“Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror”
1 Corinthians 13:12
Cultural referenceSettledPaul
Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12 BSB)
What it sounds like today
The old 'through a glass, darkly': a fogged window.
The cultural key
Not glass and not a window: ancient mirrors were polished bronze, and Corinth was famous for making them. The best bronze mirror gave a serviceable but dim, wavering image, a face seen in warm metal. Paul reaches for the city's own signature product: your finest local mirror, he tells Corinth, is exactly how well we currently see divine things, a real reflection, genuinely informative, and nothing like the meeting to come.
Recovered meaning
Present knowledge is a bronze-mirror image: true but blurred, indirect, and lit by inference. 'Face to face' is the difference between the reflection and the person, which is why love outranks the partial knowledge the Corinthians were boasting about.
Parallels: Numbers 12:8; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2