Sardi08
AV uses this word thrice in the OT (Ex 28" Sg'", Ezk 28") and once in the NT (Rev 21">). In the OT passages RVm has 'or ruby.' The Heb. in each case is oni< : see, therefore, Ruby, above. At Rev 21> the aipiioi of TR or aipSior of the In £18 Antiochofl the Great, after a year's deffe, oaptnred Bardis, where bis URur)>lni; rival Achoius maintained himself. t This should have been <}uuted in vol. Hi. p. 831 to completa the account of the bishopric of Philadelphia; Uu relatloD of Notitia Ir.
and xJ. is uncertain, but Iv. la iAt«r. 406 SARDOXYX SAKGON better MSS is the sixth foundation of the New Jerusalem. Epiphanius (quoted by Alford, Or. Test. iv. 505) derives its naiue from its resemblance in colour to a salted tish cjilled sardion. Theo- phrastus, with whom King {Antique Gems, p. 7) agrees, traces it to the fact that the gem was lirst imported into Greece from Sardis. Middleton (Engraved Gems, p. 143) thinks it comes from a Pers. word meaning 'yellow.'
He does not give the word in question, but the Encyc. Brit.' (art. ' Sardonyx ') connects sard with the Pers. sered, ' yellowish-red.' There does not appear to be any euch word : the nearest approach to it is j, : zerd= 'yellow.' The sard is one of the crypto-crystalline gems of the silic()n family, identical in chemical coiiipo- sition with the carnelian, but more crystalline, more transparent, and less ruddy.
Its colour varies from pale golden-yellow to reddish-orange Pliny (HN 37, 106) justly remarks: Nee fuit alia gemma apud antiquos usu frequentior. This was owing to the beauty of the stone, which in the best specimens is brilliantly transparent and very line in colour, to its toughness, its facility of working, and the higli polish of which it is susceptible. It also retains its polish longer than other gems. The finest engravings of ancient times were on sards.
Pliny states that the best examples came from Babylon, but that source of supjily had failed in his day. Others were obtained from Paros, Assos, India, and Egypt. Theophrastus (Lap. 56) speaks of two principal kinds — the male, brownish in colour, and the female, transparent red : t6 iih SiocpaWs, ipvBpliTfpov Si, /caXeirai 6ij\v' ri di dia<pai/is niv, iieXavTfpov Si, KaXeirai d/xro).
Considering how largely this gem was used, not only amongst Greeks and Romans but also for Assyrian cylinders and Phoen. scarabs, it is curious that there should be only one verse in the Bible where it is unques- tionably mentioned, and that not as an engraved stone. J. Taylor.