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Fingers in Pagan history

Rings in Christian history

Rings in Seventh Day Adventist Church
 

Origins of the wedding ring - Fingers in pagan history - The "Magic Power" of Finger Rings.

 Many legends have come down to us about the magic powers of finger rings. According to a popular legend, King Solomon had a finger ring that transported him every day at noon into the firmament, where he heard the secrets of the universe. This explains his unfathomable wisdom. Another legend claims that Solomon had his ring set with unusual precious stones which served as a magic mirror in which he was able to see reflected the image of any place or person he wished. "Chronicles of long ago say this ring explained his uncanny gift of jurisprudence, as in the case of the two women who claimed a child as their own. Gazing into the depth of the mirror he was apprised of things to come."8 Allegedly Solomon’s ring was later found and used by Jewish exorcists to drag demons out through the noses of sick people.

There are also many stories about the healing power of finger rings. "The Greek physician Galen, of the 2nd century A. D., wrote of the Egyptian king’s green jasper amulet that had the design of a dragon surrounded by rays. Galen held that it was a potent remedial agent for maladies of the digestive organs. Numbered among the medicinal rings are the royal ‘cramp rings.’ These were believed to offer protection against cramps and other ailments. Edward the Confessor, king of England in the 11th century, supposedly began the practice of using curative rings. When the king was accosted one day by an aged pilgrim, the story goes, he had no money but gave the pilgrim a ring as alms. The pilgrim, the Apostle John in disguise, returned the ring to the king, saying that he had blessed it and had given it curative powers. From that time on, up to the reign of Queen Mary I in the 16th century, on Good Friday, English kings and queens blessed and distributed rings held to be a cure for the ‘falling sickness’ (epilepsy)."

 

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