1 Kings xxi. 8.RINGS. The Antiquity of Rings is known from Scripture and profane Authors. Gen. xxxviii. 18.Judah left his Ring with Tamar. When Pharaoh committed the Government of all Egypt to Joseph, he took his Gen. xli. 42.Ring from his Finger, and gave it to Joseph. After the Victory that the Israelites obtained over the Midianites, they offer’d to the Lord the Rings, the Bracelets, and the golden Necklaces, that Numb. xxxi. 50.they had taken from the Enemy. The Israelitish Women wore Rings, not only on their Fingers, but also in their Nostrils and their Ears. St. James distinguishes a Man of Wealth and Dignity by the Ring of James ii. 2. Vir aureum annulum habens, &c. Luke xv. 22. Jer. xxii. 24.Gold that he wore on his Finger. At the Return of the prodigal Son, his Father orders him to be dress’d in a new Suit of Cloaths, and to have a Ring put upon his Finger. When the Lord threatned King Jeconiah with the utmost Effects of his Anger, he tells him, that tho’ he were the Signet or Ring upon his Finger, yet he should be torn off.
The Ring was us’d chiefly to seal with, and the Scripture generally puts it in the Hands of Princes and great Persons; as the King of Egypt, Joseph, Ahaz, Jezabel, King Ahasuerus, his favourite Haman, Esther iii. 10, &c. Dan. vi. 17.Mordecai, who succeeded Haman in his Dignity, King Darius. The Patents and Orders of these Princes were sealed with their Rings or Signets, and it was this that Bibliot. Orient. titul. Solyman, p. 819.secured to ‘em their Authority and Respect.
The Ring was one of the Marks of Sovereign Authority. We have already observed, that Pharaoh gave his Ring to Joseph, as a Token of that Authority with which he invested him, and which he intended Quint. Curt. l. x. c. 5.he should exercise over all his People. When Alexander the Great gave his Ring to Perdiccas, this was understood as 1 Macc. vi. 15.nominating him to be his Successor. When Antiochus Epiphanes was at the Point of Death, he committed to Philip, one of his Friends, his Diadem, his Royal Cloak, and his Ring, that he might give them to his Son and Successor young Antiochus. Augustus being very sick of a Distemper which he thought mortal, he gave his Xiphilin. in Aug.Ring to Agrippa, as to a Friend of the greatest Integrity.
We read of certain magical Rings, to which several extraordinary Effects were ascribed, either as Preservatives against certain Evils, or for procuring certain Advantages and good Fortune. The Orientals, for Example, relate a thousand things of a pretended Ring of Solomon’s, which communicated to him a wonderful Sagacity, and caus’d him to be esteem’d the wisest and happiest of Kings. They tell us, that one Day this Prince put off his Ring to go into a Bath, when an infernal Fury stole it from him, and threw it into the Sea. Upon this Accident Solomon would not sit upon his Throne for forty Days, not thinking himself able to govern as he should, when he was depriv’d of so necessary an Assistant. But at last he recover’d his Ring again, by the Means of a Fish that had swallow’d it, and which happen’d to be served up at his Table.
The Rings and Pendants for the Ears, so frequent in Palestine and Africa, were also probably superstitious Rings, Talismans, or Phylacteries, to which certain supernatural Effects were imputed. When Jacob arrived at the Land of Canaan, at his Return from Gen. xxxv. 4.Mesopotamia, he gave Orders to his People to put into his Custody, all the strange Gods which were in their Hand, and all their Ear-rings which were in their Ears. This seems to insinuate, that those strange Gods were superstitious or magical Figures, engraven upon their Rings, their Bracelets, and the Pendants in their Ears. Or else, according to some Commentators, that these Rings and Pendants were upon the Hands, and in the Ears of these false Gods. St. Austin inveighs very pathetically against these Phylacteries of false Gods, which his Countrymen the Africans fastened to their Aug. qu. cxi.inGen.Ears, and to which they imputed a thousand supernatural and superstitious Vertues; intending by this kind of Ornament, not so much to dress themselves out to please Men, as to please and serve Dæmons. Execranda superstitio ligaturarum, Aug. Ep. ad Possidium. 73.in quibus etiam in aures virorum in summis ex una parte auriculis suspensæ deputantur; non ad placendum hominibus, sed ad serviendum dæmonibus, adhibetur.