RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Mestrezat Metals
(Jer. x. 9; Ezek. xxvii. 12). Pliny reports that
when the Phenicians made their first voyage to
Spain, they had silver anchors cast in
3. Silver that country. Unfortunately it is not
and Copper, stated where Solomon obtained his abundant silver (I Kings x. 27). The practical uses of silver answered in general to those of gold; for current exchange (Gen. xxiii. 16, xliii. 21), for utensils and ornament (Gen. xliv. 2; Ex. xxviii. 27 sqq.; I Chron. xxii. 14). [In the earliest times gold was more plentiful and less precious than silver, which had to be purified by smelting. But after the Phenicians had utilized the great deposits of Spain, the abundance of silver caused its relative deterioration in value, and it has ever since been worth less than gold.] The ratio of value between silver and gold was constant throughout the East, one to thirteen and one-half, the ratio between the moon's revolution and that of the sun, silver being " moon metal " and gold belonging to the sun. Copper, however, belongs to Venus-Ishtar, and its ratio to silver is as one to sixty. It has been known in the East from very remote times; and it was known there at a very early period that the combination of copper with tin, or bronze, shows a much greater degree of hardness than pure copper. Reference has been made to the ancient copper mines on Sinai, and in Babylonia the copper utensils of Telloh date from about the same era, c. 3000 b.c. In Canaan copper was known long before the incursion of the Israelites. The specimens discovered in Tell Hesy (probably Lachish) date from about 1500 B.C. Bronze appears in that country from c. 1250, and from c. 800 B.C. was more and more supplanted by iron. Goliath had bronze weapons, and his spear's head alone is iron (I Sam. xvii. 5). In Jericho, the Israelites acquired copper and bronze vessels. Because the Phenicians fetched their material from Cyprus, a principal mart of native copper, it came to be termed " Cyprian ore," or cyprium, cuprum. Many objects were wrought of bronze; bow, shield, spear, greaves (II Sam. xxi. 16, xxii. 35); all sorts of household and cooking utensils (cf. I Kings vii.), mirrors (Ex. xxxviii. 8; Job. xxvii. 18), chains, bars, and doors (II Sam. iii. 34; Deut. xxxiii. 25; Ps. cvii. 16; Isa. xlv. 2); also sacred images (Num. xxi. 9); in the Temple the utensils of the court and for sacrifices — the altar, the " sea," the pillars Jachin and Boaz, the basins, etc. (I Kings vii. 13-46). That the Israelites, even though not strangers to bronze-casting, were not equipped for elaborate and artistic achievements in Solomon's time is plain from the circumstance that Solomon had the Temple utensils designed by Hiram of Tyre (I Kings vii. 13 sqq.). The imagery of the Bible makes bronze the symbol of hardness and stability (Deut. xxviii. 23; Lev. xxvi. 19; Job. vi. 12, xl. 18; Isa. xlviii. 4).
Iron is of considerably later date in Palestine than copper. To the Babylonians it came to be more generally accessible in the period between Tiglath-Pileser I. (1100) and Asshurnasirpal (886). Under the latter, iron weapons were already in use; for other implements, iron was employed along with bronze. After 800 b.c, iron displaced bronze as a metal for practical use; and in Khors-
abad there was discovered a great iron couch of Sargon's (722-705). In Canaan iron begins to appear about the same time as in 4. Iron. Babylon; in Tell Hesy, from 1100 b.c; in Gezer (q.v.), it was of rare employment prior to Solomon's time, but it seems to have been earlier in use there for implements of husbandry than for weapons, since coincidently with iron hooks and sickles there appear bronze knives, daggers, and arrow-heads. Hence the introduction of iron was contemporaneous with the colonization of the Israelites. The statement that the war chariots of the Canaanites were tired with iron (Judges i. 19; cf. iv. 3; Josh. xvii. 18) is an anachronism, since bronze was the metal thus employed. The various discoveries through excavations and from the reports of the Old Testament during the royal period show that bronze long remained predominant over iron. Weapons are of bronze, while the earliest use of iron was for implements in the time of David (II Sam. xii. 31; cf. Amos i. 3). Subsequently, iron is mentioned more frequently; doors with iron bars (Isa. xlv. 2), coat of mail (Job xx. 24), chains (Ps. cxlix. 8), ax-heads and hatchets (II Kings vi. 5; Deut. xix. 5, xxvii. 5), nails and " styles " (Jer. xvii. 1; Job xix. 24). Deut. xxvii. 5 assumes that stone-cutting instruments are of iron as a rule. The Israelites had knowledge of iron furnaces for smelting the ores (Deut. iv. 20; Jer. xi. 4; I Kings vii. 16), but did not cast iron; for skilled craftsmen the metal used was always bronze, not iron. The widely current assumption that they knew how to harden iron into steel is erroneous. Hebrew imagery frequently made use of iron in similes and the like.
Tin (bedhll), which is mentioned in the Old Testament among the metals of which utensils were made (Num. xxxi. 22; Ezek. xxii. 18, 20), appears rarely to have been employed by itself alone. In one instance a tin plummet is men- 5. Other tioned (Zech. iv. 10); otherwise, the Metals, plummet is of lead. Tin is ordinarily employed as an adjunct with other metals (Ezek. xxii. 18, 20). Bedhil also designates the baser elements of silver ore (Isa. i. 25). The Phenicians imported tin from Tarshish (Ezek. xxvii. 12). Lead ('ophereth) is seldom mentioned; it came from Tarshish by way of Phenicia (Ezek. xxvii. 12; cf. Pliny, III., vii.). It ranked as a base metal (Jer. vi. 28 sqq.). Its gravity rendered it suitable for the plummet of carpenters and masons (Amos vii. 7 sqq.), and the " lead " of ships (Acts xxvii. 28). There were leaden tablets for writing (cf. Job xix. 23 sqq.; Pliny, XIII., ii:). It was also employed as an adjunct with certain alloys (Ezek. xxii. 18-22), and in the refining of silver from other mineral ingredients (Jer. vi. 29). Antimony (stibium, pukh) is employed by the Hebrews in preparing the black powder that was used by the women for painting their eyelids and eyebrows, and is still used in the East (Jer. iv. 30; Ezek. xxiii. 40; Job xlii. 14; II Kings ix. 30; Josephus, Wars, IV., ix. 10). Since it was rare and costly, substitutes were used in preparing the paint. The Hebrew word 'pukh is used to denote in general paints of this
Metcalfe Methodists