Commentaria in Exodum
Tropologically, the onyx signifies whiteness and innocence. Rightly Chrysostom, homily 6 on Matthew: “As,” he says, “a beautiful face is gracious in the sight of men, so in the eyes of God a clean conscience is beautiful.” And St. Bernard: “It is no mean title of virtue to live well among the wicked, and amid the malicious to retain the whiteness of innocence and the gentleness of manners.” And Lactantius, book 6: “That holy and singular majesty,” he says, “desires of man nothing else but innocence alone: which if anyone has offered to God, he has sufficiently sacrificed in piety and religion.” Nay, the poet Horace:
The man of upright life and clean of crime needs not the Moor’s javelins, nor bow, nor quiver heavy with poisoned arrows, Fuscus, whether he journey through the sultry Syrtes, or through the inhospitable Caucasus, or where the fabled Hydaspes washes the lands.
Third is the beryl, which, like water struck by the sun, flashes, ruddy and comely; but it does not shine unless it is polished into six-angled forms: for by the reflection of the angles its brilliance is sharpened; it is said to burn the hand of one who holds it; it is brought from India, whence in Apoc. it is assigned to Thomas the Apostle of India, who, proved in faith by temptations and adversities, and strengthened, shone wonderfully. Here, however, it is assigned to the tribe of Benjamin, which first gave the Hebrews a king, Saul; but immediately after his death the kingdom was taken from it: again in the time of Michas it was cut down to six hundred men, Judges 20:47. Whence afterwards, rising out of affliction, and multiplied, it began to shine, and alone adhered to the tribe of Juda in the time of the schism under Jeroboam; finally it gave the Apostle Paul, shining and triumphing so amid labours and adversities.
Tropologically, the beryl signifies a strong and heroic mind, overcoming all adversities, which may say:
Even if the shattered world should fall upon me, its ruins shall strike me unafraid.
“As smoke,” says St. Chrysostom on Matthew, hom. 49, “goes before the fire, and the battle before the victory, so also before the glory of Christ comes the temptation of Antichrist.” So St. Thomas, tempted and wavering in faith, confirmed by Christ, came forth firmer than before, and so beyond the other Apostles propagated the faith of Christ among very many and very great nations, and through many adversities, as Thomas Stapleton teaches in his Life. Alexander the Great, hearing that Darius, king of the Persians, was preparing many myriads of soldiers, answered: “One wolf does not fear many sheep.” Benjamin was a ravening wolf: so St. Thomas did not fear the Indians and other nations, as sheep, but snatched them for Christ and the Church.
Note: In the twelve gems the gifts of the high priest who bears them on his breast are signified no less than the twelve tribes inscribed on them. Wherefore as the tribes, so also the gifts and virtues which the high priest has, or ought to have, they signify. Whence allegorically Christ, foreshadowed by the old high priest, is first the sardius, because He drives out fears, and makes the Apostles and the faithful terrible to demons. Secondly, He is the topaz, because He irradiated the world with heavenly and unbroken charity. Thirdly, He is the emerald, because He delights the sight of both Angels and Saints. Fourthly, He is the carbuncle, because He is the light of the world, illuminating and inflaming it. Fifthly, He is the sapphire, because His doctrine and life are heavenly. Sixthly, He is the jasper, because He is the strongest rock of the Church, and because it helps to the bringing forth of good works. Seventhly, He is the hyacinth, because He is meek and humble of heart, and because it resists infirmity of mind, and drives it out from His own.
Eighthly, He is the agate, because He is sharp against unbelievers and the impious, and because it makes us cast out the abortive birth of sin by confession. Ninthly, He is the amethyst, because it resists sleep and drunkenness, and puts to flight all sloth. Tenthly, He is the chrysolite, because He came to call not the just, but sinners, to salvation. Eleventhly, He is the onyx, because He is white in manners, and because it wages war on vices. Twelfthly, He is the beryl, because in every temptation, passion and cross He remained constant, nay shone the brighter. So in the main Salmeron, vol. 7, tract. 41.
21. AND THEY SHALL HAVE THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: TWELVE NAMES SHALL THEY BE ENGRAVED, EACH STONE WITH THE NAME OF ONE ACCORDING TO THE TWELVE TRIBES.—The Hebrew is, thou shalt engrave them with the engraving of a seal, according to his name; and the Chaldee, thou shalt engrave them with distinct engraving, as the engraving of a ring or seal, each according to his name. The same is said more clearly of the onyx stones in the ephod, verse 10, in the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint, namely that the names of the children of Israel were engraved on them with the engraving of a seal, al shemoth, that is, according to the names, or for the names of the children of Israel. Whence Jerome Prado, on Ezech. 1, p. 45, holds that both on the two onyx stones and on the twelve gems of the rational the twelve names of the sons and tribes of Israel were engraved not by letters, but by marks and hieroglyphic signs after the Egyptian manner: namely that there were engraved on them the devices (which the French call armoiries) representing the arms of each tribe, and its prince and head. As, then, nobles engrave on their rings and seals the device of their nobility, such as a shield, helmet, lion, etc., so the tribe of Juda was marked by a lion, Dan by an eagle, Ephraim by an ox, Ruben by a human head, etc.: for these were the devices of each tribe, as I shall say Numbers chap. 2. That it was so done is proved secondly from Wisd. 18:24, where it is said: “The great deeds of the parents were engraved in four rows of stones”; for “great deeds” the Greek is doxai, that is, glories, excellences, victories, trophies, devices of nobility, the arms of the parents, in which they rightly gloried: these arms, therefore, not the very names of the tribes, were engraved on these gems. So Cicero, dedicating a golden cup to the gods, indicated his forename and name by engraved letters, but his surname Cicero by an engraved chickpea; for the chickpea (cicer) was the device and arms of Cicero. So Plutarch in the Life of Cicero. This opinion is plausible in appearance: but if one examines closely the words of Scripture, it will appear not to be true, for the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Chaldee and our version expressly say that the very names were engraved on the gems. What is said in the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint, thou shalt engrave them with the engraving of a seal, is nothing else than what our version renders, with the work of an engraver and the graving of a jeweller thou shalt engrave them with the names of the children of Israel; as if to say: Thou shalt engrave on them the names of the children of Israel, as engravers and jewellers engrave on their seals and gems the characters and marks they please. For so Lyranus, Abulensis, Vatablus and others commonly explain it. For so this phrase is taken both elsewhere and in verse 36, where it is said: “Thou shalt make a plate, in which thou shalt engrave with engraver’s work (in Hebrew, with the engraving of a seal, that is, as seals are wont to be engraved and chased) Holy to the Lord.”
To the passage of Wisdom I answer, that on the gems were written the great deeds of the parents, in Greek doxai, that is, the glorious and magnificent names of the Patriarchs; for from these twelve, as Patriarchs, the twelve tribes and all their posterity are named; for in like manner the Wise Man adds in the same place the magnificence of God, that is, the magnificent four-lettered name of God, namely Jehovah, written on the diadem of the high priest.
are with those of verse 13, as I said there.
26. AND THOU SHALT MAKE TWO GOLDEN RINGS, WHICH THOU SHALT PUT
In the two following verses another binding of the rational with the ephod is described, other, I say, than the two little chains ascending to the shoulders, of which verses 13 and 22; for the little chains were outward, but this binding was inward and immediate; for the rational in its four corners and edges, namely in two which were above, and in two which were below, had four golden rings, to which as many rings in the ephod answered from the opposite side, so that each ring of the rational was joined with the ring of the ephod answering to it by a violet ribbon. Josephus intimates that this ribbon did not bind these two circles quite tightly; for he says that, lest anything should gape between the circles, it was filled up with violet thread. Moreover, as the Hebrew here indicates, the rational was so laid over the texture of the ephod as to exceed and cover both its edges and its rings.
AND WHICH LOOK BACKWARD,—“backward,” that is, inward. So the Hebrew; for the front part was outer, and open to sight: the hinder was inner, hidden and covered by the projecting edge of the rational, as I said; so chap. 3, verse 1, Moses is said to have led the flock to the inner parts of the desert, that is, behind the desert, or to the hinder parts of the desert.
27. OVER AGAINST THE FACE OF THE JOINING,—In the Hebrew, over against its joining, upon the ingenious texture of the ephod.