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Glasener, Justus Martin

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Nave Topical Bible
• Looking-Glass
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Thompson Chain Reference
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American Tract Society
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Easton's Bible Dictionary
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People's Bible Dictionary
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Smith Bible Dictionary
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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia
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McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
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The Nuttall Encyclopedia
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• Glass
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Lexicons
• ܙܓ݂ܽܘܓ݂ܳܐ
• ܙܓ݂ܽܘܓ݂ܺܝܬ݂ܳܐ
• ἔσοπτρον
• κατοπτρίζω
• ὑάλινος
•   (only first 3 shown)
• גִּלָּיון
• זְכוֹכִית
• רְאִי

(the material is perhaps denoted by זְכוּכַית, zekukith', rock "crystal," Job 28:17; ὕαλος, crystal, "glass," Revelation 21:18; Revelation 21:21; and hence the adj. ὐάλινος, crystalline, "of glass," Revelation 4:6; Revelation 15:2 (See CRYSTAL); the instrument or looking-glass by גַּלָּיוֹן, gillayon', a tablet, "roll," Isaiah 8:1; "glass," i.e., mirror, Isaiah 3:23; מִרְאָה, marah', a " vision," as usually rendered; "looking-glass," Exodus 38:8; ἔσοπτρον, a mirror, "glass," 1 Corinthians 13:12; James 1:23 (See MIRROR) ), according to Pliny (H. Nat. 36:26), was discovered by what is termed accident. Some merchants kindled a fire on that part of the coast of Phoenicia which lies near Ptolemais, between the foot of Carmel and Tyre, at a spot where the river Belus casts the fine sand which it brings down; but, as they were without the usual means of suspending their cooking vessels, they employed for that purpose logs of nitre, their vessel being laden with that substance: the fire fusing the nitre and the sand produced glass. He proceeds to state that the Sidonians, in whose vicinity the discovery was made, took it up, and, having in process of time carried the art to a high degree of excellence, gained thereby both wealth and fame; other nations became their pupils; the Romans especially attained to very high skill in the art of fusing blowing, and coloring glass; finally, even glass mirrors were invented by the Sidonians. This account of Pliny is in substance corroborated by Strabo (16:15) and by Josephus (War, 2:9). But this account is less likely than the supposition that vitreous matter first attracted observation from the custom of lighting fires on the sand "in a country producing natron or subcarbonate of soda" (Rawlinson's Herod. 2:82). It has been pointed out that Pliny's story may have originated in the fact that the sand of the Syrian river Belus, at the mouth of which the incident is supposed to have occurred, "was esteemed peculiarly suitable for glass-making, and exported in great quantities to the workshops of Sidon and Alexandria, long the most famous in the ancient world" (Smith, Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Vitrum, where everything requisite to the illustration of the classical allusions to glass may be found). Some find a remarkable reference to this little river (respecting which, see Pliny, Hist. Nat. 5:17; 36:65; Josephus, War, 2:10, 12; Tacitus, Hist. 5:7) in the blessing to the tribe of Zebulun, "they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand" (Deuteronomy 33:19). Both the name Belus (Reland, Palest. page 267) and the Hebrew word חוֹל "sand," have been suggested as derivations for the Greek ὕαλος, which is, however, in all probability, from an Egyptian root. (See BELUS). Some suppose that the proper name מַשְׁרְפוֹת מִיַם ("burnings by the waters") contains an allusion to Sidonian glass-factories (Meier on Joshua 11:8; Joshua 13:6), but it is much more probable that it was so called from the burning of Jabin's chariots at that place (Lord A. Hervey, On the Genealogies, page 228), or from hot springs. (See MISREPHOTH-MAIM)

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