The Identity of the Breastplate Stones: Shoham

XI. Shoham. The Septuagint translates "beryl," but in our Authorized Version and in that used by Roman Catholics, the so-called Douai Version, the word is invariably rendered "onyx." Diodorus Siculus and Dionysius Periegetes, writing in the first century B.C., are the first classical authors who use the name beryl. While this name does not appear in the treatise of Theophrastus, he evidently includes the beryl among his smaragdi; indeed, the true emerald is simply a variety of the beryl, and owes its beautiful coloration to a slight admixture of chromium. The finest beryls were brought from India. Besides the specimen set in the breastplate, the high-priest wore on his shoulders two shoham stones, each engraved with the names of six of the tribes. After carefully weighing the evidence, we believe that the stones worn by the high-priest of the Second Temple were aquamarines (beryls). In our endeavor to determine the shoham stones used in Mosaic times, we have no very definite information to guide us; on the whole, the conjecture of J. L. Myers, that they were malachites, seems to have much in its favor, for this material was known to the ancient Egyptians and appears to have been often used for amulets. The Egyptian name for malachite, as well as for other green stones, was mafek, and a ring of mafek is mentioned in an Egyptian text; undoubtedly, at a later period in Egyptian history, mafek may also have denoted the beryl. In view of the fact that the turquoise was unquestionably known to the Egyptians at a very early date, the supply being derived from mines in the Sinai Peninsula, which were rediscovered by Mac-donald, we might be tempted to suggest that the shoham stones were turquoises. The light blue or blue-green of the specimens of this stone found on Mt. Sinai would make an even better contrast with the neighboring jade than would the bright green malachite. On the shoham of the breastolate the name Gad was engraved.