Lapis Lazuli

Lapis lazuli is a deep blue stone, often flecked with gold-colored grains, that was one of the most prized ornamental materials of the ancient Near East. Most scholars hold that the Hebrew word sappîr, traditionally translated "sapphire," referred to lapis lazuli. The NIV (2011) translates it this way throughout the Old Testament. The stone appears in the high priest's breastpiece, in the visions of God's throne in Exodus and Ezekiel, in the wisdom poem of Job 28, in love poetry, and in prophetic pictures of a restored Zion. In Scripture its sky-blue color is closely linked with the heavenly presence and splendor of God.

Name and identification

The English name comes from Latin lapis, "stone," and medieval Latin lazulum, a word borrowed through Arabic from Persian lāzhward. The same Persian word lies behind the English color word "azure."

The Hebrew term is sappîr (סַפִּיר), and the Greek is sappheiros (σάπφειρος). From these come the English "sapphire," and older translations such as the KJV render the word that way. The gemstone now called sapphire, a blue variety of corundum, is very hard and difficult to engrave. It does not appear to have been in common use in the Near East in biblical times. Ancient writers, by contrast, describe a blue stone sprinkled with gold, and Pliny the Elder applies the name sapphirus to such a stone. That description fits lapis lazuli, whose gold-like specks are grains of pyrite. For these reasons most modern scholars identify the biblical sappîr with lapis lazuli. The NIV (2011) adopts this rendering in the Old Testament, and many other recent versions give it in the text or in a note. The identification of ancient gem names is never fully certain, but this one is among the more secure.

The stone itself

Lapis lazuli is a rock, not a single mineral. Its blue color comes mainly from lazurite, a sodium calcium aluminum silicate that contains sulfur. It is usually mixed with white calcite and specks of pyrite. The stone is fairly soft, about 5 to 5.5 on the Mohs scale, so it is easy to cut, carve, and polish, though it scratches more easily than harder gems. When polished it takes a smooth, glossy surface of intense blue.

In antiquity the chief and perhaps the only significant source was the Badakhshan region of northeastern Afghanistan, where mines in the Kokcha valley have been worked for thousands of years. From there the stone was carried over long trade routes to Mesopotamia, Iran, Syria, and Egypt. Because it came from so far away and was so striking in color, it was a luxury good associated with royalty and the gods.

Lapis lazuli in the ancient world

Lapis lazuli was traded across the Near East from at least the fourth millennium BC. The royal tombs at Ur in southern Mesopotamia, from about the middle of the third millennium BC, contained large quantities of it. It was used in beads, jewelry, inlays, and the decoration of objects such as the so-called Standard of Ur and the "Ram in a Thicket" figures. Mesopotamian texts treat it as a precious substance fit for temples and kings. In the diplomatic letters found at Amarna in Egypt (14th century BC), lapis lazuli appears among the gifts exchanged between rulers.

In Egypt it was carved into amulets, scarabs, and small figures and was set into jewelry and funerary objects. The inlays of Tutankhamun's gold funerary mask include lapis lazuli. The Egyptians also made imitations in blue glass and glazed ceramics, which shows how highly the real stone was valued. Much later, ground lapis lazuli became the source of the pigment ultramarine, used by painters in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

This background helps explain the biblical references. To Israel's neighbors, lapis lazuli was a costly blue stone from the ends of the earth and a fitting adornment for palaces, temples, and divine images.

Lapis lazuli in the Old Testament

The vision at Sinai. When Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders went up the mountain, they "saw the God of Israel." Beneath his feet was something like a pavement of lapis lazuli, "as bright blue as the sky" (Exod 24:10). The deep blue surface suggests the heavens themselves spread out under the feet of God.

The high priest's breastpiece. Lapis lazuli was the middle stone in the second of the four rows of gems set in the breastpiece worn by the high priest. Each of the twelve stones was engraved with the name of one of the tribes of Israel (Exod 28:18; 39:11). In the NIV this row reads turquoise, lapis lazuli, and emerald. The translation of several stones in the list remains uncertain.

Job's poem on wisdom. Job 28 describes miners tunneling into the earth for precious things. There "lapis lazuli comes from its rocks" (Job 28:6), yet even such treasures cannot buy wisdom (Job 28:16). The poem uses the stone as an example of the most costly things human effort can dig out of the ground.

Love poetry. In the Song of Songs the young woman describes her beloved's body as polished ivory decorated with lapis lazuli (Song 5:14). The image recalls luxury objects inlaid with blue stone.

Lament. Lamentations 4:7 remembers Jerusalem's princes before the city's fall. Their bodies were ruddy and their appearance was like lapis lazuli. The comparison probably points to beauty and splendor, like polished stone, in sharp contrast to their wasted condition after the siege (Lam 4:8).

Ezekiel's visions. Above the living creatures and the vault over their heads, Ezekiel saw "a throne of lapis lazuli" with a figure like a man seated on it (Ezek 1:26; compare Ezek 10:1). This echoes the Sinai scene of Exodus 24, in which blue stone marks the boundary between the heavens and the dwelling of God. In the lament over the king of Tyre, lapis lazuli is one of the precious stones that adorned him "in Eden, the garden of God" (Ezek 28:13). The stones in that list correspond closely to those of the high priest's breastpiece.

The restored city. Through Isaiah the Lord promises the afflicted city that he will rebuild her with turquoise and lay her foundations with lapis lazuli (Isa 54:11). The picture is of a city made beautiful and secure by God himself.

The New Testament

In John's vision of the New Jerusalem, the foundations of the city wall are decorated with twelve precious stones, and the second is sappheiros (Rev 21:19). The NIV translates it "sapphire," but many interpreters think the stone in view is lapis lazuli, as in the Old Testament. The passage builds on Isaiah 54:11–12, where the restored city's foundations are lapis lazuli. The list of twelve stones also recalls the high priest's breastpiece. Whatever the precise identification, the stone helps portray the holy city as radiant with the glory of God.

Significance

In the Bible, lapis lazuli is more than a costly gem. Its color, like the sky, made it a natural image of the heavens, and it appears where Scripture describes the presence of God: under his feet at Sinai, as the material of his throne in Ezekiel, and in the foundations of the city where he dwells with his people. At the same time, Job 28 reminds readers that even the rarest stone is worth less than wisdom.

For further study

Beale, G. K. The Book of Revelation. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
Block, Daniel I. The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 1–24. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.
Moorey, P. R. S. Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
Nicholson, Paul T., and Ian Shaw, eds. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Ryken, Leland, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998.