Gold and Its Religious Significance

Gold is a metal that has retained its significance through times. It has always been the most popular as well as precious metal, and has been used for various purposes throughout the history. The increasing prices of gold shows its high demand in the international market and its importance for investors.

Apart from the commercial and industrial uses of gold, it also has a religious significance. Gold has been used throughout the history in many religions and customs and has been important throughout all time periods. In many religions, we can find gold as being a part of the rituals or traditions.

Bullion has always been an important part of Christianity. In scripture, we can find many references of bullion in different forms. No other metal has been so frequently mentioned in the Bible than gold. The term gold has been used to signify purity and beauty. One of the famous references of bullion is “Ophir”, which was the location from where gold was fetched and brought to King Solomon.

Gold has always been considered as a sacred metal by Christians. This is obvious with the fact the Christian wedding ceremony is sealed with a bullion ring which is worn at all times by the husband and wife. Also, in the ceremony of Eucharist, the cup that was used to hold the wine was lined with bullion. This was because gold was the only metal that was considered sacred and pure enough to be next to the wine that represented the blood of Christ.

Even in traditional Jewish marriages, a gold wedding band is exchanged by the husband and wife. This shows that gold has a symbolic meaning and denotes love and happiness.

Hinduism is another religion in which gold has much importance. In many Hindu temples, gold is used in the architecture, and the statues of idols are made of bullion. In marriage customs, bullion is abundantly worn as it has a spiritual value in this religion. There is a special religious day known as Akshaya Tritiya, which is said to be the most auspicious time to buy gold. It is believed your prosperity and wealth will increase manifold if pure gold is bought and worn on this particular occasion.

There has been much evidence of the significance of gold throughout civilizations. If we look at the historic Roman churches and cathedrals, there had been a lot of use of gold in building them or the statues kept inside. Even in the Egyptian civilization, there is evidence that the dead were buried with all their gold belongings, which shows the spiritual or religious significance of gold. Almost all the famous empires in the history are marked with the abundant use of gold to show wealth and prosperity.

Thus, this shows that gold has much significance in many religions and has had symbolic meanings throughout ancient times. It is the only precious metal that holds such importance in so many religions and cultures. Even today, gold has retained its importance, and its religious and symbolic value still remains.

Source by Jack Wogan

Gold and Its Religious Significance