And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
(Revelation 21:18-21) KJV
A possible meaning of the word garnished could be: the wall of the city had foundations, which were decorated with precious stones. It’s a translation of the Greek word κεκοσμημένοι, from the root κοσμέω – kosmos.
To order, arrange: κοσμέω – kosmeó
- To order, arrange,
- I put into order; I decorate, deck, adorn.
- kosméō (from /kósmos, “world”) – properly, to beautify, having the right arrangement (sequence) by ordering; to adorn, make compellingly attractive, very appealing (inviting, awesomely gorgeous). See (kosmos).
- kosmeó this term is the root of the English term, “cosmetics,” i.e. what adorns (“orders”) the face.
The firmament is undoubtedly the source of material for the foundation of the walls of new Jerusalem. A re-reading of the phrase: And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones, given our context, means that we may easily substitute another meaning of the word κοσμέω, which is: ordering, having the right arrangement. This gives us a new understanding of the passage:
And the foundations of the wall of the city were layers of crystalline material arranged in order.
(Revelation 21:19) Paraphrased
It just so happens that this order is described for us, which, if we know God at all, we can be sure is a rainbow of color. This confirms what we have been saying about understanding the end from the beginning, and the beginning from the end. If anyone wants to question the validity of the idea that God created gravity on the 2nd day, which caused the Earth to form as a sphere of concentrically layered sediment, and the firmament to crystallize as a much larger hollow sphere of concentrically layered crystal, that’s fine, but, at the very end of the Bible we have confirmation that firmament has a layered crystalline structure.
| Where did you get here from? | |
| 1 | The Foundation of the Earth |
| 2 | Sophia Proton – σοφία πρῶτον |
| 3 | December 2nd – I Make all Things New |
| 4 | December 15th – All Manner of Precious Stones |
Matty's Paradigm 