Locks and Keys Throughout the Ages

9. “Guardian angels“. 10. Egyptian lock.
Legitimate approach to the treasure is only possible by drugging or killing the animals
first.
Until now we have not succeeded in tracing with any accuracy when locks were
invented and for how many years they have been practically applied, but the Holy
Scripture reveals that locks and keys were known long before the birth of Christ. The
classics of that time refer to these devices and in the song of Solomon, chapter V, verse
5, we find the following passage: “I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped
with myrrh and my fingers with essence of myrrh upon the handles of the bolts”. References to
locks and bolts are also found in Nehemia, chapter III, verse 3 (445 B.C.) and in Judges,
chapter III, verses 23 and 25. Nehemia, chapter III, verse 3 reads: “And the fish gate did
the sons of Hassenaah build; they laid the beams thereof and set up the doors thereof, the bolts
thereof, and the bars thereof”. Judges, chapter III, verses 23 and 25: “Then Ehud went forth
into the porch and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them”…… “And behold
he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took the key, and opened them….”. In their
encyclopaedias, Rees, Herberts and other writers mention these types of Egyptian locks
(Fig. 10). However, the oldest specimen ever found was a wooden lock as described
by Mr. Bonomi in his work on Egypt. It was used to secure a single hinged gate in one
of the apartments in the palaces of Khorsabad. He writes: “At the far end of the hall, just
behind the first columns, there was a strong single hinged gate, which was closed by means of a
heavy wooden lock of a type still used for the town gates and for granary doors. The key for this
lock was so big and so heavy that a full grown man could hardly carry it alone. The key could
be inserted in a bolt the front part of which entered a large square hole in the wall”. No doubt
it was this type of key the prophet alluded to when he quoted: “And the key of the House
of David will I lay upon his shoulder” (Isaiah XXII, verse 22). In Eastern countries even
nowadays such keys are usually carried on the shoulder.
26