Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JEWELRY

In the Bible, adornments are more often described as individual pieces than referred to collectively. Isa. 3:18-23 is a catalogue of jewelry including anklets, headbands, crescents, pendants, bracelets, armlets, amulets, signet rings and nose rings, as well as other items broadly classed as ornamentation. Additional pieces include necklaces (Cant. 4:9), rings (Hos. 2:13[MT 15]), earrings (Judg. 8:25), chains (Ezek. 16:11), and beads (Num. 31:50). Most of these have been found in the archaeological record, though the beads and pendants that comprised necklaces and bracelets are most common. In biblical citations, jewelry was usually made of gold, silver, and bronze. In the archaeological record, however, materials are much more diverse. Copper and bronze are more common than either gold or silver, and glass, faience, precious and semi-precious stones, shell, seeds, bone, and ivory were also fashioned into jewelry. More finely worked and rarer materials are associated with the elites, while the less wealthy apparently used the cheaper mediums as substitutes for the more expensive originals — e.g., blue glass to imitate lapis lazuli.

Evidence for the production of jewelry comes from figurative remains, tools, and the pieces of jewelry themselves. Exod. 35:30-33 states that God gave members of the tribe of Judah the skills of gold-, silver-, and bronze-working and of stone-setting, and scholars have sometimes attributed the arrival of iron-working to the Israelites. However, these technologies are also common in other regions and periods. The retrieval and working of raw materials and the finished products are displayed in the Old Kingdom mastaba of Mereruka at Saqqâra in Egypt, and an 18th-century b.c.e. sealed jar at Larsa in Mesopotamia held the tools, scrap, and metals of a jeweler. In addition, traces of flax fibers used to hang beads and pendants have been found within their stringing holes. Ancient metal-workers were familiar with manipulating pure ores and with alloying different elements to produce the desired outcome. The results are heterogeneous in form; hundreds of beads had already been classified in the 1920s. Molds for many of these shapes have been found in Palestine.

In biblical references, jewelry is considered valuable. Precious stones and pieces of jewelry are given to brides by the groom and his representatives (Gen. 24:22), brought as gifts to shrines (Num. 31:50) and kings (1 Kgs. 10:10), and are part of an inheritance (2 Chr. 21:3). Jewels are stored in the royal treasury (2 Chr. 32:27), “precious things” are taken as spoils of war (20:25), and jewelry may even have been given as tribute (cf. reliefs in Assurbanipal’s palace). Archaeological evidence corroborates jewelry’s worth since it is often found buried in hoards under floors. This value is connected both with the workmanship involved in producing intricate jewelry and with the cost of the materials used. Many are obtained from long distances and therefore jewelry can illuminate networks of communication and trade (cf. Ezek. 27:22): Mediterranean shells are found far inland, while the lapis lazuli of Afghanistan and the gold of sub-Saharan Africa were prized in Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt. Designs that originated in one area were also widespread especially in the Late Bronze Age when internationalism caused similar styles throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

Though different types of jewelry were utilized by different social classes, biblical references to jewelry of precious metals and stones are associated with the nobility and royalty, while specific items were indicative of rank: e.g., for royalty, the armlet (2 Sam. 1:10); for priesthood, the ephod and breastplate (Exod. 28:6-30); for official power, the signet ring (Gen. 41:41-42). The connection between jewelry and social status and power is reflected in the locations of different types in the archaeological record. An analysis of LB pendants, e.g., has shown that differing classes are found according to temple, burial, and residential contexts at sites such as Megiddo and Tel Kitan (2043.2270). Of particular note in terms of religious influence are the amulets and Astarte pendants worn around the neck and waist and thought to have fertility powers, and the association of crescents, stars, and other solar images with Bronze and Iron Age cultic practices.

Jewelry is also used metaphorically to describe things of value and importance. Israel’s people are described as “sacred stones . . . worth their weight in fine gold” (Lam. 4:1-2) at the time of the final siege of Jerusalem. Similarly, the 12 stones of the priest’s ephod — all of which were said to have been in Eden (Ezek. 28:13) — represented the tribes of Israel (Exod. 28:17-21). Articles of jewelry are given by God to Israel, compared to an adulterous wife (Ezek. 16:11-12). Jewels are also metaphors for beauty (Cant. 5:14; 7:1). The value of jewels is not limitless, however: though knowledge is like a jewel (Prov. 20:15), real wisdom is considered to be even more precious (3:13-15; 8:11).

Bibliography. H. C. Beck, “Classification and Nomenclature of Beads and Pendants,” Archaeologia 77 (1927); P. E. McGovern, Late Bronze Palestinian Pendants. JSOT/ASORMS 1 (Sheffield, 1986); K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, Western Asiatic Jewellery c. 3000-612 b.c. (London, 1971); J. Ogden, Ancient Jewellery (Berkeley, 1992); E. E. Platt, “Jewelry of Bible Times and the Catalog of Isa 3:18-23,” AUSS 17 (1979): 71-84, 189-201.

Katharine A. Mackay

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JEWELRY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)