Mirror
MIRROR
See LOOKING GLASS.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Mirror
(, 1Co 13:12, Jam 1:23; the classical word was , whence , in 2Co 3:18; Lat. speculum, late Lat. miratorium, from mirari, whence Fr. miroir)
The mirrors of the ancients consisted of a thin disk of metal-usually bronze, more rarely silver-slightly convex and polished on one side. Glass mirrors coated with tin, of which there was a manufactory at Sidon (Pliny, Historia Naturalis (Pliny) xxxvi. 66, 193), were little used, and the art of silvering glass was not discovered till the 13th century. Corinthian mirrors were considered the best, and it is interesting that St. Pauls two figurative uses of the word occur in his letters to Corinth.
1. To bring home to the imagination the limitations of human knowledge, he says that in the present life we see only by means of a mirror darkly ( , 1Co 13:12). In a modern mirror the reflexion is perfect, but the finest burnished metal gave but an indistinct image. To see a friend in a mirror, and to look at his own face, was therefore to receive two different impressions. So this world of time and sense, as apprehended by the human mind, imperfectly mirrors the true and eternal world, leaving many things enigmatic. Mediate knowledge can never be so sure and satisfying as immediate. Plato (Rep. vii. 514) in his well-known simile of the cave compares our sense-impressions to shadow-shapes that come and go, giving but hints of the real world beyond; and the figure of the mirror is found in such Platonists as the writer of Wisdom (Wis 7:26) and Philo (de Decal. 21). J. H. Newman directed that his memorial tablet at Edgbaston should bear the words-Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem. Many writers have supposed that St. Paul refers not to a mirror but to a semi-transparent window-pane: velut per corneum specular obsoletior lux (Tertullian, de An. 53). But a window of talc would be (Lat. speculare), not . Tertullian has indeed the right interpretation in adv. Prax. 16, in imagine et speculo et aenigmate.
2. St. Paul says that we all, with unveiled face mirroring () the glory of the Lord, are transfigured (cf. Mar 9:2) into the same image (2Co 3:18). While Moses, who saw God and for a little while outwardly reflected His glory, gradually lost the supernatural radiance, the disciples of Christ steadily beholding (cf. Joh 1:14) and reflecting His moral glory, become daily more like Him: the rays of Divine glory penetrate their innermost being and fashion them anew (Bousset, Die Schriften des NT, 1908, ii. 179). The older interpretation-beholding as in a mirror-loses the parallel between Moses direct vision of God and ours (by faith) of Christ, and fails to do justice to the unveiled face.
3. James (Jam 1:23-25) compares the law of liberty-a splendid paradox-to a mirror in which a man sees himself as he is. The mere hearer of the law is like a person who gives a hasty glance at his face in a mirror and then turns his attention to other things; but he who continues to look into the mirror of the law till the moral ideal fascinates him and the categorical imperatives win his passionate assent, so that his own will is more and more conformed to the will of God-that man shall learn the secret of true happiness.
James Strahan.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Mirror
Although this word does not occur in the Auth. Vers., except in the Apocrypha (Wis 7:26), it is the proper representative of at least two Heb. and one Gr. term, for which our translators employ the less correct rendering LOOKING-GLASS (, marah’, a vision, as often, Exo 38:8; Sept. , Vulg. speculum; , rei’, a spectacle, Job 37:18, Sept. ; Vulg. ces; , gilyon’, a tablet of wood, stone, or metal on which to inscribe anything, so called as being made bare, Isa 8:1; in Isa 3:23 the plural refers, according to the Chald., Abarbanel, Jarchi, and others, with the Vulg. specula, and the Auth. Vers. 6 glasses, to mirrors or polished plates of metal, see Gesenius, Comment. ad loc., but Kimchi and others understand, with the Sept. , transparent garments, such as show the body, comp. Schrider, De Vest. mul. Heb. pages 311, 312). In the first of the foregoing passages the mirrors in the possession of the women of the Israelites, when they quitted Egypt, are described as being of brass; for the layer of brass, and the foot of it, were made from them. In the second, the firmament is compared to a molten mirror. In fact, the mirrors used in ancient times were almost universally of metal (the passage in the Mishna, Chelim, 30:2, does not allude to glass mirrors); and as those of the Hebrew women in the wilderness were brought out of Egypt, they were doubtless of the same kind as those which have been found in the tombs of that country, and many of which now exist in our museums and collections of Egyptian antiquities. These are of mixed metals, chiefly copper, most carefully wrought and highly polished; and so admirably did the skill of the Egyptians succeed in the composition of metals that this substitute for our modern looking-glass was susceptible of a lustre, which has even been partially revived at the present day in some of those discovered at Thebes, though buried in the earth for so many centuries. The mirror itself was nearly round, and was inserted in a handle, of wood, stone, or metal, the form of which varied according to the taste of the owner (see Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, 3:384-386).
In the N.T. mirrors are mentioned (, Jam 1:23; comp. 1Co 13:12; see Harenberg, in Hasaei et Iken. nov. thesaur. 2:829 sq.). They are alluded to in the Rabbinical writings (,i.e., specularia, Targ. Jon. in Exo 19:17; Deu 33:19; Mishna, Chelim, 17:15; Edujotlh, 2:7; see Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. Page 379). See generally, Th. Carpzov, De speculis Hebraeor. (Rostock, 1752); Jahn, I, 2:155 sq.; Hartmann, Hebr. 2:240 sq.; 3:245 sq. It appears likewise from other positive statements that mirrors anciently were of metal, namely, of copper (, Xenoph. Symp. 7:4) or tin, also of an alloy of both these metals, answering to brass, and sometimes even of silver (Pliny, 33:45; 34:48; comp. Resell. AIonum. II, 2:528 sq.; Becker, Gallus, III, 3). Occasionally they were of great size (Senec. Nat. Qucest. 1:16, 17, page 185, Bip.; Quintil. Inst. 2:3, 68). Finally, mirrors of polished stone are mentioned (Pliny, 36:45; comp. Sueton. Domit. 14). Pliny mentions that anciently the best were made at Brundusium. Praxiteles, in the time of Pompey the Great, is said to have been the first who made them of silver, though these were afterwards so common as, in the time of Pliny, to be used by the ladies’ maids. Silver mirrors are alluded to in Plautus (Mostell. 1:4, Hebr. 2:101) and Philostratus (Icon. 1:6); and one of steel is said to have been found. They were even made of gold (Eur. Hec. 925; Senec. Nat. Quaest. 1:17). According to Beckmann (Hist. of Inv. 2:64, Bohn’s transl.), a mirror which was discovered near Naples was tested, and found to be made of a mixture of copper and regulus of antimony, with a little lead. Beckmann’s editor (Mr. Francis) gives in a note the result of an analysis of an Etruscan mirror, which he examined and found to consist of 67.12 copper, 24.93 tin, and 8.13 lead, or nearly eight parts of copper to three of tin and one of lead; but neither in this, nor in one analyzed by Klaproth, was there any trace of antimony, which Beckmann asserts was unknown to the ancients. Modern experiments have shown that the mixture of copper and tin produces the best metal for specula (Phil. Trans. 67:296).
Beckmann is of the opinion that it was not till the 13th century that glass, covered at the back with tin or lead, was used for this purpose, the doubtful allusion in Pliny (36:66) to the mirrors made in the glass-houses of Sidon having reference to experiments which were unsuccessful. Other allusions to bronze mirrors will be found in a fragment of AEschylus preserved in Stobneus (Serm. 18. page 164, ed. Gesner, 1608) and in Callimachus (Hym. in Lav. Pall. 21). Convex mirrors of polished steel are mentioned as common in the East in a manuscript note of Chardin’s upon Sir 12:11, quoted by Harmer (Observ. volume 4, c. 11, obs. 55). The metal of which the mirrors were composed being liable to rust and tarnish, required to be constantly kept bright (Wis 7:26; Sir 12:11). This was done by means of pounded pumice-stone, rubbed on with a sponge, which was generally suspended from the mirror. The Persians used emery-powder for the same purpose, according to Chardin (quoted by Hartmann, Die Hebr. am Putztische, 2:245). The obscure image produced by a tarnished or imperfect mirror appears to be alluded to in 1Co 13:12. On the other hand, a polished mirror is among the Arabs the emblem of a pure reputation. More spotless than the mirror of a foreign woman’ is with them a proverbial expression, which Meidani explains of a woman who has married out of her country, and polishes her mirror incessantly, that no part of her face may escape her observation (De Sacy, Chrest. Arab. 3:236). Mirrors are mentioned by Chrysostom among the extravagances of fashion for which he rebuked the ladies of his time, and Seneca long before was loud in his denunciation of similar follies (Nat. Quest. 1:17). They were used by the Roman women in the worship of Juno (Senec. Ep. 95; Apuleius, Metam. 11. c. 9, page 770). In the Egyptian temples, says Cyril of Alexandria (De ador. in Spir. 9; Opera, 1:314, ed. Paris, 1638), it was the custom for the women to worship in linen garments, holding a mirror in their left hands and a sistrum in their right; and the Israelites, having fallen into the idolatries of the country, had brought with them the mirrors which they used in their worship. This is a practice to which one of the above Scripture passages (Exo 38:8) appears to allude (see Gesenmis, Comment. on Isa. 1:215; on the contrary, B.F. Qulistorp, Die’speculis labri cenei, Gryph. 1773).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Mirror
MIRROR.See Glass.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Mirror
mirer. See LOOKING-GLASS.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Mirror
Fig. 254Egyptian Metal Mirrors
Mirror (Exo 38:8; Job 37:18). In the first of these passages the mirrors in the possession of the women of the Israelites, when they departed from Egypt, are described as being of brass; for ‘the laver of brass, and the foot of it,’ are made from them. In the second, the firmament is compared to ‘a molten mirror.’ In fact, all the mirrors used in ancient times were of metal; and as those of the Hebrew women in the wilderness were brought out of Egypt, they were doubtless of the same kind as those which have been found in the tombs of that country, and many of which now exist in our museums and collections of Egyptian antiquities. These are of mixed metals, chiefly copper, most carefully wrought and highly polished; and so admirably did the skill of the Egyptians succeed in the composition of metals, that this substitute for our modern looking-glass was susceptible of a luster which has even been partially revived at the present day in some of those discovered at Thebes, though buried in the earth for so many centuries. The mirror itself was nearly round, and was inserted in a handle of wood, stone, or metal, the form of which varied according to the taste of the owner.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Mirror
See GLASS.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Mirror
Of brass
Job 37:18
Given by the Israelitish women to be melted for the laver
Exo 38:8
Figurative
1Co 13:12; 2Co 3:18; Jas 1:23-24
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Mirror
Mirror. Exo 38:8; Job 37:18. The Hebrew women. On coming out of Egypt. probably brought with them mirrors like those which were used by the Egyptians, and were made of a mixed metal, chiefly copper, wrought with admirable skill, and susceptible of a bright lustre. 1Ch 13:12.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Mirror
rendered, “glass” in the AV, is used of any surface sufficiently smooth and regular to reflect rays of light uniformly, and thus produce images of objects which actually in front of it appear to the eye as if they were behind it. “Mirrors” in Biblical times were, it seems, metallic; hence the RV adopts the more general term “mirror;” in 1Co 13:12, spiritual knowledge in this life is represented metaphorically as an image dimly perceived in a “mirror;” in Jam 1:23, the “law of liberty” is figuratively compared to a “mirror;” the hearer who obeys not is like a person who, having looked into the “mirror,” forgets the reflected image after turning away; he who obeys is like one who gazes into the “mirror” and retains in his soul the image of what he should be.
Note: For the verb katoptrizo, “to reflect as a mirror” (some regard it as meaning “beholding in a mirror”), in 2Co 3:18, see BEHOLD, No. 12.