The foundations of the wall of the city: “The foundation stones of the wall around the city,” “The stones upon which the wall around the city was built,” or, more simply, “… of the wall.”

Adorned with every jewel: the Greek verb translated adorned is the same one used of the bride in verse 2. Here every means, more generally, “of all kinds,” “of different kinds.” Every jewel may also be expressed as “all kinds of beautiful (or, expensive) stones.”

The first was jasper: it is not certain whether the Greek text means “the first foundation stone was adorned with jasper” or “the first foundation stone was made of jasper.” The majority of commentaries and translations take the Greek to mean that the first foundation stone was a jasper, that is, that each foundation stone was a single huge precious stone. This involves an apparent inconsistency, but it is not different in kind or degree from other such inconsistencies in this book. So one may translate “the first foundation stone was made of jasper” or “the first stone was made of a green and blue material.”

There is considerable uncertainty over some of the twelve stones named, and modern translations differ. A comparison of ten translations in English (Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Revised, Translator’s New Testament, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, An American Translation, Good News Translation) shows that seven of the translations agree almost unanimously on eight of the twelve stones (New Jerusalem Bible is markedly different from the others). Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible differ on the names of three of the stones.

If the names of all the stones are not readily available in a given language, the best thing to do is to identify the stone by its color; for example, “a precious blue stone,” or the like. In some languages, however, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to name this many different colors. In some instances it may be necessary to transliterate the foreign names, “a precious stone called ‘jasper.’ ”

Jasper: see 4.3. New Jerusalem Bible and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy have “diamond.”

Sapphire: a precious stone, usually blue.

Agate: a semiprecious stone of various colors; perhaps green is indicated here.

Emerald: see 4.3 (the emerald is a superior variety of beryl).

Onyx: a semiprecious stone, of various colors; perhaps here a red stone. Here a number of translations have “sardonyx,” which is a variety of onyx.

Carnelian: see 4.3; it is a variety of chalcedony.

Chrysolite: in today’s terminology this is a peridot, a transparent yellowish-green silicate of magnesium. The biblical gem was probably a gold-colored stone; so Good News Translation “yellow quartz,” and New Jerusalem Bible “gold quartz.”

Beryl: usually bluish-green, but of other colors as well.

Topaz: usually yellow.

Chrysoprase: the modern stone is an apple-green chalcedony, but there is uncertainty about the meaning of the Greek term (chrysoprase is a transliteration of the Greek).

Jacinth: or “hyacinth.” This is a reddish-orange variety of zircon. Good News Translation and Revised English Bible have “turquoise,” which is blue or bluish-green.

Amethyst: purple or violet.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .