114、在圣言中，“宝石”，如决断的胸牌和亚伦以弗得两条肩带上的宝石，表示并代表信之真理。胸牌上的“金线和蓝色、紫色、染过两次的朱红色线并捻的细麻”，代表爱之事物；而“宝石”表示源于爱的信之事物；安在以弗得的肩带上、镶在金槽里的两块“纪念石”，就是红玛瑙也是（出埃及记28:9-22）。宝石表示并代表信之真理，这从以西结书也明显看出来，那里论述的主题是拥有天上的财富，就是智慧和聪明的人，经上说：
你智慧充足，全然美丽。你曾在伊甸神的园中，各样宝石是你的遮盖，就是红宝石，黄玉，金钢石，水苍玉，红玛瑙，碧玉，蓝宝石，绿玉，绿宝石。黄金，就是你鼓笛的巧工，在你里面。它们都是在你受造之日预备的。你从受造之日起在路上就都完善。（以西结书28:12–13，15）
谁都能看出，这些话不是在说石头，而是在说信之属天和属灵事物。事实上，每样宝石都代表信的某种本质要素。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]114. Precious stones in the Word, such as those on the breastplate of judgment and the shoulders of Aaron's ephod, symbolized and represented religious truth. The gold, the fibers of blue-violet, red-violet, and double-dyed scarlet, and the fine linen of the breastplate represented different aspects of love; the precious stones represented aspects of a faith based on love. So did the two memorial stones on the shoulders of the ephod, which were shoham stones in gold settings. (See Exodus 28:9-22.) The Book of Ezekiel openly draws the same connection where it talks about a person who owns heavenly riches — wisdom and understanding:
You were full of wisdom and perfect in beauty in Eden, the garden of God.{*1} Every precious stone was your covering: ruby, topaz, diamond; tarshish,{*2} shoham, and jasper; sapphire, chrysoprase, emerald; and gold is what the tambourines and pipes in you were crafted from. On the day when you were created, they were prepared; you were perfect in your ways from the day when you were created. (Ezekiel 28:12-13, 15)
The stones here do not mean stones but the heavenly and spiritual qualities of faith, as anyone can see. In fact every stone represented some essential ingredient of faith.
Footnotes:
{*1} These verses are addressed to the king of Tyre as the object of Ezekiel's prophecy. Tyre was a Phoenician trading city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now southern Lebanon; the king was in Eden only in the metaphorical sense of being in paradise. [LHC, SS]
{*2} Swedenborg here transliterates the Hebrew word "tarshish" (תַּרְשִׁישׁ [taršîš]). Brown, Driver, and Briggs 1996 define it as "a precious stone, perhaps yellow jasper, or other gold-coloured stone." [LHC]
Potts(1905-1910) 114
114. The truth of faith is signified and represented in the Word by precious "stones" as by those in the breast-plate of judgment, and on the shoulders of Aaron's ephod. In the breast-plate, "gold, blue, bright crimson, scarlet double-dyed, and fine-twined linen" represented such things as are of love, and the precious "stones" such as are of faith from love; as did likewise the two "stones of memorial" on the shoulders of the ephod, which were onyx stones, set in ouches of gold (Exod. 28:9-22). This signification of precious stones is also plain from Ezekiel, where, speaking of a man possessed of heavenly riches, which are wisdom and intelligence, it is said:
Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty, thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the sapphire, the chrysoprase, the emerald, and gold; the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created (Ezek. 28:12, 13, 15), which words it must be evident to everyone do not signify stones, but the celestial and spiritual things of faith; yea, each stone represented some essential of faith.
Elliott(1983-1999) 114
114. The truth of faith was also meant and represented in the Word precious stones, for example, those in the breast plate of judgement, and upon the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod. in the breastplate, the gold, blue, purple, double-dyed scarlet, and fine-twined linen represented matters of love, while the precious stones represented matters of faith deriving from love, as did the two stones of remembrance on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod which were made from shoham encompassed with settings of gold, Exod 28:9-22. The same point, that the truth of faith is meant and represented by precious stones, is plainly stated in Ezekiel when the subject is the person who possesses the heavenly riches of wisdom and intelligence,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering ruby, topaz, diamond, tarshish, shoham, and jasper, sapphire, chrysoprase, and emerald. And gold, the work of your drums and of your pipes, was within you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created. Ezek 28:12, 13, 15.
Anyone may see that celestial and spiritual things of faith, and not just stones, are meant. Indeed each stone represented a particular essential element of faith.
Latin(1748-1756) 114
114. Verum fidei etiam in Verbo significatum est et repraesentatam per lapides pretiosos, ut in pectorali judicii, et super humeris ephodi Aharonis; in pectorali, aurum, hyacinthinum, purpura, coccineum dibaphum, et xylinum, repraesentabant illa quae sunt amoris; lapides pretiosi, illa quae fidei ex amore; similiter lapides duo recordationis super humeris ephodi, qui erant ex shoham, circumdati fundis auri, Exod. xxviii 9-22; quod manifeste dicitur apud Ezechielem ubi agitur de homine possidente divitias caelestes, sapientiam et intelligentiam, Plenus sapientia, et perfectus pulchritudine, in Eden horto Dei fuisti; omnis lapis pretiosus, operimentum tuum, rubinus, topazius, adamas; tarshish, shoham, et iaspis; saphir, {x}chrysoprasus, smaragdus; et aurum, opus tympanorum tuorum, et fistularum tuarum, in te, in die, quo creatus es, praeparata sunt;...perfectus tu in viis tuis, a die quo creatus es, xxviii 12, 13, 15;quae quod significent caelestia et spiritualia fidei, non autem lapides, unicuique constare potest: immo unusquisque lapis quoddam essentiale fidei repraesentabat.