Mirror

(Job 37:18; Sir. 12:11; James 1:23) was generally made among the Hebrews not of glass, which came into use for this purpose only in the fourteenth century A.D., but of some polished metal. The metallic composition of ancient mirrors is attested in a certain way by Job (37:18): “Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?” said Elihu to Job. Various metals were used by the Hebrews for the making of mirrors. The Arabs, even to the present day, use polished steel for mirrors.

Among the Hebrews, mirrors were never hung on walls, as with us, but were always fastened to a handle, sometimes elaborately carved and adorned, and were carried either in the hand or worn on a cord about the neck. In mirrors of such construction, all objects seen would, of course, be reflected indistinctly and dimly. This is why St. Paul the Apostle writes in his first epistle to the Corinthians (13:12): “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face” — that is, all things spiritual and eternal are seen and contemplated by us in our present state just as indistinctly and dimly as natural objects are seen indistinctly by us in a dim mirror.