Revelation 4:3

3. Like a jasper Not in solidity, but in picturesque hue. The jasper is a species of quartz, of various colours, and sometimes transparent as crystal, Revelation 21:11. Alford says, “It represents a watery crystalline brightness.” The sardine, or carnelian, is, says Epiphanius, “fire-red and blood-red.” Meyer, quoted by Hengstenberg, says: “The red colour is light in its intrinsic unfolding, light in warmth, light in love, or in its opposite, anger.” The crystalline jasper thus represents the purity of the divine nature; the red carnelian its sensibility its wrath and its love exercised toward sin or holiness in responsible beings. The rainbow symbol of the covenant with its seven prismatic hues, yet with the soft green like unto an emerald predominant, represents the divine mercy.

Round about the throne Horizontally, says Hengstenberg; vertically, says Alford. We think the former clearly right. Around the nebulae of jasper and carnelian hues there circled a horizontal halo of soft green, in which the seven streaks of the rainbow were visible, leaving the throne somewhat visible, but no form of its Occupant. Thus far we have picture of the divine Presence; now for the attendants.