THE HIGH-PRIEST'S BREASTPLATE 303
And
the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner
of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second,
sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
The
fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the
eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the
eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
And
the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one
pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent
glass.
It
is easy to trace in this description the substitution of the twelve
apostles for the twelve tribes in connection with the precious stones
enumerated, and, besides this, we also have the twelve angels,
associated at a later date with the months and the signs of the zodiac.
Of
the twelve foundation stones the Revelation of St. John expressly
states that they had "in them the names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb." The assignment of each stone to the respective apostle was made
in later times according to the order given in the lists of the
apostles contained in the so-called Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. These lists are not quite identical—Andrew, for instance,
being placed second in Matthew and Luke, but fourth in Mark—and the
same stone was not always assigned to a given apostle. Frequently the
list was modified by the addition of the apostle Paul, really the
thirteenth apostle. In this case he was usually given the second place
immediately after St. Peter, and to the brothers James and John, the
"Sons of Thunder,^ ' was assigned a single stone ; in some later
arrangements St. Paul occupies the last place, after St. Matthias, who
was chosen to take the place of Judas Iscariot, and whose name as an
apostle first appears in the Acts.
