Crystal

Crystal in Scripture renders Hebrew qerach (ice or rock crystal) and Greek krustallos. Ezekiel 1:22 describes the firmament above the living creatures as the color of crystal, terrible in its brightness — a detail in the visionary throne-chariot (merkabah) that conveys the dazzling transparency and clarity of the divine realm. Job 28:17 mentions crystal alongside gold as something to which wisdom cannot be compared in value.

In Revelation, crystal appears repeatedly in descriptions of the heavenly realm. The sea of glass before the throne is like crystal (Revelation 4:6), evoking the primordial waters of Genesis 1 stilled and made perfectly transparent before God. The New Jerusalem is described as having walls of jasper and the city itself of pure gold, clear as glass or crystal (Revelation 21:11, 18). The river of the water of life proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb, bright as crystal (Revelation 22:1). Crystal's primary connotations in apocalyptic vision are transparency, purity, and the refraction of divine light — the heavenly world rendered visible to prophetic sight.