1 Corinthians 13:12 Commentary and Bible Study

The translation is a stroke of genius. ‘We see through a glass, darkly.’ It isn’t actually what the Greek says. It says, we see through a glass as a riddle. What we see in the glass is a riddle, an enigma. They didn’t really have glasses in those days, mirrors as we have them. The people had pieces of polished metal, beautifully done – as you can find them in the British Museum – of different metals, highly polished. But a mirror, so to speak, was never flat. And you looked in this metal mirror, and of course it was stained and coloured; and that wasn’t really your true colour that you saw reflected back. You couldn’t be sure it was even your shape. ‘Why am I longer and thinner in the face than other human beings?’ you would say. Because the mirror of those days was a little bent; it was not accurate. It distorted you somewhat. ‘Now we see through a glass, darkly.’ That is how the ancients thought. When you had something that reflected you, it was as though you were seeing you on the other side. Some people see it that way today. Most people don’t, I think. They look at it more scientifically; they say, ‘That is my reflection.’ But some people say, ‘No, I am seeing myself over there. I am seeing through the glass, and I am seeing it in a somewhat distorted way.But Paul says, ‘When we go to heaven, it won’t be like that; that we shall see the Lord. We see the Lord now, but not perfectly; only by faith, only with the eye of faith. Then we shall see our divine Lord and Saviour face-to-face. What a difference heaven will make.’ But some things will go on. Knowledge – it will be superseded by reality. ‘Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’