Jacinth - The Light of Noah's Ark?

The Talmud has it that in Genesis 6:16a God said “A light (tsohar, also translated here window and elsewhere noonday) shall you make for the Ark” and so Noah gathered luminous stones and jewels, that they might give light as bright as the noonday sun. Noah, it is reported, used the light from the jewels as a lantern to safely steer his Ark through the darkness of the night. These stones provided the only source of light inside the Ark.

When Noah entered the Ark, he brought precious stones and jewels with him to keep track of day and night. When the jewels shone dimly, he knew that it was daytime, and when they shone brightly, he knew that it was night. It was important for Noah to be able to tell day from night, for some animals eat only during the day, and others eat only during the night, and thus Noah could determine the proper feeding times for the animals under his care. Noah needed the jewels because the account of him bringing jewels into the Ark followed the view that the celestial bodies – including the sun – did not shine their light during the year of the Flood and thus no sunlight entered the Ark.

Now “tsohar” is translated “noon” or “noonday” everywhere else it appears in the Bible and “challown” is the word in Genesis 8:6-7 that is used for the “window” that Noah sent forth the raven looking for dry ground. It seems reasonable to say that there could be some truth to the story found in the Talmud.

In some accounts, the stone identified above is said to be the Garnet. The Garnet is a red stone, chemically a magnesium aluminum silicate with the formula Mg₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. The Jacinth, the eleventh foundational stone we are discussing here, is sometimes thought to be a Garnet or possibly a red transparent variety of Zircon (ZrSiO₄), another type of silicate. In any case, the stone is likely dark red bordering on black.

Jacinth is a semi-precious stone that can be a lustrous orange-yellow, orange-red, yellow, or yellow-brown in addition to dark red. It has been prized since antiquity. The brilliant and intense fire it displays surpasses that of even the diamond. Jacinth has a hardness of about 6.5 to 7.5. It changes its color with the condition of the sky, clear and it shines, cloudy it does not.

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The Ligure (in Hebrew “leshem”) is considered the same stone as the Jacinth. Ligure is mentioned in Exodus 28:19 as the first stone in the third row of the High Priest’s Breastplate, the seventh stone, and thus represents Gad in birth order and Joseph’s son Ephraim in the order of the camp. Jacinth represents the Apostle Simeon the Zealot for his passion.

In Revelation 21:20, the Greek word for Jacinth is “hyakinthinos” or “hyakinthos,” signifying a precious stone of dark red or dark blue. There is one scripture that seems to tip the scales as to pin point the color the stone “Jacinth” represented to John. In Revelation 9:17 we are told the horsemen have breastplates of fire (red), Jacinth, and brimstone (sulfur or yellow). But then we are told they breath out fire, smoke, and brimstone. This strongly suggests that the color of Jacinth corresponds to the color of the smoke accompanying the fire, favoring the dark red interpretation.

The Jacinth signifies the angelic life. It represents those who are wise and comprehend how to contend with wise men in understanding, preparing themselves just as the apostle Paul said, yet among the mature believers they can impart wisdom. In the Jacinth is the wisdom of discernment.

The Garnet symbolizes fire, faith, courage, truth, grace, compassion, constancy and fidelity. Garnets have been widely known for thousands of years and are found in jewelry from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman eras.

The Zircon is a stone of purity and innocence, helping us to be more at peace with ourselves.

Isaiah 60:19 (NKJV) – “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.

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