Copper

נהשה . Anciently, copper was employed for all the purposes for which we now use iron. Arms, and tools for husbandry and the mechanic arts, were all of this metal for many ages. Job speaks of bows of copper, Job 20:24; and when the Philistines had Samson in their power, they bound him with fetters of copper. Our translators, indeed say “brass;” but under that article their mistake is pointed out. In Ezr 8:27, are mentioned “two vessels of copper, precious as gold.” The Septuagint renders it σκευη χαλκου στιλβοντος; the Vulgate and Castellio, following the Arabic, “vasa aeris fulgentis;” and the Syriac, “vases of Corinthian brass.” It is more probable, however, that this brass was not from Corinth, but a metal from Persia or India, which Aristotle describes in these terms: “It is said that there is in India a brass so shining, so pure, so free from tarnish, that its colour differs nothing from that of gold. It is even said that among the vessels of Darius there were some respecting which the sense of smelling might determine whether they were gold or brass.” Bochart is of opinion that this is the

chasmal of Eze 1:27, the χαλκολιβανον of Rev 1:15, and the electrum of the ancients.

Mr. Harmer quotes from the manuscript notes of Sir John Chardin a reference to a mixed metal in the east, and highly esteemed there; and suggests that this composition might have been as old as the time of Ezra, and be brought from those more remote countries into Persia, where these two basins were given to be conveyed to Jerusalem. Eze 27:13, speaks of the merchants of Javan, Jubal, and Meshech, as bringing vessels of nehesh (copper) to the markets of Tyre. According to Bochart and Michaelis, these were people situated toward Mount Caucasus, where copper mines are worked at this day. See BRASS.

Tubal-cain is recorded as the first artificer in brass and iron (Gen 4:22). In the time of Solomon, Hiram of Tyre was celebrated as a worker in brass (1Ki 7:14; comp. 2Ch 2:14). To judge from Hesiod and Lucretius, the art of working in copper was even prior to that in iron, probably from its being found in larger masses, and from its requiring less labor in the process of manufacture. Palestine abounded in copper (Deu 8:9), and David left behind him an immense quantity of it to be employed in building the Temple (1Ch 22:3-14). Of copper were made all sorts of vessels in the Tabernacle and Temple (Lev 6:28; Num 16:39; 2Ch 4:16; Ezr 8:27), weapons, and more especially helmets, armor, shields, spears (1Sa 17:5-6; 1Sa 17:38; 2Sa 21:16), also chains (Jdg 16:21), and mirrors (Exo 38:8). The larger vessels were molded in foundries, as also the pillars for architectural ornaments (1 Kings 7). It would however appear (1Ki 7:14) that the art of copper-founding was, even in the time of Solomon, but little known among the Jews, and was peculiar to foreigners, particularly the Phoenicians. Michaelis observes, that Moses seems to have given to copper vessels the preference over earthen, and on that ground endeavors to remove the common prejudice against their use for culinary purposes. From copper, also, money was coined (Mat 10:9).

One of the primitive metals, and the most ductile and malleable after gold and silver. Of this metal and zinc is made brass, which is a modern invention. There is little doubt but that copper is intended in those passages of our translation on the Bible which speak of brass. Copper was known prior to the flood, and was wrought by Tubal-cain, Gen 4:22 . Hiram of Tyre was a celebrated worker in copper, 1Ki 7:14 . Palestine abounded in it, Deu 8:9, and David amassed great quantities to be employed in building the temple, 1Ch 22:3-14 . In Ezr 8:27, two vessels are mentioned "of fine copper, precious as gold." This was probably a metal compounded of copper, with gold or silver, or both. It was extolled for its beauty, solidity, and rarity, and for some uses was referred to gold itself. Some compound of this kind may have been used for the small mirrors mentioned in Exo 38:8 Job 37:18 . See BRASS.\par

Copper. Hebrew, nechosheth, in the Authorized Version, always rendered "brass", except in Ezr 8:27 and Jer 15:12. It was, almost exclusively, used by the ancients for common purposes, and for every kind of instrument, such as chains, pillars, lavers and the other Temple vessels. We read also of copper mirrors, Exo 38:8, and even of copper arms, as helmets, spears, etc. 1Sa 17:5-6; 1Sa 17:38; 2Sa 21:16.

(Ezr 8:27). But for KJV "brass" the translation elsewhere ought to be copper, (nechoshath,) or where native ore is not meant, probably bronze. Zinc, one ingredient of brass, was then unknown. Used by the ancients for many purposes, for which its ductile nature adapted it. The earliest inhabitants of Europe used flint weapons, now discovered in various places. But Tubal-cain (Gen 4:22, from whence probably by corrupted tradition was derived the classic idol, Vulcan, the god of the forge) was "an instructor of every artificer in brass (copper) and iron," 500 years after creation according to Hebrew, or 1,000 according to Septuagint, chronology. The ignorance of large portions of mankind, of iron and copper, subsequently or even at that early date, does not disprove Tubal-cain’s and his artificers’ acquaintance with them.

Savage nations, or races which have sunk in course of ages into barbarism, first used flint, then copper or bronze (an alloy of tin and copper), then iron; But there is no well-established instance of a savage race gradually civilizing themselves; the civilization has always been introduced from outside. Thus, bronze or copper was probably introduced among savages from more civilized nations. The American Indians at Cape Honduras visited by Columbus had hatchets, etc., of copper, and crucibles for melting it. Seth’s race was less distinguished for advancement in arts and luxuries than Cain’s race, which was wise in their generation; but the truest civilization is that which develops man’s moral and highest nature; in this respect Seth’s descendants were far superior, walking in recognition of conscience and of the providence and grace of God.

Many intimations show that the Israelites knew how to dig out and smelt metals (Deu 4:20; Deu 8:9; Ezr 22:18). Their mirrors of polished copper (Exo 38:8 margin) and "bows of copper" (Hebrew text of Psa 18:34) and "helmets," etc. (1Sa 17:38), show they had some secret of rendering copper harder than ours is. The absence of iron remains does not necessarily prove it was unknown in Egypt, for it and the making of good steel have been known from very ancient times in India. It quickly decomposes, and so would leave no remains of implements. The copper mines worked by the Moschi, whose merchants imported it into Tyre, are mentioned Eze 27:13.

(נְחשֶׁת, necho’sheth [whence also properly as an adjective, נָחוּשׁ, nachush’, brazen, fem. נְחוּשָׁה, nechushah’]; Greek χαλκός) occurs in the common translation of the Bible only in Ezr 8:27 (“two vessels of copper, precious as gold,” i.e. probably of a purer kind or more finely wrought than ordinary), being elsewhere incorrectly rendered “brass,” and occasionally even “steel” (2Sa 22:35; Jer 15:12), i.e. hardened so as to take a temper like iron). “The expression ‘ bow of steel’ (Job 20:24; Psa 18:34) should therefore be rendered ‘bow of copper,’ since the term for steel is פִּלְדָּה, or בִּרְזֶל מַצָּפוֹן(northern iron). The ancients could hardly have applied copper to these purposes without possessing some judicious system of alloys, or perhaps some forgotten secret for rendering the metal harder and more elastic than we can make it. It has been maintained that the cutting-tools of the Egyptians, with which they worked the granite and porphyry of their monuments, were made of bronze, in which copper was a chief ingredient. The arguments on this point are found in Wilkinson (Anc. Eg. 3. 249, etc.), but they are not conclusive. There seems to be no reason why the art of making iron and excellent steel, which has for ages been practiced in India, may not have been equally known to the Egyptians. The quickness with which iron decomposes will fully account for the non-discovery of any remains of steel or iron implements. For analyses of the bronze tools and articles found in Egypt and Assyria, see Napier (Ancient Workers in Metal, p. 88). This metal is usually found as pyrites (sulphuret of copper and ironr), malachite (carb. of copper), or in the state of oxide, and occasionally in a native state, principally in the New World. It was almost exclusively used by the ancients for common purposes, for which its elastic and ductile nature rendered it practically available (see Smith’s Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Acs). It is a question whether in the earliest times iron was known. In India, however, its manufacture has been practiced from a very ancient date by a process exceedingly simple, and possibly a similar one was employed by the ancient Egyptians (Napier, ut sup. p. 137).

There is no certain mention of iron in the Scriptures; and, from the allusion to it as known to Tubal-Cain (Gen 4:22), some have ventured to doubt whether in that place בִּרְזֶלmeans iron (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 3, 242). The vessels of ‘fine copper,’ mentioned in Ezr 8:27 (comp. 1Es 8:57, ‘vases of Corinthian brass’), were perhaps similar to those of ‘bright brass’ in 1Ki 7:45; Dan 10:6. They may have been of orichalcum, like the Persian or Indian vases found among the treasures of Darius (Aristot. De Mirab. Auscult.). There were two kinds of this metal, one natural (Serv. ad AEn. 12:87), which Pliny (H. Nat. 34. 2, 2) says had long been extinct in his time, but which Chardin alludes to as found in Sumatra under the name calmbac; the other artificial (identified by some with’ electrium, ἤλεκτρον, whence the mistaken spelling ‘auzichalcum), which Bochart (Hieroz. 6, ch. 16, p. 871 sq.) considers to be the Hebrew חִשְׁמָל, chashmal’, a word compounded (he says) of נְחָשׁ(copper), and Chald. מְלָלָא(? gold, Eze 1:4; Eze 1:27; Eze 8:2). On this substance, see Pausan. 5- 12; Plin. 33:4, § 23. Gesenius considers the χαλκολίβανον, of Rev 1:15, to be χαλκὸς λιπαρός῟חִשְׁמָל; he differs from Boehart,’ and argues that it means merely smooth or polished; brass.” SEE AMBER. “Many of the ancient copper alloys had to stand working by the hammer; and their working was such, either for toughness or hardness, that we cannot at the present-day make anything like it” (Napier, ut sup., p. 54). The Mexicans and Peruvians, when first visited by the Spaniards, were in possession of tempered implements of copper, and had the means of smelting, refining, and forging this metal. They were also able to harden it by alloying. “The metal used for this latter purpose was tin; and the various Peruvian articles subjected to analysis are found to contain from three to six per cent. of that metal” (Silliman’s Journal, 2:51). SEE METAL.

Tubal-Cain is recorded as the first artificer in brass and iron (Gen 4:22). In the time of Solomon, Hiram of Tyre was celebrated as a worker in brass (1Ki 7:14; comp. 2Ch 2:14). To judge from Hesiod (Op. et Dies, 134) and Lucret. (v. 1285), the art of working in copper was even prior to that in iron, probably from its being found in larger masses, and from its requiring less labor in the process of manufacture. Palestine abounded in copper (Deu 8:9), the mines being apparently worked by the Israelites (Isa 51:1); and David left behind him an immense quantity of it to be employed in building the Temple (1Ch 22:3-14). Of copper were made all sorts of vessels in the tabernacle and temple (Lev 6:28; Num 16:39; 2Ch 4:16; Ezr 8:27), weapons, and more especially helmets, armor, shields, spears (1Sa 17:5-6; 1Sa 17:38; 2Sa 21:16), and bows (2Sa 22:35), also chains (Jdg 16:21), and even mirrors (Exo 38:8; Job 37:18). The larger vessels were moulded in foundries, such as lavers, the great one being called “the copper sea” (2Ki 25:13; 1Ch 18:8); also the pillars for architectural ornaments (1 Kings 7). It would, however, appear (1Ki 7:14). that the art of copperfounding was, even in the time of Solomon, but little known among the Jews, and was peculiar to foreigners, particularly the Phoenicians, who seem to have imported the material and even wrought articles from a distant quarter (Eze 27:13), probably’ from the Moschi, etc., who worked the copper mines in the neighborhood of Mount Caucasus. Michaelis (Mos. Recht, 4:217, 314) observes that Moses seems to have given to copper vessels the preference over earthen (Lev 6:28), and on that ground endeavors to remove the common prejudice against their use for culinary purposes. From copper, also, money was coined (Eze 16:36; Mat 10:9). SEE BRASS.

See BRASS.

By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Wilhelm Nowack

The first common metal to come into use, as it is easily obtained and readily worked. Burial-places in which utensils, weapons, etc., of iron are found are ascribed to a later period than are those containing copper or bronze weapons.

Name and Origin.

The word "copper" is derived from the name "Cyprus," the island from which the ancient Greeks obtained this metal; hence the name χάλχος, κύπριος Latin æs cyprium, copper. The Hebrew name "neḥoshet" denotes not only copper, but also copper alloy. Since copper is rather soft and very flexible, it was mixed with other metals, especially with tin, thereby becoming almost as hard as steel. Of such a copper alloy, probably, were made the spear-head (I Sam. xvii. 7), the lance (II Sam. xxi. 16), and the bow (II Sam. xxii. 35), and perhaps also fetters (Judges xvi. 21). In the earliest times swords and axes, doubtless, were cast in copper alloy (I Kings vii. 46); later on they were forged in iron (I Sam. xiii. 19; Isa. ii. 4).

In Palestine itself there were no copper-mines, and probably none in the Lebanon Mountains, though iron ore was found there; hence the Israelites had to import their raw material either from the Egyptians or the Phenicians. The former in very early times worked copper-mines on the Sinai peninsula; and the ruins of immense works may still be seen in Wadi Meghara and Wadi Nasb. The Egyptian inscriptions found there state that even before the time of Cheops or Khufu, who built the great pyramid at Gizeh, copper was mined by Senoferu, a king of the fourth dynasty. The Phenicians probably mined copper first in Cyprus. But Ezek. xxvii. 13 states that later on they obtained ore also from the Colchian Mountains through the Tibareni and Moschi. The Israelites had commercial relations both with the Egyptians and the Phenicians, but not in very early times. Moses, however, is represented as having made a serpent of brass ("neḥushtan," Num. xxi.9), which was later on worshiped in the Temple of Jerusalem, and which Hezekiah "brake in pieces" (II Kings xviii. 4); and Bezaleel, while in the desert, is said to have made partly out of brass the vessels for the Tabernacle.

Images and Altars of Brass.

These instances are anachronisms; for it is shown in I Kings vii. 13 (compare II Chron. ii. 12 et seq.) that in the days of Solomon the process of casting brass was still unknown to the Israelites, since the king had to send to Tyre for a worker in brass (Hiram). Ex. xxxviii. is also an instance of anachronism, the furnishings of Solomon's Temple being taken as a pattern; while the neḥushtan of II Kings xviii. 4, if it actually belongs to early times, must have been imported from elsewhere. That such things were imported may be gathered from the commandment of Yhwh in Ex. xxxiv. 17. If a "molten image" () is here forbidden to the people, it may be assumed that, in contradistinction to the old Hebrew Ephod of wood or stone, the imported image of brass was interdicted, and that in Ex. xxxiv. 17 the term "massekah" () is to be taken in its specific sense of a brazen manufacture; for in early times idols of wood or stone, plated with gold or silver, were worshiped ("efod" or "pesel"; compare Judges viii. 22 et seq., xvii. 1 et seq.). This assumption is all the more probable since there is no longer any doubt that foreign, more especially Phenician, influences affected the construction and furnishing of Solomon's Temple.

In early times the altar of Yhwh was built of earth or of unhewn stone (Ex. xx. 24 et seq.). The brazen altar in the Temple of Solomon indicates a breaking away from this old Israelitic custom; and Ahaz afterward had a new altar built in the Temple, patterned after an altar he had seen at Damascus (II Kings xvi. 10 et seq.). From this time on it probably became the custom in Israel to make their vessels of brass. Unfortunately the costly brazen pillars, calves, vessels, etc., that adorned the Temple since the days of Solomon, were destroyed by the vandalism of the Babylonians, who broke them into pieces and carried the metal to Babylon (II Kings xv. 13 et seq.; Jer. lii. 17 et seq.). In the Second Temple there were also brazen vessels, but not in such quantities; brazen cymbals are mentioned in I Chron. xv. 28 (compare Josephus, "Ant." vii. 12, § 3). The heaven of brass referred to in Deut. xxviii. 23 does not mean that after a long-continued drought the sky gleams like new molten bronze, since in the parallel passage of Lev. xxvi. 19 the earth also is compared to brass. It means rather that the vault of heaven is closed so tight that no drop of rain can descend, and the earth in consequence is turned into brass; that is, becomes hard and unproductive.

Bibliography:

O. Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, vi.;

Johannes Ranke, Der Mensch, ii. 516-523.

COPPER.—See Brass, and Mining and Metals.

kop´ẽr (נחשׁת, n^eḥōsheth): The word is translated “copper” in only one passage (Ezr 8:27 the King James Version). In the American Standard Revised Version of this passage, “brass” has been substituted. Neither describes the actual alloy according to present definitions so well as the word “bronze.” Copper was one of the earliest metals to be known and utilized in alloy, but copper, as a single metal, was probably little used. The remains of spears, balances, arms, vases, mirrors, statues, cooking utensils, implements of all kinds, etc., from Bible times are principally of an alloy of copper hardened with tin known today as bronze (see BRASS). In such passages as Deu 8:9, where reference is made to the native metal or ores, “copper” should be substituted for “brass” as in the American Standard Revised Version (compare Job 40:18). This is true also of coins as χαλκός, chalkós, in Mat 10:9.

Our modern English word “copper” is derived from an old name pertaining to the island of Cyprus. Copper was known to the ancients as Cyprian brass, probably because that island was one of the chief sources for this metal. The Sinai peninsula and the mountains of northern Syria also contributed to the ancient world’s supply (see Tell el-Amarna Letters). No evidences of copper ore in any quantity are found in Palestine proper. See METAL; MINE.

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