Carbuncle (gemstone)

A carbuncle /ˈkɑrbʌŋkəl/ is an archaic name given to any red cabochon cut gemstone. The name applied particularly to red garnet. The word occurs in four places in most English translations of the Bible. Each use originates from the Vulgate's Latin translation of the Septuagint's Greek term Anthrax - meaning coal, in reference to the color of burning coal; in this sense, a carbuncle is usually taken to mean a gem, particularly a deep-red garnet, unfaceted and convex. In the same place in the masoretic text is the Hebrew word נופח or nofech (no'-fekh); however, the Hebrew definition is less definite and the precise color of the gems is not known.^{[citation needed]}

Cultural references

• Exodus 28:17 and 39:10 both refer to the carbuncle's use as the third stone in the breastplate of the Hoshen.
• Ezekiel 28:13 refers to the carbuncle's presence in the Garden of Eden.
• Isaiah 54:12 (also see 3 Nephi 22:12 in The Book of Mormon) uses carbuncle to convey the value of the Lord's blessing on His faithful servants:

  "And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones."

• The gem is the stolen item in question in the Sherlock Holmes tale "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."
• A carbuncle plays a mystic role in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, "The Great Carbuncle."
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare refers to carbuncles in act 2 scene 2 line 401:

  "With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus..."

• Carbuncle is the name of a recurring summon in the Final Fantasy series, the name itself referring directly to the stone on the forehead of the creature.