ST. PAUL'S "GLASS."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—I beg to call attention to what there can be little doubt is an inaccuracy in your valuable article, "Equality in Heaven." Paul's "glass" (rO g6oisrpov) was neither "a sort of semi-translu- cent slag" nor " our artificial crystal," but a mirror—a looking_ glass. Some commentators certainly did consider that the word meant something that was looked through, but such a use of i'oorrpow has no support (see James i., 23). They were perhaps mislead by the use of did.. Winer's (Gram. N. 'F., iii., § 47) expla- nation of the use of this preposition is probably correct,—that it is "said agreeably to a popular notion ;—the view is thought to pass through the mirror as the form appears to be standing behind the glass." Archbishop Trench (on the Authorized Version, p. 159) supposes the use of bide here to be merely instrumental, and would render, "For now we see by a glass darkly."
Knowing that our translators used " glass " in the sense of mirror, it is quite possible that the correct interpretation was
entertained by them.—I am, Sir, &c, J. C. D.
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