly thought of as charioteers of God, bearer of His throne, and personifications of the winds. In Revelations (4:8) they are living creatures who render undeasing praise to their Maker. Here St. John refers to them as beasts (holy, divine beasts), 6-winged and "full of eyes within." John of Damascus in his "Exposition of the Orthodox Faith" also speaks of the Cherubim as "many-eyed". In Talmud the Cherubim are equated with the order Ophanim (wheels or chariots) or the order Hayyoth (holy beasts) and are said to reside in the 6th or 7th Heaven. In the Dionysian scheme, the Cherubim rank 2nd in the 9-choir hierarchy and ar guardians of the fiexed stars. Chief rulers, as listed in most occult works, include Ophaniel, Rikbiel, Cherubiel, Raphael, Gabriel, Sophiel, and--before his fall--Satan, who was, as Parente says in "The Angels", "the supreme angel in the choir of Cherubim." In the early traditions of Muslim lore it is claimed that the Cherubim were formed from the tears Michael shed over the sins of the faithful. [Rf. Hastings, "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics" IV, 616, "Demons and Spirits (Muslim)."] In secular lore the Cherubim have been called "black cherubim" (Dante), "young-eyed cherubim" (Shakespeare), "helmed cherubim" (Milton). Blake describes Satan as the "covering cherub" and turns the Ezekiel vision of the 4 creatures into his own "Four Zoas". The latter sound the 4 trumpets heralding the apocalypse. As angels of light, glory, and keepers of the celestial records, the Cherubim excel in knowledge. [Rf. Lindsay, "Kerubim in Semitic Religion and Art."] The notion of winged, multiple-headed beasts serving as guardians of temples and palaces must have been general in many near-Eastern countries, for in addition to appearing in Assyryan-Chaldean-Babylonian art and writings (where the authors of Isaiah and Ezekiel doubtlessly first came upon them), they appear, as already noted, in Canaanitish lore (with which the Israelites were, of course, familiar, and which influenced or colored the accounts in Genesis and other Old Testament books). An ivory from the collection of king of Megiddo, circa 1200 B.C.E., reproduced on p. 45 of the "Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible", showes a Canaanite ruler seated on a throne, "supported by winged lions with human heads." These, say the editors of the "Atlas", "are the imaginary, composite beings which the Israelites called cherubim." As winged beasts with human heads, 2 Cherubim are shown supporting the throne of Hiram, kind of anceint Byblos (see reproduction, p 132, vol. A-D of "interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible"). Among works of more modern times, Rubens' "Apotheosis of James I" (hanging in the banqueting hall of Whitehall in London and filling the long side panels) shows a precession of Cherubs.)
Contrary to paintings on greeting cards and new age book covers, the cherubim are not depicted as fat, winged babies. Instead they are described as sphinx like creatures in Assyrian lore, or the angels gracing the Ark of the Covenant and Solomon's temple in biblical terms. ARCHANGELS and ANGELS: Guardians of people and all physical things.
ARCHANGELS and ANGELS: Guardians of people and all physical things.
ARCHANGELS - Fire Spirits. Angels above the order of Angels. It also serves to designate a specific rank of angels in the angelic heirarchy. The term Archangels refers to the greater angels such as Michael and Gabriel, known also as chief princes. The order can also refer to the angels who stand at the throne of God, thus being the higher angel ranking.
While also listed as a way of defining an especially important angel, the term archangel is used here as the second to last rank in the celestial hierarchy. The confusion comes mainly from the ancient Hebraic way of defining angels which was simple angel and archangel. It was not until later that the hierarchy was defined, and many of the angels previous named as simply archangels were given new posts. Despite this, as a class the archangels are tasked with not only watching the duties of the angels, but also acting as the leaders in the divine army during battle.
ANGELS - Sons of life or of twilight. A rank which intermediates between God and Man. Angels are closest to earth and earthly matters, whereas the archangels have more to do with the heavenly realm. Both orders are very similar and they often cross in their duties with each other. The least (if one could say that about any angelic being) in the hierarchy, angels are given to two major tasks. First, they are responsible for watching over the affairs of mortals in a more direct manner than the principalities. Instead of watching entire nations, angels watch over households and individual souls, guiding them subtlety and keeping them safe from demonic attack. Also, they are the carriers of God's word to mankind, acting as messengers and couriers to both God and the upper ranks of angelkind as well. In Hebrew, they are called mal'akh, meaning "messenger", in Persian the word is angaros or "courier". THRONES: Also known as the Ophanim, these angels serve the primary function of being God's chariot. But besides this, they are also noted as being the dispensers of God's judgment; acting with impartialness and humility to bring about the desires of the Lord. Having the most bizarre physical appearance of the celestial host, they are described a great wheels, covered with a great many eyes and glowing with light. One explanation given for this (besides them acting as God's chariot), is that they mark the end of the first Choir, where the emanations of God begin to take on more material forms and as such exist in a state of transition. Spirits of Will. Bring God's justice to us. They are sometimes called wheels and in the Jewish Kabbalah, CHARIOTS or the MERKABAH. The occult book, the Zohar, ranks wheels above seraphim, but other sources place them as cherubim, the whole thing being confused. The ruling prince is Oriphiel or Zabkiel or Zaphiel.Second Hierarchy (Choir) An ultimate unification with "God the Source". All Orders within this Triad strive to balance or reconcile such opposites as good and bad, matter and spirit and higher and lower, thus risking corruption in doing so. DOMINIONS or DOMINATIONS: Act as a sort of middle management between the upper choir and the lower, holding the task of regulating the duties of lower angels. They receive their orders from the seraphim and cherubim and are responsible for ensuring that the cosmos remains in order. It is only with extreme rarity that the dominations make themselves physically known to mortals, instead quietly concerning themselves with the details of existence. Spirits of Wisdom, through them is manifested the Majesty of God. They hold an orb or sceptre as an emblem of authority, and in Hebraic lore, the chief of this order is named Hashmal or Zadkiel.
VIRTUES: Given to two main tasks, the virtues not only are concerned with maintaining the aspects of the natural world, but also with bestowing blessings upon the material world as well. In their first task, they preside over the movements of the celestial bodies as well as events of weather including rain, snow, wind and the like. In the second, it is they who take the orders given to them and in turn convert them into miracles for God's favored. Variant names for them include the Malakim and the Tarshishim. POWERS: Spirits of Form. Holding one of the most dangerous tasks, the powers are responsible for maintaining the border between Heaven and Earth. Acting as a sort of elite guard, they constantly watch for demonic attack, and are the major line of defense and battle during heavenly warfare. They are also tasked with guarding the celestial byways between the two realms and ensuring that souls which leave the mortal world reach heaven safely. Perhaps not surpassingly, given their proximity to the nether regions, there are more angels from the ranks of the powers listed as fallen than from any other member of the hierarchy. They stop the efforts of demons to overthrow the world, or else they preside over demons, or perhaps (according to St. Paul) they are themselves evil. Ertosi, Sammael, or Camael (depending on source) is chief of the Powers. Third Hierarchy (Choir) Most exposed and vulnerable to any corrosion of flesh. Angels from these Orders are most well known to us simply because they are most like us. PRINCIPALITIES: The head of the final choir, the principalities watch over the mortal world directly, guiding and protecting the earth's nations, cities and towns. Also, they are given to the protection of religion and of politics. As such, they are assumed to be given more freedom to act than the lesser angels below them and are responsible for carrying out divine acts concerning their area of jurisdiction. Finally, they are given to the task of managing the duties of the angels. Spirits of Personality or Time. Protectors of religion. Nisroc, in Milton, is "of principalities the prime," and others, according to various sources, are named Requel, Anael, and Cerviel.
Currently
listening
:
Toward the Within
By
Dead Can Dance
Release date: 25 October, 1994
The 12 stones of the Foundation of the New Temple of Jerusalem
Current mood: artistic
The 12 stones of the Foundation of the New Temple of Jerusalem, as mentioned in Revelations
A summary by J. Michael Howard
IT IS INTERESTING to note that although the ancients were not well versed in the science of mineralogy, they did know and have names for the many commonly used minerals and stones of their day. A number of these can be directly traced back to the mineral, gem, or type of stone they used. However, some are clouded, now and forever, by the veil of time. Lack of specific information about the characteristics, particularly color, is not available. So you will find much speculation in the literature. The translation of the original Hebrew language by the early Greeks and then translation by later writers from the ancient Grecian language has added to the confusion. The 12 stones mentioned in Revelations actually are earlier mentioned in Isaiah as three types in the verses:
"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not confirmed, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones."
It is perhaps easier to understand why 12 stones are mentioned in Revelations as 12 is an important number in the Bible. The 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 apostles. The 12 stones of the foundation of the New Temple of Jerusalem. Our best knowledge of the characteristics of these 12 stones come by considering the 12 stones of the Breastplate of the High Priest of Israel, each representing a tribe of Israel.
One of the earliest writers to associate with the apostles the symbolism of the 12 gems as given in Revelations is Andreas, bishop of Caesurae. For a long time, he was thought to have lived in the 5th century AD, but is now known to have lived in the last half of the 10th century AD. He gives a brief description of the 12 stones, which is recounted in George F. Kunz's book The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (1913). Please note: the names given below are the names as in Revelations, not necessarily what the stone would be called today:
The Jasper, which like the emerald is of a greenish hue, signifies St. Peter.
The Sapphire is likened to the Heavens (from this stone is made a color popularly called lazur) and signifies St. Paul.
The Chalcedony may well have been considered what we now call the carbuncle and represented St. Andrew.
The Emerald, which is of a green color, is nourished with oil, that its transparency and beauty may not change; this stone signifies St. John the Evangelist.
The Sardonyx, which shows a certain transparency and purity of the human nail, represents James.
The Sardius with its tawny and translucent coloring suggests fire and represents Philip.
The Chrysolite, gleaming with the splendor of gold, symbolizes Bartholomew.
The Beryl, imitating the colors of the sea and air, and not unlike the jacinth, suggests Thomas.
The Topaz, which is of a ruddy color, resembling somewhat the carbuncle, denotes Matthew.
The Chrysoprase, more brightly tinged with a gold hue than gold itself, symbolizes St. Thaddaeus.
The Jacinth, which is of a celestial hue, signifies Simon.
The Amethyst, which shows to the onlooker a fiery aspect, signifies Matthew.
On pages 289 - 301 of Kunz's book, we find information concerning the ancient names of the stones and what they are named today. In the following list, the ancient or biblical name is given, followed by the modern name in parentheses. They are:
Also in this book, we find the following information about each of these stones (the original Hebrew name is given in italics):
Sardius or Carnelian: Hebrew name of Odem. Carnelian is a translucent hard fine-grained variety of orangish red quartz, that has often been used for ring stones and wax seals.
Topaz or Peridot: Hebrew name of Pitdah. The Hebrew word appears derived from a Sanscrit word meaning yellow. Some theologians think it could have been serpentine. But the topazius of ancient writers almost always signified the gem variety of olivine called peridot.
Chalcedony or Emerald: Hebrew name of Bareketh. There is some confusion concerning this stone due to the fact that chalcedony is a milk-white fine-grained variety of quartz and the non-gem form of emerald (beryl) is typically a sea-green to grayish to white hard mineral that forms six sided elongate crystals. All emeralds are relatively uncommon in occurrence, whereas chalcedony is fairly common. Both minerals are relatively resistant to weathering and might be found in river gravels or on the surface of the ground. It is known that there were active emerald mines during this time providing this stone to Egypt.
Emerald or Garnet: Hebrew name of Nophek. The literal translation of the ancient Hebrew name means glowing coal. So this could not be the green stone we call emerald, but instead is thought to be a bright red variety of garnet: almandine.
Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli: The Hebrew name of Sappir. The sacred character of this stone was attested by the tradition that the Law given to Moses on the Mount was engraved on tablets of sapphire. This is not the blue sapphire we think of as the faceted gemstone, but instead the rich blue stone now relatively popular in jewelry known as lapis or lapis lazuli. It was well known and often used by the ancients as a blue paint pigment when ground to a powder. Much of what is now sold comes from Afghanistan.
Sardonyx or Onyx: Hebrew name of Yahalom. The traditional interpretation is onyx. Some Greek writers considered it to mean diamond as the translation of the Hebrew word means to smite or cut. But their is no evidence that the Hebrews knew of diamond. However, onyx was a well known stone which was carved into seals and used with wax. So the term to smite may mean to strike as with a seal on hot wax. Onyx is a fairly common soft stone, composed of calcium carbonate and deposited in caves. Much banded onyx today is cut and polished as inexpensive novelty items.
Jacinth or Agate: Hebrew name of Lesham. The name signifies the tribe of Joseph. Scholars have great disagreement on this stone as we have no good guide to know what it was for certain. Some think it could be amber. Others suggest a brown variety of sapphire. However, brown agate is known to have been commonly worn by the Hebrews during their early history and, therefore, would seem to have greater significance as one of the New Temple's foundation stones.
Amethyst: Hebrew name of Ahlamah. The Hebrew word is directly translated as amethyst. Abundant supplies of this violet to purple variety of crystalline quartz were available from both Arabia and Syria.
Chrysoprase or Citrine: Hebrew name of Tarshish. The original stone of the Hebrews came from Phoenician mines in what is now Spain. Black quartz crystal was heated until it turned a pale golden brown color. The Hebrew word literally means golden stone and was given to the region that produced it : Tartessus.
Agate: Hebrew name of Shebo. A banded variety of agate, commonly used by Egyptians, had distinctive gray and white alternating bands which would have contrasted well with the other varieties of fine-grained quartz.
Jasper: The ancient Hebrew name was Yashpheh. A translucent stone of green hue. Jasper has been known from early times as a fine-grained variety of quartz. It occurs in many different colors and hues, but green was particularly valued. An early variety discovered in India and still mined there today is called bloodstone. It is dark to medium green with small spots of red scattered throughout. It has been said that it originated when Christ's blood fell to the ground and was scattered on the rocks under the Cross, which is a nice story but was used and prized in India long before Christ's birth. However, many early Christians wore it to remind them of Christ's sacrifice.
Onyx or Turquoise: Hebrew name of Shoham. The Catholic translation is onyx, whereas the earlier translators considered this stone beryl. However, there is little to guide us. Some theologians have suggest this stone might have been malachite, a green stone well known to the Egyptians. However, the discovery of ancient turquoise mines on the Sinai Peninsula, which were worked by the Egyptians reveal the distinct possibility this stone was actually pale green or pastel blue turquoise.
There is another interesting reference source, a book by Max Bauer, originally published in German, translated into English entitled Precious Stones (1904, republished in 1968). The following information pertaining to possible sources of these stones was located in Bauer's book.
Carnelian would have come from India, where it is recovered as both river gravels and pebbles and from encrusting masses at the sites of its formation. Since it is a variety of quartz, it is relatively hard. Its color is due to the amount of iron present, strongly colored natural stones considered to be "masculine"whereas paler stones were thought to be "feminine". Carnelian is still recovered today from India. Almost all are heat treated to cause a more pronounced color as most are pale when mined or collected.
Peridot is the gem variety of olivine, a mineral that is commonly present in basaltic volcanic rocks. To be considered a gemstone, the mineral must be perfectly pure, clear, and transparent, and free of all flaws. Egypt is considered a possible source, especially Upper Egypt, east of Esneh between the Red Sea and the Nile.
The source of emerald was with no doubt mines which are located in Upper Egypt, not far from the coast of the Red Sea and south of Kosseir. These mines were extensively developed both as surface and underground excavations. Emeralds from here graced Cleopatra and other rulers of her time. The excavations were lost and forgotten for centuries, thought to be simply another legend. But excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum uncovered emeralds from this source. They were re-discovered by Cailliaud, who with official permission, reopened them for mining in 1819. His mining attempt ended in failure, for at a later date, baskets of emerald-bearing rock were recovered where his miners left them. The site is 15 miles west of the Wadi Chamal, with 2 groupings of mines about 10 miles apart. There are 100s of shafts driven into the hill, which stands some 600 to 700 feet above the surrounding plain. Some of the individual mines are large enough to have held 400 men working at a time. Obviously, this was a type of labor relegated to slaves and/or criminals. The rock is a dark mica schist (metamorphic) and the average emeralds are of poor quality, but the mines probably produced some high quality stones, which went to the Egyptian rulers.
Almandine is a deep red variety of garnet with was called carbuncle by the ancients. The closest known source of any significance is India, where almandine has been produced from earliest times. Almandine is a mineral of metamorphic rocks, and it may be that ancient, now unknown, mines in Upper Egypt existed. No mention of any source closer than India is given in Bauer's book.
Lapis lazuli used by the ancient Egyptians is almost certainly from the early mines at Badakshan in the northeast corner of Afghanistan on the upper reaches of the River Oxus. Marco Polo first described this and nearby ruby localities as early as 1271 AD, but these mines had been worked for centuries before that. Their product reaching most of the early civilized world by well establish trade routes. The region is sill very remote. Mining still takes place by primitive methods. The "sapphire" that was carved into scarabs by Egyptian craftsmen were obviously lapis.
Onyx is a fairly soft stone, composed of calcium carbonate. It composes much of the common decorations in caves as the various types of formations. Onyx-alabaster is well known from the caves of Egypt and has been worked since ancient times. Cave-formation onyx has distinctive banding and is often pale yellowish tan in color.
Agate (brown) is a variety of fine-grained quartz. Brown agate owes its color to traces of oxidized iron scattered throughout the stone. It is not uncommon and stream pebbles of this stone would become translucent by contact with the skin, where they would pick up oils that would penetrate the stone. Agate is a common stone, filling the gas cavities (amygdules) in lava flows by the circulation of late silica-rich waters. India has tremendous sources of agate from the Deccan traps, a series of layered lava flows across 100s of square miles. I don't know of lava flows in Egypt or other countries in the Middle East, but there are likely some present which could have been the source of the brown agate of the Israelites.
Amethyst is a purple variety of crystalline quartz, very similar to our own colorless rock crystal. Amethyst commonly forms as linings and fillings of gas cavities in igneous rock in a manner similar to agate, but as crystals, not as coatings of silica. Again, I can find no source in the immediate area of the Middle East, but amethyst is occasionally recovered from India, but is not a particularly common mineral there.
Citrine is a yellow variety of crystalline quartz, similar to amethyst and rock crystal. The natural color may vary from brownish yellow to golden yellow to honey yellow to pale almost colorless yellow. However, it has been known from early times that by heating poorly colored or pale amethyst, you can produce golden to orange citrine. Natural crystals of citrine are truly uncommon. It is a mineral which again is sometimes encountered as infillings or crystals in gas cavities in lava flows. I could find no local source in the Middle East.
Agate (banded) may or may not exhibit banding, depending on the conditions of its formation. Banded agate is formed by periodic chemical changes in the water that is depositing it, resulting in color differences in each band. Often the layers appear to be like the growth rings of a tree, except forming from the cavity wall inward. Some cyclical banding, with repetitious pastel coloring is reminiscent of seasonal fluctuations or changes, perhaps of local ground-water conditions. Banding may also be related to fluctuations in hot springs systems. The nearest deposits appear to be India, being associated with basaltic lava flows.
Jasper today is usually considered to be an opaque stone, but translucent varieties of variously colored fine-grained quartz were probably also considered jasper in Biblical times. Jasper forms under many different conditions and has a wide variety of colors, patterns, and varietal names. A few varieties named for color include red jasper, blue jasper, yellow jasper, green jasper, and brown jasper. The strong coloration is due to a great amount of impurities incorporated into the stone during its formation. It is not uncommon in metal ore bodies, where the host rock is replaced by silica. Jasper is extremely common and was probably available from several local Middle Eastern sites.
Turquoise is a secondary mineral that forms where copper minerals have weathered. It is fine-grained, opaque, harder than many of the common copper minerals, and the best varieties have a beautiful robin's egg blue color. It was mined as a gemstone in ancient times on the Sinai Peninsula, the mines having been rediscovered in the 19th century. The most important mines for turquoise in the world are located in ancient Persia (presently Turkey). The mines have yielded high quality blue cutting material for over 2,000 years.
The last item to consider about the 12 stones is the significance of color. All have either strong color or are well patterned. The colors or patterns are, as recounted by Andreas (the 10th century bishop, remember?): green, blue, red, translucent tan, orange, golden, sky blue, purple. The colors of the stones have their own Christian symbolic meaning, as noted by Bauer (p. 273-274):
Green: Canonical color for use on Sunday. Hope, joy, and the bright promises of youth. One also thinks of constancy of the evergreen's foliage.
Blue and Sky Blue: An emblem of the Celestial regions and Celestial virtues. Not employed in the decoration of Churches normally. However, in Christian art, the Virgin, Saints, and Angels are often depicted in blue robes.
Red: This color is used in ceremonies concerned with the Pentecost, and at various religious feasts. It suggests and symbolizes suffering and martyrdom for the faith, and the supreme sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. Divine love and majesty are also typified by this color.
Dull yellow or tan: The color has a connotation of treachery and envy. Hence Judas was dressed in a dull yellow or tan clothing. Heretics were required to wear clothing of this hue when they were condemned to the stake in Medieval times.
Orange and golden yellow: This color is emblematic of God's goodness and of faith and good works. The color of the sun from the beginning of man's recognition of things spiritual has had major significance.
Violet: A canonical color which is appropriate for use during Lent, and on Advent Sunday, along with Septuagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays. The chastening and purifying effects of suffering find expression in this color.
Two commonly encountered colors in stones are obvious in their absence from the 12 stones of the Foundation. They are white and black.
White symbolizes purity, of the Virgin, of saints, of the angels, and of innocence, faith, light, and life. No wonder it is the color for Easter and Christmas.
Black is a canonical color and symbolizes death, mourning, and sorrow inspired by death. It is only appropriate in Church on Good Friday, when it symbolizes the sorrow and despair of the Christian community at Christ's death.
As important, common, and symbolically significant as these colors are, I am surprised that they are not colors of any of the stones mentioned in Revelations. Because the stones were chosen for the 12 tribes of Israel before the birth of Christ, I can understand no Christian significance. However, because white is strongly associated with purity and righteousness and black being the opposite, perhaps these colors were intentionally left out so that no tribe of Israel would be considered of greater consequence than any other.
artistic