BAAL (BAALI, BAALIM).—Used generally, the word ba’al means
‘possessor,’ ‘inhabitant,’ ‘controller.’ Thus, a married man is called ‘possessor of a woman’ (2 S 11:26), a ram, ‘possessor of horns,’ and even the citizens of a locality are denoted by this word (Jg 9:2, 20:5, 1 S 23:11f., 2 S 21:12). With a similar meaning, it is applied to numerous Canaanitish local deities (pl. ba’alim, Jg 2:11 , 3:7, 8:33, 10:10, 1 S 7:1, 12:10, 1 K 18:18; coll. sing. ba’al, Jg 2:13, Jer 11:13 etc.; cf. Baal-gad, Baalath-beer, and other compounds of this word). These gods were supposed to manifest themselves in the fertility, or in some startling natural formation, of the locality where they were worshipped. Such an animistic conception is evident from the fact that they were worshipped in high places and in groves, where such rites as prophecy (Jer 22:13), fornication (Jer 7:9), selfmutilation (1 K 18:28), and child-sacrifice (Jer 19:5) were practised under the guidance of kemārim or idolatrous priests (Zeph 1:4). The same idea is also clear from the use of this word among the Arabs, who designate land irrigated by subterranean springs as ‘Ba’l land,’ i.e. land inhabited by a spirit. Gradually, however, some of these gods assimilated more abstract powers (cf. Baal-berith) , and as their votaries extended their powers over a greater area, became the Baal par excellence, i.e. the controller of the destiny of his worshippers (cf. Jg 6:25, 1 K 16:31, 18:26, 19:18 [in the last three passages, Melkart of Tyre]).
So great a predilection for cults of such a nature was shown by the Israelites, from the time of their entrance into Canaan until the fall of the monarchy, that Jabweh was given this title. Thus Saul, a zealous worshipper of Jahweh, names (1
Ch 8:33) one of his sons Eshbaal, and one of David’s heroes is called (1 Ch 12:5)
Bealiah (‘J″ is Baal’); cf. also Meribbaal (1 Ch 9:40), Beeliada (1 Ch 14:7) , Jerubbaal (Jg 8:35). A confusion, however, of Jahweh and the Canaanitish deities seems to have taken place, to avoid which, Hosea (2:16, 17) demands that Jahweh be no longer called Ba‘ali (‘my Baal’), but ’Ishi (‘my husband’). Under the influence of such prophecies the Israelites abandoned the use of Baal for Jahweh, and in later times developed so great an antipathy to this word that later revisers substituted bōsheth (‘shameful thing’), not only wherever Ba’al occurred for the Canaanitish deities (Hos 9:10, Jer 3:24, 11:13), but also, forgetful of its former application to Jahweh, in some of the above names (see Ishbosheth), supposing them to allude to local gods.
N. Koenig.
BAAL.—1. A Reubenite (1 Ch 5:5). 2. A Gibeonite, granduncle of Saul (1 Ch 8:33 = 9:36).
BAAL, BAALAH, BAALATH.—1. = Kiriath-jearim (1 Ch 13:6, Jos 15:9 , 10). 2. Baalath-beer (Jos 19:8, 1 Ch 4:33 [Baal]), a site in the Negeb. 3. A city in the S. of Judah (Jos 15:29, 19:3, 1 Ch 4:29). 4. Mount Baalab, between Ekron and Jabneel (Jos 15:11), possibly, as M. Clermont-Gannean has suggested, the river (not mountain) of Baal (now Nahr Rubin). 5. An unknown town of Dan ( Jos 19:44). 6. An unknown town (1 K 9:18 = 2 Ch 8:6).
E. W. G. Masterman.
BAAL-BERITH (‘lord of the covenant’).—The god of Shechem, where he had a temple (Jg 8:33, 9:4); called also El-berith (9:46). The ‘covenant’ may be that amongst the Canaanite peoples or that between Canaanltes and Israelites; or the title may be parallel to Zeus Horkios, the god who presides over covenants.
BAAL-GAD (? ‘Baal of fortune’).—A place under Hermon, in the valley of Lebanon, referred to only as the northern limit of the country conquered by Joshua (Jos 11:17, 12:7, 13:5). Various identifications have been suggested, all uncertain. Perhaps Banias is the most probable. See Cæsarea Philippi.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BAAL-HAMON.—The unknown site of Solomon’s vineyard (Ca 8:11).
BAAL-HANAN.—1. A king of Edom (Gn 36:38f., 1 Ch 1:49f.). 2. A Gederite (1 Ch 27:28).
BAAL-HAZOR.—Beside Ephraim, where were Absalom’s sheep-shearers (2 S 13:23). Identified by Conder with Tell ‘Asur, a mountain 4960 ft. above the sea, an hour’s ride N.E. of Beitin.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BAAL-HERMON (Jg 3:3, 1 Ch 5:23).—See Hermon.
BAALE-JUDAH = Baalah, No. 1, i.e. Kiriath-jearim.
BAALIS.—King of Ammon in time of Gedaliah (Jer 40:14).
BAAL-MEON.—A city of Moah assigned to Reuhen. The name occurs in Nu 32:38 as Baal-meon, but in Jos 13:17 as Beth-baal-meon; both forms being found also on the Moahite Stone; cf. Ezk 25:9, 1 Ch 5:8; also Beth-meon of Jer 48:23. It is to be identified with the modern Ma’in, about 5 miles S.W. of Medeba.
G. L. Robinson.
BAAL-PEOR.—The local deity of Mt. Peor (Dt 4:3b, Nu 25:6). In Dt 4:3b and Hos 9:10 it is perhaps the name of a place.
BAAL-PERAZIM.—An unidentified site near Jerusalem (2 S 5:20, 1 Ch
14:11).
BAALSAMUS (1 Es 9:43) = Maaseiah of Neh. 8:7.
BAAL-SHALISHAH (2 K 4:42).—An unknown site, probably somewhere in Mt. Ephraim.
BAAL-TAMAR.—An unknown site near Bethel and Gibeah (Jg 4:5).
BAALZEBUB (BEELZEBUB).—A Philistine god worshipped at Ekron (2 K 1:2, 3, 6, 16), whose name in the form of Beelzebul (AV and RV Beelzebub) has been applied to the ‘prince of the devils’ (Mt 10:25, 12:24, Mk 3:22, Lk 11:15, 18 , 19). The OT form, ‘Baal (controller, inhabiter) of flies,’ indicates either that the god was thought to appear as a fly, or that, besides oracular powers, he possessed the ability to increase or destroy these insects. On the other hand, if the NT spelling, ‘Baal of the mansion (temple),’ is to be preferred, it would seem to indicate that the OT form is a deliberate perversion originating with some pious scribe, who was perhaps offended at such a title being given to any other than Jahweh. Such an interpretation would account for the variation in spelling, and for its application to Satan, whose realm was called ‘the house’ par excellence among the Jews of the NT period.
N. Koenig.
BAAL-ZEPHON.—Ex 14:2, Nu 33:7; the name of a place near the spot where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, apparently a shrine of ‘Baal of the north.’ The corresponding goddess ‘Baalit of the north’ is named along with the god of Kesem (Goshen), in an Egyp. papyrus of the New Kingdom, as worshipped at Memphis.
F. Ll. Griffith.
BAANA.—1. 2. Two of Solomon’s commissariat officers (1 K 4:12, 16). 3. Father of Zadok, one of those who rebuilt Jerusalem (Neh 3:4). 4. One of the leaders who returned with Zerubbabel; possibly identical with the preceding, and with Baanah No. 3.
BAANAH.—1. One of the murderers of Ishbosheth (2 S 4:5–12). 2. A Netophathite (2 S 23:29, 1 Ch 11:30). 3. One of those who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezr 2:2, Neh 7:7, 10:27 [?]).
BAANI.—1 Es 9:34 = Bani of Ezr 10:34.
BAARA.—Wife of a Benjamite (1 Ch 8:8).
BAASEIAH.—A Kohathite (1 Ch 6:40; prob. an error for Maaseiah).
BAASHA, king of Israel, obtained the crown by usurpation. He was an officer of the army under Nadab, son of Jeroboam I., and while the army was besieging Gibbethon, a Philistine town, he slew his king and mounted the throne. The execution of the whole house of Jeroboam followed. Baasha was a warlike ruler, and carried on war with Judah throughout his reign. The only incident preserved to us is his capture and fortification of Ramah, which led to the interference of Benhadad, as already recounted in the article Asa. Although Baasha died in his bed after a reign of twenty-four years, his dynasty was extinguished two years after his death (1 K 15:27–16:6).
H. P. Smith.
BABBLER.—Ac 17:18 ‘What will (RV ‘would’) this babbler say?’ The Gr. word translated ‘babbler’ means one who picks up a precarious living, like a crow. ‘The language of such persons,’ says Bp. Chase, ‘was, and is, plentiful and ( on occasion) low’; but it is possible that the Athenians applied the word to St. Paul not on account of his speech, but his looks. In that case the modern coinage ‘carpetbagger’ would give the sense.
BABE.—See Child.
BABEL, TOWER OF.—See Tower of Babel.
BABI.—Head of a family which returned with Ezra (1 Es 8:37); called in Ezr 8:11 Bebai.
BABYLON.—Bābel is the Hebrew form of the native name Bāb-ili, ‘Gate of God.’ It was also Tin-tir or ‘Seat of life,’ and E or E-ki. It is likely that these names once denoted separate towns gradually incorporated. Other quarters of Babylon were Shu-anna, Tē, Shuppatu, and Litamu. According to the Heb. tradition ( Gn 10:10), it was as old as Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. Native tradition makes it as old as Erech and Nippur, the latter being proved by excavations to date back to prehistoric times. Babylon is from Bāb-ilani. It lay on the E. bank of the Euphrates, part of its site being now occupied by Hillah, about 50 miles S. of Baghdad. The ruins extend for 5 miles N. to S. Bābil, the N. ruin, covers 120,000 sq. ft. and is still 90 ft. high. It covers the remains of the celebrated Esagila temple. The Mujellibeh is not much less in area, and 28 ft. high.
The Kasr contains the ruins of Nebuchadrezzar’s palace, along whose E. side ran the sacred procession street, decorated with enamelled tiles representing the dragon and the re’ēm, to the Istar-gate at the S.E. corner. The whole was enclosed within an irregular triangle, formed by two lines of ramparts and the river, an area of about 8 sq. miles. The city crossed the river to the W., where are remains of a palace of Neriglissar. In later times it became coterminous with many other large cities, and Herodotus ascribes to it a circuit of 55 miles. The German excavations now being carried on may be expected to solve the many problems connected with the site.
From the very earliest times the kings and rulers of Babylonia worked at the building of its temples, palaces, walls, bridges, quays, etc. Hammurabi first raised it to be the capital of all Babylonia. It was sacked by Sennacherib in b.c. 689, the chief palaces, temples, and city walls levelled with the ground, and the waters of the Euphrates turned over it. Esarhaddon began to rebuild it, and it stood another long siege under his son, Ashurbanipal. Nabopolassar began its restoration; Nebuchadrezzar raised it to its height of glory. Cyrus took it without resistance, and held his court there. Darius Hystaspis besieged, took it, and destroyed its walls. Xerxes plundered it. Alexander the Great planned to restore it. Antiochus Soter actually began the restoration of its great temple. The foundation of Seleucia robbed it of its population, but the temple services continued to b.c. 29, at least. See, further, Assyria and Babylonia.
C. H. W. Johns.
BABYLON (in NT).—Babylon was apparently used by the early Church as a symbol for Rome. 1. In Rev. (14:8, 16:19, 17:5, 18:2, 10, 21) its destruction is foretold, because of its sins, and particularly because of its persecution. Such identification is, however, somewhat uncertain, and rests ultimately on the Improbability that the word in the connexion in which it appears can refer to the city of Mesopotamia (the word is so used in Mt 1:11, 12:17, Ac 7:43). This basal probability is supported by the fact that Babylon is called ‘mystery’ in Rev 17:5, is said to be seated on seven mountains (v. 9), and to be a centre of commerce and authority (18:3–19, 17, 14:8). Rome is apparently called Babylon in Sib. Or. V. 143, 158; 2 Es.; Apoc. Baruch.
This identification of Babylon in Revelation with Rome dates at least from the time of Jerome. The attempt to identify it with an apostate Judah and Jerusalem can hardly be taken seriously. The fact that Revelation utilized the Jewish apocalyptic material further makes it imperative that the term symbolize a power which stood related both to Christians and Jews, in a way parallel with the relation of Babylon to the ancient Hebrew nation.
2. The reference to Babylon in 1 P 5:13 has had three interpretations: (a) Babylon in Egypt, mentioned by Strabo and Epiphanius; (b) Babylon on the Euphrates; and (c) Rome. In view of the symbolic use of the word ‘Babylon,’ as mentioned in the foregoing, the last seems the most probable. Eusebius (HE ii. 15) so interprets the reference, and, in view of the ancient and persistent tradition, there is nothing improbable in St. Peter’s having been in Rome. This probability is strengthened by the reference to the persecution to which Christians were being subjected. Assyrian Babylon in the second half of the 1st elm was in decay, and 1 Peter would be particularly appropriate if sent out from the seat of a persecution, such as that of Nero, or possibly of Domitian.
Shailer Mathews.
BABYLONISH GARMENT (’addereth Shin’ār).—Stolen by Achan ( Jos 7:21); literally ‘mantle of Shinar’; probably a cloak of embroidered stuff. Babylonia was famous in classical times for such costly garments, and the sculptures exhibit the most elaborately embroidered dresses. The Babylonian inscriptions enumerate an almost endless variety of such garments, worked in many colours.
C. H. W. Johns.
BACA, VALLEY OF.—An allegorical place-name, found only in Ps 84:6 , where the RV renders ‘Valley of Weeping.’ Most probably it is no more an actual locality than is the ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ in Ps 23:4.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BACCHIDES.—Governor of Mesopotamia under Demetrius Soter; sent to establish Alcimus (wh. see) in the priesthood; defeated Jonathan the Maccabee, and at a later period besieged him in the fortress of Bethbasi; was finally compelled to entertain proposals for peace (1 Mac 7:3–20, 9:1–72, 10:12; Jos. Ant. XII. i.–XIII. i.).
BACCHURUS.—A singer who put away his foreign wife (1 Es 9:24).
BACCHUS.—See Dionysus.
BACENOR.—An officer of Judas Maccabæus (2 Mac 12:35).
BADGER.—Rock badger (Lv 11:5 RVm), i.e. Hyrax Syriacus. See Coney.
BADGERS’ SKINS.—Mentioned (in AV) as the upper covering of the
Tabernacle, etc. (Ex 25:5, 26:14 etc.), and materials for making sandals ( Ezk 16:10). It is almost certain the word tahash is mistranslated ‘badger,’ as badgers, though found in Southern Palestine, are not common enough, nor are their skins suitable for such use to have been made of them. The RV sealskins (mg. porpoiseskins) hardly eases the difficulty zoologically, although having some support from etymology. Delitzsch, from the similarity of tahash to the Assyr. tahshan = ‘wether,’ thinks it probable that the word means the same in Hebrew. A recent suggestion that the Heb. word tahash is taken from the Egyp. ths, meaning ‘leather,’ seems the most reasonable explanation.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BÆAN.—The name of an unknown tribe destroyed by Judas Maccabæus (1 Mac 5:4).
BAG, PURSE, WALLET.—Several kinds of bags, etc. may be distinguished.
(a) The shepherd’s and traveller’s wallet for carrying one or more days’ provisions. Like most of the other OT bags, it was made of skin, generally undressed, and was slung across the shoulder. This is the scrip of Mt 10:10 and parallels (RV ‘wallet’). The former is retained by our RV (but Amer. RV ‘wallet’) to render a unique word, which had to be explained even to Hebrew readers by the gloss ‘the shepherd’s bag’ (1 S 17:40). (b) A more finished article, the leather satchel which served as a purse (Lk 10:4, 12:33 AV here bag). For illust. see Rich, Dict. of Antiq. 217. The purse of Mt 10:9, Mk 6:8, however, was merely the folds of the girdle (see RVm). (c) The merchant’s bag, in which he kept his stone weights (Dt 25:13), also served as a purse (Pr 1:14). (d) The favourite bag for money and valuables—hence the beautiful figure 1 S 25:29, where ‘the hundle of life’ = life’s jewel-case—was one which could he tied with a string (2 K 12:10, Pr 7:20, also Gn 42:35 EV ‘bundle’). If required, a seal could be put on the knot (Job 14:17). (e) Another word is used both for a large bag, capable of holding a talent of silver (2 K 5:23), and for the dainty lady’s satchel (Is 3:22 RV; AV crisping pins), (f) The ‘bag’ which Judas carried (Jn. 12:6, 13:29) was rather a small box (RVm), originally used for holding the mouthpieces of wind-instruments.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BAGO.—The head of a family which returned with Ezra (1 Es 8:40) called in 1 Es 5:14 Bagoi, and in Ezr 2:14 Bigvai.
BAGOAS.—A eunuch in the service of Holofernes (Jth 12:11, 13, 15, 13:3 , 14:14).
BAGOI.—See Bago.
BAGPIPE.—See Music.
BAHARUMITE.—See Bahurim.
BAHURIM.—The place where Paltiel, son of Laish, was ordered to relinquish Michal (2 S 3:16); where Shimei dwelt, who cursed David in his flight (2 S 16:5) ; where Ahimaaz and Jonathan hid in the well from Absalom (2 S 17:18, 19); and the home of Azmaveth, one of David’s mighty men (1 Ch 11:33, 2 S 23:31, where Barhumite is written for Baharumite). It was in the tribe of Benjamin (cf. the passages relating to Shimei),’ and the account of David’s flight, which supplies the only topographical indications, accords with the traditional identification with
Almit, N.E. from the Mount of Olives, and about a mile beyond ‘Anata ( Anathoth ) from Jerusalem.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BAITERUS.—The head of a family which returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es
5:17).
BAKBAKKAR.—A Levite (1 Ch 9:15).
BAKBUK.—The ancestor of certain Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel (Ezr 2:51, Neh 7:53); called Acub in 1 Es 5:31.
BAKBUKIAH.—1. A Levite (Neh 11:17). 2. A porter (Neh 12:25).
BAKEMEATS, BAKER.—See Bread.
BAKING.—See Bread.
BAKING-PAN.—See House, § 9.
BALAAM is the subject of a remarkable and intricate narrative in Nu 22–24 , connected with the arrival of Israel in the Promised Land, and the relationship of the chosen people to Moab and Ammon. Balaam was a soothsayer of Pethor on the Euphrates, called by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites, who were lying encamped in the Jordan valley. He had difficulty in undertaking the task, and he found, whenever he essayed to curse Israel, that the Lord had forbidden him to do so, and that his burden must be blessing instead. At the request of Balak he changed his position again and again on the heights above the Dead Sea, in the hope of obtaining a different oracle, but the message he had to deliver remained the same, and he foretold the future splendour of Israel (24:2ff.). Sent away by Balak without the reward promised to him if he would deliver an oracle adverse to Israel, he returned to his own land. According to one narrative, his end was full of shame. He was accused of having induced Israel to commit immorality in connexion with religious worship, a feature common in the Semitic nature-cults. It was through this charge that he became known to subsequent ages, and his name became a name of infamy (Nu 31:8, 16, 2 P 2:15, Rev 2:14; Jos. Ant. VI. vi, 6). The inspiration of Balaam, contrasted with his subsequent sin and disgraceful death, his knowledge of the will of God, together with his intense desire to grasp the rewards of unrighteousness, have given rise to a notable sermon literature. Bishop Butler speaks of the self-deception by which he persuades himself that the sin he commits can be justified to conscience and to God; Newman regards him as an instance of the trouble that can come on a character, otherwise noble, when the thought of material advancement is always allowed to dwell with it; Arnold adduces him as an instance of the familiar truth that the purest form of religious belief may coexist with a standard of action immeasurably below it; F. W. Robertson makes him the text for a sermon on the perversion of gifts.
This complexity of character is, however, greatly simplified by the recognition of the various strata in the narrative. It is clear that the account of P connecting Balaam with Israel’s uncleanness has nothing to do with the original narrative. This original narrative is contained in Nu 22–24. According to it, Balaam was a prophet of Pethor on the river Euphrates. His fame had spread across the wilderness, and, when Balak found himself in straits through the advance of Israel, he sent for Balaam to come and curse Israel. Balaam asked God whether he should go, and was refused permission. Balak therefore sent yet greater gifts, and once again Balaam asked counsel of God. This time permission was granted. So far there had been no indication of God’s displeasure; but now follows (22:22–34) the story of the ass, through which God’s anger at the refusal of the seer to accept His answer, given once and for all, is manifested. If, however, the reader will pass from 22:21 to 22:35 he will find that the narrative runs smoothly, and that he is still viewing Balaam’s character from the same not unfavourable standpoint (22:35 [ cf. vv. 20, 21] is the effort to join up the threads of the story after the interpolation). When Balaam is brought in sight of Israel, he breaks out into a burst of praise (24:5–9) which rouses the wrath of Balak. Balaam justifies himself by reminding the king that he had warned him of the constraint of the Lord (v. 13). He then utters another oracle predicting the glory of Israel and the destruction of Moah and Ammon (vv. 17–19).
This analysis leaves out of account 22:22–34 and 23, which seem to belong to a narrative dealing with the same facts, but placing a more sinister interpretation on the conduct of Balaam. The story of the ass is plainly out of harmony with the narrative just outlined. It is a story belonging not to the wilderness, but to a land of vineyards. It ignores the embassy that has been sent to bring Balaam back across the wilderness (22:15, 21), for it represents Balaam as travelling alone. It is also extremely unlikely that so long a journey as that from the Euphrates to Moab would be attempted upon an ass. Then ch. 23, with its elaborate building of altars and offering of sacrifices, seems to belong to a later date; while the constant shifting of position in the effort to secure a more favourable oracle presents Balaam in a much more unfavourable light than before. Although the details of this analysis are not certain, we may take it that the original story proceeds from J, and that the second narrative, more complicated both in psychology and ritual, is from E.
The narrative of P ascribing the sin of Baal-peor to Balaam is out of touch with both the other narratives. According to it, Balaam was a Midianitish seer who tried to bring about the ruin of Israel, in default of other means, by persuading them to give way to lust (Nu 31:8, 16, Jos. Ant. VI. 6. 6). ‘It has been conjectured that this story arose partly out of a difficulty on the part of the priestly narrator in conceiving of a heathen being an inspired prophet of God, partly from the need of accounting for the great sin of the Israelites’ (DB I. 233a). Balaam thus seems to have fallen in the estimation of Israel from being a seer of alien race, who distinguished himself by his faithfulness to the truth he knew, to becoming synonymous with temptation of a kind that was always especially insidious for
Israel.
R. Bruce Taylor.
BALADAN.—See Merodach-Baladan.
BALAH (Jos 19:3).—An unknown town of Simeon; perhaps identical with Bealoth (Jos 15:24) and Bilhah (1 Ch 4:29); called Baalah in Jos 15:29, where it is assigned to Judah.
BALAK.—The king of Moab who hired Balaam, Nu 22–24. See Balaam.
BALAMON.—A town near Dothaim (Jth 8:3).
BALANCE.—The Hebrew balances probably differed but little from those in use in Egypt as described by Wilkinson (Anc. Egyp. [1878], II. 246 f.). The main parts were the beam with its support, and the scales which were hung by cords from the ends of the equal arms of the beam. The ‘pair of scales’ is used in OT by a figure for the balance as a whole; only once is the beam so used (Is 46:6). The weights were originally of stone and are always so termed. The moral necessity of a just balance and true weights and the iniquity of false ones are frequently emphasized by the prophets, moral teachers, and legislators of Israel; see Am 8:5 , Mic 6:11, Pr 11:1, 16:11 (‘a just balance and scales are the Lord’s’) 20:23, Lv 19:36, Dt 25:13 ff.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BALD LOCUST.—See Locust (8).
BALDNESS.—See Cuttings in the Flesh, Hair.
BALM.—A product of Gilead (Gn 37:25, 43:11), celebrated for its healing properties (Jer 8:22, 46:11, 51:8), and an important article of commerce ( Ezk 27:17). Nothing is known for certain about the nature of this substance, but it is usually supposed to be some kind of aromatic gum or resin. There is now no plant in Gilead which produces any characteristic product of this nature. Mastich, a resin much used by the Arabs for flavouring coffee, sweets, etc., and as a chewing gum, is considered by many to be the zorī of Gn 37:25 (so RVm). It has been credited with healing properties. It is a product of the Pistacia lentiscus, a plant common in Palestine. The so-called ‘Balm of Gilead’ of commerce, and the substance sold by the monks of Jericho to-day, this latter a product of the zakkūm tree, are neither of them serious claimants to be the genuine article. See also Spice.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BALNUUS.—1 Es 9:31 = Binnui of Ezr 10:30.
BALSAM.—See Spice.
BALTASAR.—The Gr. form of Belshazzar (Dn 5, etc., Bar 1:11f.) and of Belteshazzar (Dn 4, etc.).
BAMAH (only Ezk 20:29) is the ordinary word for ‘high place,’ but is here retained in its Hebrew form as the word ‘manna’ in the parallel case Ex 16:15, on account of the word-play: ‘What (mah) is the ba-mah to which ye go (bā)?’ See, further, High Place.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BAMOTH, BAMOTH-BAAL.—Bamoth is mentioned in Nu 21:19f. as a
station in the journey of Israel from the Arnon to the Jordan. It is prob. identical with Bamoth-baal of Nu 22:41 (RVm; AV and RV ‘the high places of Baal’), to which Balaam was led by Balak. Bamoth-baal is mentioned as a Reubenite city in Jos 13:17.
BAN.—The ban is an institution from remote antiquity, which still survives in the Jewish and Christian Churches. Its earlier history has not yet received the systematic treatment which it merits. The original idea, common to all the Semitic languages, is that of withdrawing something from common use and setting it apart for the exclusive use of a deity. In Hebrew the verbal root acquired the more specialized meaning of devoting to J″ His enemies and their belongings by means of fire and sword, and is usually rendered ‘utterly destroy’ (RVm adds ‘Heb. devote’), while the cognate noun (chērem, Gr. anathema) is ‘accursed (AV) or devoted (RV) thing.’ In this brief treatment of a large subject we propose to distinguish between the war ban, the justice ban, and the private ban.
1. The war ban, clearly the oldest form of the institution, shows various degrees of severity. The war ban of the first degree, as it may be termed, Involved the destruction not only of every man, woman, and child of the enemy, but also of their entire property of every description (see Dt 13:16). The treatment of the Amalekites in 1 S 15 is a familiar example. The case of Achan, after the ban and capture of Jericho, affords a striking illustration of the early ideas associated with the ban. Every ‘devoted thing,’ as henceforth the inviolate property of J″, and therefore tahoo, became infected with the deadly contagion of holiness (note Lv 27:28 ‘most holy,’ lit. ‘holy of holies’). Hence by retaining part of the ‘devoted thing’ (chērem) in his tent Achan infected the whole ‘camp of Israel,’ with disastrous results (Jos 6:18, 7:11f., cf. Dt 7:26). More frequently we meet with a relaxed form of the war ban, which may be called the ban of the second degree. In this case only the men, women, and children of the doomed city were devoted, while the cattle and the rest of the spoil became the property of the victors ( Dt 2:34f., 3:6f., 7:2, Jos 11:14). A still further relaxation, a ban of the third degree, is contemplated by the law of Dt 20:10ff., by which only the males are put to the ban, the women and children being spared as the perquisites of the besiegers. On the other hand, only virgins were to be spared in Nu 31:17f. and Jg 21:11ff., for special reasons in the latter case.
2. The justice ban differs from the other in being applicable only to members of the theocratic community. It appears in the oldest legislation as the punishment of the apostate Israelite (Ex 22:20), and is extended in the Deuteronomic code to the idolatrous city (Dt 13:12ff.). Here only the ban of the first degree was admissible. An important modification of the judicial ban is first met with in Ezr 10:8, where recalcitrant members of the community, instead of being put to death, are excommunicated, and only their ‘substance forfeited’ (RVm ‘devoted’) to the Temple treasury. This modified chērem became the starting-point of a long development. For these later Jewish and Christian bans see Excommunication.
3. The attenuated form of ban found in the late passage Lv 27:28 may be termed the private ban. The cases contemplated—‘man or beast or field’—are evidently those of unusually solemn and inalienable dedications by private persons for religious purposes (cf. Nu 18:14, Ezk 44:27, and the NT ‘corban’), as opposed to the redeemable dedications of the preceding verses. The latter are holy while the former are ‘most holy.’ The following verse, on the contrary, must refer to the justice ban.
The ban was an institution of earlier date than the Hebrew conquest, and was practised by the Moabites in its most rigorous form (see Mesha’s inscription, ll. 11–17), perhaps also by the Ammonites (2 Ch 29:23). Instances of similar practices among many half-civilized races are noted by the anthropologists. The original motive of the ban is probably reflected in Nu 21:2f., where it is represented as the return made to J″ for help against the enemy vouchsafed in terms of a preceding vow (cf. devotio from devoveo). This has to be interpreted in the light of the primitive solidarity between a god and his clan. Even in Israel the wars of the Hebrews were the ‘wars of J″’ (Nu 21:14). ‘The religious element is found in the complete renunciation of any profit from the victory, and this renunciation is an expression of gratitude for the fact that the war-God has delivered the enemy, who is His enemy also, into the hands of the conqueror’ (Kautzsch in Hastings’ DB Ext. Vol. 619b). The ban was thus the outcome of religious zeal in an age when the moral sense was less advanced than the religious.
With regard to the wholesale application of the war ban in the Deuteronomic sections of Joshua, modern criticism has taught us to see in these the ideal generalizations of the exilic age. The Hebrews of the conquest were in truth the children of their age, but such a stupendous holocaust as is implied in such passages as Jos 11:11, 14 must not be placed to their credit. The legislation of Dt., it must further be remembered, is the outcome of several centuries’ experience of Canaanite heathenism, the true character of which the soil of Palestine is only now revealing, and of its baneful influence on the religion of J″. In this legislation the antique institution of the ban was retained as a means of protecting the community against a serious menace to its religious life. Nevertheless the enactment of Dt 13:12ff. remained a dead letter till the age of the Maccabees (1 Mac 5:6 ff. ).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BAN.—The head of a family which could not trace its descent (1 Es 5:37, a corrupt passage).
BANAIAS.—1 Es 9:35 = Benaiah of Ezr 10:43.
BAND.—This spelling represents three historically distinct English words: (1) ‘Band’ in the sense of that which binds—the rendering of a variety of Heb. words, some of which are also rendered by ‘bond.’ (2) ‘Band’ in the sense of ribbon ( Ex 39:23 RV ‘binding’), or sash (Ex 28:8 etc. RV ‘girdle’). (3) ‘Band’ in the sense of a company of soldiers, more or less organized, as the rendering of several Heb. words, some of there ranged in RV into ‘companies’ (Gn 32:7) or ‘troop’ (1 K 11:24) or ‘hordes’ (Ezk 38:6, 9).
In NT ‘band’ in this third sense renders speira, the Gr. equivalent of the Roman cohors (for the Roman army in NT times see Legion). In the minor provinces such as Judæa the troops were entirely auxiliaries, of which the unit was the cohort of about 500, in certain cases 1000, men. The Roman garrison in Jerusalem consisted of such a cohort of provincials, probably 1000 strong, the ‘band’ which figures prominently both in the Gospels and in the Acts (Mt 27:27, Mk 15:16, Ac 21:31 , and probably Jn 18:3, 12—RVm ‘cohort’ throughout). This cohort was under the command of a Roman prefect or of a military tribune, the ‘captain’ or ‘chief captain’ (Gr. chiliarch) of our EV.
Another auxiliary cohort is probably that named the Augustan band ( Ac 27:1—Gr. Sebaste; AV ‘Augustus’ band’). It has been much debated whether the name is a title of honour like our ‘King’s Own,’ or a territorial designation signifying that the cohort in question was recruited from Samaria, then named Sebaste (= Augusta). Schürer (GJ V3 i. 462) curiously would combine both these views. Ramsay, on the other hand, maintains that the Augustan band was a popular, not an official, name for a body of troops detailed for some special service by the emperor (St. Paul the Traveller, p. 315). A similar uncertainty as to its place in the military organization of the time attaches to the Italian band in which Cornelius was a centurion (Ac 10:1). The name merely shows that it was a cohort of Roman citizens, probably volunteers, from Italy, as opposed to the ordinary cohorts of provincials.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BANI.—1. A Gadite, one of David’s heroes (2 S 23:36). 2. 3. 4. Levites (1 Ch
6:46, Neh 3:17, cf. 8:7 [= Binnui of Ezr 8:33 and Neh 10:9]). 5. A Judahite (1 Ch 9:4). 6. Head of a family of exiles that returned (Ezr 2:10 [= Binnui of Neh 7:15] 10:29, Neh 10:14). 7. One of those who had married a foreign wife (Ezr 10:28).
Cf. Binnui.
BANIAS.—Ancestor of Salimoth, who returned with Ezra (1 Es 8:36).
BANISHMENT.—See Crimes and Punishments.
BANK.—1. A mound of earth in siegecraft, see Fortification and Sieoecraft. 2. The table of a money-changer or banker, see Money-changers.
BANNAS.—A Levite who returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es 5:26).
BANNEAS.—1 Es 9:26 = Benaiah of Ezr 10:25.
BANNER, ENSIGN, STANDARD.—That the Hebrews, like the Egyptians
(Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. [1878] I. 195, illust.), Assyrians, and other ancient nations, possessed military ensigns is a safe inference from Nu 2:2, but not from the mention of the standard-bearer in Is 10:18 AV, which is to be rendered as RVm.
Nothing certain, however, is known regarding them. In the former passage a distinction seems to be made—for another view see Gray’s Com. in loc.—between the ensigns (lit. ‘signs,’ cf. Ps 74:4 where the reference is probably to the standards of Antiochus’ army) of the ‘fathers’ houses,’ and the standards (the banner of Ca 2:4, cf. 6:4, 10) of the four great divisions of the Hebrew tribes in the wilderness, according to the artificial theory of the priestly writer.
Equally uncertain is the relation of these to the nēs, which was a wooden pole (Nu 21:8f. AV and RV ‘standard’ cf. the parallelism with ‘mast’ Is 30:17 RVm), set up on an eminence as a signal for the mustering of the troops. This word is of frequent occurrence both in the original sense and in the figurative sense of a rallying point, in the prophetic announcements of the future (Is 5:26, 11:10, Jer 4:21 and often). The rendering alternates between ‘ensign’ and ‘banner.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BANNUS.—1 Es 9:34 = either Bani or Binnui of Ezr 10:38.
BANQUET.—In AV ‘banquet’ and ‘banqueting’ always mean wine-drinking, not feasting generally. Thus Ca 2:4 ‘He brought me to the banqueting house’ ( Heb. ‘the house of wine’),1 P 4:3 ‘banquetings’ (Gr. ‘drinkings,’ RV ‘carousings’). See Meals.
BAPTISM.—This term, which designates a NT rite, is confined to the vocabulary of the NT. It does not occur in the LXX, neither is the verb with which it is connected ever used of an initiatory ceremony. This verb is a derivative from one which means ‘to dip’ (Jn 13:26, Rev 19:13), but itself has a wider meaning, = ‘to wash’ whether the whole or part of the body, whether by immersion or by the pouring of water (Mk 7:4, Lk 11:38). The substantive is used (a) of Jewish ceremonial washings (Mk 7:4, He 9:10); (b) in a metaphorical sense (Mk 10:38, Lk 12:50; cf. ‘plunged in calamity’); and (c) most commonly in the technical sense of a religious ceremony of initiation.
1. The earliest use of the word ‘baptism’ to describe a religious and not merely ceremonial observance is in connexion with the preaching of John the Baptist, and the title which is given to him is probably an indication of the novelty of his procedure (Mt 3:1, Mk 8:28, Lk 7:20; cf. Mk 6:14, 24). He ‘preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins’ (Mk 1:4), i.e. the result of his preaching was to induce men to seek baptism as an outward sign and pledge of inward repentance on their part, and of their forgiveness on the part of God. ‘Baptism is related to repentance as the outward act in which the inward change finds expression. It has been disputed whether the practice of baptizing proselytes on their reception into the Jewish community was already established in the 1st cent.; probably it was. But in any case the significance of their baptism was that of ceremonial cleansing; John employed it as a symbol and a seal of moral purification. But, according to the Gospel record, John recognized the incomplete and provisional character of the baptism administered by him: ‘I indeed have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost’ (Mk 1:8).
2. Jesus Himself accepted baptism at the hands of John (Mk 1:9), overcoming the reluctance of the Baptist with a word of authority. That Jesus Himself baptized is nowhere suggested in the Synoptic Gospels, and is expressly denied in the Fourth Gospel (Jn 4:2); but His disciples baptized, and it must have been with His authority, equivalent to baptism by Himself, and involving admission to the society of His disciples. On the other hand, His Instructions to the Twelve and to the Seventy contain no command to baptize. Christian baptism was to be baptism ‘with the Spirit,’ and ‘the Spirit was not yet given’ (Jn 7:39). It is recorded in Acts (1:5) that the Risen Lord foretold that this promised baptism would be received after His departure, ‘not many days hence.’
3. Christian baptism, although it finds a formal analogy in the baptism of John, which in its turn represents a spiritualizing of ancient Jewish ideas of lustration, appears as in its essential character a new thing after the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is a phenomenon ‘entirely unique, and in its inmost nature without any analogy, because it rises as an original fact from the soil of the Christian religion of revelation’ (von Dobschütz). It has been customary to trace the institution of the practice to the words of Christ recorded in Mt 28:19. But the authenticity of this passage has been challenged on historical as well as on textual grounds. It must be acknowledged that the formula of the threefold name, which is here enjoined, does not appear to have been employed by the primitive Church, which, so far as our information goes, baptized ‘in’ or ‘into the name of Jesus’ (or ‘Jesus Christ’ or ‘the Lord Jesus’: Ac 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5; cf, 1 Co 1:13, 15), without reference to the
Father or the Spirit. The difficulty hence arising may be met by assuming (a) that Baptism in the name of Jesus was equivalent to Baptism in the name of the Trinity, or (b) that the shorter phrase does not represent the formula used by the baptizer (which may have been the fuller one), but the profession made by the baptized, and the essential fact that he became a Christian—one of Christ’s acknowledged followers. But it is better to infer the authority of Christ for the practice from the prompt and universal adoption of it by the Apostles and the infant Church, to which the opening chapters of Acts bear witness; and from the significance attached to the rite in the Epistles, and especially in those of St. Paul.
4. That baptism was the normal, and probably the indispensable, condition of being recognized as a member of the Christian community appears from allusions in the Epistles (1 Co 12:13, Gal 3:27), and abundantly from the evidence in Acts.
The first preaching of the Spirit-filled Apostles on the day of Pentecost led to many being ‘pricked in their heart’; and in answer to their inquiry addressed to ‘Peter and the rest of the apostles,’ Peter said unto them: ‘Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ac 2:37, 38). ‘They then that received his word were baptized’ to the number of ‘about three thousand souls.’ At Samaria, ‘when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women’ (8:12),—the earliest express statement that women were admitted to the rite. In this case the gift of the Spirit did not follow until Peter and John had come down from Jerusalem, and ‘prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.’ ‘Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost’ (8:17). Saul was baptized by Ananias (9:17) in accordance with instructions recorded by himself (22:16), and that he might ‘be filled with the Holy Ghost.’ In these cases the gift followed upon baptism, with or without the laying-on of hands. In the case of Cornelius and his friends, the gift followed immediately upon the preaching of the word by Peter, and presumably its reception in the heart of those who heard; and it was after that that the Apostle ‘commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord’ (10:48). It was on the ground of this previous communication of the Holy Spirit that Peter subsequently justified his action in admitting these persons to baptism (11:15–18).
5. The preaching of St. Paul, no less than that of St. Peter, led to the profession of faith through baptism, though the Apostle seems as a rule to have left the actual administration to others (1 Co 1:14–17): ‘for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.’ At Philippi Lydia was baptized ‘and her household’; there also the jailor, ‘and all that were his’ (Ac 16:15, 33); at Corinth, Crispus and Gaius, and ‘the household of Stephanas’ (1 Co 1:14, 16).
6. The conditions antecedent to baptism are plainly set forth in Acts, viz. repentance and profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah or as ‘the Lord,’ following on the preaching of the word. The method of administration was baptizing with water in or into the name of Jesus. Immersion may have been employed when the presence of sufficient water made it convenient; but there is nothing to show that affusion or sprinkling was not regarded as equally valid. That baptism was ‘in the name of Jesus’ signifies that it took place for the purpose of sealing the new relationship of belonging to, being committed to, His Personality. The blessing attached to the rite is commonly exhibited as the gift of the Holy Spirit; the due fulfilment of the condition of baptism involved ipso facto the due fulfilment of the condition of receiving the Spirit. In the Epistles, this, the normal consequence of Christian baptism, is analyzed into its various elements. These are in the main three: (a) the ‘remission of sins’ (Ac 2:38, 1 Co 6:11; cf. He 10:22, 1 P 3:21). (b) In baptism the believer was to realize most vividly the total breach with his old life involved in his new attitude to God through Christ, a breach comparable only with that effected by death (Ro 6:2–7, Col 2:12); he was to realize also that the consequences of this fellowship with Christ were not only death to sin, but a new life in righteousness as real as that which followed on resurrection (Ro 6:4). (c) Baptism conferred incorporation in the one body of Christ (1 Co 12:13), and was thus adapted to serve as a symbol of the true unity of Christians (Eph 4:5). The body with which the believer is thus incorporated is conceived of sometimes as the corporate community of Christians, sometimes as the Personality of Christ; ‘for as many of you as were baptized into Christ, did put on Christ’ (Gal 3:27).
Conversely, as with the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, all the elements both of qualification and of experience are sometimes summed up in a pregnant phrase and without regard to the order in which they emerge. Eph 5:26 may find its best interpretation through comparison with Jn 15:3 (cf. 17:17), i.e. as referring to the continuous cleansing of the Church by the word; but if the reference is to baptism, then the phrase ‘by the word’ probably alludes to the profession of faith by the baptized, whether it took the form of ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Ro 4:10; cf. 1 Co 12:3), or whether it expressed the content of the faith more fully. In Tit 3:5, while baptism is the instrument by which salvation is realized,’ regeneration’ and ‘renewal’ are both displayed as the work of the Holy Spirit. And here the Apostolic interpretation of the rite touches the anticipation of it in our Lord’s words recorded in Jn 3:5. Faith wrought by the Spirit and faith professed by the believer are alike necessary to entrance into the Kingdom of salvation (cf. Ro 10:9, 10).
In 1 Co 15:29 Paul refers to the practice of persons allowing themselves to be baptized on behalf of the dead. Such a practice appears to have had analogies in the Greek mysteries, from which it may have crept into the Christian Church. As such it may be regarded as ‘a purely magical, and wholly superstitious, vicarious reception of the sacrament.’ Of such a practice the Apostle expresses no approval, but ‘simply meets his opponents with their own weapons without putting their validity to the proof’ ( Rentdorff ).
7. The NT contains no explicit reference to the baptism of infants or young children; but it does not follow that the Church of the 2nd cent. adopted an unauthorized innovation when it carried out the practice of infant baptism. There are good reasons for the silence of Scripture on the subject. The governing principle of St. Luke as the historian of the primitive Church is to narrate the advance of the Kingdom through the missionary preaching of the Apostles, and the conversion of adult men and women. The letters of the Apostles were similarly governed by the immediate occasion and purpose of their writing. We have neither a complete history, nor a complete account of the organization, of the primitive Church. But of one thing we may be sure: had the acceptance of Christianity involved anything so startling to the Jewish or the Gentile mind as a distinction between the religious standing of the father of a family and his children, the historian would have recorded it, or the Apostles would have found themselves called to explain and defend it. For such a distinction would have been in direct contradiction to the most deeply rooted convictions of Jew and of Gentile alike. From the time of Abraham onwards the Jew had felt it a solemn religious obligation to claim for his sons from their earliest infancy the same covenant relation with God as he himself stood in. There was sufficient parallelism between baptism and circumcision (cf. Col 2:11) for the Jewish-Christian father to expect the baptism of his children to follow his own as a matter of course. The Apostle assumes as a fact beyond dispute that the children of believers are ‘holy’ (1 Co 7:14), i.e. under the covenant with God, on the ground of their father’s faith. And among Gentile converts a somewhat different but equally authoritative principle, that of patria potestas, would have the same result. In a home organized on this principle, which prevailed throughout the Roman Empire, it would be a thing inconceivable that the children could be severed from the father in their religious rights and duties, in the standing conferred by baptism. Thus it is because, to the mind of Jew and Gentile alike, the baptism of infants and children yet unable to supply the conditions for themselves was so natural, that St. Luke records so simply that when Lydia believed, she was baptized ‘with her household’; when the Philippian jailor believed, he was baptized, and all those belonging to him. If there were children in these households, these children were baptized on the ground of the faith of their parents; if there were no children, then the principle took a still wider extension, which includes children; for it was the servants or slaves of the household who were ‘added to the Church’ by baptism on the ground of their master’s faith.
8. Baptism was a ceremony of initiation by which the baptized not only were admitted members of the visible society of the disciples of Christ, but also received the solemn attestation of the consequences of their faith. Hence there are three parties to it. The part of the baptized is mainly his profession of faith in Christ, his confession ‘with his heart’ that he is the Lord’s. The second is the Christian community or Church (rather than the person who administers baptism, and who studiously keeps in the background). Their part is to hear the profession and to grant the human attestation. The third is the Head of the Church Himself, by whose
authority the rite is practised, and who gives the inward attestation, as the experience of being baptized opens in the believing soul new avenues for the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
C. A. Scott.
BAR.—Aram. word for ‘son’; used, especially in NT times, as the first component of personal names, such as Bar-abbas, Bar-jesus, Bar-jonah, etc.
BARABBAS (Mt 27:15–23 = Mk 15:6–14 = Lk 23:18–23 = Jn 18:39–40).—A brigand, probably one of those who infested the Ascent of Blood (wh. see). He had taken part in one of the insurrections so frequent during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate; and, having been caught red-handed, was awaiting sentence when
Jesus was arraigned. It was customary for the procurator, by way of gratifying the Jews, to release a prisoner at the Passover season, letting the people choose whom they would; and Pilate, reluctant to condemn an innocent man, yet afraid to withstand the clamour of the rulers, saw here a way to save Jesus. His artifice would probably have succeeded had not the malignant priests and elders incited the people to choose Barabbas.
Barabbas, like Bartholomew and Bartimœus, is a patronymic, possibly = ‘the son of the father’ (i.e. the Rabbi). According to an ancient reading of Mt 27:17, the brigand’s name was Jesus. If so, there is a dramatic adroitness in Pilate’s presentation of the alternative to the multitude: ‘Which of the two do ye wish me to release to you—Jesus the bar-Abba or Jesus that is called Messiah?’
David Smith.
BARACHEL.—Father of Elihu, ‘the Buzite’ (Job 32:2, 6).
BARACHIAH.—See Zachariah.
BARAK (‘lightning’).—The son of Abinoam; he lived at a time when the
Canaanite kingdom of Hazor, having recovered from its overthrow by Joshua ( Jos 11:10–15), was taking vengeance by oppressing Israel. He is called from his home in Kedesh-naphtali by Deborah to deliver Israel. He gathers an army of 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. With this force, accompanied by Deborah, without whom he refuses to go forward, he encamps on Mt. Tabor, while the enemy under Sisera lies in the plain on the banks of the Kishon. At the word of Deborah, Barak leads his men down to battle, and completely defeats Sisera. The latter flees; Barak pursues him, but on reaching his hiding-place finds that he has been already slain by Jael, the wife of Heber. The glory of the victory, therefore, does not lie with Barak, but with Deborah, who was his guiding spirit, and with Jael who slew the enemy’s leader (Jg 4, 5).
W. O. E. Oesterley.
BARBARIAN.—The Eng. word is used in Ac 28:2, 4, Ro 1:14, 1 Co 14:11 , Col 3:11 to translate a Gr. word which does not at all connote savagery, but means simply ‘foreign,’ ‘speaking an unintelligible language.’ The expression first arose among the Greeks in the days of their independence, and was applied by them to all who could not speak Greek. When Greece became subject to Rome, it was then extended to mean all except the Greeks and Romans. There may be a touch of contempt in St. Luke’s use of it, but St. Paul uses it simply in the ordinary way; see esp. 1 Co 14:11.
A. Souter.
BARBER.—See Hair.
BARCHUS.—1 Es 5:32 = Barkos of Ezr 2:53 and Neh 7:55.
BARHUMITE.—See Bahurim.
BARIAH.—A son of Shemaiah (1 Ch 3:22).
BAR-JESUS.—The name of ‘a certain Magian, a false prophet, a Jew’ ( Ac 13:6) whom St. Paul, on his visit to Cyprus, found in the retinue of Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul. The title Elymas (v. 8) is equivalent to Magus (v. 6), and is probably derived from an Arabic root signifying ‘wise.’ The knowledge of the Magians was half-mystical, half-scientific; amongst them were some devout seekers after truth, but many were mere tricksters. In the Apostolic age such men often acquired great influence, and Bar-jesus represents, as Ramsay (St. Paul the Traveller, p. 79) says, ‘the strongest influence on the human will that existed in the Roman world, an influence which must destroy or be destroyed by Christianity, if the latter tried to conquer the Empire.’ The narrative implies that the proconsul was too intelligent to be deceived by the Magian’s pretensions, the motive of whose opposition to the Christian teachers is expressed in a Bezan addition to v. 8, which states that Sergius Paulus ‘was listening with much pleasure to them.’ In St. Paul’s judgment on this false prophet (v. 10) there is a play upon words: Elymas was full of deceit and not of wisdom; Bar-jesus, i.e. ‘son of Jesus,’ had become a ‘son of the devil.’ This is Pauline (cf. Ph 3:2).
J. G. Tasker.
BAR-JONAH.—See Bar, and John (No. 6).
BARKOS.—Ancestor of certain Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel ( Ezr 2:53, Neh 7:55; called Barchus in 1 Es 5:32).
BARLEY (se‘ōrāh).—As in ancient times, so to-day barley (Arab. sha‘ir) is the most plentiful cereal of Palestine. It is the chief food of horses (1 K 4:28) , mules, and donkeys, oats being practically unknown. It is still used by the poor for making bread (Jg 7:13, Jn 6:9, 13 etc.) in the villages, but not in the cities. Barley was the special ritual offering for jealousy (Nu 5:16). The barley harvest (Ru 1:22) precedes that of wheat: it begins around Jericho as early as March, and in Jerusalem and the neighbourhood at the end of May.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BARN.—See Agriculture, 3, and Garner.
BARNABAS.—A surname given by the Apostles to Joseph, the Levite, whose first recorded deed (Ac 4:36) was the selling of his property and the devotion of its proceeds to the needs of the Christian community. In this generous act St. Luke sees a proof that Barnabas is, in accordance with the popular etymology of his name, ‘a son of comfort.’ His kindly introduction of Saul to the Christians at Jerusalem disarmed their fears (9:27); his broad sympathies made him quick to recognize the work of grace amongst the Greeks at Antioch (11:23), and to discern the fitness of his gifted friend for that important sphere of service (v. 25f.). After a year’s fellowship in work at Antioch, Barnabas and Saul were appointed to convey ‘the relief’ sent thence to the brethren in Judæa (v. 30). From Jerusalem they brought back, as a helper, John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (12:12, 25; cf. Col 4:10).
The church at Antioch solemnly dedicated Barnabas and Saul to missionary service (13:1f.); with John Mark the two friends sailed for Cyprus, and from this point, with three exceptions, their names occur in the order ‘Paul and Barnabas.’ Harnack (PRE3 ii. 411) explains these three passages thus: 14:14 is accounted for by v. 12, and 15:12, 25 by the closer association of Barnabas with the Jerusalem church.
At Lystra (14:12), as doubtless at other places, Paul was the chief speaker; he was also the more prominent figure at the Jerusalem conference (15:2ff., Gal 2:1. See Paul). Between Paul and Barnabas ‘there arose a sharp contention’ concerning John Mark (15:35ff), and they agreed to work apart; Gal 2:13 also records Paul’s adverse judgment of Barnabas’ attitude in regard to the circumcision controversy. But the interesting reference to Barnabas in 1 Co 9:5 affords welcome proof of St. Paul’s familiarity with the work of his friend. All that is definitely known of Barnabas after he bade Paul farewell is that with his cousin Mark he ‘sailed away unto Cyprus’ (Ac 15:39). For the spurious Epistle attributed to Barnabas, see Canon of NT, § 2.
J. G. Tasker.
BARODIS.—A name occurring in 1 Es 5:34 (om. In Ezr. and Neh.).
BARREL, 1 K 17:12, 14, 15, 18:33.—The large earthenware jar (so Amer. RV) used for fetching water from the well, storing grain, etc., elsewhere rendered pitcher. See House, 9.
BARRENNESS.—See Child.
BARSABBAS.—See Joseph (in NT), 5. and Judas (in NT), 6.
BARTACUS.—Father of Apame (1 Es 4:29).
BARTHOLOMEW.—One of the Twelve, mentioned only in the lists of the Apostles (Mt 10:3 = Mk 3:18 = Lk 6:14). Jerome says that he wrote a Gospel, preached to the Indians, and died at Albanopolis in Armenia. Bartholomew is really not a name, but a patronymic—Bar Talmai = ‘son of Talmai’ (cf. 2 S 13:37). See Nathanael.
David Smith.
BARTIMÆUS (Mk 10:45).—A blind man whom Jesus, on His way to the last Passover, healed at the gate of Jericho—as He was leaving the city, according to
Mt. (20:29) and Mk. (10:46), who condense the story of what befell at Jericho; as He approached, according to Lk. (18:35), whose fuller narrative preserves the proper order of events. Bartimæus is not a name but a patronymic ( cf. Bartholomew), and St. Mark, for the benefit of his Gentile readers, gives the interpretation of it, ‘the son of Timæus.’
David Smith.
BARUCH (‘blessed’).—1. Son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah and brother of Seraiah (Jer 51:59); known from Jer 36, 45, 32:12–16, 43:3, 8; by Jeremiah’s side in the conflict with Jehoiakim (b.c. 604), again during the last siege of Jerusalem (587–6), and again amongst the Judæans left behind after the Second Captivity. ‘Baruch’ the scribe, named in Jer 36:26 along with ‘Jeremiah the prophet,’ is already the recognized attendant and amanuensis of the latter; he seems to have rendered the prophet over twenty years of devoted service. He belonged to the order of ‘princes,’ among whom Jeremiah had influential friends (26:16, 36:25) ; Baruch’s rank probably secured for Jeremiah’s objectionable ‘roll’ (ch. 36) the hearing that was refused to his spoken words. When he cast in his lot with Jeremiah, Baruch made a heavy sacrifice; he might have ‘sought great things’ for himself, and is warned against his natural ambition (45:3–5). The promise that Baruch’s ‘life shall be given’ him ‘for a prey’ wherever he goes, placed where it is
(45:5), suggests that he survived his master, to act as his literary executor. The Book of Jeremiah (see art.) owes much to this loyal secretary, though the final arrangement of the materials is far from satisfactory. Tradition adds nothing of any certainty to the references of Scripture; see, however, Jos. Ant. X. ix. 1, 7. For the Apocryphal writings attached to his name, see Apocrypha and Apocalyptic Literature. 2. One of the wall-builders (Neh 3:20). 3. A signatory to the covenant (10:5). 4. A Judahite (11:5).
G. G. Findlay.
BARZILLAI.—1. The name of a chieftain of Gilead who brought supplies to David and his army at Mahanaim (2 S 17:27ff.). After the death of Absalom, Barzillai went across Jordan with the king, but declined to go to court (19:31ff.). On his deathbed David charged Solomon to ‘shew kindness to the sons of
Barzillai’ (1 K 2:7). His descendants are mentioned in Ezr 2:51, Neh 7:63, 2. The Meholathite whose son Adriel is said (2 S 21:8) to have married Michal [ read Merab, cf. 1 S 18:19], the daughter of Saul.
J. G. Tasker.
BASALOTH.—1 Es 5:31 = Bazluth of Ezr 2:62 or Bazlith of Neh 7:54.
BASCAMA.—An unknown town of Gilead (1 Mac 13:23).
BASE.—To be base is in mod. English to be morally bad, but in AV it is no more than to be of humble birth or lowly position. In the RV, however, the word is sometimes used in the sense of morally low, mean, as Dt 13:13.
BASEMATH.—1. One of the wives of Esau. In Gn 26:34 (P) she is called the daughter of Elon the Hittlte, while in Gn 36:3 (prob. R) she is said to have been Ishmael’s daughter, and sister of Nebaioth. But in Gn 28:9 (P) Esau is said to have taken Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife; and in Gn 36:2 the first mentioned of Esau’s wives is Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. There is manifestly a confusion of names in the text, which cannot be satisfactorily explained. 2. A daughter of Solomon, who became the wife of Ahimaaz, one of the king’s officers (1 K 4:15).
BASHAN.—The name of the territory east of the Sea of Tiberias. It was the kingdom of Og, the Rephaite opponent of Israel, and with his name the country is almost invariably associated (Nu 21:33, Dt 29:7, Neh 9:22 etc.). The territory was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh, with a reservation of two cities, Golan and Beeshterah (Ashtaroth in 1 Ch 6:71), for the Gershonite Levites (Jos 21:27). In the time of Jehu the country was smitten by Hazael (2 K 10:33). It was noted for mountains (Ps 68:15), lions (Dt 33:22), oak trees (Is 2:13, Ezk 27:6, Zec 11:2), and especially cattle, both rams (Dt 32:14) and bullocks (Ezk 39:18); the bulls and kine of Bashan are typical of cruelty and oppression (Ps 22:12, Am 4:1). The extent of the territory denoted by this name cannot be exactly defined till some important identifications can be established, such as the exact meaning of ‘the region of Argob’ (included in the kingdom of Og, Dt 3:4 etc.), where were threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars, administered for Solomon by Ben-geber of Ramoth-gilead (1 K 4:13). It included Salecah (Salkhat, on the borders of the desert), Edrei (ed-Der‘a?), Ashtaroth (perhaps Tell Ashareh), and Golan, one of the cities of refuge, the name of which may be preserved in the Jaulan, the region immediately east of the Sea of Tiberias.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BASILISK.—See Serpent.
BASKET.—The names of a round score of baskets in use in NT times are known from the Mishna (see Krengel, Das Hausgerät in der Mishnah, pp. 39–45). They were made of willow, rush, palm-leaf, and other materials, and used in an endless variety of ways, for purely domestic purposes, in agriculture, in gathering and serving fruit, and for collecting the alms in kind for the poor, etc. Some had handles, others lids, some had both, others had neither. In OT times the commonest basket was the sal, made, at least in later times, of peeled willows or palm-leaves. It was large and flat like the Roman canistrum, and, like it, was used for carrying bread (Gn 40:16ff.) and other articles of food (Jg 6:19), and for presenting the meal-offerings at the sanctuary (Ex 29:3). Another (dūd), also of wicker-work, probably resembled the calathus, which tapered towards the bottom, and was used in fruit-gathering (Jer 24:1). In what respect it differed from Amos’ ‘basket of summer fruit’ (Am 8:1) is unknown. A fourth and larger variety was employed for carrying home the produce of the fields (Dt 28:5 ‘blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough,’ RV), and for presenting the first-fruits (26:2).
In NT interest centres in the two varieties of basket distinguished consistently by the Evangelists in their accounts of the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000 respectively, the kophinos and the sphyris. The kophinos (Mt 14:20) is probably to be identified with the exceedingly popular kūphā of the Mishna, which ‘was provided with a cord for a handle by means of which it was usually carried on the back’ (Krengel), with provisions, etc., and which, therefore, the disciples would naturally have with them. The Jews of Juvenal’s day carried such a provision basket (cophinus). The sphyris or spyris (Mt 15:37, Mk 8:8), from its use in St. Paul’s case (Ac 9:25), must have been considerably larger than the other, and might for distinction be rendered ‘hamper.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BASON (Amer. RV ‘basin’).—Chiefly the large bowl of bronze used by the priests to receive the blood of the sacrificial victims (Ex 27:3, 29:16, 1 K 7:45 etc.). It is only once found in secular use, if the text is correct (Am 6:6, otherwise LXX, see Bowl). Similar bowls or basins of silver were presented by the princes of the congregation (Nu 7:13ff.); those destined for Solomon’s Temple were of gold (1 K 7:50). The basins of Ex 12:22, 2 S 17:28 were probably of earthenware. A special washbasin was used by Jesus for washing the disciples’ feet (Jn 13:5).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BASSAI (AV Bassa), 1 Es 5:16 = Bezai, Ezr 2:17, Neh 7:23.
BASTHAI (AV Bastai), 1 Es 5:31 = Besai, Ezr 2:40, Neh 7:52.
BAT (‘atallēph).—The bat is a familiar object in Palestine, where no fewer than seventeen varieties have been identified. The two commonest are the horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrum equinum) and the long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus). All varieties in Palestine are insectivorous except one, the Xantharpyia œgyptiaca, which eats fruit. Bats flit about on noiseless wings by the score on warm summer evenings, especially in the Jordan Valley, and they are to be found in great numbers in ruins, old tombs, and caves all over the land, giving rise to many tales of ghostly habitation (Is 2:20). They are counted as unclean ‘fowl,’ though a little separate from the birds, in Lv 11:19, Dt 14:18.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BATH.—A liquid measure; see Weights and Measures.
BATH, BATHING.—The latter term is most frequently used in our EV in connexion with purification from ceremonial defilement—contact with holy things, with the dead, etc. (see article Clean and Unclean)—and in this sense denotes the washing of the body with water, not necessarily the total immersion of the body in water. Hence RV has rightly introduced ‘wash’ in many cases for ‘bathe.’ Bathing in the modern and non-religious sense is rarely mentioned (Ex 2:5 Pharaoh’s daughter, 2 S 11:2 [RV] Bathsheba, and the curious case 1 K 22:38). Public baths are first met with in the Greek period—they were included in the ‘place of exercise’ (1 Mac 1:14)—and remains of such buildings from the Roman period are fairly numerous. Recently a remarkable series of bath-chambers have been discovered at Gezer in connexion with a building, which is supposed to be the palace built by Simon Maccabæus (illust. in PEFSt, 1905, 294 f.).
The Hebrews were well acquainted with the use of mineral and vegetable alkalis for increasing the cleansing properties of water (Jer 2:22, RV ‘soap,’ ‘lye’). In the History of Susanna v. 17 is a curious reference to ‘washing-balls.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BATH-RABBIM (‘daughter of multitudes’).—The name of a gate of Heshbon, near which were pools, to which the Shulammite’s eyes are compared (Ca 7:4).
R. A. S. Macalister.
BATHSHEBA (1 Ch 3:5 Bathshua: this may be a mere textual error).—Wife of Uriah the Hittite, seduced by David (2 S 11:2–4), and afterwards married to him (v. 27). The child died (12:18), but another son, Solomon, was subsequently born
(12:24). Bathsheba, instigated and supported by Nathan, successfully combated Adonijah’s attempt to secure the throne (1 K 1:11–53). Acting as Adonijah’s intercessor in the matter of Abishag, she was most respectfully received by Solomon, but her unwise request was refused (1 K 2:13–25).
J. Taylor.
BATHSHUA.—1. See Bathsheba. 2. See Shua.
BATTERING-RAM.—See Fortification and Siegecraft.
BATTLE—See War, also names of places where the chief battles were fought.
BATTLE AXE.—See Armour, 1 (f).
BATTLE BOW.—See Armour, 1 (d).
BATTLEMENT.—See Fortification, House.
BAVVAI.—The son of Henadad (Neh 3:18); rebuilt a portion of the wall of Jerusalem; called in V. 24 Binnui.
BAY.—See Colours, 3.
BAYITH (‘house’).—Occurs as a proper name in Is 15:2, but the true sense is uncertain.
BAY-TREE (’ezrāch, Ps 37:35) is probably a mistranslation for ‘a tree in its native soil’ (RV). Many authorities, however, would here emend the Heb. text to read ’erez, ‘cedar.’
E. W. G. Masterman.
BAZLITH (Neh 7:54), Bazluth (Ezr 2:52 = Basaloth, 1 Es 5:31).—Founder of a family of Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel.
BDELLIUM.—The probably correct tr. of the Heb. bedōlach, which in Gn
2:12 is classed with gold and onyx as a product of the land of Havilah, and in Nu 11:7 is described as characterizing the ‘appearance’ (RV) of manna. Bdellium is the fragrant yellow resin of the tree Balsamodendron mukul, growing in N.W. India, Afghanistan, Belucbistan, and at one time perhaps in Arabia.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BE.—To be is to exist, as in ‘To be, or not to be, that is the question.’ This primary meaning is found in Gn 5:24 ‘Enoch walked with God; and he was not’; He 11:6 ‘he that cometh to God must believe that he is.’ The auxiliary use is later. In 1611 ‘be’ and ‘are’ were interchangeable auxiliary forms in the pres. indic, plu., as Ps 107:30 ‘Then are they glad because they be quiet.’
BEALIAH (‘J″ is lord’).—A Benjamite who joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch
12:5).
BEALOTH (Jos 15:24).—An unknown town in the extreme south of Judah. See Balah.
BEAM.—1. A tree roughly trimmed serving as support of the flat roof of an Eastern house (2 K 6:2, 5, Ezr 6:11 RV, Mt 7:3ff., Lk 6:41f.), or more elaborately dressed (2 Ch 34:11 RV, Ca 1:17) and gilded (2 Ch 3:7). See House, Mote. 2. The weaver’s beam (see Spinning and Weaving). 3. See Balance.
BEANS (pōl, Arab. fūl).—A very common and popular vegetable in Palestine, used from ancient times; they are the seeds of the Vicia faba. The bean plant, which is sown in Oct. or Nov., is in blossom in early spring, when its sweet perfume fills the air. Beans are gathered young and eaten, pod and seed together, cooked with meat; or the fully mature beans are cooked with fat or oil. As the native of Palestine takes little meat, such leguminous plants are a necessary ingredient of his diet (2 S 17:28). In Ezk 4:9 we read of beans as being mixed with barley, lentils, millet, and fitches to make bread.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BEAR (dōb).—The Syrian bear (Ursus syriacus, Arab. dūbb) is still fairly common in Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon, and is occasionally found in the Lebanon and east of the Jordan; it is practically extinct in Palestine. It is smaller and of a lighter colour than the brown bear (Ursus arctos). It is a somewhat solitary animal, eating vegetables, fruit, and honey, but, when hungry, attacking sheep (1 S 17:34–36) and occasionally, but very rarely, to-day at any rate, human beings (2 K 2:24). The fierceness of a bear robbed of her whelps (2 S 17:8, Pr 17:12, Hos 13:8) is well known. Next to the lion, the bear was considered the most dangerous of animals to encounter (Pr 28:15), and that it should be subdued was to be one of the wonders of the Messiah’s kingdom (Is 11:7).
E. W. G. Masterman.
BEARD.—See Hair.
BEAST
1. In OT (1) behēmāh, commonly used for a quadruped, sometimes tr. ‘cattle’; see Gn 6:7, 7:2, Ex 9:9, 10, 25, Lv 11:2 etc. (2) chayyāh, used of animals in general but specially ‘wild beasts’; see Gn 7:14, 8:1, 9:2 etc. (3) be‘īr sometimes tr. ‘beasts’ and sometimes ‘cattle’; see Gn 45:17, Ex 22:5 etc. (4) zīz, ‘wild beasts,’ Ps 50:11, 80:13.
2. In NT (1) thērion: Mk 1:13, Ac 28:4 (a viper), Tit 1:12, He 12:20, Ja 3:7, and over 30 times in Rev. (2) zōon, of the ‘beasts’ (AV), or ‘living creatures’ ( RV), round about the throne (Rev 5, 6, 8, 11, etc.).
E. W. G. Masterman.
BEAST (in Apocalypse).—In Revelation, particularly ch. 13, are symbolic pictures of two beasts who are represented as the arch-opponents of the Christians. The first beast demands worship, and is said to have as his number 666—a numerical symbol most easily referred to the Emperor Nero, or the Roman Empire. In the former case the reference would be undoubtedly to the myth of Nero redivivus, and this is, on the whole, the most probable interpretation.
If instead of 666 we read with Zahn, O. Holtzmann, Spitta, and Erbes, 616, the number would be the equivalent of Gaius Cæsar, who in a.d. 39 ordered the procurator Petronius to set up his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem. This view is, in a way, favoured not only by textual variations, but by the fact that Revelation has used so much Jewish apocalyptic material. However this may be, it seems more probable that the reference in Rev 17:10–11, as re-edited by the Christian writer, refers to Nero redivivus, the incarnation of the persecuting Roman Empire, the two together standing respectively as the Antichrist and his kingdom over against the Messiah and His kingdom. As in all apocalyptic writings, a definite historical ruler is a representative of an empire. Until the Messiah comes His subjects are at the, mercy of His great enemy.
The present difficulty in making the identification is due not only to the process of redaction, but also to the highly complex and, for the modern mind, all but unintelligible fusion of the various elements of the Antichrist belief ( see Antichrist).
Shailer Mathews.
BEATING.—See Crimes and Punishments, § 9.
BEATITUDES.—This word comes from the Latin abstract beatitudo, used in Vulg. of Ro 4:6, where David is said to ‘pronounce the beatitude’ or blessedness of the forgiven soul. Since the time of Ambrose the term has been used to describe the particular collection of sayings (cast in the form of which Ps 32:1 is an OT specimen) in which Christ depicts the qualities to be found in members of His kingdom—as an introduction to the discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:3–12 = Lk 6:20–23). Each of these sayings follows the form ‘Blessed (happy) are …, because …’ Mt. records eight of these general declarations, with a special application of the last of them; Lk. has only four, to which are added four corresponding Woes. There is no guarantee that even Mt. gives all the Beatitudes pronounced by Jesus on different occasions, or again that those he does give were all pronounced on that occasion. It is at least possible that in other parts of the NT we have quotations from sayings of the same kind. Thus 1 P 4:14, Ja 1:12, Rev 14:13 might easily be supposed to rest on words of Christ.
According to the prevailing view of the history of our Gospels, the Beatitudes are derived from an early collection of Logia, or sayings of Jesus, in the original Aramaic language. To a very large extent the authors of Mt. and Lk. seem to have used identical translations of this document; but in the Beatitudes there is a considerable divergence, together with some significant agreements in phraseology. Putting aside Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7 in Mt., which have no counterparts in Lk., we see the following main lines of difference—(1) Lk.’s are in the second person, Mt.’s in the third, except in the verses which apply No. 8 (5:11, 12); (2) Lk.’s are apparently external: the poor, the hungry, those that weep, receive felicitation as such, instead of the commiseration (‘Woe’) which the world would give them. But since in Lk. disciples are addressed, the divergence does not touch the real meaning. A theodicy is proclaimed in which the hardships of the present, sanctified to the disciple as precious discipline, will be transformed into abiding blessedness. Such a reversal of the order of this life involves here, as elsewhere, the casting down of those whom men count happy (cf. Is 65:13, 14, Lk 1:52, 53 , 16:25, Jn 16:20, Ja 1:9, 10). The paradoxical form of the sayings in Lk. produces a strong impression of originality, suggesting that here, as often elsewhere, Mt. has interpreted the words which Lk. has transcribed unchanged. Mt. has arranged them according to the form of Hebrew parallelism: observe how the first and last have the same refrain, the poem beginning and ending on the same note—cf. Ps 8. His No. 8 sums up in the form of the other Beatitudes the principle of the appendix vv. 11, 12, which Lk 6:22, 23 shows to be original: he then inserts this as a comment, much as he appends a sentence of comment to the Lord’s Prayer (6:14, 15). It may perhaps be doubted whether the Beatitudes peculiar to Mt. are in their original context. No. 3, proclaiming the triumph of those who do not ‘struggle to survive,’ is quoted from Ps 37:11; No. 5 is found as early as Clement of Rome, in the form ‘Show mercy, that mercy be shown to you’; No. 6 reproduces the sense of Ps 24:4 ;
No. 7, echoed in Ja 3:18, may have been altered in form to fit the appropriate context. We seem to be justified in conjecturing that Lk. inserts all the Beatitudes he found in his source under the same context, and that he faithfully preserved the words as they stood: the Woes likewise belonged to the same discourse. (Note the support given to them by Ja 5:1, and the use of the commercial technical term ‘have received,’ so characteristic of the Sermon; cf. Mt 6:2, 5, 16). The gloss with which Mt. interprets the Messing on the poor was not apparently known to St. James (2:5), whose very clear allusion to the Beatitude in its Lukan form determines the exegesis. The rich man could bring himself within the range of the blessing by accepting the ‘humiliation’ that Christian disciple-ship brought ( Ja 1:10); so that Mt.’s interpretation is supported by the writer, who shows us most clearly that the exact words have not been preserved by him. In No. 2 Mt. seems to have slightly altered the original (Lk 6:21). under the influence of Is 61:1—the prophecy from which Jesus preached in the synagogue at Nazareth, and the obvious suggestive cause of the appearance of the poor at the opening of the Beatitudes. It should be observed, however, that all attempts to ascertain the original form of sayings of Jesus have at best so large a subjective element that we cannot afford to dogmatize. There are scholars of great weight, reinforced most recently by Harnack, who regard Mt. as generally preserving the lost Logiacollection in a more exact form than Lk. Moreover, we must always allow for the probability that modifications introduced by Mt. or Lk. may often rest on early traditions, so that elements not included in the principal Gospel sources may nevertheless be derived from first-hand authority.
James Hope Moulton.
BEAUTIFUL GATE.—See Temple.
BEBAI.—1. The eponym of a family of returning exiles (Ezr 2:11, 8:11, 10:28 , Neh 7:16, 10:15, 1 Es 5:13, 9:29). 2. An unknown locality mentioned only in Jth 15:4.
BECHER.—1. Son of Ephraim, Nu 26:35 = 1 Ch 7:20 where the name appears as Bered. Patronymic in Nu 26:35 Becherites (AV Bachrites). 2. Son of Benjamin, Gn 46:21, 1 Ch 7:6, 8 and implicitly in 1 Ch 8:1 where for his first-born, Ashbel we should probably read Becher and Ashbel.
BECORATH.—One of Saul’s ancestors (1 S 9:1, possibly same name as Becher of 1 Ch 7:8).
BECTILETH (Jth 2:21).—A plain between Nineveh and Cilicia. Perhaps the Bactiali of the Peutinger Tables, 21 miles from Antioch.
BED, BEDCHAMBER.—See House, 8.
BEDAD.—Father of Hadad, king of Edom (Gn 36:35 = 1 Ch 1:49).
BEDAN.—1. Mentioned with Jerubbaal, Jephthah, and Samuel as one of the deliverers of Israel (1 S 12:11). The name does not occur in Jg., and it is probably a corruption for Barak (so LXX and Pesh.). Chronologically Barak should precede Gideon, but the order cannot be pressed (cf. V. 9). 2. A Manassite (1 Ch 7:17).
BEDEIAH.—One of those who had taken foreign wives (Ezr 10:35): in 1 Es 9:34 apparently Pedias.
BEE (debōrāh).—The bee (Apis fasciata) is a very important insect of Palestine. Wild bees are common, and stores of their honey are often found by wandering Bedouin, especially, it is said, near the Dead Sea. Most of the honey consumed and exported in large quantities is made by domesticated bees. The vast numbers of flowers and especially of aromatic plants enable the skilled bee-keeper to produce the most delicately flavoured honey, e.g. ‘orange flower,’ ‘thyme,’ etc.; be carries his hives to different parts according to the season. Many now keep bees in hives of European pattern, but the ordinary native still universally uses the primitive tube hive. This is like a wide drain-pipe of very rough earthenware, some 3 ft. long and about 8 in. in diameter, closed at the end with mud, leaving a hole for ingress and egress. A number of hives are piled one above the other. A few years ago, while the owner of several swarms of bees was transferring his brittle mud hives on donkey-hack, one of the asses stumbled and in falling broke one of the hives. In a moment the whole swarm fell on the unfortunate animals and on a fine horse standing near. One donkey was quickly stung to death, and all the other animals were severely injured. Cf. Dt 1:44, Ps 118:12, and Is 7:18, where the hosts of Assyria are compared to such a swarm let loose. That a swarm of bees should settle in a carcass (Jg 14:8) is certainly an unusual occurrence, as indeed is suggested in the narrative, but the dried-up remains of animals, little but hide and ribs, so plentiful by the roadsides in Palestine, often suggest suitable places for such a settlement. Honey has probably always been plentiful in Palestine, hut it is very doubtful whether ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ could have meant the product of bees alone. See Honey and Vine. In the LXX there is an addition to Pr 6:8, in which the bee is, like the ant, extolled for her diligence and wisdom.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BEELIADA (‘Baal knows’).—A son of David, 1 Ch 14:7, changed in conformity with later usage (see Ishbosheth) into Eliada (‘El knows’) in 2 S 5:16.
BEELSARUS (1 Es 5:8).—One of the leaders of those Jews who returned to Jerus. with Zerub.; called Bilshan, Ezr 2:2, Neh 7:7.
BEELTETHMUS.—An officer of Artaxerxes residing in Pal., 1 Es 2:16, 25 (LXX 15, 21). It is not a proper name, but a title of Rehum, the name immediately preceding it in Ezr 4:8. It is a corruption of be‘ēl te‘ēm = ‘lord of judgment,’ and is rendered ‘chancellor’ by AV and RV in Ezr., ‘story-writer’ in 1 Es 2:17.
BEELZEBUB.—See Baalzebub.
BEER (‘a well’).—1. A station in the journey from Arnon to the Jordan, mentioned Nu 21:18, with a poetical extract commemorating the digging of a well at this spot. The context indicates the neighbourhood, but further identification is wanting. Perhaps the words translated ‘and from the wilderness,’ which immediately follow this extract (Nu 21:18), should be translated (following the
LXX) ‘and from Beer,’ or ‘the well.’ It is generally identified with Beer-elim (‘well of mighty men’?), mentioned Is 15:8, and in the second part of the compound name it may be conjectured that there is reference to the event commemorated in the song (Nu 21:17, 18). 2. The place to which Jotham ran away after uttering his parable (Jg 9:21). Its position is unknown.
BEERA.—A man of Asher (1 Ch 7:37).
BEERAH.—A Reubenite who was carried captive by Tiglath-pileser (1 Ch
5:6).
BEER-ELIM.—See Beer.
BEERI.—1. The father of Judith, one of Esau’s wives (Gn 26:34), sometimes wrongly identified with Anah (wh. see). 2. The father of the prophet Hosea ( Hos
1:1).
BEER-LAHAI-ROI (‘The well of the Living One that seeth me’).—A well between Kadesh and Bered, where the fleeing Hagar was turned back (Gn 16:14) , where Isaac met his bride (24:62), and where he dwelt after Abraham’s death (25:11). ‘Ain Muweileh, about 50 miles S.W of Beersheba, has been suggested as a not impossible identification. It is a station where there are several wells, on the caravan route from Syria to Egypt.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BEEROTH (‘wells’).—A Gibeonite city, usually coupled in enumeration with Chephirah and Kiriath-jearim (Jos 9:17, Ezr 2:25, Neh 7:29); assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 18:25, 2 S 4:2); the home of Rechab, murderer of Ish-bosheth (2 S 4:2), and of Naharai, armour-bearer of Joab (2 S 23:37). Bireh, about 10 miles from Jerusalem on the main road to the north, is the usual identification, and there seems no special reason for objecting thereto. The circumstances and date of the flight of the Beerothites to Gittaim (2 S 4:3) are not recorded.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BEEROTH-BENE-JAAKAN.—Probably certain wells in the territory of some nomad Horite tribe (Gn 36:27, 1 Ch 1:42), the Benē Jaakan; a halting-place in the Israelite wanderings, between Moseroth and Hor-haggidgad (Nu 33:31, 32 , Dt 10:6). The site is unknown.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BEERSHEBA.—A halting-place of Abraham (Gn 21:31), where Hagar was sent away (Gn 21:14), and where he made a covenant with Abimelech, from which the place is alleged to take its name (‘well of the covenant,’ according to one interpretation). Isaac after his disputes with the Philistines settled here (26:23), and discovered the well Shibah, another etymological speculation (v. 33). Hence Jacob was sent away (28:10), and returned and sacrificed on his way to Egypt (46:1). It was assigned to the tribe of Judah (Jos 15:28), but set apart for the Simeonites (19:2). Here Samuel’s sons were judges (1 S 8:2), and hither Elijah fled before Jezebel (1 K 19:3). Zibiah, the mother of Joash, belonged to Beersheba (2 K 12:1). It was an important holy place: here Abraham planted a sacred tree (Gn 21:33), and theophanies were vouchsafed to Hagar (v. 17), to Isaac (26:24), to Jacob (46:2) , and to Elijah (1 K 19:5). Amos couples it with the shrines of Bethel and Gilgal (Am 5:6), and oaths by its numen are denounced (8:14). It is recognized as the southern boundary of Palestine in the frequent phrase ‘from Dan unto Beersheba’ (Jg 20:1 etc.). Seven ancient wells exist here, and it has been suggested that these gave its name to the locality; the suffixed numeral being perhaps due to the influence of the syntax of some pre-Semitic language, as in Kiriath-arba (‘Tetrapolis’). The modern name is Bir es-Seba’, where are extensive remains of a Byzantine city; the ancient city is probably at Tell es-Seba’, about 2 miles to the east. Till recently the site was deserted by all but Bedouin; now a modern town has sprung up, built from the ruins of the ancient structures, and has been made the seat of a sub-governor.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BE-ESHTERAH (Jos 21:27).—See Ashtaroth.
BEETLE (chargōl).—In RV ‘cricket’ (Lv 11:22), probably a grasshopper or locust. See Locust.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BEFORE.—In Gn 11:28 ‘Haran died before his father Terah,’ the meaning is ‘in the presence of’ as RV, literally ‘before the face of.’
BEHEADING.—See Crimes and Punishments, § 10.
BEHEMOTH.—The hippopotamus (Job 40:15), as leviathan (41:1) is the crocodile. It has been suggested that the ancient Babylonian Creation-myth underlies the poet’s description of the two animals (Gunkel, Schöpf. u. Chaos, 61 ff.). This is doubtful, but the myth undoubtedly reappears in later Jewish literature: ‘And in that day will two monsters be separated, a female named Leviathan to dwell in the abyss over the fountains of waters. But the male is called Behemoth, which occupies with its breast [?] an immeasurable desert named Dendain’ ( En 60:7, 8; cf. 2 Es 6:49–51, Apoc. Bar 29:4, Baba bathra 74b). Behemoth is rendered by ‘beasts’ in Is 30:6. This may be correct, but the oracle which follows says nothing about the ‘beasts of the south’; either the text is corrupt or the title may have been prefixed because Rahab, another name for the chaos-monster, occurs in v. 7. The psalmist confesses, ‘Behemoth was I with thee’ (Ps 73:22). The LXX understood this to be an abstract noun, ‘Beast-like was I with thee’; others substitute the sing., and render ‘a beast,’ etc.
J. Taylor.
BEKA (AV Bekah).—See Weights and Measures.
BEL, originally one of the Bab. triad, but synonym, in OT and Apocr. with
Merodach, ‘the younger Bel,’ the tutelary god of Babylon (Jer 50:2, 51:44, Is 46:1 , Bar 6:41). See also Baal, Assyria and Babylonia. ‘Bel and the Dragon’ (in art. Apocrypha, § 7).
BELA.—1. A king of Edom (Gn 36:32, 33, cf. 1 Ch 1:43f.). The close resemblance of this name to that of ‘Balaam, the son of Beor,’ the seer, is noteworthy, and has given rise to the Targum of Jonathan reading ‘Balaam, the son of Beor’ in Gn 36:32. 2. The eldest of the sons of Benjamin (Gn 46:21, Nu 26:38 [patronym. Belaites], 1 Ch 7:6, 8:1). 3. A Renbenite who was a dweller in the Moabite territory (1 Ch 5:8f.). It is noteworthy that this Bela, like the Edomite king mentioned above, seems to have been traditionally connected with the Euphrates.
4. A name of Zoar (Gn 14:2, 8).
BELEMUS, 1 Es 2:16 (16, LXX).—See Bishlam.
BELIAL (BELIAR).—This word, rendered by AV and RV as a proper noun in the majority of the OT passages, is in reality a compound, meaning
‘worthlessness,’ whence ‘wickedness,’ ‘destruction,’ and as such is construed with another noun. In the sense of’ wickedness,’ it occurs in 1 S 1:16 ‘daughter of wickedness,’ i.e. ‘a wicked woman’ (cf. Dt 13:13, 15:9, Jg 9:22, 20:13, 1 S 2:12 , 10:27, 25:17, 25, 2 S 16:7, 20:1, 23:6, 1 K 21:10, 13, 2 Ch 13:7, Pr 6:12, 16:27 , 19:28, for similar usage). As ‘destruction,’ it is found in Ps 17:5 (cf. 2 S 22:5) 41:8 and Nah 1:11, 15 (note in Nah 1:15 independent use, ‘man’ understood; RV ‘wicked one’; others, ‘destroyer’). Having such a meaning, it is used by St. Paul as a name for Satan (personification of unclean heathenism, 2 Co 6:15), the Greek text spelling it ‘Beliar’ (AV and RV ‘Belial’), a variation due to the harsh pronunciation of ‘l’ in Syriac.
N. Koenig.
BELIEF.—Older Eng. (akin to lief and love) for the Lat.-French ‘faith,’ which displaced it in AV everywhere except in 2 Th 2:13. RV follows AV except in Ro
10:16f., where it restores ‘belief,’ after Tindale, in continuity with ‘believe.’
‘Unbelief held its ground as the antonym (Mt 13:58, etc., Ro 3:3 etc.). In modern Eng., ‘faith’ signifies ethical, ‘belief’ intellectual, credence: ‘faith,’ trust in a person; ‘belief,’ recognition of a fact or truth beyond the sphere of sensible observation or demonstrative proof. See Faith.
G. G. Findlay.
BELL.—A number of small bronze bells, both of the ordinary shape with clapper and of the ‘ball and slit’ form, have been found at Gezer (PEFSt, 1904 , 354, with illustt.). The bells of ‘pure gold’ (Ex 39:25), which alternated with pomegranate ornaments on the skirt of the high priest’s robe (28:33f.), were doubtless of one or other of these forms. Their purpose is stated in v. 35, but the underlying idea is obscure (see the Comm.). The ‘bells of the horses’ of Zec 14:20 represent another word akin to that rendered ‘cymbals.’ Whether these ornaments were really bells or, as is usually supposed, small metal discs (cf. the ‘crescents’ of Jg 8:21 RV) Is uncertain.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BELLOWS.—See Arts and Crafts, 2.
BELMAIM (Jth 4:4, 7:3).—It seems to have lain south of Dothan, but the topography of Judith is very difficult. Bileam in Manasseh lay farther north than Dothan.
BELOVED.—See Love.
BELSHAZZAR.—Son of Nebuchadnezzar, last king of Babylon, before its capture by Cyrus (Dn 5:1). The name is somewhat variously given: Baltasar, Bar 1:11f. [so also LXX and Theod. in Daniel]; and Josephus says he was son of Naboandēlos. There is no doubt that Bēlshar-usur, son of Nabonidus, is meant. He was regent in Babylon during the latter part of his father’s reign. It is probable that he was in command of Babylon on its surrender, as he had been in command of the army in Akkad till the 11th year of his father’s reign.
C. H. W. Johns.
BELTESHAZZAR.—Nebuchadnezzar is said to have conferred this name on the youthful Daniel (Dn 1:7). The Babylonian form would be Balatsu-usur
(“protect his life!”) or, according to 4:8, Bel balatsu-usur. The LXX and
Theodotion employ Baltasar both for it and for Belshazzar (ch. 5); and pseudoEpiphanius repeats a legend that Nebuchadnezzar wished to make the two men coheirs.
J. Taylor.
BEN (‘son’).—A Levite, 1 Ch 15:18, omitted in parallel list in v. 20 in both MT and LXX. The latter omits it also in the first-named passage.
BEN-ABINADAB (AV ‘son of Abinadab’).—One of Solomon’s commissariat officers (1 K 4:11).
BENAIAH (‘Jah hath built’).—1. A brave soldier from Kabzeel in Judah (2 S 23:20ff.), captain of David’s bodyguard (8:18, 20:23). He became a partisan of
Solomon’s and carried’ the mighty men,’ ‘the Cherethites and Pelethites,’ with him (1 K 1:7, 8, 38). He played an important rôle in the young king’s coronation ( vv. 38, 44), and was subsequently ordered to dispatch Joab, whose place as commander-in-chief he then filled (2:28–35). 2. One of the thirty who formed the second class of David’s heroes (2 S 23:22). He came from Pirathon in Mt. Ephraim (2 S 23:30, cf. Jg 12:15). 1 Ch 27:14 assigns to him the command of the course for the eleventh month, with twenty-four thousand Ephraimites under him. 3. Some ten obscure persons of this name appear in 1 Ch 4:36, 15:18, 20, 24, 16:5, 6, 2 Ch 20:14, 31:13, Ezr 10:25, 30, 35, 43, Ezk 11:1, 13.
J. Taylor.
BEN-AMMI (‘son of my blood-relative’ or ‘son of my father’s kinsman’).— The story (Gn 19) purports to explain the name Ammon (v. 38). Notwithstanding the fact that incestuous marriages were common amongst these people, it is most likely that the narrative is a product of the bitter hatred which was excited by prolonged contests for the territory E. of Jordan.
J. Taylor.
BEN-DEKER (AV ‘son of Dekar’).—One of Solomon’s twelve commissariat officers (1 K 4:9).
BENE-BERAK.—A town in the territory of Dan (Jos 19:45), identified with Ibn Ibrāq, about 5 miles E. of Jaffa, on the N. of Wādy Nusrah.
W. Ewino.
BENEFACTOR.—Lk 22:25 only, ‘they that exercise authority over them ( the Gentiles) are called benefactors.’ The word is an exact tr. of the Gr. Euergetēs, a title of honour borne by two of the Gr. kings of Egypt before Christ’s day, Ptolemy III. (b.c. 247–222) and Ptolemy VII. (IX.) (b.c. 147–117). Hence RV properly spells with a capital, ‘Benefactors.’
BENE-JAAKAN.—A station in the journeyings, mentioned Nu 33:31, 32 ( cf. Dt 10:6, and see Beerothbene-Jaakan).
BEN-GEBER (AV ‘son of Geber’).—Patronymic of one of Solomon’s twelve commissariat officers who had charge of a district N.E. of the Jordan (1 K 4:13).
BEN-HADAD.—The name of three kings of Damascus in the 9th cent. b.c.
1. Benhadad I., the son of Tab-rimmon of Damascus. At the instance of Asa of Judah he intervened against Baasha of Israel, and took from him valuable territory on his northern border. For this service Benhadad received from Asa costly treasures from the Temple and royal palace (1 K 15:17–20).
2. Benhadad II., son of the preceding, was an able general and statesman. He was at the head of a league of western princes who successfully opposed the attempts of Shalmaneser II. of Assyria to conquer southern Syria. At the battle of Karkar in b.c. 854 he had Ahab of Israel as one of his chief allies. In his time war with Israel was the rule, he being usually successful. But Ahab was more fortunate in the campaigns of 856 and 855, which were followed by a treaty of peace with concessions to Israel (1 K 20). On the resumption of hostilities in the third year thereafter, Benhadad was victorious (1 K 22). He was assassinated by the usurper Hazael about b.c. 843 (2 K 8:15).
3. Benhadad III., son of Hazael, probably the same as the Man’ of the Assyrian inscriptions. Under him Damascus lost his father’s conquests in Palestine (2 K 13:24f.), and he also suffered heavily from the Assyrians.
J. F. McCurdy.
BEN-HAIL (‘son of might’).—A prince sent by Jehoshaphat to teach in the cities of Judah (2 Ch 17:7).
BEN-HANAN (‘son of a gracious one’).—A man of Judah (1 Ch 4:20).
BEN-HESED (AV ‘son of Hesed’ [= ‘kindness’]).—One of Solomon’s twelve commissariat officers who had charge of a district in Judah (1 K 4:10).
BEN-HUR (AV ‘son of Hur’).—One of Solomon’s twelve commissariat officers (1 K 4:8).
BENINU (perhaps ‘our son’).—One of those who sealed the covenant ( Neh
10:13).
BENJAMIN.—1. The youngest son of Jacob by Rachel, and the only full brother of Joseph (Gn 30:22f. [JE] 35:17 [J] 35:24 [P]). He alone of Jacob’s sons was native-born. J (Gn 35:16) puts his birth near Ephrath in Benjamin. A later interpolation identifies Ephrath with Bethlehem, but cf. 1 S 10:2. P, however ( Gn 35:22–26), gives Paddan-aram as the birth-place of all Jacob’s children. His mother, dying soon after he was born, named him Ben-oni (‘son of my sorrow’). Jacob changed this ill-omened name to the more auspicious one Benjamin, which is usually interpreted ‘son of my right hand,’ the right hand being the place of honour as the right side was apparently the lucky side (cf. Gn 48:14). Pressed by a famine, his ten brothers went down to Egypt, and Jacob, solicitous for his welfare, did not allow Benjamin to accompany them; but Joseph made it a condition of his giving them corn that they should bring him on their return. When Judah (Gn 43:9 J) or Reuben (42:37 E) gave surety for his safe return, Jacob yielded. Throughout the earlier documents Benjamin is a tender youth, the idol of his father and brothers. A late editor of P (Gn 46:21) makes him, when he entered Egypt, the father of ten sons, that is more than twice as many as Jacob’s other sons except Dan, who had seven.
The question is, What is the historical significance of these conflicting traditions? Yāmin,’ right hand,’ appears to have been used geographically for south,’ and Ben-yāmin may mean ‘son (s) of the south,’ i.e. the southern portion of Ephraim. Ben-oni may be connected with On in the tribe of Benjamin. The two names may point to the union of two related tribes, and the persistence of the traditions that Benjamin was the full brother of Joseph, whereas the other Joseph tribes (Manasseh and Ephraim) are called sons, would indicate not only a close relationship to Joseph, but also a comparatively early development into an independent tribe. On the other hand, J E P all make Benjamin the youngest son, and P gives Canaan as his native land. This points to a traditional belief that the tribe was the last to develop. This and the fact that Shimei, a Benjamitc, claims (2 S 19:20) to be’ of the house of Joseph,’ suggest that the tribe was an offshoot of the latter.
The limits of the tribal territory are given by P in Jos 18:11–28. Within it lay
Bethel (elsewhere assigned to Ephraim), Ophrah, Geba, Gibeon, Ramab, Mizpeh, Gibeah, all primitive seats of Canaanitish worship and important centres in the cultus of Israel (cf., e.g., Bethel, Am 7:10ff.). Jericho, where in early times there may have been a cult of the moon-god (jārēach = ‘moon’), and Jerusalem are also assigned to Benjamin. Dt 33:12, as commonly but not universally interpreted, also assigns Jerusalem to Benjamin, though later it belonged to Judah. Anathoth, the birth-place of Jeremiah, also lay in Benjamin (Jos 21:18 [P]). In the Blessing of Jacob (Gn 49:27) a fierce and warlike character is ascribed to Benjamin. The statement is all the more important, since in this ‘Blessing’ we have certainly to deal with vaticinia post eventum. The rugged and unfriendly nature of the tribal territory doubtless contributed to martial hardihood. The tribe participated in the war against Sisera (Jg 5:14). A late and composite story is found in Jg 19–21 of an almost complete annihilation of the tribe by the rest of the Israelites. Later the tribe gave to united Israel its first king, Saul of Gibeah. It had in Asa’s army, according to 2 Ch 14:8, 280,000 picked warriors—an exaggeration of course, but a very significant one in this connexion. Benjamin, under Sheba, a kinsman of Saul, led in the revolt against David when the quarrel provoked by David’s partisanship broke out between Judah and the northern tribes (2 S 20:1ff.). From the first the tribe was loyal to the house of Saul and violently opposed to David (cf. 2 S 16:5, 20:2). In the revolt against the oppressions of Rehoboam it joined with the North (1 K 12:20). A variant account joins it with Judah (12:21f.), but this is only a reflexion of later times. The history of the tribe is unimportant after David. Besides Saul and Jeremiah, St. Paul also traced descent to this tribe (Ph 3:5). See also Tribes. 2. A great-grandson of Benjamin (1 Ch 7:10). 3. One of those who had married a foreign wife (Ezr 10:32; prob. also Neh 3:23, 12:34).
James A. Craig.
BENJAMIN GATE.—See Temple.
BENO (‘his son’).—In both AV and RV a proper name in 1 Ch 24:26, 27, but we should perhaps render, ‘of Jaaziah his son, even the sons of Merari by Jaaziah his son’ (Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v.).
BENONI.—See Benjamin.
BEN-ZOHETH.—A man of Judah (1 Ch 4:20).
BEON (Nu 32:3).—Prob. = Baal-Meon (wh. see).
BEOR.—1. Father of Balaam, Nu 22:5, 24:3, 15; J, Jos 24:9, also Nu 31:8, Dt 23:4, Jos 13:22, Mic 6:5, 2 P 2:15 (Bosor, AV and RVm). 2. Father of Bela, king of Edom, Gn 36:32 J, 1 Ch 1:43.
BERA.—King of Sodom at time of Chedorlaomer’s invasion (Gn 14:2).
BERACAH (‘blessing’).—1. One of Saul’s brethren who joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch 12:3). 2. ‘The valley of blessing,’ where Jehoshaphat gave thanks for victory over the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, who had marched from Engedi to Tekoa (vv. 2, 20). The name survives at the ruin Bereikūt on the main road from Jerusalem to Hebron, west of Tekoa.
BERAIAH.—A man of Benjamin (1 Ch 8:21).
BEREA (1 Mac 9:4).—See Berœa, 3.
BERECHIAH.—1. Father of Asaph (1 Ch 6:39, AV Bsrachiah). 2. Son of
Zerubbabel (1 Ch 3:20). 3. Father of Meshullam, one of Nehemiah’s chiefs ( Neh 3:4, 30, 6:19). 4. A Levite guard of the ark (1 Ch 9:16, 15:23). 5. Father of the prophet Zechariah (Zec 1:1). 6. An Ephraimite chief (2 Ch 28:12).
BERED.—1. An unknown place, mentioned but once (Gn 16:14) as an indication fixing the site of Beer-lahairoi. The identification with Halasah, which has been suggested, is mere guess-work. 2. See Becher, No. 1.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BERI.—A division of an Asherite clan (1 Ch 7:35).
BERIAH.—1. Son of Asher (Gn 46:17, Nu 26:44, 1 Ch 7:30f.). 2. Son of Ephraim, begotten in the days of mourning occasioned by the death of Ephraim’s four sons, who were killed by the men of Gath whilst cattle-raiding; hence the false etymology, bera‘ah = ‘in affliction’ (1 Ch 7:23). 3. A Benjamite at Aijalon, who, with Shema, put the Gathites to flight (cf. No. 2). 4. Son of the Levite Shimei (1 Ch 23:10f.). He and his brother Jeush had not many sons, and therefore were counted as a single family.
J. Taylor.
BERIITES.—Descendants of Beriah, No. 1 (Nu 26:44).
BERITES.—2 S 20:14. The reading Bichrites is suggested, though not actually given, by LXX and Vulg. See art. Sheba.
BERNICE or BERENICE.—Sister of Agrippa II. (Ac 25:13, 23, 26:30) , married to her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis.
BERODACH-BALADAN.—See Merodach-baladan.
BERŒA.—1. A town in the district of Macedonia called Emathia. The earliest certain reference to it occurs in an inscription of the end of the 4th cent. b.c. After the battle of Pydna (b.c. 168) it was the first city which surrendered to the Romans. In winter b.c. 49–48 it was the headquarters of Pompey’s infantry. In St. Paul’s time there was a Jewish community there to which he preached the gospel with success (Ac 17:10, 13 [Sopater, a native] 20:4). It was a populous city, and is in modern times called Verria by Greeks, Karaferia by Turks, and Ber by Slavs.
2. The place where Antiochus Eupator caused Menelaus, the ex-high priest, to be put to death (2 Mac 13:4). It is now the well-known Haleb or Aleppo, with about 100,000 inhabitants.
3. Mentioned 1 Mac 9:4, perhaps the same as Beeroth (Jos 9:17) or Beroth (1 Es 5:19); modern Bireh, about 10 miles N. of Jerusalem.
A. Souter.
BEROTH.—1 Es 5:19 = Beeroth of Ezr 2:25.
BEROTHAH, BEROTHAI.—A city of Syria, despoiled by David (2 S 8:8) , and named by Ezekiel as a limiting point in his ideal restoration of the kingdom (Ezk 47:16). Ezekiel places it between Hamath and Damascus; the site is otherwise unknown. In 1 Ch 18:8, which is parallel to 2 S 8:8, for Berothai is substituted Cun. [Berothite in 1 Ch 11:39 is obviously meant for Beerothite. See Beeroth].
R. A. S. Macalister.
BERYL.—See Jewels and Precious Stones.
BERZELUS.—See Zorzelleus.
BESAI.—Nethinim who returned with Zerub. (Ezr 2:49, Neh 7:52; = Basthai, 1 Es 5:31).
BESODEIAH (Neh 3:6).—Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, took part in repairing the Old Gate.
BESOM (lit. ‘sweeper’) occurs only fig. Is 14:23, ‘I will sweep it [ Babylon ] with the sweeper of destruction.’ One such besom of twigs the writer remembers having seen in the museum of Egyptian antiquities in Cairo.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BESOR (Brook).—A torrent-valley, apparently S. or S.W. of Ziklag (1 S 30:9 , 10, 21). It is probably the modern Wady Ghuzzeh, which empties itself into the sea S.W. of Gaza.
BESTIALITY.—See Crimes and Punishments, § 3.
BETAH (2 S 8:9).—See Tibhath.
BETANE (Jth 1:9).—A place apparently south of Jerusalem, and not Bethany. It may be the same as Beth-anoth.
BETEN (Jos 19:25).—A town of Asher, noticed next to Achshaph. The site is doubtful. In the fourth century it was shown 8 Roman miles east of Ptolemais (Acco). It may be the present village el-B‘aneh.
BETH.—The second letter of the Heb. alphabet, and as such used in Ps 119 as the heading of the second part, each verse of which begins with this letter.
BETHABARA.—Mentioned once only, Jn 1:28, as the scene of John’s baptism; the principal codices, followed by the RV, here read Bethany. There is no clue to the position of Bethabara, except that it was probably in or near Galilee ( cf. Mt 3:13). Identification with a ford named ‘Abārah, about 12 miles south of the outlet of the Sea of Galilee, has with some plausibility been suggested.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-ANATH.—A town of Naphtali, now the village ‘Ainatha, in the mountains of Upper Galilee.
BETH-ANOTH (Jos 15:59).—A town in the mountains of Judah near Gedor. It is the present Beit ‘Ainūn, S.E. of Halhul.
BETHANY.—A village about 15 stadia (2910 yards or about 1⅝ mile) from Jerusalem (Jn 11:18) on the road from Jericho, close to Bethphage and on the
Mount of Olives (Mk 11:1, Lk 19:29). It was the lodging-place of Christ when in Jerusalem (Mk 11:11). Here lived Lazarus and Martha and Mary (Jn 11:1), and here He raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11). Here also He was entertained by Simon the leper, at the feast where the woman made her offering of ointment ( Mt 26:6, Mk 14:3). From ‘over against’ Bethany took place the Ascension (Lk 24:50). In this case the topographical indications agree exceptionally with the constant tradition which fixes Bethany at the village of el-‘Azariyeh, on the S.E. of the Mount of Olives beside the Jericho road. The tomb of Lazarus and the house of Martha and Mary are definitely pointed out in the village, but of course without any historical authority. For a possible Bethany in Galilee, see Bethabara.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-ARABAH (‘place of the Arabah’ [wh. see], Jos 15:6, 61, 18:22).—A place in the Jericho plain, apparently north of Beth-hoglah, in the ‘wilderness.’ The name has not been recovered.
BETH-ARBEL (Hos 10:14 only).—The site is quite uncertain. It is said to have been spoiled by Shalman (perhaps Shalmaneser III.), and may have been in Syria. Two places called Arbela exist in Palestine, one (now Irbid) west of the Sea of Galilee (Jos. Ant. XII. xi. 1), the other (Irbid) in the extreme north of Gilead, both noticed in the 4th cent. a.d. (Onom. s.v. ‘Arbela’).
BETHASMOTH (1 Es 5:18).—For Bethazmaveth. See Azmaveth.
BETH-AVEN (‘house of iniquity,’ or ‘idolatry’?).—Close to Ai (Jos 7:2), by the wilderness (18:12), north-west of Michmash (1 S 13:5), and on the way to Aijalon (14:23), still inhabited in the 8th cent. b.c. (Hos 5:8). The ‘calves of Bethaven’ were probably those at Bethel close by (Hos 10:5). Bethel is probably meant also in Hos 4:15, 5:8 (see Am 5:5) 10:8 ( Aven ).
BETH-AZMAVETH (Neh 7:28).—See Azmaveth.
BETH-BAAL-MEON (Jos 13:17).—See Baal-Meon.
BETH-BARAH (Jg 7:24).—Near Jordan and the valley of Jezreel. Some suppose it to be the same as Bethabara, in which case the guttural has been lost in copying.
BETHBASI (1 Mac 9:62, 64).—Josephus reads Beth-hoglah. The name has not been recovered.
BETH-BIRI (1 Ch 4:31).—A town of Simeon, perhaps textual error for Bethlebaoth, Jos 19:6 = Lebaoth, Jos 15:32. The ruin Bireh on the west slopes of the Debir hills may be intended.
BETH-CAR (‘house of a lamb’).—A place mentioned once only, 1 S 7:11, as the terminus of the pursuit of the Philistines under Samuel’s guidance. The site is quite unknown, save that it must have been somewhere near Jerusalem, on the west.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-DAGON (‘house of Dagon’).—1. A city of Judah (Jos 15:41) , somewhere in the Shephelah. The name is preserved in the modern Beit Dejan, some 4 miles S.E. of Jaffa. This, however, is quite a modern village. Near it is a Roman site, named Khurbet Dajun. The Biblical Beth-dagon is still to seek. 2. A border city in the tribe of Asher (Jos 19:27), not yet discovered.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-DIBLATHAIM (‘house of two fig-cakes’?).—In Jer 48:22 mentioned with Dibon and Nebo; the next camp to Dibon before Nebo (Nu 33:48f.).
BETH-EDEN (Am 1:5 marg.).—See Eden [House of].
BETHEL.—1. On a rocky knoll beside the great road to the north, about 12 miles from Jerusalem, stands the modern Beilīn, a village of some 400 inhabitants, which represents the ancient Bethel. Four springs furnish good water, and in ancient times they were supplemented by a reservoir hewn in the rock, south of the town. Luz was the original name of the town. The name Bethel was first applied to the stone which Jacob set up and anointed (Gn 28:22). See Pillar. But ‘the place’ (v. 11 etc.) was evidently one with holy associations. It was visited by Abraham, who sacrificed here (12:8). This may have induced Jacob to come hither on his way to the north, and again on his return from Paddan-aram. From an eminence to the east almost the whole extent of the plains of Jericho is visible. This may have been the scene of Lot’s selfish choice (Gn 13). ‘Bethel’ in the end prevailed over ‘Luz,’ and the town came to be known by the name of the sanctuary, the neighbourhood of which lent it distinction.
Bethel, a royal Canaanite city (Jos 12:16), fell to Benjamin in the division of the land (18:22), but he failed to make good his possession. It was finally taken by Ephraim (Jg 1:22, 1 Ch 7:28). Hither the ark was brought from Gilgal (Jg 20:18
LXX), and Bethel was resorted to as a place of sacrifice (1 S 10:3). The prophetess Deborah dwelt between Bethel and Ramah (Jg 4:5). In judging Israel, Samuel went from year to year in circuit to Bethel (1 S 7:10). No doubt the ancient sanctity of the place led Jeroboam to choose Bethel as the site of the rival shrine, which he hoped might counteract the influence of the house of the Lord at Jerusalem (1 K 12:26ff.). It became the great sanctuary of the Northern Kingdom, and the centre of the idolatrous priests who served in the high places (v. 32ff.). At Bethel, Jeroboam was denounced by the man of God out of Judah (13:19). It was one of the towns taken from Jeroboam by Abijah king of Judah (2 Ch 13:19). It is noteworthy that Elijah is silent regarding the calf-worship at Bethel; and that a school of the prophets, apparently in sympathy with him, flourished there (2 K 2:2f.). But the denunciations of Amos (3:14, 4:4, 5:5 etc.) and Hosea (Hos 4:15, 5:8 etc.) lack nothing in vehemence. The priest resided at Bethel, who was brought by the king of Assyria to teach the mixed peoples, who lived in the country during the Exile, the manner of the God of the land (2 K 17:29ff.). Bethel was reoccupied by the returning exiles (Ezr 2:28 etc.). We find it in the hands of Bacchides (1 Mac 9:50). It was one of the towns ‘in the mountains’ taken by Vespasian in his march on Jerusalem (Jos. BJ IV. ix. 9).
2. A town in Judah, not identified, called in different places, Bethul, Bethel, and Bethuel (Jos 19:4, 1 S 30:27, 1 Ch 4:30).
W. Ewing.
BETH-EMEK (‘house of the deep valley’, Jos 19:27).—A town of Zebulun in the border valley, east of Acco, apparently near Cabul. The name has not been recovered.
BETHER (‘mountains of cutting’—or ‘of divisions,’ Ca 2:17).—If a proper name, the famous site of Bether, near Jerusalem, might be intended. Bether is celebrated for the resistance of the Jews to Hadrian under Bar Cochba in a.d. 135. The site was recognized by Canon Williams at Bittīr, south-west of Jerusalem—a village on a cliff in a strong position, with a ruin near it called ‘Ruin of the Jews,’ from a tradition of a great Jewish massacre at this place. See Malobathron.
BETHESDA.—A reservoir at Jerusalem, remarkable (according to a gloss inserted in the text in some authoritative MSS) for a periodic disturbance of the water which was supposed to give it healing properties. Here were five porches. It was ‘by the sheep-gate.’ An impotent man, one of the many who waited for the troubling of the water, was here healed by Christ (Jn 5:2). The only body of water at Jerusalem that presents any analogous phenomenon is the intermittent spring known as the Virgin’s Fountain, in the Kidron valley, but it is not near the Sheepgate. There is little that can be said in favour of any other of the numerous identifications that have been proposed for this pool.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-EZEL (Mic 1:11).—Perhaps ‘place near,’ see AVm: mentioned with Zaanan and Shaphir. It seems to have been a place in the Philistine plain, but the site is unknown. According to some it is = Azel of Zec 14:5.
BETH-GADER (1 Ch 2:51), mentioned with Bethlehem and Kiriath-jearim. It may be the same as Geder, Jos 12:13.
BETH-GAMUL (Jer 48:23).—A place in Moab, noticed with Dibon, Kiriathaim, and Beth-meon. It is now the ruin Umm el-Jemāl, towards the east of the plateau, south of Medeba.
BETH-GILGAL (Neh 12:29, AV ‘house of Gilgal’), perhaps identical with
Gilgal to the east of Jericho. See Gilgal
BETH-HACCHEREM (‘place of the vineyard’), Neh 3:14, Jer 6:1.—It appears to have had a commanding position for a beacon or ensign. Tradition fixed on Herodium south of Bethlehem, probably because it was a conspicuous site near Tekoa, with which it is noticed. A possible site is ‘Ain Karim, west of Jerusalem, where there are vineyards.
BETH-HARAM was situated ‘in the valley-plain of the Jordan’ (Jos 13:27). In Nu 32:36 Bethharan. Its site has been recovered at Tell Rāmeh at the mouth of the
Wady Hesbān, 6 miles east from the familiar bathing-place of pilgrims in the Jordan. It was rebuilt and fortified by Herod Antipas when he became tetrarch, and in honour of the Roman empress was called Livias or Libias. Merrill (East of the Jordan, p. 383) gives reasons for believing that it was in the palace here that Herod celebrated his birthday by the feast recorded (Mt 14:6–12, Mk 6:21–28), and that the Baptist’s head was brought hither from Machærus, some 20 miles south.
BETH-HARAN (Nu 32:36).—See Beth-haram.
BETH-HOGLAH (‘place of the partridge’), Jos 15:6, 18:19.—In the Jericho plain. Now the large spring called ‘Ain Hajlah, ‘partridge spring,’ south-east of Jericho.
BETH-HORON.—The upper and nether, two towns represented by the villages Beit ‘Ur el-foka and Beit ‘Ur et-tahta, said to have been built by Sheerah (1 Ch 7:24). Their position, as commanding the ancient great highroad from the maritime plain into the heart of the mountains of Benjamin, made these places of great importance, and several celebrated battles occurred in their neighbourhood. Here Joshua defeated the Canaanites (Jos 10:10–14). Solomon fortified both these cities (2 Ch 8:5, 1 K 9:17). By this road Shishak, king of Egypt, invaded Judah. Here Judas Maccabæus defeated the Syrian general Seron (1 Mac 3:13–24) and five years afterwards Nicanor (7:39–50); more than 200 years later the Jews at the same place beat back the Roman army under Cestius Gallus. In few places in
Palestine can we with greater precision set history in its geographical setting; the whole ancient road, with abundant traces of Roman work, can be followed throughout, and the two Beit ‘Urs, less than two miles apart, stand sentinel above the road as the two Beth-horons did in ancient times. The Beth-horons were on the frontier between Benjamin and Ephraim (Jos 16:3–5 and 18:13, 14). They belonged to the latter (Jos 21:22), and followed the Northern Kingdom. Possibly Sanballat the Horonite (Neh 2:10) was from here.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BETH-JESHIMOTH (‘the place of the desert’).—The S. limit of the encampment on ‘the plains of Moab’ at the close of the journeyings (Nu 33:49). In Jos 12:8 it is mentioned as in the S. of the Arabah towards the Dead Sea. In 13:20 it is assigned to Reuben; and in Ezk 25:9 it is spoken of as belonging to Moab. Eusebius places it 10 miles S. of Jericho. Some ruins and a well at the N.E. end of the Dead Sea bear the name of Suwaimeh, which may be a modification of Jeshimoth; and this situation suits the Biblical narrative.
BETH-LE-APHRAH (AV ‘house of Aphrah’).—The name of a town
apparently in Phil. territory, whose site is quite unknown (Mic 1:10). In the call ‘at
Beth-le-Aphrah roll thyself in the dust,’ there is a double play upon words, ‘Aphrah containing a punning allusion to ‘aphar (dust), and hithpallashi ( roll thyself) to Pelishti ( Philistine ).
BETH-LEBAOTH (Jos 19:6 ‘house of lionesses’?).—A town of Simeon. See
Beth-biri.
BETHLEHEM (‘house of bread’ or, according to some, ‘of the god Lakhmu’).—The name of two places in Palestine.
1. Bethlehem of Judah, otherwise Ephrath or Ephrathah, now represented by the town of Beit Lahm, 5 miles S. of Jerusalem. On the way thither Rachel was buried (Gn 35:19, 48:7). Hence came the two Levites whose adventures are related in Jg 17, 19. It was the home of Elimelech, the father-in-law of Ruth (Ru 1:1), and here Ruth settled with her second husband Boaz, and became the ancestress of the family of David, whose connexion with Bethlehem is emphasized throughout his history (1 S 16:1–18, 17:12, 20:6 etc.). The Philistines had here a garrison during David’s outlawry (2 S 23:14, 1 Ch 11:16). Here Asahel was huried (2 S 2:32), and hence came Elhanan, one of the mighty men (2 S 23:24, cf. 21:19). Rehoboam fortified it (2 Ch 11:6), and here the murderers of Gedaliah took refuge (Jer 41:17). Whether the Salma referred to in 1 Ch 2:51, 54 as ‘father of Bethlehem’ ( whatever that expression may exactly mean) be the same as the Salmon who was father of Boaz (Ru 4:20)—a theory the Greek version seems to justify—is doubtful. The town had some sanctity, and is indicated (Ps 132:6) as a suitable place for the Tabernacle. The birth of the Messiah there is prophesied in Mic 5:2 (quoted Mt 2:6, Jn 7:42), a prophecy fulfilled by the birth of Christ (Mt 2:1, 5, Lk 2:4, 15). Here Herod sent to seek the new-born Christ, and not finding Him ordered the massacre of the infants of the city (Mt 2:8, 16). The modern town, containing about 8000 inhabitants, is Christian and comparatively prosperous. Within it stands the basilica of the Nativity, founded by Constantine (about 330), and restored by Justinian (about 550) and many later emperors. Within it are shown grottoes in which the various events of the Nativity are localized with the usual unreasoning definiteness.
2. Bethlehem of Zebulun, a place named but once (Jos 19:15), in enumerating the towns of that tribe. It is identified with Beit Lahm, 7 miles N.W. of Nazareth. It is probable that this was the home of Ibzan, the judge (Jg 12:8–10), as almost all the judges belonged to the northern tribes.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-LOMON (1 Es 5:17).—For Bethlehem of Judah.
BETH-MAACAH.—A descriptive epithet of the city of Abel (2 S 20:14, 15) , where ‘Abel and B.’ should be ‘Abel of B.’ (cf. 1 K 15:20, 2 K 15:29). See Abel (of) Beth-Maacah.
BETH-MARCABOTH (‘place of chariots’ Jos 19:5, 1 Ch 4:31).—A city of
Simeon in the southern plains, near Ziklag, deserted in David’s time; site unknown.
BETH-MEON.—See Baal-Meon.
BETH-MERHAK (2 S 15:17 RV, for AV ‘a place that was far off’; RVm ‘the Far House’).—Stade and others understand it to mean the last house of the city. No town so called is known between Jerusalem and Jericho.
BETH-MILLO (Jg 9:6 RVm; 2 K 12:20 AVm, text ‘house of Millo’).—See
Millo.
BETH-NIMRAH (‘place of the leopard,’ Nu 32:36 etc., called Nimrah v. 3 , and, some think, Nimrim Is 15:6, see Nimrim).—A town in the territory E. of Jordan allotted to Reuben. It is represented by the modern Tell Nimrīn, 6 miles E. of the Jordan, about 10 miles N. of the Dead Sea, on the S. bank of Wādy Shaib.
W. Ewing.
BETH-PAZZEZ (Jos (19:21).—A town of Issachar near En-gannim and Enhaddah. The name has not been recovered.
BETH-PELET (RV; in AV Beth-palet, Job 15:27, Beth-phelet, Neh
11:26).—The Paltite, 2 S 23:26, called by scribal error Pelonite in 1 Ch 11:27 , 27:10, was an inhabitant of this place. The site was south of Beersheba, but is unknown.
BETH-PEOR.—A city belonging to Reuben (Jos 13:20), located most probably some four or five miles north of Mt. Nebo, near the Pisgah range. Just opposite to it, in the ravine (Wādy Hesbān probably), the Israelites encamped ( Dt 3:29, 4:46). Moses was buried in the valley ‘over against Beth-peor’ (Dt 34:6). Conder suggests a site several miles to the S., near ‘Ain el-Minyeh, but the impression given by Nu 25:1–8 is that the city was not so far distant from the plain of Shittim.
G. L. Robinson.
BETHPHAGE (‘house of figs’).—The place whence Christ, on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, sent His disciples to fetch the ass (Mt 21:1, Mk 11:1, Lk 19:29). It must have been close to Bethany, and is traditionally identified with Abu Dis, a village that satisfies this condition.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-RAPHA (‘house of the giant’?).—An unknown place mentioned in 1 Ch 4:12.
BETH-REHOB.—A town or district near Laish (Jg 18:28), whose inhabitants joined the Ammonites against David (2 S 10:6). Its site is unknown.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETHSAIDA.—A place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, whither Christ went after feeding the five thousand (Mk 6:45, cf. Lk 9:10), and where He healed a blind man (Mk 8:22); the home of Philip, Andrew, and Peter (Jn 1:44, 12:21). It was denounced by Christ for unbelief (Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13). The town was advanced by Philip the tetrarch from a village to the dignity of a city, and named Julias, in honour of Cæsar’s daughter. The situation is disputed, and, indeed, authorities differ as to whether or not there were two places of the same name, one east, one west of the Jordan. Et-Tell, on the northern shore of the sea, east of the Jordan, is generally identified with Bethsaida Julias: those who consider that the narrative of the crossings of the Lake (Mk 6:45) requires another site west of the Jordan, seek it usually at ’Ain et-Tabigha near Khan Minyeh. The latest writers, however, seem inclined to regard the hypothetical second Bethsaida as unnecessary (see Sanday, Sacred Sites of the Gospels, p. 41), and to regard et-Tell as the scene of all the incidents recorded about the town.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BETH-SHEAN, BETH-SHAN.—The site of this ancient stronghold, allotted to Manasseh, although in the territory of Issachar (Jos 17:11ff., Jg 1:27), is marked by the great mound and village of Beisān, in the throat of the Vale of Jezreel, where it opens into the Ghōr. Manasseh failed to eject the Canaanites, but at a later date they were reduced to servitude. Here the Philistines dishonoured the bodies of Saul and his sons (1 S 31:7ff.). During the Greek period it was known as Scythopolis; but the ancient name again prevailed in the form of Beisān. After changes of fortune in the Maccabæn struggle, and in the time immediately succeeding, it attained considerable prosperity as a member of the Decapolis (1 Mac 12:40, Jos. Ant. XIV. V. 3, BJ III. IV. 7, etc.). There must always have been a strong admixture of heathen inhabitants (Jos. Vita, 6 , Abhoda Zarah i. 4). It is now in the hands of a body of Circassians.
W. Ewing.
BETH-SHEMESH (‘house’ or ‘temple of the sun’).—1. A town in Judah ( Jos
15:10 etc., called Ir-Shemesh in Jos 19:41) allotted to the children of Aaron ( Jos 21:15). Hither the ark was brought when sent back by the Philistines, and the inhabitants were smitten because of their profane curiosity (1 S 6). Here Amaziah was defeated and captured by Jehoash, king of Israel (2 K 14:11, 13). It was one of the cities taken by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (2 Ch 28:18). It is identified with the modern ‘Ain Shems, on the S. slope of Wādy es-Surār, 15 miles W. of Jerusalem. 2. A city in Issachar (Jos 19:22), unidentified. 3. A city in Naphtali ( Jos 19:38), unidentified. 4. A city in Egypt, a seat of heathen idolatry (Jer 43:13) , identified with the ancient Heliopolis, called ‘Ain Shems by the Arabs ( Wallis Budge, The Nile, 281f.).
W. Ewing.
BETH-SHITTAH (‘place of the acacia,’ Jg 7:22).—In the vicinity of Abelmeholah. It is the present Shutta. a village on a knoll, in the Jezreel valley.
BETHSURA (1 Mac 4:29, 61, 6:7, 26, 31, 49, 60, 9:52, 10:14, 11:65, 14:7, 2 Mac 13:19, 22).—The Greek form of Bethzur. In 2 Mac 11:5 Bethsuron.
BETH-TAPPUAH (‘place of apples,’ Jos 15:53).—A town of Judah in the Hebron mountains (see Tappuah in 1 Ch 2:43). Now the village Taffuh, west of Hebron.
BETHUEL.—1. The son of Nahor and Milcah, nephew of Abraham, and father of Laban and Rebekah (Gn 22:23, 24:15, 24, 47, 50, 25:20, 28:2, 5). In Gn 28:5 ( P ) he is called ‘Bethuel the Syrian.’ 2. 1 Ch 4:30; or Bethul (Jos 19:4). See Bethel, 2.
BETHUL (Jos 19:4).—See Bethel, No. 2.
BETHULIA.—The locality of the scenes of the Book of Judith (Jth 4:6, 7 etc.). If not a synonym for Jerusalem itself, it is an unknown site south of the plain of Jezreel. Mithilyah from the similarity of the name, Sanur from its commanding position, and even Shechem, have all been suggested as possible sites.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BETH-ZACHARIAS (1 Mac 6:32, 33).—A village on the mountain pass, south of Jerusalem and west of Bethlehem, now the ruin Beit Sakaria. It was the scene of the defeat of Judas Maccabæus by Lysias.
BETH-ZUR (‘house of rock,’ Jos 15:58, 1 S 30:27 [in LXX], 1 Ch 2:45, 2 Ch 11:7, Neh 3:16).—The Bethsura of 1 Mac 4:29 etc. A town of Judah in the
Hebron mountains, fortified by Rehoboam, and still important after the Captivity. Judas Maccabæus here defeated the Greeks under Lysias in b.c. 165. It is the present ruined site, Beit Sur, on a cliff west of the Hebron road, near Halhul.
BETOLION (AV Betolius, 1 Es 5:21; in Ezr 2:28 Bethel).—Fifty-two persons of this place returned from captivity with Zerubbabel.
BETOMASTHAIM (Jth 15:4, AV Betomasthem); BETOMESTHAIM (4:6 , AV Betomestham).—Apparently N. of Bethulia and facing Dothan. There is a site called Deir Massin W. of the Dothan plain, but the antiquity of this name is doubtful.
BETONIM (Jos 13:26).—In N. Gilead. The name may survive in that of the Butein district, the extreme N. of Gilead.
BETROTHING.—See Marriage.
BEULAH (‘married’ [of a wife]).—An allegorical name applied to Israel by the Deutero-lsaiah (Is 62:4, 5). She was no longer to be a wife deserted by God, as she had been during the Captivity, but married (1) to God, (2) by a strange application of the figure, to her own sons.
BEWITCH.—See Magic.
BEWRAY.—To bewray (from Anglo-Saxon prefix be and wregan, to accuse) is not the same as to betray (from be and Lat. tradere to deliver). To bewray, now obsolete, means in AV to make known, reveal, as Mt 26:73 ‘thy speech bewrayeth thee.’ Adams (Works, ii. 328) distinguishes the two words thus: ‘he … will not bewray his disease, lest he betray his credit.’ Sometimes, however, hewray is used in an evil sense, and is scarcely distinguishable from hetray. Cf. bewrayer in 2 Mac 4:1 ‘a bewrayer of the money, and of his country.’
BEZAANANNIM (Jos 19:33 RVm).—See Zaanannim.
BEZAI—1. One of those who sealed the covenant (Neh 10:18). 2. The eponym of a family that returned with Zerub. (Ezr 2:17, Neh 7:23) = Bassai of 1 Es 5:16.
BEZALEL.—1. The chief architect of the Tabernacle. The name occurs only in P and in the Bk. of Chron. (1 Ch 2:20, 2 Ch 1:5). It probably signifies ‘in the shadow (i.e. under the protection) of El.’ According to P’s representation, Bezalel was expressly called by J″ (Ex 31:2) to superintend the erection of the ‘tent of meeting,’ and endowed with the special gifts required for the proper execution of his task (vv. 3, 5). He was also charged with the construction of the furniture for court and Tabernacle, as well as with the preparation of the priestly garments, and of the necessary oil and incense. Among the gifts thus bestowed upon him, not the least was the gift of teaching the arts of which he was himself a master, to his subordinates (Ex 35:34), the chief of whom was Oholiab (Ex 31:6, 35:34 etc.). 2. One of the sons of Pahath-moab who had married foreign wives (Ezr 10:30).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BEZEK.—Two places so called are perhaps to be distinguished in OT. 1. Jg
1:5. A place attacked by Judah after Joshua’s death, probably Bezkah, a ruin W. of Jerusalem, in the lower hills. 2. 1 S 11:8, where Saul gathered Israel before advancing on Jahesh-gilead The most likely site in this connexion is the ruin Ibzik, N.E. of Shechem, opposite Jabesh.
BEZER (‘fortress’).—1. An Asherite (1 Ch 7:37). 2. A city belonging to
Reuben, situated ‘in the wilderness, on the mīshōr,’ or fiat table-land, E. of Jordan (Dt 4:43, Jos 20:8); a city of refuge allotted, according to P, to the Merarites ( Jos 21:36, whence 1 Ch 6:78, (63)). It is mentioned also by Mesha’ (Moab. Stone, l. 27), as being in ruins in his day, and as having been rebuilt by him, after his revolt from Ahab, and expulsion of the Israelites from the territory N. of the Arnon. From its being described as being in the ‘wilderness’ (cf. Dt 2:8) it may be inferred that it was situated towards the E. border of the Moabite table-land. The site has not yet been recovered.
BEZETH.—An unknown site, apparently near Jerusalem (1 Mac 7:19).
BIBLE
1. The Name.—The word ‘Bible’ strictly employed is the title of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, though occasionally by a loose usage of the term it is applied to the sacred writings of pagan religions. It is derived from a Greek word Biblia—originating in biblos, the inner bark of papyrus (paper)—literally meaning
‘Little Books’; but since the diminutive had come into common use in late popular Greek apart from its specific signification, the term really means simply ‘books.’ It is the Gr. tr. of the Heb. word for ‘books,’ which is the oldest designation for the Jewish Scriptures as a collection (see Dn 9:2). The title ‘Holy Books’—equivalent to our ‘Holy Scripture’—came later among the Jews (1 Mac 12:9, Ro 1:2, 2 Ti 3:15). The Greek word Biblia is first met with in this connexion in the Introduction to Sirach, written by the grandson of Sirach, the phrase ‘the rest of the books’ implying that the Law and the Prophets previously named, as well as those books subsequently known specially as ‘the Writings,’ are included. It is used in the Hebrew sense, for the OT, by the unknown author of the Christian homily in the 2nd cent. designated The Second Epistle of Clement (xiv. 2). It does not appear as a title of the whole Christian Scriptures before the 5th cent., when it was thus employed by Greek Church writers in lists of the canonical books. Thence it passed over into the West, and then the Greek word Biblia, really a neuter plural, came to be treated as a Latin singular noun, a significant grammatical change that pointed to the growing sense of the unity of Scripture. The word cannot be traced in Anglo-Saxon literature, and we first have the English form of it in the 14 th century. It occurs in Piers Plowman and Chaucer. Its adoption by Wyclif secured it as the permanent English name for the Scriptures, as Luther’s use of the corresponding German word fixed that for Continental Protestants.
2. Contents and Divisions.—The Jewish Bible is the OT; the Protestant Christian Bible consists of the OT and the NT, but with the Apocrypha included in some editions; the Roman Catholic Bible contains the OT and NT, and also the Apocrypha, the latter authoritatively treated as Scripture since the Council of Trent. The main division is between the Jewish Scriptures and those which are exclusively Christian. These are known respectively as the OT and the NT. The title ‘Testament’ is unfortunate, since it really means a will. It appears to be derived from the Latin word testamentum, ‘a will,’ which is the tr. of the Gr. word diathēkē, itself in the classics also meaning ‘a will.’ But the LXX employs this Gr. word as the tr. of the Heb. berith, a word meaning ‘covenant.’ Therefore ‘testament’ in the Biblical sense really means ‘covenant,’ and the two parts of our Bible are the ‘Old Covenant’ and the ‘New Covenant.’ When we ask why the Gr. translators used the word meaning ‘will’ while they had ready to hand another word meaning ‘covenant’ (viz. synthēkē), the answer has been proposed that they perceived the essential difference between God’s covenants with men and men’s covenants one with another. The latter are arranged on equal terms. But God’s covenants are made and offered by God and accepted by men only on God’s terms. A Divine covenant is like a will in which a man disposes of his property on whatever terms he thinks fit. On the other hand, however, it may be observed that the word diathēkē is also used for a covenant between man and man (e.g. Dt 7:2). The origin of this term as applied by Christians to the two main divisions of Scripture is Jeremiah’s promise of a New Covenant (Jer 31:31), endorsed by Christ (Mk 14:24, 1 Co 11:25), and enlarged upon in NT teaching (e.g. Gal 4:24, He 8:6). Here, however, the reference is to the Divine arrangements and pledges, not to the books of Scripture, and it is by a secondary usage that the books containing the two covenants have come to be themselves designated Testaments, or Covenants.
The Jewish division of the OT is into three parts known as (1) the Law, (2) the Prophets, and (3) the Writings, or the Sacred Writings (Hagiographa). The ‘Law’ consisted of the first 5 books of our Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), ascribed to Moses; and it was treated as peculiarly sacred, the most holy and authoritative portion of Scripture. It was the only part of the Hebrew Scriptures accepted by the Samaritans, who worshipped the very document containing it almost as a fetish. But the name ‘Law’ (Heb. Torah, Gr. Nomos) is sometimes given to the whole Jewish Bible (e.g. Jn 10:34). The ‘Prophets’ included not only the utterances ascribed to inspired teachers of Israel, but also the chief historical books later than the Pentateuch. There were reckoned to be 8 books of the Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets) and 11 of the Hagiographa (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and Chronicles). Thus there were reckoned to be in all 24 books. Josephus reckoned 22—probably joining Judges to Ruth and Lamentations to Jeremiah. The list was reduced to this number by taking Samuel, Kings, Ezra and Nehemiah, and Chronicles as one book each, and by making one book of the Minor Prophets. Ezra is not divided from Nehemiah in the Talmud or the Massora.
The books now known as the Apocrypha were not in the Hebrew Bible, and were not used in the Palestinian synagogues. They were found in the LXX, which represents the enlarged Greek Canon of Alexandria. From this they passed into the Latin versions, and so into Jerome’s revisioo, the Vulgate, which in time became the authorized Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. They were not accepted by the Protestants as Divinely inspired, but were printed in some Protestant Bibles between the OT and the NT, not in their old places in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions, where they were interspersed with the OT books as though forming part of the OT itself. The Apocrypha consists of 14 books (1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, The Rest of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch with the Epistle of Jeremy, The Song of the Three Holy Children, The History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of Manasses, 1 and 2 Maccabees).
The NT was slowly formed. Probably the first collection of any of its books was the bringing together of the Synoptic Gospels into one volume (called by Justin Martyr ‘The Memoirs of the Apostles’). Subsequently the Fourth Gospel was included in this volume; Tatian’s Diatessaron is a witness to this fact. Meanwhile collections of St. Paul’s Epistles were being made, and thus there came to be two volumes known as ‘The Gospel’ and ‘The Apostle.’ The Apocalypse was early honoured as a prophetical book standing by itself. Gradually the other NT books were gathered in—probably forming a third volume. Thus the NT—like the OT—consisted of three parts—the Four Gospels, the Pauline Writings, and the remaining books. The similarity may be traced a step further. In both cases the first of the three divisions held a primacy of honour—the Law among the Jews, the Gospels among the Christians. The complete NT consists of 27 books, viz. Four Gospels, Acts, 13 Epistles of St. Paul, Hebrews, James, 2 Epistles of St. Peter, 3 of St. John, Jude, Revelation.
Within the books of the Bible there were originally no divisions, except in the case of the Psalms, which were always indicated as separate poems, and elsewhere in the case of definite statements of differences of contents, such as the Song of Miriam, the Song of Deborah, ‘the words of Agur,’ and ‘the words of King Lemuel’ (in Prov.). For convenience of reading in the synagogues, the Law was divided into sections (called Parāshahs). Selections from the Prophets ( called Haphtārahs) were made to go with the appointed sections of the Law. The first indications of divisions in the NT are ascribed to Tatian. They did not break into the text, but were inserted in the margins. The earliest divisions of the Gospels were known as ‘titles’ (Titloi); somewhat similar divisions were indicated in the Epistles by ‘headings’ or ‘chapters’ (Kephalaia), a form of which with more numerous divisions than the ‘titles’ was also introduced into the Gospels. Eusebius based his harmony on the references of the sections said to have been arranged by Ammonius of Alexandria in the early part of the 3rd cent., and therefore known as the ‘Ammonian Sections.’ These are much shorter than our chapters. Thus in Matthew there were 68 ‘titles’ and 355 ‘Ammonian Sections’; in Mark the numbers were 48 and 236, in Luke 83 and 342, and in John 18 and 232 respectively. The chapters in the Acts and the Epistles are ascribed to Euthalius, a deacon of Alexandria (subsequently bishop of Sulci, in Sardinia) in the 5 th century. These chapters nearly corresponded in length to the Gospel ‘titles.’ Thus there were 40 in Acts, 19 in Romans, etc. A still smaller division of the books of Scripture was that of the stichoi, or lines, a word used for a line of poetry, and then for a similar length of prose, marked off for the payment of copyists. Subsequently “it was employed for the piece of writing which a reader was supposed to render without taking breath, and the marks of the stichoi would be helps for the reader, indicating where he might pause. In Matthew there were 2560 stichoi; the same Gospel has 1071 modern verses. Scrivener calculates 19,241 stichoi for the 7959 modern verses of the whole NT—giving an average of nearly 21/2 stichoi per verse. Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro is credited with having made our present chapter divisions about a.d. 1248 when preparing a Bible index. But it may be that he borrowed these divisions from an earlier scholar, possibly Lanfranc, or Stephen Langton. The Hebrew Bible was divided into verses by Rabbi Nathan in the 15 th century. Henry Stephens states that his father Robert Stephens made verse divisions in the NT during the intervals of a journey on horseback from Paris to Lyons. Whether he actually invented these arrangements or copied them from some predecessor, they were first published in Stephens’ Greek Testament of 1551.
3. Historical Origin.—The Bible is not only a library, the books of which come from various writers in different periods of time; many of these books may be said to be composed of successive literary strata, so that the authors of the most ancient parts of them belong to much earlier times than their final redactors. All the OT writers, and also all those of the NT with one exception (St. Luke), were Jews. The OT was nearly all written in the Holy Land; the only exceptions being in the case of books composed in the valley of the Euphrates during the Exile ( Ezekiel, possibly Lamentations, Deutero-Isaiah, or part of it, perhaps some of the Psalms, a revision of the Law). The NT books were written in many places; most of the Epistles of St. Paul can be located; the Gospel and Epistles of St. John probably come from Ephesus or its neighbourhood; but the sites of the origin of all the other books are doubtful.
Probably the oldest book of the Bible is Amos, written about b.c. 750. A little later in the great 8th cent. we come to Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. The 7th cent. gives us Nahum, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk among the prophets, also Deuteronomy, and at the beginning of this century we have the earliest complete historical books, Samuel and Judges. The end of this century or beginning of the 6th cent. gives us Kings. In the 6th cent. also we have Obadiah (?), Ezekiel, part, if not all, of the Deutero-Isaiah (40–50), Haggai, Zechariah (1–8), Lamentations, Ruth. The 5th cent. gives us the completed Pentateuch—or rather the Hexateuch,
Joshua going with the 5 books of the Law, perhaps the latter part of the DeuteroIsaiah (51–60), Malachi, Books 1 and 2 of the Psalter. The 4th cent. has Proverbs, Job, Book 3 of the Psalter, and the Prophets Joel and Jonah. From the 3rd cent. we have Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Zechariah (9–14), Ecclesiastes, Esther. Lastly, the 2nd cent. is credited with Daniel and Books 4 and 5 of the Psalter.
Several of these later dates are more or less conjectural. Moreover, they refer to the completion of works some of which are composite and contain elements which originated in much earlier times. Thus Proverbs and the 5 Books of the Psalms are all collections which, though probably made at the dates assigned to them, consist of materials many of which are considerably older. When we look to the analysis of the books, and inquire as to the dates of their constituent parts, we are carried back to pre-historic ages. The Hexateuch contains four principal parts, known as J
(the Jahwistic prophetic narrative), E (the Elohistic prophetic narrative), D (Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic notes in other books), P (the Priestly Code, represented especially by Leviticus, the author of which revised the earlier parts of the Law-books and inserted additions into them). But J and E are closely intertwined—an indication that they have both been revised—and the result of this revision gives us the composite narrative known as JE. Thus we have now three main strata, viz. (1) JE, the prophetic element, written in the spirit of the prophets, dated about b.c. 700; (2) D, the moral and legal element, seen especially in Deuteronomy, dated about b.c. 620; (3) P, the priestly element, dated about b.c. 444. The author of P appears to have revised the whole work and given it out as the complete Law. This may have been done by the Euphrates during the Exile, so that the Law-book brought up to Jerusalem would be the Pentateuch (or the Hexateuch), or it may have been after the Return, in which case the Law-book would be only P. But in any case the whole work after its completion underwent some further slight revision before it assumed its present form. See Hexateuch.
If now we ask not what was the first complete book of the OT, but what was the first portion of the OT actually written, it is not easy to give a reply. The literature of most peoples begins with ballads. Possibly the Song of Deborah is a ballad which should have assigned to it the first place in the chronological order of Hebrew writings. Such a hallad would be handed down in tradition before it was put into writing. Then some of the laws in Exodus, those of the ‘Book of the Covenant,’ may have come down in tradition or even in writing, from a remote antiquity. The code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, b.c. 2285–2242, was a written law nearly 1000 years earlier than the time of Moses. The striking resemblance between some of the laws of Israel and some of these Babylonian laws points to a certain measure of dependence. This might go back to patriarchal days; but, of course, it would have been possible for the jews in the Exile to have access to this venerable code at the very time P was being constructed.
There is much less range of question for the dates of the NT books. The earliest date possible for any of them is a.d. 44 for James; although, as Prof. Harnack holds, perhaps this is almost the latest written book of the NT. Laying aside the much disputed question of the date of James, we have 1 Thess. as apart from this the earliest written NT book. Following the usually accepted chronology, the date of this Epistle is a.d. 53 (Harnack, a.d. 49; Turner, a.d. 51). The latest written NT book is 2 Peter, which must be assigned to a late decade of the 2nd century. Apart from this Epistle, which stands quite by itself as a pseudonymous work, and James, which may be either the earliest or one of the latest NT books, the last written works are the Johannine writings, which cannot be earlier than near the end of the 1st century. Thus we have a period of about 50 years for the composition of the bulk of the NT writings, viz. the second half of the 1st cent. a.d.
4. Original Languages.—The bulk of the OT was written in Hebrew, and without vowel points. Hebrew is the Israelite dialect of the Canaanite language, which belongs to the Semitic family, and is closely allied to Aramaic. Some portions of the OT (viz. documents in Ezr 4:7–6:18 and 7:12–26, Dn 2:4–7:28 and a few scattered words and phrases elsewhere) are in Aramaic, the language of Syria, which was widely known, being found in Babylonia, Egypt, and Arabia.
After the Exile, since Aramaic then became the everyday language of the Jews, Hebrew was relegated to a position of honourable neglect as the language of literature and the Law, and Aramaic came into general use. Probably the earliest writings which are embodied in the NT were in this language. When Papias says that Matthew wrote ‘the oracles of the Lord in the Hebrew dialect,’ he would seem to mean Aramaic. Since Jesus taught in Aramaic, it is not likely that His discourses were translated into the more archaic language; it is more probable that they were written down in the very language in which they were spoken. Similarly, it is probable that the Gospel according to the Hebrews was in Aramaic. But, however far we may go with Dr. Marshall and Dr. Abbott in allowing that Aramaic writings are to be detected beneath and behind our Gospels, it cannot be held that any of these Gospels, or any other NT books, are translations from that language. Matthew, the most Jewish of the Gospels, contains quotations from the LXX as well as direct translations from the Hebrew OT, which shows that while its author—or at all events the author of one of its sources—knew Hebrew, the Gospel itself was a Greek composition. All the NT was originally written in Greek. It was long held that this Greek was a peculiar dialect, and as such it was named Hellenistic Greek. But the discovery of contemporary inscriptions and papyri (especially the Oxyrhynchus papyri) shows that the colloquial Greek, used in commerce and popular intercourse all round the Mediterranean during the 1st cent., has the same peculiar forms that we meet with in the NT, many of which had been attributed to Semitic influences. These discoveries necessitate the re-writing of grammars on the Greek of the NT, as Prof. Deissmann and Dr. J. H. Moulton have shown by their recent studies in the new field of research. It must still be admitted that a certain amount of Hebrew influence is felt in the NT style. This is most apparent in the Gospels, especially Matthew and above all the earlier chapters of Luke (except the Preface), and also in the Apocalypse. The Preface of Luke is the nearest approach to classical Greek that we have in the NT. After this come Hebrews, the middle and latter part of the Gospel of Luke, and Acts. St. Paul’s writings and the General Epistles take an intermediate position between the most Hebraistic and the least Hebraistic writings. The Fourth Gospel is written in good
Greek; but the structure of the sentences indicates a mind accustomed to think in Hebrew or Aramaic. Nevertheless, in spite of these differences, it remains true that the grammar and style of the NT are in the main the grammar and style of contemporary Greek throughout the Roman Empire.
5. Translations.—The OT was first translated into Greek, for the benefit of Jews residing in Egypt, in the version known as the Septuagint (LXX), which was begun under Ptolemy II. (b.c. 285–247), and almost, if not quite, completed before the commencement of the Christian era. Another Greek version is ascribed to Aquila, who is said to have been a disciple of the famous Rabbi Aki0ba, and is by some even identified with Onkelos, the author of the Targum. This version, which is commonly dated about a.d. 150, is remarkable for its pedantic literalness, the Hebrew being rendered word for word into Greek, regardless of the essential differences between the two languages in grammar and construction. On the other hand, about the end of the 2nd cent. a.d., Symmachus, who, according to Epiphanius, was a Samaritan turned Jew, although Eusebius calls him an Ebionite, produced a version the aim of which was to render the original text into idiomatic Greek of good style, with the result, however, that in some places it became a paraphrase rather than a translation. Lastly may be mentioned the version of Theodotion, a Marcionite who went over to Judaism. This is really a revision of the
LXX; it is assigned to about the year a.d. 185. Other versions of all or parts of the OT are known as the Quinta and the Sexta; there are doubtful references to a Septima.
Oral paraphrases, the Targums, or ‘interpretations,’ were made in Aramaic for the benefit of Palestinian Jews; but the earliest written paraphrase is that known as the Targum of Onkelos—the official Targum of the Pentateuch—the compilation of which in whole or part is assigned to the 2nd or 3rd cent. a.d. Later. with indications at least as late as the 7th cent. a.d., in its present form is the Jerusalem Targum, known as the Targum of pseudo-Jonathan. This is more free and interpolated with ‘Haggadistic’ elements. The official Targum of the Prophets also bears the name of Jonathan. Originating in Palestine in the 3rd cent. a.d., it received its final shaping in Babylon in the 5th century. The Targums of the Hagiographa are much later in date.
The oldest versions of the NT are the Syriac and the Latin, both of which may be traced back in some form to the 2nd cent. a.d., but there is much difference of opinion as to the original text of the former. First, we have the Peshitta, literally, the ‘simple’ version, which has become the standard accepted text in the Syrian Church. There is no doubt that in its present form this text represents successive revisions down to a late Patristic age. Two other versions, or two forms of another version of the Gospels, were discovered in the 19th cent., viz. the Curetonian, edited by Cureton, and the Sinaitic, found in a MS at the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. Lastly, there is the version represented by Tatian’s Diatessaron, which may be distinct from either of these. While it is admitted that a primitive text underlying the Peshitta may be as ancient as any of these versions, scholars are fairly agreed that the Peshitta, as we know it, is considerably more recent than Tatian and the Sinaitic Gospels, both of which may be assigned to the 2nd cent. a.d. The earliest Latin Version appeared before the end of the 2nd cent. and probably in North Africa, where Latin was the language commonly used, while Greek was then the language of Christian literature at Rome. Tertullian knew the North African Latin Version. Somewhat later several attempts were made in Italy to translate the NT into Latin. The confusion of text induced Damasus, bishop of Rome, to commit to Jerome (a.d. 382) the task of preparing a reliable Latin version of the Bible. This came to be known as the Vulgate, which for 1000 years was the Bible of the Western Church, and which, since the Council of Trent, has been honoured by Roman Catholics as an infallibly correct rendering of the true text of Scripture. Augustine refers to a version which he calls ‘ltala,’ but it has been shown that this was probably Jerome’s version. The NT was early translated into Coptic, and it appeared in three dialects of that language. The Sahidic Version, in Upper Egypt, can be traced back to the 4th century. The Bohairic, formerly used at Alexandria, has been assigned to as early a date as the 2nd cent.; but Prof. Burkitt shows reasons for bringing it down to the 6th. It is the version now used ecclesiastically by the Copts. Lastly, there is the Fayumic Version, represented by MSS from the Fayum. The original Gothic Version was the work of Ulfilas in the 4th century. He had to invent an alphabet for it. This work may be considered the first literary product in a Teutonic language. The Ethiopic and Armenian Versions may be assigned to the 5th century. Subsequent ages saw the Georgian Version (6th), the Anglo-Saxon (8th to 11th), the Slavonic (9th). The Reformation period— from Wyclif onwards—saw new translations into the vernacular; but the great age of Bible translation is the 19th century. The British and Foreign Bible Society now produces the Scriptures in over 400 languages and versions.
W. F. Adeney.
BICHRI.—‘Sheba the son of Bichri’ (2 S 20:1) should rather be ‘Sheba the Bichrite,’ i.e. a descendant of Becher (Gn 46:21).
BIDKAR.—An officer of Ahab and afterwards of Jehu (2 K 9:25).
BIER.—See Mourning Customs, Tomb.
BIGTHA.—A eunuch of Ahasuerus (Est 1:10).
BIGTHAN (Est 2:21), or BIGTHANA (6:2).—One of the two eunuchs whose plot against the life of Ahasuerus was discovered and foiled by Mordecai.
BIGVAI.—1. A companion of Zerubbabel (Ezr 2:2 = Neh 7:7; cf. Ezr 2:14 [1 Es 5:14 Bagoi, 8:40 Bago] = Neh 7:19, Ezr 8:14). 2. A signatory to the covenant (Neh 10:16).
BILDAD.—See Job.
BILEAM (1 Ch 6:70).—A Levitical city of Manasseh, the same as Ibleam of Jos 17:11, Jg 1:27, 2 K 9:27: prob. the mod. Bel’ame (see Moore on Jg 1:27).
BILGAH (‘cheerfulness’).—1. Head of the 15th course of priests (1 Ch 24:14).
2. A priest who returned with Zerub. (Neh 12:5, 18). The same as Bilgai ( Neh
10:8).
BILGAI.—See Bilgah.
BILHAH.—1. A slave-girl given to Rachel by Laban (Gn 29:29 (P)), and by her to Jacob as a concubine (Gn 30:3, 4 (JE)); the mother of Dan and Naphtali ( Gn 30:4, 7 (JE) 35:25 (P) 46:25 (R), 1 Ch 7:13). She was guilty of incest with Reuben (Gn 35:22 (P)). The etymology is uncertain. These narratives and genealogies probably embody early traditions as to the origin and mutual relations of the tribes, rather than personal history. Tribes are traced to a concubine ancestress, because they were’ a late accession to Israel. 2. A Simeonite city (1 Ch 4:29) = Baalah ( Jos 15:29), Balah (Jos 19:3), and, according to some, Baalath (Jos 19:44, 1 K 9:18, 2 Ch 8:6). Site uncertain.
BILHAN.—1. A Horite chief, the son of Ezer (Gn 36:27 = 1 Ch 1:42). 2. A descendant of Benjamin, son of Jediael, and father of seven sons who were heads of houses in their tribe (1 Ch 7:10).
BILL.—1. In the parable of the Unjust Steward (Lk 16:6f.) ‘bill,’ RV better bond, renders the Gr. grammata, the equivalent of the contemporary Heb. legal term shetār (lit. ‘writing’), an acknowledgment of goods or money received written and signed by the debtor himself (Baba bathra X. 8). Edersheim’s statement (Life and Times of Jesus, ii. 272) that the Gr. word was adopted into Hebrew is based on a false reading. See, further, Debt. 2. Bill of divorce; see Marriage.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BILSHAN (‘inquirer’).—A companion of Zerubbabel (Ezr 2:2, Neh 7:7 = Beelsarus, 1 Es 5:8).
BIMHAL (‘son of circumcision’?).—A descendant of Asher (1 Ch 7:33).
BINDING AND LOOSING.—See Power of the Keys.
BINEA.—A descendant of Jonathan (1 Ch 8:37, 9:43).
BINNUI (‘a building’).—1. Head of a family that returned with Zerub. ( Neh 7:15 = Bani of Ezr 2:10). 2. A Levite (Ezr 8:33 [prob. = Bani of Neh 8:7 and
Bunni of Neh 9:4], Neh 12:8). 3. A son of Pahath-moab (Ezr 10:30 = Balnuus of 1 Es 9:31). 4. A son of Bani who had married a foreign wife (Ezr 10:38). There appears to be a confusion in some instances between the similar names Binnul, Bani, Bigvai.
BIRD.—1. In OT: (1) ‘ōph. tr. ‘birds’ or ‘fowl.’ usually joined with ‘of heaven’ or ‘of the air’: see Gn 1:21, 30, Lv 17:13, 2 S 21:10, Jer 4:25, Ezk 31:6, 13: (2) ‘ayit, usually tr. ‘fowls’ (AV) and ‘birds of prey’ (RV): Gn 15:11, Job 28:7, Is 18:6, Ezk 39:4; (3) tsippōr (cf. Arab. asfūr). small birds like sparrows which twitter: Gn 7:14, Lv 14:6, Ps 84:3 etc.; (4) ba‘al kānāph, ‘possessor of a wing,’ Pr 1:17. 2. In NT: (1) peteina, Mt 13:4, Lk 13:19 etc. (2) ornea, ‘birds of prey,’ Rev 18:2, 19:17, 21.
Birds abound in Palestine, and evidently did so in ancient times. They were sympathetically watched and studied; we read, for example, of their migrations ( Jer 8:7 etc.), their care of their young (Dt 32:11, Mt 23:37 etc.), the helplessness of their young (Pr 27:8, Is 16:2 etc.), their nesting (Ps 104:12, 17); indeed, every phase of bird life is touched upon. There are many references to the snares of the fowler (see Snares). Birds are divided into clean and unclean. In some cases they were allowed as sacrificial offerings (Lv 1:14–17, 14:4–33). It is a curious thing that the duck is not apparently (unless, as some think, in 1 K 4:23, under the ‘fatted fowl’—barburīm ’abūsīm) mentioned in the OT, although a beautifully modelled clay duck of an early period, certainly earlier than the OT records, was found during the recent excavations in Gezer. All birds mentioned by name in the Bible are dealt with in separate articles.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BIRSHA (etym. and meaning unknown).—King of Gomorrah at the time of Chedorlaomer’s invasion (Gn 14:2).
BIRTH.—See Child, Clean and Unclean, § 1.
BIRTHDAY.—Birthday celebrations are mentioned only in connexion with royalty, viz. Pharaoh’s birthday (Gn 40:20), the monthly celebration of that of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Mac 6:7), and the birthday feast given by Herod Antipas
(Mt 14:6, Mk 6:21). The ‘day of our king,’ to which Hosea refers (7:5), may have been the anniversary either of the king’s birth or of his accession. Some authorities
(e.g. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, i. 672) regard Herod’s feast as celebrating the anniversary of his accession—a view based on a mistaken exegesis of the Talmudic passage Aboda zara I. 3 (see the full discussion in Schürer, GJV 3 i. 438–441).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BIRTHRIGHT.—See Firstborn.
BIRZAITH (1 Ch 7:31).—Apparently a town of Asher, probably Bīr ez-Zeit, near Tyre.
BISHLAM (‘peaceful’?).—An officer of Artaxerxes in Pal. at the time of the return from captivity under Zerub. (Ezr 4:7); called Belemus in 1 Es 2:16.
BISHOP (Gr. episkopos, Lat. episcopus, Ital. vescovo, Fr. évêque, Germ.
Bischof), ELDER (Gr. presbyteros, Lat. presbyterus, Fr. prêtre, Eng. priest).— The two words are so closely connected in the NT that they must be taken together here.
1. The terms.—The Greek word for ‘bishop’ is common in the general sense of an overseer, and in particular of sundry municipal officers. In LXX it is used in Is 60:17 of taskmasters, in Neh 11:19 of minor officials, and in 1 Mac 1:51 of the commissioners of Antiochus who enforced idolatry. But, so far as we can see, it was not the common name for the treasurers of private associations.
In the NT the word is found five times. In Ac 20:28 St. Paul reminds the elders of Ephesus that the Holy Ghost has made them bishops over the flock; in Ph 1:1 he sends a greeting to the saints at Philippi ‘with bishops and deacons’; in 1 Ti 3:2 he tells Timothy that ‘the bishop must be blameless,’ etc.; in Tit 1:7 he gives a similar charge to Titus; and 1 P 2:25 speaks of Christ as ‘the shepherd and bishop of your
souls.’
In the OT the word ‘elder’ is used from early times of an official class having jurisdiction both civil and religious, so that when synagogues were built, the elders of the city would naturally be the elders of the synagogue, with the right of regulating the services and excluding offenders.
In NT times the idea would be carried over to the churches. It is indirectly recognized in Lk 22:26; but we cannot infer the existence of elders from Ac 5:6 , for ‘the younger men’ who carry out Ananias are simply ‘the young men’ in v. 10 when they carry out Sapphira. The first clear trace of Christian elders is at Jerusalem. In Ac 11:30 (a.d. 44) they receive the offerings from Barnabas and Saul; in 15:6 (a.d. 50) they take part in the Conference; in 21:18 (a.d. 58) they join in the welcome to St. Paul. Earlier than this may be Ja 5:14, where the word seems to denote officials. After this we hear no more of them till the Pastoral Epistles and 1 Peter.
For the last two hundred years it has been generally agreed that bishops and elders in the NT and for some time later are substantially identical. For (1) bishops and elders are never joined, like bishops and deacons, as distinct classes of officials. (2) Ph 1:1 is addressed ‘to bishops and deacons.’ Had there been an intermediate class of elders, it could not well have been omitted. So 1 Ti 3 ignores the elders, though (5:17) there were elders at Ephesus, and had been (Ac 20:17) for some time. Conversely, Tit 1:6–7 describes elders instead, and nearly in the same words. (3) The bishop described to Timothy, the elders of Ac 20, those of 1 Ti 5:17, those described to Titus, and those of 1 P 5:2, all seem to hold a subordinate position, and to have rather pastoral duties than what we should call episcopal. (4) The same persons are called elders and bishops (Ac 20:17, 28). The words are also synonymous in Clement of Rome, and (by implication) in the Teaching of the Apostles and in Polycarp. Ignatius is the first writer who makes a single bishop ruler of a Church; and even he pleads no Apostolic command for the change.
The general equivalence of the two offices in the Apostolic age seems undeniable; and if there were minor differences between them, none have been clearly traced. The only serious doubt is whether bishops and deacons originally denoted offices at all. The words rather describe functions. Thus Ph 1:1 ‘to bishops and deacons’ (no article) will mean ‘such as oversee and such as serve’—that is, the higher and the lower officials, whatever titles they may bear. This would seem proved by Tit 1:5, 7 ‘that thou appoint elders …, for the bishop (overseer) must be blameless.’ The argument is that the elder must be so and so, because the bishop must be so and so. This is vain repetition if the bishop is only the elder under another name, and bad logic if he is a ruler over the elders; but it becomes dear if the ‘bishop’ is not a defined official, but an overseer generally. Then, the elder being a particular sort of overseer, the argument will be from a general rule to a particular case.
2. Appointment.—At first popular election and Apostolic institution seem to have gone together. The Seven (Ac 6:5, 6) are chosen by the people and instituted by the Apostles with prayer and laying-on of hands. In the case of the Lycaonian elders (Ac 14:23) the Apostles ‘appointed’ them with prayer and fastings. Similarly the elders in Crete (Tit 1:6) are ‘appointed’ by Titus, and apparently the bishops at Ephesus by Timothy. In these cases popular election and laying-on of hands are not mentioned; but neither are they excluded. 1 Ti 5:22 does not refer to ordination at all, nor He 6:2 to ordination only. The one is of the laying-on of hands in restoring offenders, while the other takes in all occasions of laying-on of hands. But in any case Timothy and Titus would have to approve the candidate before instituting him, so that the description of his qualifications is no proof that they had to select him in the first instance. Conversely, popular election is very prominent (Clement, and Teaching) in the next age; but neither does this exclude formal approval and institution. The elders are already attached (1 Ti 4:14) to the Apostles in the conveyance of special gifts; and when the Apostles died out, they would act alone in the institution to local office. The development of an episcopate is a further question, and very much a question of words if the bishop (in the later sense) was gradually developed upward from the elders. But the next stage after this was that, while the bishop instituted his own elders, he was himself instituted by the neighbouring bishops, or in still later times by the bishops of the civil province or by a metropolitan. The outline of the process is always the same. First popular election, then formal approval by authority and institution by prayer, with
(at least commonly) its symbolic accompaniments of laying-on of hands and fasting.
3. Duties
(1) General superintendence: Elders in Ac 20:28, 1 Ti 5:17, 1 P 5:2, 2 ( ruling badly); bishops in 1 Ti 3:5. Indicated possibly in 1 Co 12:28 ‘helps, governments’: more distinctly in Eph 4:11 ‘pastors and teachers,’ in pointed contrast to ‘apostles, prophets, and evangelists,’ whose office was not local. So 1 Th 5:12 ‘those that are over you,’ Ro 12:8 ‘he that ruleth.’ and He 13:7, 17, 24 ‘them that have the rule over you,’ remind us of the bishops and elders who rule (1 Ti 3:4, 5:17). So, too, the ‘rulers’ in Clement must be bishops or elders, for these bishops plainly have no earthly superior, so that they must be themselves the rulers.
Under this head we may place the share taken by the elders: (a) at Jerusalem (Ac 15:6) in the deliberations of the Apostolic Conference, and (Ac 21:18) in the reception held by James; (b) elsewhere (1 Ti 4:14) in the laying-on of hands on Timothy, whether that corresponds to ordination or to something else.
(2) Teaching: 1 Th 5:12 rulers admonishing in the Lord; 1 Ti 3:2 the bishop apt to teach; 5:17 double honour to the elders who rule well, especially those who toil in word and teaching; Tit 1:9 the elder or bishop must be able to teach, and to convince the gainsayers. Yet 1 Ti 5:17 seems to imply that elders might rule well who toiled in other duties than word and teaching; and if so, these were not the sole work of all elders.
Preaching is rather connected with the unlocal ministry of apostles, prophets, and evangelists: but in their absence the whole function of public worship would devolve on the local ministry of bishops and deacons. This becomes quite plain in the Teaching and in Clement.
(3) Pastoral care: This is conspicuous everywhere. To it we may also refer: (a) visiting of the sick (Ja 5:14) with a view to anointing and cure—not as a viaticum at the approach of death; (b) care of strangers and a fortiori of the poor (1 Ti 3:2 , Tit 1:8, the bishop to be a lover of strangers).
H. M. Gwatkin.
BISHOP’S BIBLE.—See English Versions.
BIT, BRIDLE.—The Hebrews were doubtless well acquainted with the bit, but there is no clear mention of it as distinct from the bridle, the words for which in Gr. and Lat. include bit, headstall, and reins. In Ja 3:3 the context is decisive for ‘bridle’ (RV and AV ‘bit’); in Ps 32:9 for ‘bit and bridle’ we should probably render ‘bridle and halter,’ and so in the other passages where the two Hebrew words respectively occur, e.g. ‘bridle,’ Pr 26:3, but ‘halter,’ Job 30:11.
In Ps 39:1 ‘bridle’ should certainly be ‘muzzle’ (cf. the corresponding verb in Dt 25:4). The crocodile’s ‘double bridle’ (Job 41:13) is his jaws, but the text is doubtful.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BITHIAH (‘daughter,’ i.e. worshipper, ‘of J″’).—The daughter of a Pharaoh, who became the wife of Mered, a descendant of Judah (1 Ch 4:18). Whether Pharaoh is to be taken here as the Egyp. royal title or as a Heb. proper name, it is difficult to determine.
BITHRON (2 S 2:29 ‘the gorge,’ probably not a proper name).—A ravine leading to Mahanaim.
BITHYNIA.—A district in the N.W. of Asia Minor, which had been a Roman province since b.c. 74. For administrative purposes it was generally united with the province of Pontus, which bounds it on the E., under one governor. The province was senatorial till about a.d. 165, and governed by a proconsul. The younger Pliny governed it from a.d. 111–113 by a special commission from the emperor Trajan. Paul and Silas were prevented by the Spirit from preaching in Bithynia (Ac 16:7) , and the beginnings of Christianity there are unknown. It is probable that it came by the Black Sea. That there were churches there after St. Paul’s time is certain from the address of the First Epistle of Peter, which was probably written a.d. 75–80.
A. Souter.
BITTER HERBS (merōrīm, Ex 12:8, Nu 9:11).—The bitter herbs of the modern Jewish Passover in Palestine are specially lettuce and endive. Other salads, such as parsley, cucumber, chicory, and water-cress, are also commonly eaten, indeed are prime favourites. The author of La 3:15, in using the same word merōrīm (tr. ‘bitterness’), doubtless had more bitter and less wholesome plants in his mind, perhaps the colocynth or Ecballium elaterium, the wild gourd of 2 K 4:39. See, further, Passover.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BITTER WATER (lit., as RV, Water of Bitterness, Nu 5:18).—See Jealousy.
BITTERN (Is 14:23, 34:11, Zeph 2:14).—Although the bird of this name—the Botaurus stellaris—is found in Palestine, especially in the Huleh marshes, the philological evidence is quite against this translation. The Heb. word is kippōd, and is generally accepted to be the equivalent of the Arab. kunfudh, ‘porcupine.’ This animal suits the Scriptural requirements at least as well as the bittern. It ( the Hystrix cristata) is common all over Palestine. Large specimens measure as much as 3 ft. from the nose to the tip of the spines. The porcupine is a vegetable-eating, nocturnal animal; it is solitary in its habits, and very timid of man. It glides about in the twilight or starlight in a most weird way, giving vent at times to peculiar short grunts. When roused to self-defence, the porcupine is most dangerous; its erect quills, which pierce like a needle, make it most difficult to capture. In all respects the porcupine is a likely and appropriate inhabitant of desolate ruins untrodden by the foot of man. Porcupine are eaten by both fellahin and Bedouin.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BITUMEN, asphalt, or mineral pitch is an inflammable viscous substance, composed of hydrocarbons of the same series as those which constitute mineral oil or petroleum. It has in fact been described as ‘petroleum hardened by evaporation and oxidation,’ and may vary in consistency from a solid to a semi-liquid condition. It occurs both in Mesopotamia and Palestine. The springs at Kit, on the Euphrates, 150 miles above Babylon, are mentioned by Herodotus (i. 179), and still yield an abundant supply. There are similar springs at Kal‘at Sherkat, on the Tigris, 60 miles S. of Nineveh (Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, II. 467). In Pal. it is found at Hasbeyah, near Mt. Hermon, and in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea (hence called Asphaltitis Limnē by Josephus [BJ IV. viii. 4] and Lacus Asphaltites by Pliny [HN V. XV. 15]). Some of the limestone strata in the last-named locality are highly bituminous, and masses of bitumen are known to float on the Dead Sea itself after earthquakes. In the OT there are three Heb. words which denote some form of this substance.
In the Flood-story kōpher (LXX asphaltos, EV pitch) is used in the construction of the ark (Gn 6:14). Hēmar (AV and RV slime, RVm ‘bitumen’) was the mortar employed by the early Babylonian builders (Gn 11:3, LXX asphaltos). Bitumen pits or wells, into which the pitchy liquid (LXX asphaltos) oozed from the earth, are mentioned as occurring in the Vale of Siddim, i.e. the Dead Sea basin (Gn 14:10). This is quite in keeping with the nature of the region, though such wells are not now found in it. In Ex 2:3 hēmar is one of the substances with which the ark of bulrushes was made watertight, the other being zepheth (EV ‘pitch’). LXX includes both in the general rendering asphaltopissa, and they probably denote the more solid and the more liquid varieties of bitumen respectively. Zepheth also occurs twice in Is 34:9 (LXX pissa, EV ‘pitch’). The context makes it probable that the reference is again to bitumen.
James Patrick.
BIZIOTHIAH (Jos 15:28).—A corruption for benōthehā ‘her villages,’ referring to Beersheba (cf. also Neh 11:27).
BIZTHA (Est 1:10).—One of the seven eunuchs or chamberlains of king Ahasuerus.
BLACK.—See Colours, 2.
BLAIN.—A blain is an inflammatory swelling on the body. In one of the plagues of Egypt the dust became a ‘boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast’ (Ex 9:9, 10). See Botch, Medicine, and cf. Wyclif’s tr. of Job 2:7 ‘He smot Iob with the werste stinkende bleyne fro the sole of the fot unto the nol.’ The word is still retained in the compound chilblain.
BLASPHEMY.—The modern use of this word is more restricted in its range than that of either the OT or the NT. 1. In the former it is narrower in its scope than in the latter, being almost universally confined to language or deeds (1 Mac 2:6) derogating from the honour of God and His claims to the over-lordship of men ( Lv 24:10–16, cf. 1 K 21:10, 13, 2 K 19:6 etc.). The contemptuous scorning of sacred places was regarded as blasphemy (see 1 Mac 2:6, 7:38, cf. Ac 6:13), as was also the light and irresponsible utterance of the sacred Name (Is 52:6, Ezk 36:20, Dt 5:11), the degradation of Jehovah-worship by conformity to pagan rites ( Ezk 20:27), and the continued wilful transgression of Divine commands and despising of ‘the word of the Lord’ (Nu 15:30f.). The incident of the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath seems to be a concrete example of blasphemy (Nu 15:32f.).
2. When we come to the NT, the word is found more frequently, and is employed in a manner more nearly allied to the usage of classical writings. The EV has accordingly tr. it often as ‘railing’ or slanderous talk generally (Mt 15:19 = Mk 7:22, Eph 4:31, Col 3:8, 1 Ti 6:4, Jude 9), looked at, however, on its ethical and religious side. The cognate verb, too, is treated in the same way (Mk 15:29 = Mt 27:39, Lk 22:65, 23:39, Ro 3:8, 14:16, 1 Co 4:18, 10:30, Tit 3:2, 1 P 4:4, 14, 2 P 2:2, 10, 12, Jude 8, 10), as is also the derived adjective (2 Ti 3:2, 2 P 2:11).
One of the most frequent of the charges brought by the Jews against Jesus was that of blasphemy, and when we inquire into the meaning of the accusation, we
find that it was the application to Himself of Divine attributes and prerogatives
(Mk 2:7 = Mt 9:3, Mk 14:64 = Mt 26:65, Jn 10:33, 36). On the other hand, the NT writers regarded the unreasoning attitude of the Jews to the claims and teaching of Jesus as blasphemous (Mk 15:29 = Mt 27:39, Lk 22:65, 23:39, Ac 13:45, 18:6). It is interesting also to notice that this is the word put by the author of the Acts into the mouth of the town-clerk of Ephesus when he was appeasing the riotous mob who were persuaded that St. Paul and his companions had insulted the local deity (Ac 19:37).
3. The legal punishment for blasphemy was death (Lv 24:16), and so the Jews claimed the life of Jesus, as the just and lawful outcome of His words and teaching (Jn 19:7, cf. 10:33, 8:58f.). The proto-martyr Stephen lost his life, too, on a charge of blasphemy (Ac 6:13, 7:58), when his enemies, in a violent and sudden fit of rage, forgot the limitation imposed on them as vassals of the Roman Empire (cf. Jn 18:31; see Westcott, Gospel of St. John, Additional Note in loc). On the ‘blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,’ see art. Sin, III. 1.
J. R. Willis.
BLASTING.—See Mildew.
BLASTUS.—A chamberlain of Agrippa I., through whose intervention the people of Tyre and Sidon secured a hearing at Cæsarea (Ac 12:20).
BLEMISH.—See Medicine.
BLESSEDNESS.—The substantive does not occur either in AV or RV of the OT, and has rightly been expunged from the RV of Ro 4:6, 9, Gal 4:15, where alone it had place in the AV of the NT. ‘Blessed’ and ‘happy’ are found in both Testaments as a varying translation of the same Heb. or Gr. word; ‘blessed’ greatly pre-ponderating. The Biblical blessedness represents a conception of happiness in which the religious relation is taken into account, with its emotions and its issues. In the OT these issues sometimes lie rather in material prosperity—life, long life, wealth, children, outward peace—but it is recognized that the conditions of these are spiritual (Ps 1), and in not a few instances the inward and spiritual is itself represented as the content of true happiness (e.g. Ps 32 [but see v. 10], Pr 4:7 [ but see 3:2, 10]).
In the NT the stress is decisively shifted to the spiritual content of blessedness, which may consist with the most adverse earthly conditions (Mt 5:10, 11, Lk 6:22 , Ja 1:12). The thought of compensation in future reward is not absent, even from the ‘Beatitudes’ (esp. in their Lukan form, Lk 6:20–26); but the reward is clearly only the consummation of a blessedness already attained by the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, etc. In the teaching of Jesus the summum bonum appears now as place in the Kingdom of God, now as eternal life (e.g. Mt 25:34, Mk 10:17, 23 , Jn 3:3–5, 4:14), and both are described as a present possession (Lk 17:20, 21, Jn 3:36).
Finally, in the Johannine writings the religious relation, already in the OT an essential condition of blessedness (e.g. Ps 2:12, 33:12), is made supreme and in itself all-sufficing. Eternal life is personal union with Christ, revealer of the Father, by trust and fellowship (e.g. Jn 5:24, 6:54, 17:3, 1 Jn 5:11–20). For so man becomes partaker of the life of Him who is Himself the ‘blessed God’ (1 Ti 1:11 ,
6:15).
S. W. Green.
BLESSING.—See Beatitudes.
BLINDNESS.—See Medicine.
BLOOD.—Among all primitive races the blood, especially of human beings, has been and is regarded with superstitious, or rather, to be just, religious awe. By the Hebrews also blood was Invested with peculiar sanctity as the seat of the soul (nephesh), that is of the principle of life (Lv 17:11 ‘the life [Heb. nephesh] of the flesh is in the blood’). From this fundamental conception of blood as the vehicle of life may be derived all the manifold social and religious beliefs and practices with regard to it, which play so large a part in Scripture. See Atonement, Clean and Unclean, Covenant, Food, Propitiation, Sacrifice.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BLOOD, AVENGER OF.—See Avenger of Blood, and Kin [Next of].
BLOOD, FIELD OF.—See Akeldama.
BLOOD, ISSUE OF.—See Medicine.
BLOODY FLUX, BLOODY SWEAT.—See Medicine.
BLUE.—See Colours, 5.
BOANERGES (Mk 3:17), ‘Sons of Thunder.’—The Master’s appellation of James and John. Jerome takes it as a reference to their fiery eloquence. Others derive it rather from their fiery disposition in early days (cf. Lk 9:52–56). It would thus be a playful yet serious sobriquet, constantly reminding them of their besetting sin and warning them to overcome it.
David Smith.
BOAR.—The wild boar (Arab. khanzir) is quite common in the Jordan Valley, specially in the reed thickets near the Dead Sea. It is also found on Mount Tabor. It is still noted for its destructiveness (Ps 80:18). Though a forbidden food to the Moslem as well as the Jew (Lv 11:7, Dt 14:8), the flesh is eaten by the nominally Moslem Bedouin of Palestine. See Swine.
E. W. G. Masterman. BOAT.—See Ships and Boats.
BOAZ.—A Bethlehemite of wealth, the son of Salmon; grandfather of Jesse, and thus ancestor of David (Ru 4:21, 22, 1 Ch 2:11, Mt 1:5, 6, Lk 3:32). He became the second husband of the widowed Ruth, whom he married (according to ancient Hebrew custom) as next-of-kin, when her ‘near kinsman’ refused to undertake this duty (Ru 4:1–10). See Ruth.
W. O. E. Oesterley.
BOAZ, the name of one of the two bronze pillars which stood in front of Solomon’s Temple. The other was named Jachin (1 K 7:21, 2 Ch 3:17). See Jachin and Boaz, Temple.
BOCCAS.—See Borith.
BOCHERU.—A descendant of Jonathan (1 Ch 8:38, 9:44).
BOCHIM (‘weepers,’ Jg 2:1).—Unknown as a geographical site. Possibly the orig. reading was Bethel.
BODY in OT represents various Heb. words, especially that for ‘flesh.’ In Ex 24:10 it means, by a common idiom, ‘the framework of heaven’; there is no personification. In NT, though the body may be the seat of sin and death (Ro 6:6 , 7:24), it is never treated with contempt (Ro 12:1, 1 Co 6:13, 19); Ph 3:21 is a wellknown mistranslation. Accordingly it could be used metaphorically of the Church, Christ being sometimes the Head, sometimes the Body itself.
C. W. Emmet.
BODY-GUARD.—See Army, § 1, Guard.
BOHAIRIC VERSIONS.—See artt. Text (OT and NT).
BOHAN.—A son of Reuben, acc. to Jos 15:6, 18:17 (both P). The stone of Bohan is mentioned in these two passages as forming a mark of division between Judah and Benjamin. It is impossible to identify the site where it stood.
BOILS.—See Medicine.
BOLLED.—The boll of a plant is its seed-vessel or pod. Cf. Fitzherbert, ‘The bolles of flaxe … made drye with the son to get out the sedes.’ Thus Ex 9:31 ‘the flax was bolled,’ means it had reached the seed stage. But the Heb. means only that it was in flower.
BOLSTER.—This word, which appears six times in AV (1 S 19:13, 16, 26:7 ,
11, 12, 16) as the rendering of a Heb. word signifying ‘the place at the head,’
‘head-place,’ has rightly disappeared from RV, which gives ‘head’ throughout.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOLT.—See House, § 6.
BOND.—1. See Band. 2. See Bill. 3. See Chain.
BONDAGE, BONDMAID, BONDMAN, etc.—See Slave, Slavery.
BONES is used widely in OT as a synonym for the body, living or dead, or the person (Ps 42:10, 51:8). As the solid framework of the body, the bones are the seat of health and strength, so that breaking, rottenness, dryness of the bones are frequent figures for sickness or moral disorder (Pr 14:30, 17:22, Ps 6:2, 22:14). ‘Bone of my bone’ answers to the English phrase ‘of the same blood’; but the concluding words of Eph 5:30 should be omitted. In Lk 24:39 the unique expression seems to emphasize the nature of the Resurrection body, as different from the ordinary ‘flesh and blood.’ See Gibson, Thirty-Nine Articles, p. 188.
C. W. Emmet.
BONNET.—With the exception of Is 3:20, this is the AV designation of the special headdress of the rank and file of the priesthood according to the priestly writer (Ex 28:40, 29:9 etc., RV head-tire). It consisted of a long swathe of fine white linen wound round the head—note Ex 29:9 RV ‘bind (or wind) head-tires’— to form an egg-shaped turban. Cf. Jos. Ant. III. vii. 3; and Rich, Dict. Rom. and Gr. Ant. s.v. ‘pileus’ for illust. of the egg-shaped cap of Ulysses, with which Jerome compares the priestly turban. See Dress, 5, Mitre.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOOK.—1. A roll of papyrus or parchment; see Writing. 2. A sacred or canonical document (Dn 9:2); see Canon of OT. 3. ‘Book of life,’ etc.; see next art. and Eschatology.
BOOK OF LIFE.—The legalistic conception of morality which existed among the Jews involved a record of the deeds of life on the basis of which the final judgment of God would be given. Allied with this was another conception, derived from the custom of enrolling citizens (Jer 22:30, Neh 7:5, 64, 12:22f.; cf. Ex 32:32), of a list of those who were to partake of the blessings of the Messianic
Age. A second natural step was to conceive of God as keeping two sets of books, a
Book of Life (Dn 12:1ff., Mal 3:16, Ps 69:28) for the righteous, and a Book of Death for the wicked (Jub xxx 20–22). To have one’s name blotted out from the Book of Life was equivalent to complete condemnation (Eth. Enoch 108:3).
In the Apocalyptic writings of Judaism the Final Judgment was to be based upon the records contained in the books supposedly kept by the archangel Michael. In some cases Rabbinical thought elaborated the figure until each man was to read and sign his record. The judgment of God was thus supposed to be based upon absolute justice, and determined by the balance of recorded good and evil deeds. In the NT are to be found references both to the books of records (Rev 20:12, 15; cf. Dn 7:10, Eth. Enoch 89:61ff.), and to the books containing a list of those who were to enjoy eternal life (Lk 10:20, Ph 4:3, He 12:23, Rev 3:5, 13:8, 17:6, 21:27).
Shailer Mathews.
BOOT.—See Armour, § 2 (d), Dress, § 6.
BOOTH.—The Heb. sukkāh (note Gn 33:17 RVm) was a simple structure made of the branches of trees, which the peasant erected for rest and shelter in his field or vineyard (Is 1:8 RV). In AV and RV it is variously rendered booth, cottage, hut, pavilion, tabernacle, tent. The booth was also a convenient shelter for cattle (Gn 33:17) and for the army in the field (2 S 11:11 RV).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOOTHS, FEAST OF.—See Tabebnacles.
BOOTY.—See War. Cf. Ban.
BORDER (of the garment).—See Frinoes.
BORITH.—An ancestor of Ezra (2 Es 1:2); called in 1 Es 8:2 Boccas, and in Ezr 7:4 Bukki.
BORROWING.—See Debt.
BOSOR (1 Mac 5:26, 36).—A town in Gilead. The site is uncertain.
BOSORA (1 Mac 5:26, 28).—Mentioned with Bosor. Apparently the great city of Bosrah—the Roman Bostra on the E. of Bashan, which is not mentioned in the
Bible.
BOSS.—Only Job 15:26, where it is doubtful whether metal bosses for strengthening the shield are implied in the figure, or whether we should render ‘the stout curves of his bucklers.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOTCH.—A botch (connected with ‘beat’ and ‘boss’) is a swelling, an eruption in the skin. It occurs in reference to Dt 28:27 ‘the botch of Egypt.’ See Blain, Medicine. The modern word is ‘boil,’ which is also the more common word for the same Heb. in AV. For the Eng. word see Milton PL xii. 180—
‘Botches and blaines must all his flesh imboss.’
BOTTLE.—Although glass was not unknown in Palestine in Bible times, the various words rendered ‘bottle’ in AV denote almost exclusively receptacles of skin. In RV the NT revisers have wisely introduced skins and wine-skins in the familiar parable (Mt 9:17 ||), but their OT collaborators have done so only where, as in Jos 9:4, 13, the context absolutely required it. These skins of the domestic animals, in particular of the goat, were used not only, as we have seen, for wine, but for water (Gn 21:14), milk (Jg 4:19), oil, and other liquids. They were doubtless used, as at the present day, both tanned and untanned. In later times (Mishna), the larger skins sometimes received a coating of pitch on the inside, and were furnished at the neck with a reed to serve as a funnel.
The ‘potter’s earthen bottle’ of Jer 19:1, 10 was a narrow-necked wine-jar, which might also be used for honey (1 K 14:3 EV ‘cruse’).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOTTOMLESS PIT.—See Abyss.
BOW, BATTLE BOW.—See Armour, 1 (d).
BOWELS.—The bowels are in Biblical language the seat of the emotions. Hence Ps 40:8 ‘Thy law is in the midst of my bowels,’ i.e. the object of my deepest affection.
BOWL.—It is impossible to distinguish with certainty between the numerous words reodered, somewhat indiscriminately, ‘cup,’ ‘bason,’ and ‘bowl.’ The wandering Bedouin of to-day make little use, for obvious reasons, of the fragile products of the potter’s art, preferring vessels of skin, wood, and copper. The ‘lordly dish’ with which Sisera was served (Jg 5:25) was a bowl, doubtless of wood; so too, perhaps, Gideon’s bowl (6:38) which bears the same name. For ordinary domestic purposes bowls of glazed or unglazed earthenware were preferred, of which specimens in endless variety have been unearthed (see Pottery). Among the wealthier classes silver and even gold (1 K 10:21) were employed. Of one or other of these were doubtless the large bowls—the word elsewhere used for the Basons (wh. see)—from which the nobles of Samaria quaffed their wine ( Am 6:6). Similar, probably, were the large wine-bowls, distinguished from the smaller cups, to which Jeremiah refers (Jer 35:5 RV and AV ‘pots’).
From the above are to be distinguished the bowl or reservoir for the oil of the ‘candlestick’ (Zec 4:2f.), the golden cup-like ornaments of the Tabernacle lampstand (Ex 25:31 AV ‘bowls,’ RV ‘cups’), and the ‘bowls of the chapiters’ (2 Ch 4:12f. RV and AV ‘pommels’). See, further, Cup, Bason, Vial.
For an important ritual use of bowls and lamps, recently discovered, see House, § 3.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOX.—1. The nature of the prophet’s ‘box of oil’ (2 K 9:1, 3 RV vial, as 1 S 10:1 AV) is unknown. Was it another name for ‘the born of oil’ of 1 K 1:39? 2. For the ‘alabaster box’ (Mt 26:7 ||, RV cruse) see Jewels and Precious Stones, ad fin. 3. For Judas’ money-box (Jn 12:6, 13:29 AV ‘bag,’ RVm ‘box’) see Bag. 4. Nothing is known of the perfume boxes (lit. ‘houses, i.e. receptacles of perfume [ or perhaps ointment]’) of the Jerusalem ladies (Is 3:20 RV and AV ‘tablets’).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BOX-TREE (teashshūr, Is 41:19, 60:13, Ezk 27:6).—Whether the teashshūr was the box-tree (Buxus longifolia) or the sherbin, mod. Arab. for the cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), as RV adopts, or, as others propose, a kind of juniper, is quite unsettled. So good an authority as Post rejects the first as improbable.
E. W. G. Masterman.
BOY.—See Child, Family.
BOZEZ (1 S 14:4).—A steep cliff on one side of the Michmash gorge opposite Seneh. It seems to be the northern cliff, a remarkable bastion of rock E. of Michmash.
BOZKATH.—A town of Judah (Jos 15:39, 2 K 22:1), in the plain near Lachish and Eglon. Unknown.
BOZRAH (‘fortification’).—1. An Edomite city known only as the place of origin of Jobah, son of Zerah, one of the Edomite kings (Gn 36:33, 1 Ch 1:44). It was, however, of such importance in the kingdom of Edom that it is coupled with the name of the latter in poetic parallelisms (e.g. the denunciation in Is 34:6; cf. Jer 49:22). The reference in Is 63:1 to ‘dyed garments’ of Bozrah, and in Mic 2:12 to ‘sheep of Bozrah,’ may indicate the industries for which it was noted. The guesses that have been made at its identification are of no importance. 2. A Moabite city denounced by Jeremiah (48:24), and also unknown.
R. A. S. Macalister.
BRACELETS.—See Ornaments, § 4.
BRAMBLE.—See Thorns.
BRAN.—The burning of bran for incense is mentioned in Bar 6:43 as an accompaniment of the idolatrous worship of the women of Babylon.
BRANCH.—1. The great variety of Heb. words rendered by our ‘branch’ may be gathered from the following list of passages, in each of which a different term is used: Gn 40:10, Ex 25:33, Nu 13:23, Is 16:8, 27:10, Jer 11:16, Zec 4:12, Ps 104:12, Job 15:32, 18:16. In the following verses RV or RVm adds or substitutes another word: Is 18:5 (‘spreading branches’) 25:6 (‘song’), Ezk 17:3, 22 ( ‘top,’ ‘lofty top’), Ps 80:15 (‘Heb. son’: RVm of Gn 49:22, in like manner has ‘Heb. daughters’), Pr 11:28 (‘leaf’) Job 8:16 (‘shoot’). In the NT four Greek words are translated ‘branch,’ but RVm points out that ‘layers of leaves’ are meant at Mk 11:8, and at Jn 12:13 palm-branches are in question. 2. ‘Branch’ is used figuratively for human offspring (Job 15:32), especially for the scion of a royal house (Dn 11:7); also for persons in lofty station (Is 9:14). The Heb. netser, properly signifying ‘sprout’ or ‘shoot,’ but rendered ‘branch’ (Is 11:1), is a designation of the Messianic king; not improbably this was in the Evangelist’s mind when he wrote Mt 2:23. We have the same English term at Jer 23:5, 33:15 , where another word, tsemach, is a title of the Messiah, intimating that this ‘shoot’ should arise out of ‘the low estate’ of the restored remnant. Zec 3:8, 6:12 , following Jeremiah, actually makes Tsemach a proper name. The Targ. on Jer. and
Zech. unhesitatingly substitutes for it ‘the Messiah.’
J. Taylor.
BRASIER.—See Coal and Firepan.
BRASS is an alloy of copper and zinc, the general use of which is comparatively modern. In ancient times its place was supplied by bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Where ‘brass’ occurs in EV, we must understand either bronze or copper itself. In some of the references, such as those to mining (Dt 8:9 ‘out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass’) and smelting (Job 28:2 ‘Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone’), it is clear that only copper can be meant, and RVm adopts this rendering everywhere (see on Gn 4:22). Copper is not found in Palestine proper, but in the Lebanon and Hermon (possibly the ‘mountains of brass’ of Zec 6:1). Weapons of copper have been found at Tell elHesy (dating from c. b.c. 1500). From very early times copper was largely worked by the Egyptians in the Sinaitic peninsula, where traces of the mining and smelting are still to be seen. A full account of these operations and their remains is given in Flinders Petrie’s Researches in Sinai.
James Patrick.
BRAVERY.—In Is 3:18 ‘the bravery of their tinkling ornaments,’ bravery means splendour, ostentation. The word is connected with ‘brag.’ BRAZEN SEA.—See Temple.
BRAZEN SERPENT.—See Serpent [ Brazen ].
BREACH.—‘Breach’ is a literal trans, of the Heb. in 2 S 6:8 and 1 Ch 13:11 ‘the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah,’ and in Job 16:14 ‘He breaketh me with breach upon breach.’ The word in both places is used figuratively of an outburst of wrath.
BREAD.—The pre-eminence of bread in the dietary of the Hebrews is shown by the frequent use in OT, from Gn 3:19 onwards, of ‘bread’ for food in general. It was made chiefly from wheat and barley, occasionally mixed, more especially in times of scarcity, with other ingredients (Ezk 4:9; see Food). Barley was in earlier times the main breadstuff of the peasantry (Jg 7:13) and poorer classes generally (Jn 6:13, cf. Jos BJ V. x. 2).
The first step in bread-making, after thoroughly sifting and cleaning the grain, was to reduce it to flour by rubbing, pounding, or grinding (cf. Nu 11:8). In the first process, not yet extinct in Egypt for certain grains, the grain was rubbed between two stones, the ‘corn-rubbers’ or ‘corn-grinders,’ of which numerous specimens have been found at Lachish and Gezer (PEFSt, 1902, 326; 1903, 118 ; cf. Erman, Egypt. 180 for illust. of actual use). For the other two processes see Mortar and Mill respectively. Three qualities of flour are distinguished—a coarser sort got by the use of the pestle and mortar, the ‘beaten (RV ‘bruised’ corn’ of Lv 2:14, 16, ordinary flour or ‘meal,’ and the ‘fine meal’ for honoured guests ( Gn 18:6) or ‘fine flour’ for a king’s kitchen (1 K 4:22) and the ritual meal-offerings.
The flour was then mixed with water and kneaded in the wooden basin or kneading-trough (Ex 8:3, 12:34). In a case of urgency the dough was at once made into cakes and fired. These unleavened cakes were termed mazzoth and were alone permitted for the altar and during Passover and the immediately following Feast of Unleavened Cakes (Mazzoth). On ordinary occasions, however, a small lump of yesterday’s baking, which had been reserved for the purpose, was broken down and mixed with to-day’s ‘batch.’ The whole was then set aside for a few hours till thoroughly leavened (see Leaven).
Three modes of firing bread are found in OT, as in the East at the present day. (a) The first is represented by Elijah’s ‘cake baken on the hot stones’ (1 K 19:5 RVm). A few flat stones are gathered together, and a fire lighted upon them. When the stones are sufficiently heated, the embers are raked aside, the cakes are laid on the stones and covered with the embers. After a little the ashes are again removed, the cake is turned (Hos 7:8) and once more covered. Presently the cake is ready. (b) In Syria and Arabia today a convex iron plate is much used, especially among the Bedouin. It is placed over a small fire-pit with the convex side uppermost, on which the cakes of dough are laid and fired. The Hebrew ‘baking-pan’ (Lv 2:5 , 7:9 RV) must have resembled this species of iron ‘girdle.’ (c) The settled population, however, chiefly made use of one or other of the various kinds of oven, then as now called tannur. In one form, which may be termed the bowl-oven, since it consists of a large clay bowl inverted, with a movable lid, the heat is applied by heaping cattle dung, etc., on the outside. The cakes are baked on the heated stones covered by the oven. In other parts of the country the jar-oven is used. This is really a large earthenware jar which is heated by fuel, consisting of stubble ( Mal 4:1), grass (Mt 6:30), dry twigs (1 K 17:12) and the like, placed in the bottom of the jar. When the latter is thoroughly heated, the cakes are applied to the inside walls. From this type was developed the pit-oven, which was formed partly in the ground, partly built up of clay and plastered throughout, narrowing from the bottom upwards. Many of these pit-ovens have been discovered in the recent excavations. It is to the smoke issuing from one of these, while being heated, that the smoke of the ruined cities of the plain is compared in Gn 19:28 (EV furnace, and often unnecessary rendering for ‘oven’). Such no doubt were the ovens of the professional bakers in the street named after them in Jerusalem (Jer 37:21).
Bread-making was at all times the special charge of the women of the household. Even when, as we have just seen, baking became a recognized industry, a large part of the baker’s work had been, as now in the East, merely to fire the bread baked by the women at home.
A considerable variety of bakemeats (Gn 40:17, lit. ‘food, the work of the baker’) is met with in OT, but only in a few cases is it possible to identify their nature or form. The ordinary cake—the loaf of OT and NT—was round and fairly thick; such at least was the rolling ‘cake of barley bread’ of Jg 7:13. These cakes were always broken by the hand, never cut. A cake frequently used for ritual purposes (Ex 29:2 and often) seems, from its name, to have been pierced with holes like the modern Passover-cakes. The precise nature of the cracknels of 1 K 14:3 (Amer. RV ‘cakes’) is unknown. The wafer, often named in ritual passages (cf. also Ex 16:31), was evidently a very thin species of cake. For what may be called the pastry of the Hebrews, the curious in these matters are referred to the art. ‘Bakemeats’ in the Encyc. Bibl. col. 460 f.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BREAKFAST.—See Meals.
BREASTPLATE.—See Armour, 2 (c).
BREASTPLATE (of the High Priest).—In the directions for the official dress of the high priest, as laid down by the priestly writer, a prominent place is occupied by the breastplate or pectoral. The fuller designation ‘the breastplate of judgment’ (Ex 28:15, Sir 45:10) is significant of the purpose of the breastplate, which was to form a fitting receptacle or pouch for the Urim and Thummim (wh. see), by means of which judgment was pronounced. The special directions for the making of the breastplate are given in Ex 28:13–30 (cf. 39:8–21). It was made of an oblong piece of richly wrought linen, which, folded in two, formed a square of half a cubit, or 9 inches, in the side. Attached to the outer side were four rows of precious stones in gold settings, twelve in all, each stone having engraved upon it the name of a tribe ‘for a memorial before J″ continually’ (28:29). The breastplate was kept in position by means of two cords of ‘wreathen work’ of gold, by which it was attached to a couple of gold ‘ouches’ (probably rosettes of gold filigree) on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, while the lower part was fastened to the ephod by a ‘lace of blue’ (28:28) at each corner.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BREECHES.—Rather short drawers of white linen ordered to be worn by the priests on grounds of modesty (Ex 28:42, Lv 16:4, Ezk 44:18, Sir 45:8). Josephus describes those worn in his time in his Ant. III. vii. 1. The modern trousers are represented in AV by Hosen (wh. see).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BRETHREN OF THE LORD.—Jesus was Mary’s first-born (Lk 2:7), and she subsequently (according to the view accepted in the present article) bore to Joseph four sons, James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, and several daughters ( Mt
13:55–56 = Mk 6:3). During His ministry the Lord’s brethren did not believe in Him. They sneered at Him (Jn 7:3–5), and once they concluded that He was mad, and wished to arrest Him and convey Him away from Capernaum (Mk 3:21, 31). After the Resurrection, however, convinced by so tremendous a demonstration, they joined the company of the believers (Ac 1:14).
In early days, partly at least in the interests of the notion of Mary’s perpetual virginity, two theories were promulgated in regard to the ‘Brethren of the Lord.’ (a) They were supposed to be sons of Joseph by a former marriage, having thus no blood-relationship with Jesus. So Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Epiphanius. (b) They were held to be His cousins, sons of Mary, the wife of Alphœus (Mt 27:56 = Mk 15:40); ‘brother’ here implying merely kinship, as Abraham calls himself and his nephew Lot ‘brethren’ (Gn 13:8), and Laban calls Jacob, his sister’s son, his ‘brother’ (29:16). So Jerome and Augustine. That Mary, the wife of Alphæus and mother of James the Little, was a sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, is an inference from Jn 19:25, where it is supposed that only three women are mentioned: (1) His mother, (2) His mother’s sister, viz., Mary, the wife of Clopas (= Alphæus), and (3) Mary Magdalene. But there are probably four: (1) His mother, (2) her sister Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee (cf. Mt. = Mk.), (3) Mary, the wife of Clopas, and (4) Mary Magdalene. It is very unlikely that two sisters should have been named Mary; and moreover, James, the son of Alphæus, was an Apostle (Mt 10:3 = Mk 3:18 = Lk 6:15), and none of the Lord’s brethren was an Apostle in His life-time (cf. Ac 1:13–14).
David Smith.
BRIBERY.—See Crimes and Punishments, § 5.
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 ‘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 Ex 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 Gn 11:3. The brickkiln of 2 S 12:31 , Nah 3:14 is really the brick-mould (so RVm). In the obscure passage Jer 43:9 RV has brickwork. A curious ritual use of bricks as incense-altars is mentioned in Is 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 (4:1, see the elaborate note by Haupt in ‘Ezekiel’ (PB), 98 ff.).
A. R. S. Kennedy.
BRIDE, BRIDEGROOM.—See Marriage.
BRIDGE.—Only 2 Mac 12:13 AV, where RV reads the proper name Gephyrun. For the extreme antiquity of the arch see Arch.
BRIDLE.—See Bit.
BRIER.—See Thorns.
BRIGANDINE.—The ‘brigand’ was originally simply a light-armed irregular foot soldier, and the coat of mail which he wore was called a ‘brigandine.’ The word is used in Jer 46:4, 51:3 (RV ‘coat of mail’). See Armour.
BRIMSTONE, or sulphur, is one of the chemical elements. It is found in volcanic regions both uncombined as a deposit and also as a constituent of the gases (sulphur di-oxide and sulphuretted hydrogen) which are exhaled from the earth or dissolved in the water of hot springs. Such sulphur springs are abundant in the Jordan Valley and on the shores of the Dead Sea. The account of the destruction of the Cities of the Plain (Gn 19:24, 28, Lk 17:29) states that the Lord rained upon them ‘brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,’ and the most generally accepted view is that the disaster was due to an eruption of petroleum, caused by an earthquake. This is more probable on geological grounds than a volcanic eruption. In either case the ‘brimstone’ would not be solid sulphur, but the choking gases mentiooed above, which would accompany the rain of fire ( see Driver, in loc.; Tristram, Land of Israel, 353 f.; Dawson, Egypt and Syria, 129f.). This passage suggests the imagery of a number of others in which ‘fire and brimstone’ are agencies of destruction (Ps 11:6, Ezk 38:22, Rev 9:17, 18, 14:10 , 19:20, 20:10, 21:8). In the last three of these the peculiar feature of the ‘lake’ may be a reminiscence of a volcanic crater filled with molten lava and exhaling sulphurous fumes (cf. the’ great mountain burning with fire,’ Rev 9:6). In Dt 29:23 there is a warning that if Israel is disobedient, their whole land will be ‘brimstone and salt,’ like the desolate region round the Dead Sea. In Is 34:9 a similar threat is uttered against Edom. In Is 30:33 the ‘breath of the Lord’ kindling Tophet, is like a stream of brimstone.
James Patrick.
BROAD PLACE.—See City.
BROID.—To broid or to braid is to plait. Both spellings are used in AV, 1 Ti
2:9 ‘with broided hair’ (Gr. ‘in plaits’), Jth 10:3 ‘braided the hair of her head.’
BROIDER.—This Eng. word has no connexion with broid. It means to adorn cloth with needlework. The mod. form is embroider. ‘Broider’ occurs in Ex 28:4 and in Ezk 16:10, 13, 18, 26:16, 27:7, 16, 24. See Embroidery.
BRONZE.—See Brass.
BROOCH.—Ex 35:22 RV, for AV ‘bracelets.’ See Ornaments, § 5.
BROOK.—The Heb. words thus rendered are—1. ‘Aphīq, meaning the actual bed of the stream (Ps 42:1), tr. also by ‘stream’ and ‘river.’ 2. Ye’ōr—almost always used of the Nile and water-trenches of Egypt. It is tr. ‘brook’ only in Is 19:6, 7, 8. Once it is used for the water-channel (Job 28:10); once (Is 33:21) it is rendered ‘stream’; while in Dn 12 it stands for the Tigris. 3. Mīkhal (2 S 17:20), a word of uncertain derivation and meaning. 4. Nachal is the most usual word for EV ‘brook.’ It is the exact equivalent of the Arab wādy, which means a valley containing a stream of water. It may be applied to the valley (Nu 21:12 etc.), or to the water-course alone (Dt 9:21 etc.), which is still ‘the wady,’ even after it has escaped from the valley.
The slopes of the mountain range of Western Palestine are deeply furrowed by a succession of great wadys. The sides of the mountains that dip into the Jordan Valley are far steeper than those to the W., and the streams flowing eastward plunge down through awful chasms, worn deep with the lapse of ages. In the longer descent westward the valleys frequently open into beautiful and fertile glades. For the most part the brooks, fed only by the rain, dry up in the summertime, and the mills along their banks fall silent, waking to fresh activity again only with the music of the rushing storm. There are, however, streams fed by perennial springs, such as el-‘Aujeh and the Kishon, W. of Jordan, and the Yarmuk and the Jabbok on the east.
W. Ewing.
BROOM.—See Juniper.
BROTHER.—See Family, and Brethren of the Lord.
BROTHERLY LOVE.—Philadelphia is not’ brother-like love,’ but ‘brotherlove,’ the love one has for brothers or sisters, scil, ‘love of the brethren,’—so AV in 1 P 1:22 and RV uniformly (add Ro 12:10, 1 Th 4:9, He 13:1, 2 P 1:7). The adjective in 1 P 3:8 should be rendered ‘loving your brethren,’ not ‘loving as brethren’ (AV, RV). This adj. appears in classical Gr. in its primary (family) sense, as the epithet, e.g., of the Græco-Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus, and of Attains II. of Pergamus, founder of Philadelphia (Rev 1:11 etc.), named after this king. The term received no wider application in either Greek or Jewish ( OT ) ethics; Jews called each other ‘brethren’ as being ‘children of the stock of Abraham’ (Ac 13:26). First occurring in its religious use in 1 Thess., Philadelphia looks like a coinage of St. Paul’s; but its elements lie in the teaching of Jesus. ‘Calling no one on earth father’ because they ‘have one Father, the heavenly Father,’ His disciples are ‘all brothers’ (Mt 23:8, 9; cf. 6:9): the love of the natural household is transferred, with a deepened sense, to ‘the household of faith’ ( see Gal 6:10, Eph 2:19). This sentiment is formed in the community gathered around Christ its ‘first-born,’ the family of the ‘sons’ and ‘heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Ro 8:14–17, 29). ‘Go to my brethren,’ the Risen Lord had said, ‘and tell them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father’ (Jn 20:17; cf. Mt 12:49, 50 ; 28:10); He required them to cherish toward each other the love He showed toward them, making this the mark of discipleship (Jn 13:34, 35, 15:12, 13, 1 Jn 2:7, 8 , 3:11, 4:20, 21, 2 Jn 5, 1 Co 8:11 etc.). The body to which this love belongs is called ‘the brotherhood’ in 1 P 2:17 (also 5:9), where ‘love to the brotherhood’ is associated with respect for humanity and fear of God as a fundamental Christian instinct (cf. 1 Th 4:9, Col 3:14, 1 Co 13, etc.). St. Paul describes this affection as the mutual ‘care’ of ‘members’ of ‘one body’ (1 Co 12:12–27): it forbids envy, unkindness, schism; it animates, and virtually includes, all services and duties of Christians towards each other (1 Co 13, Gal 5:13–15); it is the first ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (Gal 5:22, cf. 4:6, 7, 5:6), the fruit of God’s love to us and the test of our love to God (1 Jn 4:11–21), ‘the fulfilment of the law’ (Ro 13:8–10), and the crown of Christian purity (1 P 1:22); the Cross supplies its model and its inspiration (Eph 4:31–5:2, 1 Jn 3:16). When St. Paul speaks of ‘love,’ he means ‘brother-love’ in the first place, but not exclusively (Gal 6:10, 1 Th 5:15, Ro 12:18–21; cf. Mt 5:43–48 etc.). Amongst the manifestations of Philadelphia, hospitality (philoxenia) is conspicuous (He 13:1, 2, 1 P 4:8–10, 3 Jn 5–8); also ‘communication’ or ‘ministering to the necessities of the saints’ (Ro 12:12, 13 , 15:25, He 6:10, 13:16, 1 Jn 3:17, 18). The prominence, and strangeness to the world, of this feature of primitive Christianity are strikingly attested by the Epistle to Diognetus, § 1, Tertullian’s Apol. § 39, and (from outside) Lucian’s de Morte Peregrini, xii. 16, and Julian’s Epist. 49.
G. G. Findlay.
BROWN.—See Colours, § 2.
BRUIT.—A bruit (pronounced as brute) is a rumour or report (Fr. bruit, from bruire to roar). Thus 2 Mac 4:39 ‘the bruit of his manliness was spread everywhere’; Nah 3:19 ‘all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee.’
BUCKET.—See House, 9.
BUCKLE.—See Ornaments, § 5.
BUCKLER.—See Armour, 2 (a).
BUGEAN.—A descriptive epithet applied to Haman in Ad. Est 12:6 RV ( AV has ‘Agagite’). Bougaios occurs in Homer (Il. xiii. 824, Od. xviii. 79) as a term of reproach = ‘bully’ or ‘braggart.’ Whether the Sept. intended it in this sense, or as a gentilic adjective, is wholly uncertain.
BUILDER.—See Arts and Crafts, 3.
BUKKI.—1. Son of Jogli, a prince of the tribe of Dan, and one of the ten men entrusted with the task of dividing the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel (Nu 34:22). 2. Son of Abishua and father of Uzzi, fifth in descent from Aaron in the line of the high priests through Phinehas (1 Ch 6:6, 51, Ezr 7:4). In 1 Es 8:2 he is called Boccas, for which Borith is substituted in 2 Es 1:2.
BUKKIAH.—A Levite of the sons of Heman, and leader of the sixth band or course in the Temple service (1 Ch 25:4, 13).
BUL.—1 K 6:38, the Canaanite name for the month which the Babylonians termed Marcheshvan. See time.
BULL, BULLOCK.—See Ox.
BULRUSH.—See Reed.
BULWARK.—See Fortification and Siegecraft.
BUNAH (‘intelligence’).—A man of Judah, a son of Jerahmeel (1 Ch 2:25).
BUNCH.—Besides meaning bundle (of hyssop, Ex 12:22, Heb. ‘something tied together’) and cluster (of ralsins, 2 S 16:1, 1 Ch 12:40, Heb. ‘something dried’), bunch is used also for the hump of a camel in Is 30:6. Cf. Shaks. Rich. III.
I. iii. 248—
‘This pois’nous bunch-back’d toad.’
BUNDLE.—A bundle of money is spoken of in Gn 42:35, of myrrh in Ca 1:13 , of life in 1 S 25:29 (on wh. see Exp. Times, xvii. 435); also in Jer 10:17 RVm a bundle for a journey (see Driver’s Jer. p. 354); and in NT of tares (Mt 13:30) and of sticks (Ac 28:3).
BUNNI, Neh 9:4, 10:15, 11:15, but in each case perhaps the text is corrupt.
BURDEN.—The word so rendered in the OT is derived from a root which means to ‘lift’ or ‘carry.’ It has the two senses of an actual burden and a prophetic utterance. Instances of the former are 2 K 5:17, Neh 13:19, Nu 4:15. Related usages are frequent; in Is 22:25 the word suggests the pressure of something hanging on a peg, in Nu 11:11 the responsibility and in Hos 8:10 the privilege of government, in Ps 38:4 the responsibility for sin. The second sense is that of a solemn utterance, and the marginal alternative ‘oracle’ (Is 14:28 et al.) is to he preferred. It was customary to explain this use of the word as due to the threatening character of the utterance; but many of the utterances are not threatening (cf. Zec 12, 9:1, 9–17; in Pr 30:1 and 31:1 RV puts ‘oracle’ in the text and ‘burden’ in the margin), and the word-play in Jer 23:33ff. involves a reproof of the men who were disposed to regard the oracle of God as literally a burden. Most utterances of the prophets, moreover, were of necessity from their occasion minatory. ‘Burden’ in this second usage denotes simply something taken up solemnly upon the lips, both weighty in itself and weighty in its communication. It is not used of merely human utterances, but always carries with it the suggestion of Divine inspiration, actual or falsely assumed (La 2:14).
In the NT, Ac 21:3 is an instance of the literal use. The figures are easy. The word is used for the ordinances of the Law as interpreted by the Pharisees ( Mt 23:4, Lk 11:46), for the prohibitions of the Apostolic decree (Ac 15:28; cf. Rev 2:24), for the pressure and load of life (Mt 20:12), for an exacting or even legitimate charge upon others (2 Co 11:9, 12:13f.), for the imagined difficulties of following Christ (Mt 11:30). Two other kinds of burdens with their right treatment are contrasted. Other men’s errors and sorrows must be shared in sympathy ( Gal 6:2); though in the service of Christ there can be no transfer of obligations, but each man must carry his own kit and do his own duty (Gal 6:5).
R. W. Moss.
BURGLARY.—See Crimes and Punishments, § 6.
BURIAL.—See Mourning Customs, Tomb.
BURNING.—See Crimes and Punishments, § 11.
BURNING BUSH.—See Bush.
BURNT-OFFERING.—See Sacrifice.
BUSH (seneh, Ex 3:2–4, Dt 33:16).—The ‘burning bush’ has traditionally been supposed to be a kind of bramble (Rubus), of which Palestine has several varieties, but one of the thorny shrubs of Sinai of the acacia family would seem more probable. Sacred bushes and trees are common in Palestine and Arabia. ‘In (or at) the bush’ in Mt 12:26 || Lk 20:37 = the passage dealing with the burning bush ( RV ‘in the place concerning the bush’).
E. W. G. Masterman.
BUSHEL.—See Weights and Measures.
BUTLER.—See Cupbearer.
BUTTER.—See Food, Milk.
BUZ.—1. The second son of Nahor and Milcah, and nephew of Abraham ( Gn 22:21). Elihu, one of the friends of Job (Job 32:2), is called a Buzite, and may have belonged to a tribe of that name against which judgments are denounced by Jeremiah (Jer 25:23). 2. A man of the tribe of Gad (1 Ch 5:14).
BUZI.—The father of the prophet Ezekiel (ch. 1:3) and consequently a member of the priestly house of Zadok. Of the man himself nothing is known. Jewish writers were led to identify him with Jeremiah, partly by a supposed connexion of the name with a verb meaning ‘despise,’ and partly by a theory that when the father of a prophet is named it is to be understood that he also was a prophet.
BUZITE—See Buz.
BY.—In the Authorized Version of is generally used for the agent and by for the instrument. Thus Mt 1:22 ‘that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of ( RV ‘by’) the Lord by (RV ‘through’) the prophet.’
In 1 Co 4:4 ‘I know nothing by myself,’ by means contrary to, against, as in Hamilton’s Catechism, 1559 (the Tabil), ‘Jugis quhilk fur lufe of rewardis dols ony thing by the ordour of justice’; also fol. vii., ‘curslt ar thai quhilk gaogis by ye commondis of God.’
BY AND BY.—In AV ‘by and by’ means immediately, not as now after some time. Thus Lk 21:8 ‘the end is not by and by’ (RV ‘immediately’).
BYWAY.—See Roads.