310 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
which
encompassed the high priest about, signifies the ocean, for that goes
about everything. And the two sardonyxes that were in the clasps on the
high-priest's shoulders, indicate to us the sun and the moon. And for
the twelve stones, whether we understand by them the months, or the
twelve signs of what the Greeks call the zodiac, we shall not be
mistaken in their meaning. And for the cap, which was of a blue color,
it seems to me to mean heaven, for otherwise the name of God would not
have been inscribed upon it. That it was also adorned with a crown, and
that of gold also, is because of the splendor with which God is pleased.
This passage was adapted by St. Jerome, three hundred years later, in his letter to Fabiola,3
and undoubtedly laid the foundation for the later custom of wearing
one of these stones as a natal or birth-stone for a person born in a
given month, or for an astral or zodiacal stone for one born under a
given zodiacal sign. As we see, both uses are indicated by the passage
of Josephus. In the later centuries, as the book of Revelation, which
was generally less favored at the outset than the other parts of the
New Testament, became a subject of devout study, and a mine of mystical
suggestions, the twelve foundation stones (Rev. xxi, 19) of the New
Jerusalem largely took the place of the stones of the breastplate.
While this list of foundation stones is unquestionably based upon the
much earlier list of the stones adorning Aaron's breastplate, the
ordering differs considerably and there are some changes in the
material ; possibly many, if not all, of these differences may be due
to textual errors or to a transcription from memory.
That
the foundation stones were inscribed with the names of the apostles is
expressly stated (Rev. xxi, 14), but it was not until the eighth or
ninth century that the commentators on Revelation busied themselves with
3 Sancii Hieronymi, " Opera Omnia," ed. Migne, Parisiis, 1877, vol. i, col. 616 ; Epistola Ixiv, paragraph 16.
