That glass was known to the Hebrews- appears be- yond a doubt ; but whether they brought a knowledge of its manufacture with them out of Egypt, or learned it from their Sidonian neighbors, is uncertain. Wheth- er they used it for mirrors is doubtful. In Job xxviii, 17, n'^S^lST is believed to mean glass, though it is ren-
GLASS
882
GLASS
Glass Vases from Pompeii.
dcred "crystal" in the English version. It comes from ti-^ {fo be pure), and, according to the best au- thorities, means a kind of glass which in ancient days was held in high esteem (J. D. Michaelis, Bist. Vitri apud Hehr. ; and Hamherger, Hist. Vilri ex antiquitate eruta, quoted by Gesenius, s. v.). Symmachus renders it KpliffTaWoc, but that is rather intended by TIJ^HJ (Job xxviii, 18, A. V. "pearls," Sept. ydjSic, a word which also means "ice;" comp. Pliny, //. jV. xxxvii, 2) and n'^p^ (Ezek. i, 22). It seems, then, that Job xxviii, 17 contains the only allusion to glass found in the O. T., and even this reference is disputed. Be- sides Sj'mmachus, otliers also render it Siavyfj tcpva- TciWov (Schleusner, Thesaur. s. v. i'aXoc), and it is ar- gued that the word i'oXof frequentl}' means crystal. Thus the Schol. on Aristoph. Nuh. 7G4, defines vaXog (when it occurs in old writers) as ha(pavi)i: \i9oc toi- Kwg vii\(i), and Hesychius gives as its equivalent XiGoQ ri'/doc- In Herodotus (iii, 24) it is clear that veXog must mean crystal, for he says, r) £i <j(pi ttoW)) kciI ivep- yoc opvcrjiTai, and Achilles Tatius speaks of crj'stal as vaXoc, 6piijpvyj.dvr) (ii, 3 ; Bahr, Oil Herod, ii, 44 ; Heeren, Ideen, II, i, 335). Others consider Piir^lZT to be amber, or electrum, or alabaster (Bochart, //ifroz. II, vi, 872). In the New Testament the word employ- ed is vaXoQ (compare Aristoph. Nubes, 7G8). In Rev. xxi, 18 we read, "The city was pure gold, like unto cXaviY glass ;'' ver. 21, "as it were transparent glass" (compare iv, G). Alention is made in l.'cv. iv, 6, and XV, 2, of a sea of glass like unto crystal, concerning the meaning of which interpreters vary; but is is prob- ably an allusion to the brazen sea spoken of in 1 Kings vii, 23, and elsewhere, containing water for the priests to wash with, that thej' might not minister before God under any pollution. "Molten looking-glass" also oc- curs in Job xxxvii, 18; but the original '^5<"t,s/)er?//«»?, and its corresponding word in Exod. xxxviii, 8, author- ize the translation "mirror" — that is, of some metal. Indeed, Beckman {Beilrdge zur Gesch. der Erfindung, iii, 819) erroneousl}' denies that glass mirrors were known till the 13th contur}', adding that they are still seldom seen in the East. It is certain, however, that glass was not applied in ancient times to windows ; when these were not, as they commonly were in the East, shnply open apertures by day, with wooden doors placed on them by night, a kind of semi-transparent stone, a sort of tale, called lajns specidaris, was gener- ally used, and contjnued to be so for centuries after the Christian aera. See \ViN'now\
It is a singular fact, that although the ancients were aware of the reflective power of glnss, an,d although the Sidonians used it for mirrors (Pliny, //. N. xxxvi, CG), yet for some unexplained reason mirrors of glass must have proved unsuccessful, since even under the Koman empire they were universally made of metal, which is at once less perfect, more expensive, and more difficult to preserve. See Smith, /)/r^ of Class. Ant. s. V. Speculum. Accordingfv, the mirrors found in Egypt arc made of mixed metal, chiefly copper. So
admirably did the skill of the Egyptians succeed in the composition of metals, that their mirrors were sus- ceptible of a polish which has been but partially re- vived at the present day. The mirror was nearly round, having a handle of wood, stone, or metal. The form varied with the taste of the owner. The same kind of metal mirror was used by the Israelites, who doubtless brought it from Egj'pt. In Exod. xxxviii, 8, it is expressly said that Moses "made the laver of brass of the looking-glasses (brazen mirrors) of the women." In the East mirrors had a connection with .. the observances of religion ; females held them before the images of the goddesses, thereby manifesting their own humility as servants of the divinities, and betok- ening the prevalence in private life of a similar cus- tom (Callimach. Hymn, in Pallad. 21 ; Senec. Ep. 95 ; Cyril, De Adorat. in Sjnr. ii, G4). That in the Kew Testament a mirror is intended in James i, 23, "be- holding his natural face in a glass," appears certain ; but the other passage, in which the word tcroTrrpov oc- curs (1 Cor. xiii, 12), seems to require an imperfectly transparent medium, through which objects are be- held. Wliat the precise substance was which the apos- tle thought of when he used the words it may not be easy to determine. It could not well be ordinary glass, for that was transparent. It may have been the lapis speadaris, or a kind of talc, of which the ancients made their windows. This opinion is confirmed bj' Schleusner, who says that the Jews used a similar mode of expression to describe a dim and imperfect view of mental objects (Schottgen, JJor. Heb. ad loc). (See Michaelis, Hist. Vitri ap. Heb. in Comment. Sac. Goetting. iv, 57 ; also Dr. Falconer on " the Knowledge of the Ancients respecting Glass," in the Memoirs of the Lit. and Phil. Sac. of Manchester, ii, 96 ; Becker's Charicles, i, 132; Michaelis, (S'(//)/)Ze>». p. 613; Pareau, Comment, on Job xxviii, p. 31 G; Hamberger, Vitri Hist., in the Comment. 8oc. Gott. 1754; Hirsch, Geschichte d. Baidimst, iii, 6G.) — Kitto, s. v.; Sni'th, s. v. See Looking-glass.