RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Miracles
Miscellaneous Religious Bodies
chiefly exegetical and doctrinal on the eight Miracles in the Fourth Gospel, New York, 1892; E. M^negoz, La Notion biblique du miracle, Paris, 1894; A. M. L^picier, Del Miracolo, sua natura, sue leggi, Rome, 1897; F. Barth, Die Hauptprobleme des Lebens Jesu, pp. 103 sqq., Giitersloh, 1899; A. T. Lyttelton, The Place of Miracles in Religion, London, 1899; J. M. Whiton, Miracles and Supernatural Religion, New York, 1903; K. Beth, Die W under Jesu, Lichterfeld, 1905; J. O. F. Murray, Spiritual and Historical Mvidence for Miracles, in Essays on Some Theological Questions, ed. H. B. Swete, London, 1905; G. Traub, Die Wunder im N. T., Tubingen, 1905; P. Saintyves, La Miracle et la critique historique, Paris, 1907; idem, Le Discernment du miracle, ib., 1909; A. A. Brockington, Old Testament Miracles in the Light of the Gospel, New York, 1907; L. von Gerdtell, De urchristlichen Wunder vor dem Forum der modernen Weltanschauung, Stuttgart, 1907; The Miracles of Jesus, A Series of Expositions, Manchester, 1907; G. Wobbermin, Der christliche Gottesglaube, Berlin, 1907; F. J. Lamb, Miracle and Science; Bible Miracles examined by the Methods, Rules and Tests of the Science of Jurisprudence as administered in Courts of Justice, Oberlin, 1909; DB, iii. 379-396; DCG, 186-191; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, part xxvi. cols. 1110-22.
MIRAMIONES. See Genevieve, Saint, Orders
OF, 2.
MIRANDOLA, GIOVANNI PICO DELLA. See Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni.
MIRBT, CARL THEODdR: German Lutheran; b. at Gnadenfrei (32 m. s. of Breslau) July 21, 1860. He was educated at the universities of Halle, Erlangen, and Gottingen (Lie. Theol., 1888), and, after a year as privat-docent at the latter institution, was called to Marburg in 1889 as associate professor of church history, being promoted to his present position of full professor of the same subject in the following year. In 1903 he was made a consistorial councilor and a member of the Cassel consistory. He has written Die Stellung Augustins in der Publizistik des gregorianischen Kirchenstreits (Leipsic, 1888); Die Absetzung Heinrichs IV durch Gregor VII. (1890) ; Die Wahl Gregors VII. (Marburg, 1892); Die Publizistik im Zeitalter Gregors VII. (Leipsic, 1894) ; Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums und des romischen Katholizismus (Freiburg, 1895; 2d. ed., 1901) ; Die preussische Gesandtschaft am Hofe des Papstes (1899); and Die katholisch-theologische Fakultdt zu Marburg (Marburg, 1905). He is likewise an associate editor of the Deutsch-Evangelische Zeitschrift fur die Kenntnis und Forderung der deutschen evangelischen Diaspora im Ausland.
MIRRORS, HEBREW: The use of mirrors among the Hebrews is proved by some late and somewhat enigmatic passages. It can not be held that the context of Isa. iii. 23 forbids the translation of gilyonim by " mirrors," since articles of clothing and of mere adornment are mentioned without separation into classes. The singular gillayon (Isa. viii. 1) signifies the uncovered, that is, the smoothed, tablet (A. V. " roll "), cf. galah, " shear," " shave." Ex. xxxviii. 8, a passage of late date, states that the laver of the tabernacle was made from the looking-glasses of the women who served (A. V. " assembled ") in the sanctuary (cf. I Sam. ii. 22). The Targum renders the re'i of Job xxxvii. 18 by ispaklarya, the Latin specularia; the translation " molten mirror " is correctly given by three late commentators on Job (K. Budde, Giessen, 1900; B. Duhm, Tubingen, 1897; and F.
Delitzsch, Leipsic, 1902). Mirrors are alluded to in Ecclus. xii. 11, dated about 200 b.c. In the Hebrew text of Ecclesiasticus (ed, H. L. Strack, Leipsic, 1903), mirror is rendered by raz, probably a corrupted re'i; the Greek version gives eisoptron. It may be deduced from the passages cited that mirrors were exclusively or at least usually handmirrors for women. They are designated as polished plates in Isa. iii. 23. According to Ex. xxxviii. 8, they were of metal (the Jerusalem Targum translates expressly " ispaklarya of brass " and Job xxxvii. 18 asserts that they were " molten." These Old-Testament data are confirmed by other ancient sources, for even in the luxurious homes of the later Romans and Greeks, there were rarely pier-glasses but usually only hand-glasses; and that, even toward the end of antiquity, polished metal plates were still used can be inferred from their liability to become dull (Ecclus. xii. 11; Wisdom, vii. 26, " an unspotted mirror ") and also from their imperfect reflection (I Cor. xiii. 12). In Egypt the mirrors were of tin ; with the Greeks of brass, silver, gold, etc.; among the Romans commonly of copper, mixed with tin, zinc, and other materials. The Talmud knew only of metal mirrors. Pliny asserts that glass mirrors (unsilvered) were invented in Sidon, but the first certain testimony comes from Alexander Aphrodisiensis at the beginning of the third century. It may be assumed that some of the Hebrew mirrors were fabricated by Hebrew metalworkers while others were imported; for both the Assyrians and the Egyptians used them and Corinth was especially renowned for the manufacture of these articles. (E. Konig.)
Bibliography: F. Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible, fasc. xxvi., cols. 1123-26, Paris, 1905; E. Gerhard, Etruskische Spiegel, 5 vols., Berlin, 1843-67; J. de Witte, Les Miroirs chez les anciens, Brussels, 1872; H. J. Van Lennep, Bible Lands, ii. 536-537, London, 1875; M. Collignon, Manuel d' archiologie grecque, pp. 346 sqq., Paris, 1881; Guhl and Koner, Leben der Griechen und Rbmer, ed. R. Engelmann, pp. 317, 746, 747, Berlin, 1893; DB, iii. 396-397; EB, iii. 3153; JE, viii. 609.