The Bible, a mirror (Fairbairn, The imperial Bible-dictionary, historical, biographical, geographical, and doctrinal, 1866, vol. 1)

Text: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." 1 Corinthians 13:12; "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18

Quote:

[...] Nor was glass in ancient times, so far as we know, ever applied to the production of mirrors. These were made of some sort of metal---the larger and more expensive ones of silver, and those in more common use of what is denominated brass, though it is understood to have been a compound of copper and tin, not copper and zinc, which are the real ingredients in brass. Hence the laver for the tabernacle was made of the looking-glasses which had belonged to the pious women who statedly attended upon the services of the sanctuary, Ex. xxxviii. 8. Hence also in Job the sky is spoken of as being spread out "like a molten looking-glass," ch. xxxvii. 18. And in 1 Co. xiii. 12---"for now we see through a glass darkly (ἐν αἰνίγματι, in a mystery)"---though nothing is implied as to the substance composing the glass, yet it seems best to understand the apostle as speaking of glass in the same sense as where the word is elsewhere used, 2 Co. iii. 18; Ja. i. 23, &c., that is, of glass in the sense of mirror, reflecting, though somewhat dimly and imperfectly (more so in ancient times than now), the objects exhibited in it. To the eye of the spectator such objects appear to be seen through the glass, on its farther side, and with a degree of darkness or mystery corresponding to the imperfection of the instrument employed. God's Word is a mirror of this sort in respect to spiritual and divine things, in which and through which, as it were, the eye of faith can apprehend them, yet imperfectly, as in the far distance and amid a haze of dimness and obscurity. This is the only meaning of the passage that appears to be justified by the state of ancient art. [...]

[...] in the second epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle has again connected the gospel with glass in the sense of a reflecting mirror. 

Fairbairn, Patrick, The imperial Bible-dictionary, historical, biographical, geographical, and doctrinal; including the natural history, antiquities, manners, customs and religious rites and ceremonies mentioned in the Scriptures, and an account of the several books of the Old and New Testaments; illustrated by numerous engravings, London and Glasgow and Edinburgh: Blackie and Son, 1866, vol. 1, pp. 660-661.

Online Source: archive.org/details/theimperialbible01unknuoft

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