Lirerature.—The subject has been treated by innumerable writers, but the following books are among the most important, and are easily accessible: Origen, contra Celsum; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, τ. ex. ; Spinoza, Tractatus Theo- logico-politicus, de miraculis (on the negative side); Pascal, Pensées ; Butler, Analogy; Hume, Enquiry concerning the Human Understanding, x. (on the negative side) ; Paley, 2vi- dences; Babbage, Ninth Bridgewater Treatise ; Trench, Notes on the Miracles ; J.B. Mozley, Bampton Lectures ; Lange, Life of Christ, ii, pp. 96-172 (Eng. tr.); J. S. Mill, Three Essays on
Religion (negative); Duke of Argyll, The Reign of Law; Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma and God and the Bible (on the negative side); Supernatural Religion (negative); Temple, Bampton Lectures; Westcott, Introduction to Study of Gospels, Pie Gospel of the Resurrection, and The Gospel of Life; Brace, The Chief End of Revelation, and The Miracu- lous Element in the Gospels; Newman, Two Essays on Mira- cles; E. A. Abbott, Philomythus (a reply to the last) ; Boedder, Natural. Theology; Mlingworth, Divine Immanence; A. T. Lyttelton, Hulsean Lectures. J. H. BERNARD.
MIRIAM (9.9; LXX and NT Μαριάμ, Josephus Mapiduvn). —1. The daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and sister of Aaron and Moses, being probably the eldest of the three. Though not mentioned by name, she was the sister who watched from a distance what would happen to Moses in the ark of bulrushes, and went and fetched her mother to act as nurse to her brother for Pharaoh’s daughter (Ex 255. (E)). She took a leading part in the Exodus with her two brothers. She is called ‘the prophetess, the sister of Aaron,’ and she led the women in their chant of victory after the passage of the Red Sea (Ex 15% (E)). We find her during the wanderings combining with Aaron against Moses at Hazeroth because of his marriage with a Cushite woman. They claimed to have the power of prophecy equally with him, though Moses stood upon a higher plane in the world of revelation, which ought to have made them afraid to rebel. Miriam and Aaron were both severely rebuked, but the chief punishment fell upon Miriam. ‘The cloud removed from over the tent; and, behold, Miriam was leprous as white as snow.’ Aaron at once confessed their sin, and begged Moses’ forgive- ness ; whereupon Moses obtained Miriam’s healing from God. She was, however, sentenced to exclu- sion from the camp for seven days, and the camp re- mained unmoved for that time (Nu 126), Towards the end of the wanderings Miriam died at Kadesh, and was buried there (Nu 20!). Two allusions are made to Miriam in other books of the OT. As an incitement to the strict observance of the law of leprosy in Dt 24° the people are bidden to remember her case: ‘Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam, by the way as ye came forth out of Egypt’ (Dt 249). In Mic θέ she is mentioned with Moses and Aaron as a leader with them of the people. Josephus asserts (Ant. IIL. ii. 4) that she was the wife of Hur, and grandmother of Bezalel. Jerome (de Loc. Heb. 108) says that her tomb was shown close to Petra in Arabia in his day. Josephus adds other details, which we need not trouble ourselves with; and the Koran identifies her with the Virgin Mary. The name ‘ Miriam’ is of great interest to Christians as being the name by which the Virgin Mother of Christ was known.
2. A second Miriam is mentioned in 1 Ch 4:7 (Heb.). It has been supposed by Bertheau that the last clause of 1 Ch 418 should come before the three names of which this is one. If so, they would be the children of a daughter of Pharaoh.
H. A. REDPATH.
MIRROR
MIRMAH (2,2). -- Eponym of ἃ Benjamite family, 1 Ch 810 (B'Ivaud, A Mapud, Luc. Mapucd).
MIRROR (7872, 8), 1°32, κάτοπτρον, ἔσοπτρον) .--- Any surface so smooth and regular as to reflect uni- formly the rays of light, produces, by the operation of simple optical laws, images of objects in front of or above it, which appear to the eye as if they were behind or beneath it. This property has been valued and applied as an aid to the toilet from very early times. The surface of a transparent substance like glass or still water may thus act as a mirror (Pr 2719), and even a black surface if highly polished may do the same. The higher the reflecting power of asubstance, however, the brighter and clearer the image which it gives. A flat mirror produces images of the same size as the objects, a convex mirror diminishes the images, while a concave one (if sufficiently near) gives magnified images, which are erect or inverted according to cir- cumstances. Modern mirrors are commonly made of glass coated on the back with an amalgam of mercury and tin. Mirrors for scientific purposes, however, are either of polished ‘speculum metal’ (a special alloy of copper and tin) or of glass silvered in front. ‘The words " glass’ (in the sense of mirror) and ‘looking glass’ occur in AV (see the places below); but as all mirrors used in biblical times were metallic, so far as we can judge, RV substitutes for these terms the more general one ‘mirror’ (see GLASS, 2).