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Topazion Part I
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According to the Old Testament, after the exodus of
1444B.C., Aaron's breastplate made its way to Jerusalem.
It was here, along with the Urim and Thummim, the Ark
of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments that the breastplate
was housed in Solomon's Temple: also known as Jerusalem's
'First Temple'. The temple was destroyed and plundered
by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., and
its relics lost to history.
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Later
in the 5th Century B.C., the 'Second Temple', a reconstruction
of the first, was built in Jerusalem. Sometime after, a second breastplate was also made, and it is believed
that the gems
included in this were of even greater value, and durability
than those of the original breastplate made at the time
of the Israelite exodus.
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In
70 A.D., 600 years after the creation of the 'Second
Temple,' the Romans like the Babylonians before them
destroyed Jerusalem after quelling the Jewish revolt.
The Romans, led by Titus and Vespasian, plundered the
'Second Temple', taking its treasures including the
second breastplate back to Rome. This fact is attested
to in the writings of one of the captured Jewish leaders
of the revolt: Josephus. Also known as Flavius Josephus,
Josephus was a 1st century Jewish historian of some
rank, who in 90 A.D. attests to seeing ' Topazion'
in the plundered breastplate. |
At
the same time of Josephus, there lived a Roman scholar
called Pliny. Pliny, author of the world's first encyclopedia,
gives us a detailed account of ' Topazion,'
its origins and its time of discovery. " Topazion is a stone that is still held in very high estimation
for its green tints: indeed, when it was first discovered,
it was preferred to every other kind of precious stone."
In the same passage, Pliny makes a key statement relating
to ' Topazion': ". When it was first discovered."
This, as we shall see, is the key to giving the real
identity of the ' Topazion' gemstone. |
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Pliny
expounds on the origins of ' Topazion' later in the
passage: "Philon, the king's prefect, was the first
to bring these stones from this island; that, on his
presenting them to Queen Berenice, the mother of the
second Ptolemaeus, she was wonderfully pleased with them;
and that, at a later period, a statue, four cubits in
height, was made of this stone, in honour of Arsinoe,
the wife of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, it being consecrated
in the temple known as the "Golden Temple."
Pliny states that the green ' Topazion' was
first discovered under the reign of Queen Berenice.
Berenice was the mother of Ptolemy II and wife of Ptolemy
I Soter, the first Greek pharaoh of Egypt and once a
general in Alexander the Great's army. |
This
statement denotes the discovery of ' Topazion'
coinciding at the time Ptolemy II, and his request for
the Septuagint's translation of the Hebrew Bible for
the library of Alexandria. So with the discovery taking
place at the time of the Septuagint's translation in
300B.C., we can assume that ' Topazion' couldn't
have been the ' Pitdah' gemstone known to Aaron
and the Hebrew slaves in 1444 B.C. Concluding that the
Septuagint's translation and identification of ' Pitdah'
was erroneous, as well as all the subsequent versions
related to it, the question remains as to the correct
identification of the green ' Topazion' brought
back from Pliny's island. |
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CONTINUE>
It is important to state that the etymological theories
on these pages are speculative, and should not be taken
as gospel.
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