THE GOLD OF THAT LAND: Biblical Minerals & Rocks  

23.     coral

Hebrew: râmâh: derived from râ'am, to be lifted up, meaning something lifted up from the deep. Job 28:18, Ezekiel 27:16.

Probable Identification: white coral.

Mineralogy:

    Coral is not a mineral, consisting as it does of the hard calcite exoskeleton of colonial coral animals. Such modern distinctions have never prevented various species of white, red, blue, or black corals from being valued for jewelry. The Gauls and Greeks collected red coral as early as 1,000 BC. Early in predynastic times, the Egyptians made beads of white coral from Red Sea reefs. Red precious coral from the western Mediterranean became an item of commerce in Roman times and was common in Egypt from the Ptolemaic to the Coptic periods. The black variety seems to have been unknown in biblical times.

Sources:

Lucas & Harris, op. cit.; 392-393.

Schumann, op. cit.; 224-225.