Sar´dius, one of the precious stones in the breastplate of the high-priest (Exo 28:17; Exo 39:10), and also mentioned in Eze 28:13. The sardius is the stone now called the carnelian, from its color, which resembles that of raw flesh. The Hebrew name is derived from a root which signifies being red. The sardius or carnelian is of the flint family, and is a kind of chalcedony. The more vivid the red in this stone, the higher is the estimation in which it is held. It was anciently, as now, more frequently-engraved on than any other stone. The ancients called it sardius, because Sardis in Lydia was the place where they first became acquainted with it; but the sardius of Babylon was considered of greater value. The Hebrews probably obtained the carnelian from Arabia. In Yemen there is found a very fine dark-red carnelian, which is called el-Akik. The Arabs wear it on the finger, on the arm above the elbow, and in the belt before the abdomen. It is supposed to stop hemorrhage when laid on a fresh wound.
Sardius. (red). (Hebrew, odem). The stone which occupied the first place in the first row of the high priest’s breastplate. Exo 28:27. The sard, which is probably the stone denoted by odem, is a superior variety of agate, sometimes called camelian, and has long been a favorite stone for the engraver’s art. Sardis differ in color: there is a bright-red variety, and, perhaps, the Hebrew, odem, from a root means "to be red," points to this kind.
SARDIUS.—See Jewels and Precious Stones.
(óÜñäéïí, a much better attested form in Rev_4:3 than the Textus Receptus óÜñäéïò = Vulg. [Note: Vulgate.] ‘sardinus’)
The writer of the Apocalypse compares Him that sits upon the throne of heaven to a sardius (Rev_4:3, Authorized Version ‘sardine stone’). The sixth foundation of the wall of the New Jerusalem is a sardius (21:20). This stone is doubtless the modern orange-red or golden ‘sard,’ which is a translucent quartz coloured with iron, nearly allied with the clearer and lighter-tinted carnelian. The Greeks commonly connected the word with Sardis, where the stone was said to have been first found; but it may be related to the Persian zerd, ‘yellow.’ Pliny says that the sardius of Babylonia was more highly prized than that of Sardis (Historia Naturalis (Pliny) xxxvii. 7). This stone was more frequently engraved than any other. It was used for Assyrian cylinder seals, Egyptian scarabs, and early Greek and Etruscan gems.
Literature.-C. W. King, The Natural History of Precious Stones and Gems, 1865, pp. 278-286.
James Strahan.