Brick

VIEW:42 DATA:01-04-2020

BRICK.—The use of sun-dried bricks as building material in OT times, alongside of the more durable limestone, is attested both by the excavations and by Scripture references (see House). The process of brick-making shows the same simplicity in every age and country. Suitable clay is thoroughly moistened, and reduced to a uniform consistency by tramping and kneading (Nah_3:14 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘go into the clay, and tread the mortar’). It then passes to the brick-moulder, who places the right quantity in his mould, an open wooden frame with one of its four sides prolonged as a handle, wiping off the superfluous clay with his hand. The mould is removed and the brick left on the ground to dry in the sun. Sometimes greater consistency was given to the clay by mixing it with chopped straw and the refuse of the threshing-floor, as related in the familiar passage Exo_5:7-19. As regards the daily ‘tale of bricks’ there referred to, an expert moulder in Egypt to-day is said to be able to turn out no fewer than ‘about 3000 bricks’ per diem (Vigouroux, Dict. de la Bible, i. 1932). The Egyptian bricks resembled our own in shape, while those of Babylonia were generally as broad as they were long. According to Flinders Petrie, the earliest Palestine bricks followed the Babylonian pattern.
There is no evidence in OT of the making of kiln-burnt bricks, which was evidently a foreign custom to the author of Gen_11:3. The brickkiln of 2Sa_12:31, Nah_3:14 is really the brick-mould (so RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). In the obscure passage Jer_43:9 RV [Note: Revised Version.] has brickwork. A curious ritual use of bricks as incense-altars is mentioned in Isa_65:3.
Reference may also be made to the use of clay as a writing material, which was introduced into Palestine from Babylonia, and, as we now know, continued in use in certain quarters till the time of Hezekiah at least. Plans of buildings, estates, and cities were drawn on such clay tablets, a practice which illustrates the command to Ezekiel to draw a plan of Jerusalem upon a tils or clay brick (Eze_4:1, see the elaborate note by Haupt in ‘Ezekiel’ (PB [Note: B Polychrome Bible.] ), 98 ff.).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

The earliest were those used in building Babel, of clay burned in the fire. Gen_11:3, "Let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly (margin burn them to a burning). And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." So Herodotus states that in building Babylon's walls the clay dug out of the ditch was made into bricks, being burnt in kilns. The bricks were cemented with hot bitumen (asphalt), and at every thirtieth row reeds were stuffed in. The materials were ready to their hands, clay and bitumen bubbling up from the ground. But in Assyria and Egypt the bricks are sundried, not fireburnt, though in Jer_43:9 a brick kiln is mentioned in Egypt.
The Babylonian are larger than English bricks, being about 13 in. square, and 3 1/2 in. thick; more like our tiles, and often enameled with patterns (compare Eze_4:1); such have been found at Nimrud. The Babylonians used to record astronomical observations on tiles. Nebuchadnezzar's buildings superseded those of his predecessors; hence, most of the Babylonian bricks bear his name m cuneiform character. The Egyptian are from 15 to 20 in. long, 7 wide, 5 thick. Those of clay from the torrent beds near the desert need no straw, and are as solid now as when put up m the reigns of the Egyptian kings before the Exodus. Those made of Nile mud need straw to prevent cracking; and frequently a layer of reeds at intervals acted as binders.
In the paintings on the tomb of Rekshara, an officer of Thothmes III (1400 B.C.), captives, distinguished from the natives by color, are represented as forced by taskmasters to make brick; the latter armed with sticks are receiving "the tale of bricks." This maybe a picture of the Israelites in their Egyptian bondage; at least it strikingly illustrates it. In Assyria artificial mounds, encased with limestone blocks, raised the superstructure 30 or 40 feet above the level of the plain. The walls of crude brick were cased with gypsum slabs to the height of 10 feet; kiln-burned bricks cased the crude bricks from the slabs to the top of the wall. The brick kiln is mentioned in David's time as in use in Israel (2Sa_12:31); they in Isaiah's time (Isa_65:3) substituted altars of brick for the unhewn stone which God commanded.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Brick. Gen_11:3. The brick in use, among the Jews, were much larger than with us, being usually from 12 to 13 inches square and 3 1/2 inches thick; they thus, possess more of the character of tiles. Eze_4:1. The Israelites, in common with other captives, were employed by the Egyptian monarchs in making bricks and in building. Exo_1:14; Exo_5:7.
Egyptian bricks were not generally dried in kilns, but in the sun. That brick-kilns were known is evident from 2Sa_12:31; Jer_43:9. When made of the Nile mud, they required straw to prevent cracking. See Straw.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

(לבנה, lebhēnāh): The ancient Egyptian word appears in the modern Egyptian Arabic toob. In Syria the sun-baked bricks are commonly called libn or lebin, from the same Semitic root as the Hebrew word.
Bricks are mentioned only a few times in the Bible. The story of how the Children of Israel, while in bondage in Egypt, had their task of brick-making made more irksome by being required to collect their own straw is one of the most familiar of Bible narratives (Exo_1:14; Exo_5:7, Exo_5:10-19).
Modern excavations at Pithom in Egypt (Exo_1:11) show that most of the bricks of which that store-city was built were made of mud and straw baked in the sun. These ruins are chosen as an example from among the many ancient brick structures because they probably represent the work of the very Hebrew slaves who complained so bitterly of their royal taskmaster. In some of the upper courses rushes had been substituted for straw, and still other bricks had no fibrous material. These variations could be explained by a scarcity of straw at that time, since, when there was a shortage in the crops, all the straw (Arabic, tibn) was needed for feeding the animals. It may be that when the order came for the workmen to provide their own straw they found it impossible to gather sufficient and still furnish the required number of bricks (Exo_5:8). However, the quality of clay of which some of the bricks were made was such that no straw was needed.
Brickmaking in early Egyptian history was a government monopoly. The fact that the government pressed into service her Asiatic captives, among whom were the Children of Israel, made it impossible for independent makers to compete. The early bricks usually bore the government, stamp or the stamp of some temple authorized to use the captives for brick manufacture. The methods employed by the ancient Egyptians differ in no respect from the modern procedure in that country. The Nile mud is thoroughly slipped or mixed and then rendered more cohesive by the addition of chopped straw or stubble. The pasty mass is next worked into a mould made in the shape of a box without a bottom. If the sides of the mould have been dusted with dry earth it will easily slip off and the brick is allowed to dry in the sun until it becomes so hard that the blow of a hammer is often necessary to break it.
When the children of Israel emigrated to their new country they found the same methods of brickmaking employed by the inhabitants, methods which are still in vogue throughout the greater part of Palestine and Syria. In the interior of the country, especially where the building stone is scarce or of poor quality, the houses are made of sun-baked brick (libn). Frequently the west and south walls, which are exposed most to the winter storms, are made of hewn stone and the rest of the structure of bricks. When the brick-laying is finished the house is plastered inside and outside with the same material of which the bricks are made and finally whitewashed or painted with grey- or yellow-colored earth. The outer coating of plaster must be renewed from year to year. In some of the villages of northern Syria the brick houses are dome-shaped, looking much like beehives. In the defiant assertion of Isa_9:10 the superiority of hewn stone over bricks implied a greater difference in cost and stability than exists between a frame house and a stone house in western lands today.
In the buildings of ancient Babylonia burnt bricks were used. These have been found by modern excavators, which confirms the description of Gen_11:3. Burnt bricks were rarely used in Egypt before the Roman period and in Palestine their use for building purposes was unknown. Specimens of partially burnt, glazed bricks have been found in Babylonia and recently in one of the Hittite mounds of northern Syria. These were probably used for decorative purposes only. If burnt bricks had been generally used in Palestine, races of them would have been found with the pottery which is so abundant in the ruins (see POTTERY).
The fact that unburnt bricks were so commonly used explains how the sites of such cities as ancient Jericho could have become lost for so many centuries. When the houses and walls fell they formed a heap of earth not distinguishable from the surrounding soil. The wood rotted and the iron rusted away, leaving for the excavator a few bronze and stone implements and the fragments of pottery which are so precious as a means of identification. The ?tels? or mounds of Palestine and Syria often represent the ruins of several such cities one above the other.
Literature
H. A. Harper, The Bible and Modern Discoveries; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians; Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt; Hilprext, Recent Research in Bible Lands.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Gen_11:3 (c) This is a type of man-made religious programs which lack the consistency, strength and durability of the Rock of Ages. No religion of any kind that has its origin in the mind of a man or a woman will pass GOD's judgment. Salvation is of the Lord, and not of some group of men or women. Salvation is of the Jews, and therefore cannot come through any Gentile source. All false religions are as "bricks." They are designed and conceived in human minds and are not based on the Word of GOD, nor the will of GOD.

Isa_9:10 (b) Israel found that if their first efforts in following idols should fail, then they would devise ways and means of sinning in a more durable and lasting way.

Isa_65:3 (b) Here we find a picture of the wickedness of Israel. They should have made altars of stone. Stones are made by GOD. Instead of that they made altars of brick, and bricks are made by men. They substituted their own works (bricks), for and instead of GOD's works (stones). (See also Exo_20:25).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Brick
(לְבֵנָה, lebenah', so called from the whitish clay of which bricks are made, as described by Vitruv. ii, 3; rendered "tile" in Eze_4:1; hence the denominative verb לָבִן, laban', to nake brick, Gen_11:5; Exo_5:7; Exo_5:14). Bricks compacted with straw and dried in the sun are those which are chiefly mentioned in the Scriptures. Of such bricks the Tower of Babel was doubtless composed (Gen_11:3), and the making of such formed the chief labor of the Israelites when bondsmen in Egypt (Exo_1:13-14).
1. Babylonian. — Herodotus (i, 179), describing the mode of building the walls of Babylon, says that the clay dug out of the ditch was made into bricks as soon as it was carried up, and burnt in the kilns, καμίνοισι. The bricks were cemented with hot bitumen (ἄσφαλτος), and at every thirtieth row crates of reeds were stuffed in. This account agrees with the history of the building of the Tower of Confusion, in which the builders used bricks instead of stone, and slime ( חֵמָרἄσφαλτος) for mortar (Gen_11:3; Joseph. Ant. i, 4, 3). In the alluvial plain of Assyria, both the material for bricks and the cement, which bubbles up from the ground, and is collected and exported by the Arabs, were close at hand for building purposes; but the Babylonian bricks were more commonly burned in kilns than those used at Nineveh, which are chiefly sundried, like the Egyptian. Xenophon mentions a wall called the wall of Media, not far from Babylon, made of burned bricks set in bitumen, 20 feet wide and 100 feet high; also another wall of brick 50 feet wide (Diod. ii, 7, 8, 12; Xen. Anab. ii, 4, 12; 3:4, 11; Nah_3:14; Layard, Nineveh, ii, 46, 252, 278). While it is needless to inquire to what place or to whom the actual invention of brickmaking is to be ascribed, there is perhaps no place in the world more favorable for the process, none in which the remains of original brick structures have been more largely used in later times for building purposes. The Babylonian bricks are usually from 12 to 13 in. square, and 3 'in. thick. (American bricks are usually 8 in. long, 3k to 4 wide, and 2k thick.) They most of them bear the name inscribed in cuneiform character of Nebuchadnezzar, whose buildings, no doubt, replaced those of an earlier age (Layard, Nin. and Babyl. p. 505, 531). They thus have more of the character of tiles (Eze_4:1). They were sometimes glazed and enamelled with patterns of various colors. Semiramis is said by Diodorus to have overlaid some of her towers with surfaces of enamelled brick bearing elaborate designs (Di. odor. ii, 8). Enamelled bricks have been found at Nimroud (Layard, ii, 312). Pliny (vii, 56) says that the Babylonians used to record their astronomical observations on tiles (coctilibus lateroulis). He also, as well as Vitruvius, describes the process of making bricks at Rome. There were three sizes: (a), 1 ft. long, 1 ft. broad; (b), 4 (Greek) palms long, 12.135 in.; (c), 5 palms long, 15.16875 in.; the breadth of these latter two the same. He says the Greeks preferred brick walls in general to stone (35, 14; Vitruv. ii, 3, 8). Bricks of more than 3 palms length, and of less than 1w palm, are mentioned by the Talmudists (Baba Me;a, c. 10:fol. 1176; Baba Bathra, i, 3 a). SEE TILE.
2. Egyptian. — The use of crude brick, baked in the sun, was universal in Upper and Lower Egypt, both for public and private buildings; and the brick-field gave abundant occupation to numerous laborers throughout the country. These simple materials were found to be particularly suited to the climate, and the ease, rapidity, and cheapness with which they were made afforded additional recommendations. The Israelites, in common with other captives, were employed by the Egyptian monarchs in making bricks and in building (Exo_1:14; Exo_5:7). Kiln-bricks were not generally used in Egypt, but were dried in the sun, and even without straw are as firm as when first put up in the reigns of the Amunophs and Thotmes whose names they bear. The usual dimensions vary from 20 in. or 17 in. to 143 in. long , 81 in. to 61 in. wide; and 7 in. to 4 in. thick. When made of the Nile mud or alluvial deposit, they required (as they still require) straw to prevent cracking; but those formed of clay taken from the torrent beds on the edge of the desert held together without straw; and crude brick walls had frequently the additional security of a layer of reeds and sticks, placed at intervals to act as binders (Wilkinson, ii, 194, abridgm.;; Birch, Ancient Pottery, i, 14; comp. Herod. i, 179). Baked bricks, however, were used, chiefly in places in contact with water. They are smaller than the sun-dried bricks (Birch, i, 23).
A brick-kiln is mentioned as in Egypt by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer_43:9). A brick pyramid is mentioned by Herodotus (ii, 136) as the work of King Asychis. Sesostris (ii, 138) is said to have employed his captives in building. Numerous remains of buildings of various kinds exist, constructed of sun-dried bricks, of which many specimens are to be seen in the British Museum with inscriptions indicating their date and purpose (Birch, i, 11, 17). Among the paintings at Thebes, one on the tomb of Rekshara, an officer of the court of Thotmes III (B.C. cir. 1400), represents the enforced labors in brick-making of captives, who are distinguished from the natives by the color in which they are drawn. Watching over the laborers are "task-masters," who, armed with sticks, are receiving the "tale of bricks" and urging on the work. The processes, of digging out the clay, of moulding, and of arranging, are all duly represented; and, though the laborers cannot be determined to be Jews, yet the similarity of employment illustrates the Bible history in a remarkable degree (Wilkinson, ii, 197; Birch, i, 19; see Aristoph. Av. 1133, Αἰγύπτιος πλινθοφόρος; Exo_5:17-18).
Enclosures of gardens or granaries, sacred circuits encompassing the courts of temples, walls of fortifications and towns, dwelling-houses and tombs, in short, all but the temples themselves, were of crude brick; and so great was the demand that the Egyptian government, observing the profit which would accrue from a monopoly of them, undertook to supply the public at a moderate price, thus preventing all unauthorized persons from engaging in the manufacture. And in order the more effectually to obtain this end, the seal of the king or of some privileged person was stamped upon the bricks at the time they were made. This fact, though not positively mentioned by any ancient author, is inferred from finding bricks so marked both in public and private buildings; some having the ovals of a king, and some the name and titles of a priest, or other influential person; and it is probable that those which bear no characters belonged to individuals who had obtained a license or permission from the government to fabricate them for their own consumption. The employment of numerous captives who worked as slaves enabled the government to sell the bricks at a lower price than those who had recourse solely to free labor; so that, without the necessity of a prohibition, they speedily became an exclusive manufacture; and we find that, independent of native laborers, a great many foreigners were constantly engaged in the brickfields at Thebes and other parts of Egypt. The Jews. of course, were not excluded from this drudgery; and, like the captives detained in the Thebaid, they were condemned to the same labor in Lower Egypt. They erected granaries, treasure-cities, and other public buildings for the Egyptian monarch: the materials used in their construction were the work of their hands; and the constant employment of brick- makers may be accounted for by the extensive supply required and kept by the government for sale (Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, ii, 97, 98). SEE BONDAGE.
Captive foreigners being thus found engaged in brick-making, Biblical illustrators (e.g. Hawkes, Egypt and its Monuments, p. 225 sq.), with their usual alacrity, jumped to the conclusion that these captive foreigners were Jews, and that the scenes represented were .those of their actual operations in Egypt. Sir J. G. Wilkinson satisfactorily disposes of this inference by the following remark: "To meet with Hebrews in the sculptures cannot reasonably be expected, since the remains in that part of Egypt where they lived have not been preserved; but it is curious to discover other foreign captives occupied in the same manner, and overlooked by similar 'task- masters, and performing the very same labors as the Israelites described in the Bible; and no one can look at the paintings of Thebes representing brick-makers without a feeling of the highest interest. ...... It is scarcely fair to argue that, because the Jews made bricks, and the persons here introduced are so engaged, they must necessarily be Jews, since the Egyptians and their captives are constantly required to perform the same task; and the great quantity made at all times may be justly inferred from the number of buildings which still remain constructed of these materials; but it is worthy of remark that more bricks bearing the name of Thotmes III (who is supposed [by some] to have been the king at the time of the Exode) have been discovered than at any other period, owing to the many prisoners of Asiatic nations employed by him, independent of his Hebrew captives." SEE EXODE.
The process of manufacture indicated by the representations in the foregoing cuts does not material y differ from that which is still followed in the same country. The clay was brought in baskets from the Nile, thrown into a heap, thoroughly saturated with water, and worked up to a proper temper by the feet of the laborers. And here it is observable that the watering and tempering of the clay is performed entirely by the light- colored laborers, who are the captives, the Egyptians being always painted red. This labor in such a climate must have been very fatiguing and unwholesome, and it consequently appears to have been shunned by the native Egyptians. There is an allusion to the severity of this labor in Nah_3:14-15. The clay, when tempered, was cut by an instrument somewhat resembling the agricultural hoe, and moulded in an oblong trough; the bricks were then dried in the sun, and some, from their color, appear to have been baked or burned, but no trace of this operation has yet been discovered in the monuments (Dr. W. C. Taylor's Bible Illustrated, p. 82). The writer just cited makes the following pertinent remarks on the order of the king that the Israelites should collect the straw with which to compact (not burn) their bricks: It is evident that Pharaoh did not require a physical impossibility, because the Egyptian reapers only cut away the tops of the grain. SEE AGRICULTURE.
We must remember that the tyrannical Pharaoh issued his orders prohibiting the supply of straw about two months before the time of harvest. If, therefore, the straw had not been usually left standing in the fields, he would have shown himself an idiot as well as a tyrant; but the narrative shows us that the Israelites found the stems of the last year's harvest standing in the fields; for by the word ' stubble' (Exo_5:12) the historian clearly means the stalks that remained from the last year's harvest. Still, the demand that they should complete their tale of bricks was one that scarcely could be fulfilled, and the conduct of Pharaoh on this occasion is a perfect specimen of Oriental despotism." SEE EGYPT.
3. Jewish Bricks-The Jews learned the art of brickmaking in Egypt, and we find the use of the brick-kiln (מִלְבֵּן, malben') in David's time (2Sa_12:31), and a complaint made by Isaiah that the people built altars of brick instead of unhewn stone as the law directed (Isa_65:3; Exo_20:25). SEE POTTERY.
Brick (ADDENDUM)
The Romans used brick extensively in architecture; and though it might seem singular that such an art when once learned should have been lost, nevertheless the remains of buildings between the Roman times and the 13th century show no evidence of bricks having been used, beyond, in a few instances, employing them as old material from buildings left by the Romans, as at Colchester and St. Alban's Abbey. Perhaps the earliest true brick-building existing in England is that of Little Wenham Hall (cir. 1260). A few instances of early 14th century brickwork occur, and towards the close of the style, and in the 15th century, brick-work becomes common. The most elaborate mouldings and ornamentation are exhibited in some of the remains of brick-work; and the fine 16th century chimneys, of which there are many examples, are for the most part built of brick.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

FACEBOOK

Participe de nossa rede facebook.com/osreformadoresdasaude

Novidades, e respostas das perguntas de nossos colaboradores