Jasper (Yashepheh, ίασπις)

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 1min
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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This is not considered to be the same as the modern jasper, which is an opaque variety of quartz of many different colors. To what gem scripture refers is not known: some suppose the diamond. In Revelation 21:1111Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; (Revelation 21:11) it is described as “clear as crystal.” It had a place in the high priest’s breastplate, and was one of the stones in the covering of the symbolical king of Tyrus in Eden (Ex. 28:2020And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. (Exodus 28:20); Ex. 39:1313And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were inclosed in ouches of gold in their inclosings. (Exodus 39:13); Ezek. 28:1313Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. (Ezekiel 28:13)). He who sat on the throne in heaven, as seen by John, was “to look upon like a jasper”; it is also used in the description of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 4:33And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. (Revelation 4:3): Rev. 21:11,18-1911Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; (Revelation 21:11)
18And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19And 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; (Revelation 21:18‑19)). The jasper is a symbol of the communicable glory of God (compare John 17:2222And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (John 17:22)).