What Does Revelation 21:20 Mean?
The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The city’s wholeness is built from stones whose differences stay visible.
THE MEANING
The vision gives the city’s foundation as an ordered sequence of eight named stones, each with its own place. Its wholeness holds distinct materials together without flattening them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that unity requires every part to become alike: the stones belong to one foundation while keeping their different names.
THE ROOT
χρυσόλιθος
chrysolithos
GROWS FROM
λιθ- (lith-), the stem of λίθος (lithos)
Stone; χρυσόλιθος combines χρυσός (chrysos, gold) with λίθος (lithos, stone), giving “gold-stone.”
“stones” in this verse is chrysolithos. Even inside the name of a precious jewel, the ordinary word for stone remains visible. The list presents the foundation as stone while giving each stone its own distinct name.
ALSO GROWS
lithos: stone
λίθος
This is the basic word carried inside chrysolite’s compound name.
lithoi: stones
λίθοι
The plural keeps the same stone word visible in descriptions of many stones forming one structure.
lithazō: to stone, or pelt with stones
λιθάζω
This branch shows the same stem naming an action done with stones, while this verse presents stones as the materials of a foundation.
THE PATTERN
The image of a complete dwelling is built from distinct stones, each named within an ordered structure.
And the foundations of the wall of the city are arranged with every precious stone. The first foundation is jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald.O bowed one, storm-tossed, not comforted, behold, I will lay down your stones in kohl, and lay your foundations in sapphires.Having been built upon the foundation of the sent ones and the prophets, the Anointed One, Jesus, himself being the head of the corner.THE THREAD
You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.The Greek noun λίθος (lithos, “stone”) appears within χρυσόλιθος (chrysolithos, “gold-stone”), and 1 Peter uses its plural λίθοι (lithoi, “stones”) for people being built into a house. The foundation’s stone imagery opens into a living image of a shared dwelling.
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