The adamas stone on a mountain.

Whole lotta preachin’ going on. The last paragraph is about the stone.

Text Translation:

Of the adamas stone. Physiologus says: There is a stone called adamas found on a certain mountain in the east. Such is its nature, that you should search for it by night, not day, since it shines at night where it lies, but it does not shine by day, since the sun dulls its light. Against this stone, neither iron, fire or other stones can prevail. The prophet says of it: ‘I saw a man standing on a wall of adamant and in his hand was an adamant stone in the midst of the people of Israel’ (compare Amos, 7:7). But a creature cannot prevail against its creator, and for this reason Christ is the adamas stone. He stands on a wall of such stone, on the holy and living stones of which heavenly Jerusalem is built. These are the Apostles, the prophets and the martyrs, over whom neither fire, nor the sword nor the teeth of beasts could prevail.

All the saints are called adamantine by the prophet, after that one true stone, just as Christians are named after Christ. The prophet says: ‘I saw a man standing on a wall of adamant, and behold in his hand was an adamant stone’, that is, the son of God and the son of man who deigned to take flesh in Mary’s womb. The man held the stone in his hand, signifying the glory of his divinity, as Daniel testifies, saying: ‘I looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in baldachin’ (see Daniel, 10:5). The man in the text signifies the majesty of the divine nature; the baldachin represents carnal man, whose form Christ saw fit to assume. For ‘baldachin’ is taken to mean linen, clothing which has its origin in the earth. Of Christ being called a man, blessed Peter, the Apostle, says: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord made manifest to you’ (see Acts, 2:22). And the blessed Paul says: ‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ’ (2 Corinthians, 11:2). In order that we should know more clearly that it is Christ of whom he speaks, Paul says: ‘Do you seek proof of Christ speaking in me?’ (see 2 Corinthians, 13:3).

The mountain in the east, therefore, on which, according to Physiologus, the adamant stone is found, signifies the Lord our father unbegotten, from whom all things spring. He says that mountain is high and that his glory is inaccessible, just as the Apostle Paul says of him, who alone has immortality and inhabits the inaccessible light in which the stone is found: ‘Christ is in the Father and the Father in me’ (see John, 14:10). Again: ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father’ (John, 14:9).

The fact that the adamant stone is not found in the light signifies that Christ hid his descent from the heavenly virtues and dominions and powers which, like luminaries, stand beside God. They did not know, therefore, of the righteous one, who bore the heavenly-assigned office of his descent and incarnation, to be fulfilled on earth. In the end, when he had performed all his wonders for the redemption of the human race and ascended into heaven, clad as a whole and perfect man, the ranks of the heavenly city seeing him said: ‘Who is this that cometh from Edom, with red garments from Bozrah?’ (see Isaiah, 63:1). Who is he who rises from blood and the red of his clothing from flesh? The stone is found at night because Christ descended into the darkness of this world and gave light to the race that stayed in darkness and in the place of the shadow of death, just as David the prophet says, personifying the whole human race: ‘ For thou wilt light my candle, Lord; my God will enlighten my darkness’ (Psalms, 18:28). Our Lord came therefore and, taking up the light which the devil had extinguished, that is, the soul and the body, he lit it with the splendour of his glory, giving it new life and taking it back with him.

The Apostle puts this more clearly, saying of this sacrament of such marvellous mystery: ‘Without controversy, great is the mystery godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory’ (1 Timothy, 3:16). Moreover, Physiologus says of the adamant stone that iron does has no effect on it, just as, death will not rule Christ. For he destroyed death and trampled on it, as the apostle bore witness, saying: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?’ (1 Corinthians, 16:54-55). Nor is this stone affected by fire, meaning the devil who with his blazing darts burns the whole earth, its cities and its wanton, drunken and raging inhabitants; of these Isaiah says: ‘Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire’ (Isaiah, 1:7). ‘The Lord Jesus Christ shall consume him with the breath from his mouth’ (see 2 Thessalonians, 2:8). No other stone can damage adamant, that is, no man at all, nor any creature, can oppose Christ. ‘All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made’ (John, 1:3).

Adamant is a small and unsightly stone, with a dusky colour and the brightness of crystal, and is about the size of an Abelline nut. It yields to no other matter, not iron, nor indeed fire, and it never grows hot; for this reason its name, translated from Greek, means ‘invincible force’. While adamant remains unconquered by iron, however, and scorns fire, it can broken by the fresh blood of a goat, softened by heat and thus crushed with repeated blows of iron. Engravers use fragments of it for engraving and cutting gemstones. Adamant is at odds with the magnet stone in so much as, placed near iron, it will not suffer the metal to be drawn to the magnet; if the adamant is removed, however, the magnet seizes holds and bears away the metal. They say also that it resembles amber, repelling poisons, banishing vain fears, resisting evil spells. There are six kinds of adamant.

Folio 94r – fire-bearing stones, continued. De lapide adamas; Of the adamas stone.