144 PKOF, HULLj LL.D., P.R.S., ON HOLY SCBIPTURE ILLUSTRATED AND 



SO that it is good as a cutting material, wliich copper really is not. 

 There is very little doubt that they had the means, in some way 

 or other, of hardening copper, and it is a matter of speculation 

 amongst many of us as to what those means of hardening copper 

 were.* I believe there were more than one method. They did 

 not always use hard copper, because the last I examined from 

 Chaldea was soft. That was very ancient, and pure copper. This 

 has a bearing on the metal spoken of in Scripture. We often read 

 of bronze under the name of brass, and this word is constantly 

 employed in the Old Testament. It was the metal par excellence 

 of those days. They made almost everything of it, cutting 

 implements, fetters, chains, ornaments and other things which one 

 would not expect to find made of bronze ; for instance we read of 

 gates of bronze in the ancient cities, and there is one particular 

 expression in the 18th Psalm, v, 34, where David says, " So 

 that mine arms do bend a bow of steel." It occurs also in the 

 book of Job (20th Chap. v. 2). In both places it is translated in 

 the Authorised Version as a '• bow of steel." The word is " bras^s " 

 or bronze, and it is put so in the Revised Version. (See Calmet 

 and others.) It required great strength, no doubt, even to bend 

 this bow of bronze. As to the matter of gates of bronze, I have put 

 in my pocket, thinking it possible I might have the opportunity of 

 showing it to somebody here (probably you have seen it before) a 

 portion of the gates of Shalmaneser's Palace. This is Assyrian, of 

 course ; but it is connected with the history of the Israelites ; for 

 we know that Jehu sent tribute to Shalmaneser, and probably his 

 messengers passed between those doors of which this is a portion 

 of the bronze. (Producing the specimens.) It is not that they 

 were made of solid bronze. 



Mr. HoRMUZD Rassam. — They were of timber. 



Dr. Gladstone. — They were gates of timber covered with bands 

 and bolts of bronze. The language of Scripture, therefore, is 

 correct in reference to this large use of bronze. But let me go a 

 little further and refer to iron. Iron does not appear to have 

 been used except in compai'atively late periods. It was used, no 

 doubt, more or less, during most of the time when the Jews were 



. * It is reported that the process has been re - discovered in 

 America, — Ed, 



