Sapphire, lapis lazuli and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon
Saturday, August 21st, 2010 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_man
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up [Mt Sinai]. They saw the God of Israel, and beneath His feet was the likeness of a sapphire pavement, the like of the very heaven for purity. Upon the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand; they beheld God, and ate and drank. וַיַּעַל מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא וְשִׁבְעִים מִזִּקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ וַיִּרְאוּ אֵת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו כְּמַעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר וּכְעֶצֶם הַשָּׁמַיִם לָטֹהַר׃ וְאֶל־אֲצִילֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא שָׁלַח יָדוֹ וַיֶּחֱזוּ אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאכְלוּ וַיִּשְׁתּוּ׃
The commentators have had a field day trying to work out what to make of this (particularly the ones who claim that the Bible never portrays G-d anthropomorphically!), but that's not what I want to discuss here.
The word "sapphire" has an interesting etymology; the English is borrowed from the Hebrew סַפִּיר sappir, which derives (N often drops out in Hebrew before another consonant) from Old Iranian sani-prijám (शनिप्रिय in Sanskrit), meaning "dear to Saturn"; the second element, prija'ḥ, is cognate to English "free". But that's not what I wish to discuss here either.
The Etz Chayyim chumash (and the wikipedia article linked to below) says that this word does not refer to corundum, as the modern word does, as this was unknown in ancient Israel, but rather to the widely-used deep blue lapis lazuli.
Lapis lazuli may have been widely used in the ancient world, but it was also extremely expensive; the only known source of it was from Afghanistan. This is why mediaeval paintings rarely show the sky, as it was the only source of blue pigment for painting.
Learning that the Biblical reference was actually to lapis lazuli made me wonder whether the effect the author may have been going for might not have been the transparent crystal floor that the word "sapphire" suggests to us, but perhaps a floor of blue tiles very much like the Ishtar Gate of Babylon—something which, though it may come across as less impressive to our eyes, would no doubt have conjured up associations of untold wealth in the eyes of the ancients, when you consider how much lapis lazuli such a floor would have been required.
Which also makes me wonder about the construction of the Ishtar Gate, something I hadn't thought about beforehand (surprising, given that I even saw it in person earlier this year). Hmm, Wikipedia says it was constructed by Nebuchadrezzar II in about 575 BCE, as part of a series of "new edifices of incredible magnificence". That's after the conquest of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem. I wonder if the Ishtar Gate might not have been paid for by the spoils of the looting of the conquest of Judah (and elsewhere), standing as a permanent reminder to the Babylonians of their mastery of their empire—and to the Jews of the destruction of their country and their Temple—in much the same way that the Colosseum (paid for by the spoils of the looting of the conquest of Judaea and the enslavement of much of its inhabitants) was to the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple.
saphir, lapis - an interesting article
Date: 2010-09-13 05:27 pm (UTC)i enjoyed reading it. have a good year - shana tova from israel and forgive my poor english.
Yeah, a thought-provoking blog entry
Date: 2011-03-02 04:15 am (UTC)Stein