Gold and Silver
"I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir" Isaiah 13:12
"But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?....It
cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price"
Job 28:12,15. "Therefore I love your commandments above gold,
above fine gold" Psalm 119:127. "My fruit [of wisdom]
is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver"
Proverbs 8:19. "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by
fire, so that you may be rich..." Revelation 3:18.
Gold and silver have greater-lesser characteristics representative
of the Father-Son relationship. Both metals have a long history in their
use as money, with Gold being many times more valuable than Silver,
because of its rarity. Gold and Silver are tangible wealth (i.e. they
have intrinsic value) as opposed to paper currencies.
Metals of the Sun and Moon. From ancient times glittering
gold was considered the "metal of the Sun", while shining
silver the "metal of the Moon". For example, for the Incas,
gold was the "sweat of the sun" and silver the "tears
of the moon."
Colors of Gold and Silver. The word “Gold“
originated from the Old English word for yellow – ‘geolu’.
Gold is called the "yellow" metal and Silver the "white"
metal, which have parallels to the Sun and Moon.
Gold and Silver as money. Gold and Silver have been used
as money for most of recorded history. We learn of its use in Abraham's
time at around 2,000 B.C. (e.g. "My lord [Abraham], listen to me:
a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between
you and me? Bury your dead" Genesis 23:15). It was used in the
time of Joseph, when his brothers stated, "Behold, the money that
we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the
land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's
house?" Genesis 44:8. In Jesus' time both gold and silver were
used as money. The silver denarius was the most common Roman coin during
the life of Christ. It amounted to a day's pay for workers and Roman
soldiers, and it is mentioned more often than any other coin. The coin
that Jesus used when asked about paying taxes (i.e. Matthew 22:17-21)
was probably one like the silver denarius below.
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Tiberius Gold Aureus - A.D. 14-37
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Tiberius Silver Denarius - A.D. 14-37
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Relative abundance. Silver is approximately 17 times
more abundant in the earth's crust than gold (see How
Rare/Undervalued Are Gold and Silver?). However, in above ground
holdings, gold is more abundant since gold is generally held while silver
is generally consumed in industry. About 55% of annual silver demand
goes to industrial usage, including electronics, computers, cell phones,
wiring, medical, etc. The balance of silver demand goes to jewelry,
coins, silverware, etc.
Meanings of gold in the Bible
Meanings of silver in the Bible
- Inferior to gold. See Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel chapter
2.
- Pure words of the LORD. Psalm 12:6 (ESV): "The words
of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the
ground, purified seven times."
- Silver as redemption money. Leviticus 27:2-7 (ESV): "Speak
to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special
vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, 3 then the valuation
of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty
shekels[a] of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. 4
If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels.
5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the
valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten
shekels. 6 If the person is from a month old up to five years old,
the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for
a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 And if
the person is sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male
shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels."
- Make a proclamation. Numbers 10:2 (ESV): "Make two silver
trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use
them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp."
Notes
- Silver has many outstanding properties: it has the highest electrical
conductivity, the highest thermal conductivity, it is one of the most
reflective metals (together with gold and aluminum), etc. (see: Silver).
- Gold Water Purification. Recent research has revealed that
gold nanoparticles can break down poisonous groundwater pollutants.
Gold converts the toxic to non-toxic components instead of trapping
them in the filter.
- Gold plated sunglasses. A very thin layer of gold (24 Kt
is pure gold) is electroplated onto the inside astronaut helmet visors
to prevent harmful solar radiation (heat) from entering thru the visor,
to protect the eyes. Gold, silver, in fact any metal coating, stops
infrared (heat) radiation. Gold is preferred for a thin visible light
coating because it does not impart a 'false color' to the visible
light view, whereas silver imparts a bluish-green tinge to everything.
- Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. Malleability
is the ability to be pounded into thin sheets without breaking, and
ductility is the ability to be drawn into thin wires without snapping.
Gold can be hammered into sheets so thin that a pile of them an inch
high would contain more than 200,000 separate sheets. A single ounce
of gold can be drawn into a wire 60 miles long.
- Gold
Nanorods Could Detect, Treat Cancer. Posted 5/5/2009. Tumors in
mice that received an intravenous injection of gold nanorods plus
near-infrared laser treatment disappeared within 15 days. In designing
the particles, the researchers took advantage of the fact that blood
vessels located near tumors have tiny pores just large enough for
the nanorods to enter. Nanorods accumulate in the tumors, and within
three days, the liver and spleen clear any that don't reach the tumor.
During a single exposure to a near-infrared laser, the nanorods heat
up to 70 degree Celsius, hot enough to kill tumor cells.
- Meta metal. Gold can be used to build materials with properties
that seem to defy common sense. One such metamaterial attracts light
from an area larger than itself. The material, built at Duke University
in Durham, North Carolina, consists of a thin film of gold covered
with a transparent polymer, with silver nanocubes scattered over the
polymer surface at a density of up to 30 million cubes per square
millimetre. With the right spacing between the underlying metal and
the silver cubes, plasmon resonance alters the electromagnetic properties
of the thin film in an area 30 times as large as the cube itself,
cancelling out its ability to reflect light4. So carefully covering
about 3% of a surface could lead to the absorption of all the light
striking that surface. “All the light gets trapped under the
cube,” explains Antoine Moreau. Reference
- Gold coated sunglasses. Special protection is required for
space travel because the sunlight is far more intense and harmful
than on Earth, where it is always filtered through the atmosphere.
Sun protection is needed against much higher UV radiation and even
against harmful infrared radiation, both within and outside the spacecraft.
Within the spacecraft, astronauts wear sunglasses with darker lenses
and a thin protective gold coating. During space walks, the visor
of the astronauts' helmets, which also has a thin gold coating for
extra protection, functions as strong sunglasses. Reference
- Many satellites carry gold-coated mylar sheets to protect them from
solar heat. A thin layer of gold on an astronaut's helmet visor fends
off dangerous effects of solar radiation. Satellite microelectronics
that instantaneously relay data around the globe depend on gold components
to ensure reliable, corrosion-resistant and static-free performance.
The growing use of gold in advanced technologies such as microelectronics,
telecommunications, optics, aviation and space has increasingly made
gold a vital strategic resource in U.S. technological and economic
competitiveness. Reference
- The Incas would use gold to assist warriors who had sustained head
wounds in battle to cover damaged skulls. There was evidence to suggest
that gold had healing qualities because of the regrowth of the skull.
Also in was used in dentistry to fill teeth. That’s why so many
Inca graves were ransacked by people looking to steal the gold.
- Gold is used to symbolize earthly riches (Job 3:15; 22:24; Isa 2:7;
Mt 10:9; Acts 3:6; 20:33; Rev 18:12).
- Incorruptible Gold. Finer than gold, which, physically
speaking, is considered non-perishable, typifies incorruptibility
(Acts 17:29; 1 Pet 1:7,18; 3:3; Jas 5:3).
- Purity. Refining of gold is a figure for great purity
or a test of (Job 23:10; Prov 17:3; Isa 1:25; Mal 3:2; 1 Pet 1:7;
Rev 3:18).
- Gold the most desireable of metals. Gold was the most
valuable of metals. It stood for anything of great value (Prov 3:14;
8:10,19; 16:16,22; 25:12), hence was most worthy for use in worshipping
Yahweh (Ex 25 ff; Rev 1:12,13,10, etc.), and the adornment of angels
(Rev 15:6) or saints (Ps 45:13).
- Head of Gold. The head was called golden as being
the most precious part of the body (Song 5:11; Dan 2:38; compare "the
golden bowl," Eccl 12:6). "The golden city" meant Babylon
(Isa 14:4), as did also "the golden cup," sensuality (Jer
51:7).
- Head of Gold and spinal cord of Silver. "...before
the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken" Ecclesiastes
12:6.
- Crown of Gold. A crown of gold was synonymous with
royal honor (Est 2:17; 6:8; Job 19:9; Rev 4:4; 14:14).
- Comparing men to gold suggested their nobility (Lam 4:1,2; 2 Tim
2:20).
- Silver sunglasses. One out of every seven pairs d
prescription glasses sold in the United States incorporates silver
to protect patients eyes from sunlight. Silver halide crystals, melted
into glass for sunglasses, change clear glass from 85 percent visible
Iight transmission to 22 percent transmission in less than 60 seconds,
a change that is endlessly reversible.
- Joseph and the Silver Thread (Hebrew Word Study). The words Joseph (Heb.יוֹסֵף, YOSF; from the root, YSF, that generally means "to add") is similar to the word for silver (Heb. KSF, pronounced "keh-sef") which shares the same Hebrew letters as its Hebrew root, KSF (pronounced "kah-saf") which means "to long for."
- Jacob Sends His Sons to Egypt to Buy Grain. "And Joseph gathered up all the silver that was found in the land of Egypt..." Genesis 47:14.
- Abimelech Gives Abraham 1,000 Pieces of Silver!. It was the SILVER, the clothing/covering, that set Sarah apart as the wife of the prophet Abraham to be longed for only by her only husband.
- Build your own Teleprompter with PowerPoint.
- Why do we value gold?. Inertness is one of the primary reasons.
- Aluminum: The metal that just keeps on giving. Although Aluminium is the third most abundant element in the earth's crust, it was not isolated until 1825, and remained so scarce that it was valued more highly than silver for decades. The reason it remained hidden for so long, unlike gold or silver, is that it is too reactive to occur in its pure form.
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