Plato’s precious stones and the city in Isaiah
It seems to me that what Plato says about the stones thought precious here, which are said to have a kind of outflow from the stones in the better earth, was also taken from what is recorded in Isaiah about the city of God. Of that city it is written: “I will make your battlements jasper, and your stones stones of crystal, and your enclosing wall choice stones” (Isaiah 54:12); and again, “I will make your foundations sapphire” (Isaiah 54:11).
Now those who have taken the philosopher’s words in a loftier sense expound the myth in Plato allegorically. As for the prophecies, from which we conjecture that Plato too borrowed, they will be explained by those who have lived as kin to the prophets and filled with God, and who have given all their time to the study of the sacred writings; and they will explain them to those who are fitted for it by purity of life and by love of learning about divine things.
Our own aim was to show that we did not take what we say about the holy land from the Greeks or from Plato. They, rather, being later not only than Moses, the most ancient of all, but also than most of the prophets, either misheard certain people who spoke in riddles about such things, or else came upon the sacred Scriptures and, altering what they found on these matters, said things of this kind about the better earth. Haggai shows clearly that “the dry land” is one thing and “the earth” another, giving the name dry land to this ground on which we are. He speaks thus: “Once more I will shake the heaven and the earth and the dry land and the sea” (Haggai 2:6).
Greek
Δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν τῇδε τιμίων εἶναι νομιζομένων λίθων, ἀποῤῥοήν τινα λεγομένων ἔχειν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν τῇ κρείττονι γῇ λίθων, εἰλῆφθαι τῷ Πλάτωνι ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ ἀναγεγραμμένων περὶ τῆς πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ. περὶ ἧς γέγραπται· „θήσω τὰς ἐπάλξεις σου ἴασπιν καὶ τοὺς λίθους σου λίθους κρυστάλλου καὶ τὸν περίβολόν σου λίθους ἐκλεκτοὺς“ καὶ πάλιν· „θήσω τὰ θεμέλιά σου σάπφειρον.“ τὸν μὲν οὖν παρὰ Πλάτωνι ἀλληγοροῦντες μῦθον οἱ σεμνότερον τὰ τοῦ φιλοσόφου ἐξειληφότες διηγοῦνται. τὰς δὲ προφητείας. ἀφ᾿ ὧν στοχαζόμεθα καὶ τὸν Πλάτωνα εἰληφέναι, οἱ συγγενῶς τοῖς προφήταις καὶ ἐνθέως βιώσαντες καὶ πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἀναθέντες τῇ ἐξετάσει τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις διὰ βίου καθαρότητα καὶ τὴν περὶ τὰ θεῖα φιλομάθειαν παραστήσουσιν. ἡμῖν δὲ προκείμενον ἦν δεῖξαι ὅτι ἡμεῖς μὲν οὐκ ἀπὸ Ἑλλήνων ἢ Πλάτωνος τὰ περὶ τῆς ἁγίας γῆς εἰλήφαμεν· ἐκεῖνοι δὲ, νεώτεροι γενόμενοι οὐ μόνον τοῦ ἀρχαιοτάτου Μω(??)σέως ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν πλείστων προφητῶν. ἤτοι παρακηκόασί τινων αἰνισσομένων περὶ τῶν τοιούτων, ἢ καὶ ταῖς ἱεραῖς ἐντυχόντες γραφαῖς παραποιήσαντες αὐτὰ τοιαῦτά τινα περὶ τῆς κρείττονος εἰρήκασι γῆς. σαφῶς δ᾿ ὁ Ἀγγαῖος παρίστησιν ἄλλο μὲν εἶναι „τὴν ξηρὰν“ ἄλλο δὲ „τὴν γῆν,“ ξηρὰν καλῶν ταύτην, ἐφ᾿ ᾗ ἐσμεν. λέγει δὲ οὕτως· „ἔτι ἅπαξ ἐγὼ σείσω τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ (τὴν) γῆν καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν.“