sardine Summary and Overview

SAR'DINE , Rev 4:3, or SAR'DIUS, Ex 28:17, a gem of a blood-red or flesh color, susceptible of a high polish, and also called "sard" or "carnelian." Its former name it obtains from Sardis, in Asia Minor, where it was first found. This stone has long been a favorite for the engraver's art. "On this stone all the finest works of the most celebrated artists are to be found; and this not without good cause, such is its toughness, facility of working, beauty of color, and the high polish of which it is susceptible, and which Pliny states that it retains longer than any other gem." - King: Antique Gems.

odem, i.e. "the red stone" (with a yellow shade). Exodus 28:17; Exodus 39:10; Ezekiel 28:13. Much used by the ancients for seals, as being tough yet easily worked, beautiful, and susceptible of high polish; the best stone for engraving. Josephus (the best authority, being a priest, therefore having often seen the high priest's breast-plate) calls it the sardonyx, the first stone in the high priest's breast-plate, in Ant. 3:7, section 5, but the sard or sardine, B.J. 5:5, section 7. Both sardine and sardonyx are varieties of agate. He on the heavenly throne "was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine" (Revelation 4:3). As the jasper (or else diamond) represents the divine brightness or holiness, so the red sardine (our cornelian) His fiery wrath; the same union as in Ezekiel 1:4; Ezekiel 8:2; Daniel 7:9. Named from Sardis in Lydia, where it was first found. The Hebrew got their high priest's sardines in Arabia, and from Egypt (Exodus 12:35).