ATH
ATH
ATH
Asaiah, u-liom Jehovah, made), a descendant of Jiidah. Neh. 11 : 4.
ATHALI'AH (ajflirtcd h>/Jehovnh), granddauc^hter of Omri, dauj^hter of Ahab and Jezebel, wife of Jehoram, king of Jiidah, and mother of Aha-ziah. 2 Kg8. 11:1 flF. She introduced Baal-worship into Jiidah. Her character was extremely bad. She advised her own son in his wickedness, and after Jehu had slain him (see Aha-ziah) she resolved to destroy the children of her husband by his former wives, and then take the throne of Judah, But Jehosheba, a half-sister of Ahaziah, secured Joash, one of the children and heii*, and secreted him and his nurse for six years. In the seventh year, everything being prepared for the purpose, Joash, the young prince, was brought out and placed on the throne. Attracted by the crowd of people who had assembled to witness the ceremony, and unsuspicious of the cause, Athaliah has-
tened to the temple. When the populace had assembled, and when she saw the young king on the throne, and heard the shouts of the people, and found that all her ambitious designs were likely to be defeated, she rent her clothes and cried out, " Treason ! Treason!" ho})ing probably to rally a party in favor of her interests. But she was too late. The priest commanded her to be removed from the temple, and she was taken without the walls of the city and put to death. 2 Kgs. 11: IG. See Jehoiada and Joash.
2. A Benjamite. 1 Chr. 8 : 2().
3. One whose son, Jcshaiah, returned with Ezra in the second caravan from Babylon. Ezr. 8 : 7.
ATH'ENS, the name of several places, but chiefly of the capital of Greece, the metropolis of ancient philosophy and art; named from the goddess Minerva or Athene. For sketch-map see Corinth.
Situation. —It was situated about 5
Erechtheum.
Parthenon.
Turkish Tower.
Modern City.
Temple of Theseus. South-wesieru ijuit of Modern City.
Athens. (After a sketch.)
miles north-east of the Saronic Gulf, in the ])lain of Attica, the south-eastern portion of the Grecian peninsula, between the little rivers Cephissus and Ilissus. The port, Piraeus, is five miles off, and now connected with the city by a railroad. About the plain, on the north-
west, the north-east, the south-east, and south-west, were four noted mounts. Within the city were four more noted hills—the Acropolis, Areopagus or Mars' Hill, the Pnyx, and the Museum. The Acropolis is about 150 feet high, with a flat top about 1100 feet long by
ATH
ATO
450 feet wide, having a steep ascent on all sides. West of the Acropolis is Mars' Hill, of irregular form, and on which public assemblies and the chief courts were held. Upon this hill Paul preached. Acts 17 : 19, 22. Beneath it are the Caves of the Furies.
History. —Athens was first settled by some chieftain, perhaps Cecrops, b. c. 1556, who is said to have been succeeded by sixteen legendary kings and twelve archons. Draco made laws for it, b. c. 624. Solon, its noted '' lawgiver," founded a democracy, b. c. 594. The city was taken by Xerxes, b. c. 480 ; but soon after his defeat it reached its highest prosperity, with a population of from 120,000 to 180,000. Under the brilliant rule of Pericles, b. c. 444 to 429, some of the greatest masters in philosophy, poetry, and oratory flourished, and noted buildings and temples, as that of Zeus, the Odeum, the Parthenon, the Propylaja, were projected or completed. His rule was followed by the Spartan, the Theban, and the Macedonian supremacy, the age of Demosthenes, Philip, and Alexander the Great. In b. c. 140, Athens with Achaia became a Roman province, and so continued through apostolic times. Since then it has been subject to the Byzantines, Franks, Venetians, and Turks, as well as at times independent. Under the misrule of the Turks it sunk down to a miserable village, and in 1832 there was scarcely a house standing. But it arose with the new kingdom of Greece, and is now again a beautiful capital, adorned by new streets and buildings, prominent among which are the royal palace, the Greek cathedral, the Russian chapel, the University, the Library, and the Museum.
At the time of Paul's visit Athens was a " free city," under the Roman rule. It was given to idolatry, having 30,000 idols. Petronius said, " It was easier to find a god in Athens than to find a man." Paul calls them "very religious," Acts 17 : 22, not "too superstitious," as our version inaccurately reads. But Athens never took a jirominent place in church history.
ATH'LiAI {whom Jehovah afflicts), one who had married a foreign wife. Ezr. 10 : 28.
ATONE'MENT. Literally, a<-one-84
ment, or reconciliation; theologically, the satisfaction or propitiation brought about by the death of Christ as the ground of the accord or reconciliation between God and man. The word occurs often in the Old Testament, but onh^ once in the New (Rom. 5 : 11, where the Greek means " reconciliation," which is the result of the atoning death of Christ). The subject itself is presented in every variety of form both in the Gospels and in the Epistles. Rom. 3-8 and Heb. 7-10, inclusive.
The great atonement made for sin by the sacrifice of Christ constitutes the grand substantial foundation of the Christian faith. The efliicacy of it is such that the sinner, though by nature the child of wrath, by faith in Christ is brought into favor with God, is delivered from condemnation, and made an heir of eternal life and glory. The Hebrew word rendered " atonement" signifies " covering," Ps. 32:1, and the Greek version of this Hebrew word is translated "propitiation" in our Bible, and may denote either that our offences are covered or that we are protected from the curse, Christ being made a curse for us. Gal. 3: 13. Generally, wherever the term occurs, a state of controversy or estrangement is implied; and in relation to the party offended, it imports something done to propitiate. Gen. 32 : 20 ; Eze. 16 : 63. The idea of making an atonement is expressed by a word which signifies " to make propitiation ;" and the apostles, in referring to the death of Christ, use those very terms which in the Sejituagint version of the Old Testament are applied to legal sacrifices and their effect, thus representing the death of Christ not only as a real and proper sacrifice, but as the truth and substance of all the Levitical types and shadows—the true, efficacious, and only atonement for sin, 1 John 2 : 2 and 4 : 10 ; showing that Christ is not only the agent by whom the propitiation is made, but was himself the propitiatory sacrifice.
ATONE MENT, DAY OF. Lev. 16 ; 23 : 27-32. The only Jewish fast-day ; the annual day of humiliation. It was kept five days before the Feast of Tabernacles, or on the tenth day of Tisri; i. €. in the early part of October. The fast lasted fi-om sunset to sunset. It
ATR
AUG
was kept as a solemn Sabbath. Once a year upon this day did the high priest alone enter the holy of holies. This was the preparation. It was ordained that he should bathe himself, and then dress in holy white linen. He was then to bring forward his sacrifices, which must be his purchases—a young bullock for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering. These he offered for himself and family. Besides these, he brought forward two goats for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering. These, being for the benefit of the people, were paid for out of the public treasury. The two goats were then led up to the entrance of the tabernacle and lots cast upon them, one lot marked ^'For Jehovah." the other marked '■'ForAzazel" The latter is a phrase of unusual difficulty. But the best modern scholars agree that it does not designate the goat, but the personal being to whom the goat was sent. See Goat, Scape. The high priest offered the bullock, carried live coals in a censer from the altar, with a handful of incense, into the holy of holies. There he sprinkled the blood with his finger upon the mercy-seat, eastward, and before it seven times. He then killed the goat " for Jehovah " and sprinkled its blood in the same manner. Over the goat *'for Azazel" the sins of the people were confessed by the high priest, and then it was sent away by " the hand of a fit man into the wilderness." The ceremony was now over. Accordingly, the high priest again bathed, put on his usual garments, and offered the two rams.
AT'ROTH {crowns), or ''Atroth-Shophan," as it should probably be read without the comma, "Shophan" being added to distinguish it from the "Ata-roth " or "Atroth " in the former verse. It was a city of Gad, near Dibon. Num. 32 : 35.
AT'TAI {opportune). 1. A descendant of Judah. 1 Chr. 2 : 35, 36.
2. A Gadite chief. 1 Chr. 12 : 11.
3. A son of Rehoboam. 2 Chr. 11 : 20.
ATTALI'A, a seaport-town of Pamphylia, Acts 14 : 25, named from its founder, Attalus; later it was called Satalin, and now Adalia.
AIJGVS'TUS {venerable), Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, b. c. 62-a. d. 14.
The grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, and first emperor of Home. It was he who gave the order for the enrolment which was the human occasion of the Bethle-hemic birth of Christ. Luke 2 : 1. He was one of the second so-called triumvirate, with Mark Antony and Lepidus. After the removal of the latter he fought a battle with Antony at Actium, b. c. 31, defeating him. The senate saluted him as emperor, and in b. c. 27 conferred on him the title of '* Augustus." He comes into the New Testament in connection i with Herod, whom he had reinstated in I his kingdom and greatly honored, al-j though Herod had espoused the cause of Antony. At Herod's death Augustus divided his kinordom in accordance
Coin of Augustus,iu Berlin.
Marble Statue of Augustus, found in 1863 at Prima Porta, near Kome.
with his will, and even educated two of his sons, since their relations had been very intimate. He reigned forty-one years, and was succeeded by
AVA
AZA
Tiberius Caesar. Luke 3 :1. See C^-
SAR.
A'VA (ruin). Rawlinson would identify it with Hit, on the Euphrates; probably it is the same as Ahava and Ivah. 2 Kgs. 17 : 24.
A'VEN {nothi)igiies8). 1. A plain, probably of Lebanon. Am. 1: 6.
2. Same as Beth-aven. Hos. 10 : 5, 8. See Baalbec.
3. The city of On or Heliopolis, in Egypt. Eze. 30 : 17.
AVENGE', AVEN'GER. Luke 18 : 8 ; 1 Thess. 4 : 6. Vengeance is an act of justice; revenge is an act of passion. Hence injuries are revenged, crimes are avenged. God is avenged of his enemies when he vindicates his own law and government and character and punishes their transgressions. An avenger is the agent or instrument by whom the avengement is visited on the offending party.
Avenger of Blood was a title given to one who pursued a murderer or man-slayer, by virtue of the ancient Jewish law, to avenge the blood of one who had been slain. He must be a near relative of the murdered man. Deut. 19 : 6.
A'VIM (ruim), a city of Benjamin, Josh. 18 : 2H ; probably near Bethel.
A'VITH iniius), "a city of Edom, Gen. 36 : 35 ; 1 Chr. 1 : 46 ; probably in the north-eastern part of Mount Seir.
A'ZAL. Zech. 14: 5. As the passage reads in the margin, Azal is not a proper name ; but if a place at all, it was on or near Mount Olivet.
AZALI'AH {whom Jehovah reserved), the father of Shaphan the scribe. 2 Kgs. 22 : 3 ; 2 Chr. 34 : 8.
AZANI'AH [whom Jehovah hears), the father of Jeshua the Levite, Neh. 10:9.
AZAR'AEL {whom God helps), a Levite musician. Neh. 12 : 36.
AZAR'EEL {whom God helps). 1. A Korhite who " came to David to Zik-lag." 1 Chr. 12 : 6.
2. A Levite musician of David's time, 1 Chr. 25 : 18 ; called Uzziel in v. 4.
3. A prince of Dan. 1 Chr. 27 : 22.
4. One who had married a foreign wife. Ezr. 10:41.
5. A priest who lived in Jerusalem aftei' the Return. Neh. 11: 13.
AZARI'AH {ivhom Jehovah helps). 1. The grandson of Zadok, and the high 86
priest during the reign of Solomon. 1 Kgs. 4: 2 ; 1 Chr. 6 : 9.
2. A chief officer under Solomon. 1 Kgs. 4:5.
3. A king of Judah, 2 Kgs. 14: 21; more generally called Uzziah, which see.
4. A son of Ethan. 1 Chr. 2: 8.
5. The son of Jehu, son of Obed. 1 Chr. 2 : 38, 39.
6. The son of Johanan, and high priest under Abijah and Asa. 1 Chr. 6:10, 11.
7. In 1 Chr. 6: 13 the name is probably wrongly inserted.
8. A Kohathite, and ancestor of Samuel. 1 Chr. 6 : 36.
9. A prophet who stirred up Asa to abolish idolatry. 2 Chr. 15 :1.
10. 11. Sons of Jehoshaphat the king. 2 Chr. 21: 2.
12. In 2 Chr. 22 : 6 by copyist's error for Ahaziah.
13. A captain of Judah who helped Jehoiada. 2 Chr. 23 :1.
14. The high priest in the reign of Uzziah who resisted with eighty priests the king's attempt to perform priestly functions. 2 Kgs. 14 : 21; 2 Chr. 26 : 17-20.
15. An Ephraimite chief in the reign of Ahaz. 2 Chr. 28 : 12.
16. 17. Two Levites in the reign of Hezekiah. 2 Chr. 29 : 12.
18. The high priest in the days of Hezekiah. 2 Chr. 31: 10, 13.
19. One who helped to repair the wall of Jerusalem. Neh. 3 : 23, 24.
20. A leader in the company of Ze-rubbabel. Neh. 7 : 7.
21. A Levite who helped Ezra in the reading of the Law. Neh. 8 : 7.
22. A priest who sealed the covenant, Neh. 10 : 2, and "probably the same with the Azariah who assisted in the dedication of the city wall." Neh. 12: 33.
23. In Jer. 43 : 2 instead of Jezaniah.
24. The Hebrew original name of Abed-nego. Dan. 1: 6, etc.
A'Z AZ {strong), a Reubenite. 1 Chr. 5:8.
AZAZI'AH {whom Jehovah strengthens). 1. A Levite musician in the reign of David. 1 Chr. 15 : 21.
2. An Ephraimite chief. 1 Chr. 27 : 20.
3. A Levite who had the oversight over the tithes and offerings in the reign of Hezekiah. 2 Chr. 31: 13.
AZB
AZZ
AZ'BTJK (stroufj devastation), father of Neheiniah (not the governor). Neh. 3: 16.
AZE'KAH. Josh. 10 : 10, 11; 15 :
35. A city of Judah near Shocoh. Schwarz proposed Tell Zak(in\i/a, in the valley of Elah ; Conder suggested Dcir-el-Soshek, 8 miles north of Shoeoh, also in the valley of Elah, as the site of Aze-kah.
A'ZEL (noble), a descendant of Saul. 1 Chr. 8 : 37, 38 ; 9 : 43, 44.
A'ZEM {bone), a city in the south of Judah, Josh. 16 : 29 ; afterward allotted to Simeon, 19 : 3; the same as Ezem in 1 Chr. 4:29.
AZ'GAD (strong in fortune). 1. One whose descendants returned with Zerub-babel. Ezr. 2:12; 8 : 12 ; Neh. 7 : 17.
2. One who sealed the covenant. Neh. 10:15.
A'ZIEIi (whom God consoles), a Le-vite porter; shortened form of Jaaziel. 1 Chr. 15 : 20.
AZI'ZA (strong), one who had taken a foreign wife. Ezr. 10 : 27.
AZ'MAVETH, probably a place in Benjamin, Ezr. 2 : 24; Neh. 12 : 29; called also Beth-azmaveth, Neh. 7 : 28; probably modern Hizmeh, north of Ana-thoth.
AZ'MAVETH (strong nnto death). 1. One of David's warriors, 2 Sam. 23 : 31; 1 Chr. 11 : 33.
2. A descendant of Mephibosheth. 1 Chr. 8 : 36 ; 9 : 42.
3. A Benjamite. 1 Chr. 12 : 3.
4. David's treasurer. 1 Chr. 27 : 25. AZ'MON (strong), a place in the
south-western part of Palestine. Josh. 15 : 4; Robinson and Trumbull describe " Kasaimeh " or ^' Qasaymeh," which is probably the site of Azmon.
A7/'NOTll-TA'BOK (ear, or sum. mits, of Tabor), ii place in Naphtali; probably the eastern slope of Mount Tabor. Josh. 19 : 34.
A'ZOR (a helper), one of our Lord's ancestors. Matt. 1 : 13, 14.
AZO'TUS. Acts 8 : 40. Greek form of Ashdod. See AsnnoD.
AZ'RIEL (whom God helps). 1. A man of renown, head of a house of Manasseh beyond Jordan. 1 Chr. 5 : 24.
2. The father of a chief of Naphtali.
1 Chr. 27:19.
3. The father of Seraiah. Jer. 36 : 26. AZ'RIKAM (help against the enemy).
1. One of David's posterity. 1 Chr. 3 : 23.
2. One of Saul's posterity. 1 Chr. 8 : 38 ; 9 : 44.
3. A Levite. 1 Chr. 9 : 14; Neh. 11: 15.
4. The prefect of the palace to King Ahaz, who was killed by Zichri. 2 Chr. 28 ■ 7.
AZU'BAH (forsahen). 1. The mother of Jehoshaphat. 1 Kgs. 22 : 42 ;
2 Chr. 20 : 31.
2. A wife of Caleb, son of Hezron. 1 Chr. 2: 18, 19.
A^ZUR (helper). 1. The father of Hananiah, the false prophet of Gibeon. Jer. 28:1.
2. The father of one of the princes against whom Ezekiel prophesied. Eze. 11: 1.
AZ'ZAH (the stronq), same as Ga::'.. Deut. 2 : 23; 1 Kgs. 4 : 24; Jer. 25 : 20. See Gaza.
AZ''ZAN' (very strong), a chief of Issachar. Num. 34 : 26.
AZ'ZUR (helper), one who sealed the covenant. Neh. 10:17.
BAA
BAA
B.
BA'AL, OR BEL, or BE'LUS
(lord, or master), different forms of the name of the supreme male divinity of the Phcenicians and Canaanites,as Ashtoreth was that of their supreme/e//K<Ze divinity. 1 Kgs. 18 : 21; Isa. 46 : 1 ; 1 Sam. 12 : 10 ; 1 Kgs. 11 ; 33. That the divinities were derived from astrological fancies there is little doubt, but it is a question with what pair of the heavenly bodies we are to identify them. The common opinion is that they represent the sun and moon respectively, while other scholars say they are .Jupiter and Venus. The license sanctioned—indeed, demanded— by their worship may have given it attractiveness. At all events, it spread among the Jews, being introduced into Israel by Jezebel and by her daughter into Judjea. Many and severe were the judgments required to eradicate it.
Baal side of an Altar from a temple in Kuna-wat (Canatha), east of tlie Jordan.
The frequent use of the word Baal in the plural form, Baalim, e. (/. .Jud. 2:11; 10 : 1 0 ; 1 Kgs. 18 : 18 ; Jer. 9:14; Hos. 2:13, 17, proves probably that he was worshipped under his different modifications. Hence several compounds exist.
1. Ba'al-br'uith {covenant ford), the form of Baal worshipped by the Shechem-ites after Gideon's death. Jud. 8 : 33 ; 9:4.
2. Ba'al-PE'or (lord of the opening, an allusion to the character of the rites of worship), the form of Baal-wor-ghip in Moab and Midian shared in bj
the Israelites. Num. 25 : 3, 5, 18 ; Deut. 4:3; Josh. 22 : 17 ; Ps. 106 : 28; Hos. 9:10.
3. Ba'al-ze'bub (lord of the fly), the form of Baal worshipped at Ekron. 2 Kgs. 1: 2, 3, 6, 16.
Human victims were offered to Baal. Jer. 19 : 5. Elevated places were selected for his worship, and his priests and prophets were very numerous. Sometimes the tops of the houses were devoted to this purpose. 2 Kgs. 23 : 12 ; Jer. 32 : 29. See High Places.
The worship of Baal by the ancient Druids was probably general throughout the British Islands. One of the Druidic yearly festivals and deemed of special importance took place in the beginning of May, which was the first month- of their year, and called Be'el-tin, or " fire of God." A large fire was kindled on some elevated spot in honor of the sun, whose returning beneficence they thus welcomed after the gloom of winter. Of this custom a trace remains in '* Beltin Day" (or Whitsunday) in many of the Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. In the Lowlands the same name was retained till a comparatively recent date.
House op Ba'al. 1 Kgs. 16 : 32. Is the same with the temple (or place of worship) of Baal. See particularly 2
1. A Reubenite.
Kgs. 10 : 21-28. BA'AL {lord).
1 Chr. 5:5.
2. A Benjamite, a relative of Saul. 1 Chr. 8 : 30 • 9 : 36.
BA'AL {lord, or master), a city of Simeon, 1 Chr. 4 : 33 ; called also Bea-loth, Baalath-Beer. Knobel and Wilton locate it at Kttrnab ; Conder at Umni Ba(/hleh. " Baal " is also used as a prefix to the names of several places, given below.
BA'ALAH (mistress). name for Kiriath-jearim, 10, and for Baale of Judah, and for Kirjath-Baal in Judah. Josh. 15 : 60 ; 18 ; 14. See Kirjath-jearim.
2. A place in Judah, Josh. 15 : 29, the same as Balah, 19 : 3, and Bilhah, 1 Chr. 4 : 29 j now JJ^ir-d-Bdah, near Gaza,
1. Another Josh. 15 : 9, 2 Sam. 6 : 2,
BAA
BAA
3. Ba'alah, Mount. Josh. 16 : 11. Either the same as No. 1, or possibly a mountain in the north-western part of Judah.
BA'ALiATH, a town in Dan, Josh. 19 :4-1; probably the same that was fortified by Solomon. 1 Kgs. 9:18; 2 Chr. 8: 6. Conder proposes to identify it with the ruin BeVain, in Wady Deir Ballot; Canon Cook suggests it may be near Mount Baalah, or modern Yebna.
BA'ALATH-BE'ER [lord of the well). Josh. 19 : 8. See Bealoth.
BAALBECS OR BAALBEK {h'dl'bek), a magnificent city of Coele-Syria, and called by the Greeks Heli-opolis, or " city of the Sun." It is situated in a plain near the foot of the Anti-Libanus range, about 42 miles north-west of Damascus and 3800 feet above the level of the sea. Its origin and early history are unknown. It is now famous for its colossal ruins, con-
sisting chiefly of two magnificent temples. The lesser of the two was 225 feet in length by 120 feet in breadth; it was surrounded by rows of immense columns, 45 feet high, standing about 9 feet from the temple walls, the distance between the columns being from 8 to 12 feet. Robinson counted 19 of these columns still in place in 1852. The larger temple, that of the Sun, was an immense structure, 324 feet long, and was surrounded by a peristyle of 54 vast Corintliian columns, about 7 feet in diameter, and, including capital and pedestal, 89 feet high. Over these Corinthian capitals the temple was bordered with a frieze. The temples were constructed of limestone or marble and granite. Some of the stones used in them are 64 feet long and 12 feet thick. The temjjle of the Sun was built by Antoninus Pius, about A. D. 150.
Baalbec has been identified by some
Columns of Great Temple.
Ruins of Baalbec.
with Baal-gad, Josh. 11 : 17 ; 12 : 7 ; 13 : 5 ; by others with Bnalath or Baal-ha-mon, but these identifications are uncertain, and the last is very improbable.
BA'ALE OF JUDAH, a name of Kirjath-ienrim. See Baalah. 1.
BA'AIi-GAD {troop of Baal), the northern limit of Joshua's conquests,
Temple of the Sun. (From Photographs.) Josh. 11: 17 : 12 : 7 ; 13 : 5 : probably the modern 7?a«i'a.9 (Csesarea-Philippi, Matt. 16 : 13), though some suppose it to be the famous Baalbec.
BA'AL-HA'MON {imdtitnde of Baal). Cant. 8:11. The place can only be conjectured ; some identify it with Baalbec, others with Balamon, in the
BAA
BAB
mountains of Ephraim, north of Samaria.
BA'AL-HA'ZOR {Baal's villaue),
where Absalom killed Amnon. 2 Sam. 13 • 23
BA'AL-HER'MON, Jud. 3:3; 1 Chr. 5 : 23 ; one of the three peaks of Mt. Hermon, or perhaps Suheibeh.
BA'ALI {my lord) occurs in Hos. 2:16, The verse retranslated reads: "Thou shalt call me My husband, and shalt no more call me My Baal." Baali is used in a twofold sense: first, My Baal, the name of the principal god of the Ca-naanites ; and second, My lord, a usual name for husband. The idea of the verse is that so wholly devoted to Jehovah shall Israel be that she will not apply to him even a word which suggests the former idolatry.
BA'ALIM, the plural form of Baal, which see.
BA'AJjIS {son of exaltation), a king of the Ammonites. Jer. 40: 14.
BA'AL-ME'OBT, a town built by the Reubenites, Num. 32 : 38 ; 1 Chr. 5:8; "a glory" of the Moabites, Eze. 25 : 9 ; called also Beth-baal-meon, Josh. 13 : 17, Beth-meon, Jer. 48 : 23, and perhaps Beon, Num. 32:3; now called Ma'in, 9 miles south-west of Has-han, where extensive ruins are still found.
BA'AL-PER'AZIM {lord of defeats), a place in the valley of Rephaim, 2 Sam. 5:20; 1 Chr. 14:11; same as Mount Perazim, near the valley of Gib-eon. Isa, 28:21.
BA'AL-SHAL'ISHA. 2 Kgs. 4: 42. The English Survey proposed to identify it with Sirisia, 13 miles north of Lydda. Conder favors Kefr Thilth.
BA'AL-TA'MAR {lord of palm trees), a place near Gibeah, Jud. 20: 33; possibly the same as the palm tree of Deborah, Jud. 4 : 5, and known later as Beth-tamar.
BA'AL-ZE'PHON. Ex. 14:2; Num. 33 : 7. A place near the head, or on the western shore, of the Gulf of Suez where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. Dr. Ebers identifies it with Mount Atakah, near Suez; Dr. Brugsch, with less probability, proposes Mount Casi-us, on the Mediterranean, as the site of Baal-zephon. It was south of Migdol and west of Suez.
BA'ANA, OR BA'ANAH (sou of 90
affliction). 1. One of the sons of Rim-mon, and an officer in the army of Ish-bosheth, Saul's son. In company with his brother Rechab, he entered the house of Ish-bosheth at noonday and stabbed him as he was lying upon the bed. Taking the head of their victim with them, they fled to David at Hebron, supposing that he would reward them liberally, but, so far from it, he, indignant at their cruel and cowardly conduct, caused them to be slain, their hands and feet to be cut oflF, and their bodies to be publicly suspended over the pool at Hebron. 2 Sam. 4 : 2, 5, 6, 9.
2, The father of one of David's warriors. 2 Sam. 23 : 29 ; 1 Chr. 11: 30.
3, 4. Two of Solomon's ofiicers for provision. 1 Kgs. 4 : 12, 16.
5. One of Zerubbabel's company on the Return. Ezr. 2:2; Neh. 7 : 7.
6. The father of a repairer of the wall of Jerusalem. Neh. 3 : 4. Probably also mentioned in 10 : 27 as sealing the covenant.
BA'ARA {brutish), a wife of Sha-haraim. a Benjamite. 1 Chr. 8 : 8.
BAASE'IAH {loork of Jehovah), a Gershouite Levite, and an ancestor of the psalmist Asaph. 1 Chr. 6 : 40,
BA'ASHA {valor), son of Ahijah, of the tribe of Issachar, third king of Israel, and founder of a dynasty, was probably of common birth, 1 Kgs. 16: 2, but rose to the throne by his slaughter of Nadab, king of Israel, and all his family while the king was besieging Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines. 1 Kgs. 15 : 27. By this cruel act he undesignedly fulfilled the prophecy respecting Jeroboam's posterity. 1 Kgs. 14 : 10. He followed in the wicked ways of Jeroboam, and was visited with the most fearful judgments of God. The warning he received of the consequences of his conduct, 1 Kgs. 16 : 1-5, did not induce him to forsake his evil courses. He attempted to fortify Ramah, but was stopped by the attack of Ben-hadad at Asa's prompting, 1 Kgs. 15 : 16-21; 2 Chr. 16 : 1-6. He reigned twenty-four years, b. c. 953-930. His reign was filled with war and treachery, and his family and relatives were cut off according to the prediction. 1 Kgs. 16: 3-11. SeeAsA.
BARBEL {confusion), a city found-
BAB
BAB
ed by Nimrod as the beginning of his kingdom, Gen. 10 : 10; built on the phiin of Shinar. See Babylon.
BABEL, TOWER OF, named only once in the Bible, and then as incomplete. Gen. 11: 4, 5. It was built in the plain of 8hinar, of burnt bricks, with "slime" (probably bitumen) for
Birs Nimrfld Reconstructed. (After Layard.) mortar. Jewish traditions and early profane writers say that the tower was destroyed. The captive Jews at Babylon imagined they recognized it, however, in the famous temple of Be-lus, which some would identify with the temple of Nebo at Borsippa, the modern Birs Nimrud. Rawlinson thinks that Birs Nimrud cannot be identical with either the temple of Belus or the tower of Babel, but concedes that it may be used to show the probable form of the Babel tower. The Birs Nimrud is one of the most striking ruins on the plain, and is 6 miles southwest of Hillah, on the Euphrates. This immense mound is about 2300 feet in circumference and 235 to 250 feet high, and was built of burnt bricks, each brick being 12 inches square and 4 inches thick. Several of them bear an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar. The tower is represented as in the form of a pyramid, built in seven receding stories, each placed upon the south-western side of the one below, and each of the first three being
26 feet high, each of the last four being 15 feet high. On the seventh story was a temple or ark, perhaps with a statue of the god Belus.
George Smith, the Assyriologist (and the Eticyv.lojiivdia Britannica, vol. iii. p. 155, ninth edition, adopts Smith's view), says, '* The Birs Nimrud is most probably the tower of Babel of the book of Genesis." Mr. Smith describes another ruin called Bahil or MvjeKibd as the one which in his view covers the site of the temple of Belus, and the great tower of Babylon (not Babel). Birs Ni))irud seems to have been a temple dedicated to the heavenly bodies, and the inscriptions on cylinders found there record that Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the edifice after it had been left unfinished by others. Further excavations may solve these unsettled questions. See Rawlinson's Herodotus, and George Smith's Assyrian Discoveries, 1875.
BAB'YLON (Greekform of ^afteO. the noted capital of the Chaldaean and.
Plan of Babylon,
showing the largest extent, as given by Herodotus, and the smaller, quoted by
Ctesias, with the ruins according to Oppcrt.
Babylonian empires, situated on both sides of the Euphrates river, about 200 miles above its junction with the Tigris,
BAB
BAB
300 miles from the Persian Grulf, and
about 60 miles south-west from the modern city of Bagdad. The valley is broad, and the Euphrates is now about 600 feet wide and 18 feet deep at this place.
Extent of the City. —It was the largest known ancient city in extent. According to Hei'odotus, the city was a vast square on both sides of the Euphrates, enclosed by a double line of walls, about 56 miles in circuit and including about 200 square miles. Ctesias and others make the circuit about 42 miles, enclosing about 106 square miles. The walls, according to Herodotus, were about 335 feet high and 75 feet broad. Ctesias, quoted by Diodorus, states that they were 200 feet high and built by 2,000,000 men. Later writers, regarding these measurements as incredible, give the circuit of the walls at about 40 miles, their height at 75 to 190 feet, and their width at 32 feet, or wide enough to allow two chariots to pass each other on the top. M. Oppert and Rawlin-son as explorers hold that the ruins warrant the statement of Herodotus as to the extent of Babylon. Its size—if 200 square miles—largely exceeded that of any modern city. The area of London is 122 square miles ; Paris, 30 : Pekin, 50; New York (1873), 42; and Philadelphia, 129 square miles. The wall of Babylon was surmounted by 250 towers, and it had 100 gates of brass. Jer. 51: 68 ; Isa. 45 : 2.
Streets and Buildings. —Babylon is described as cut into squares—some say 676—by straight streets crossing each other at right angles, those at the river being closed by brazen gates, as the banks of the river were fortified by high walls; the river was crossed by drawbridges and lined with quays; the two palaces on opposite sides of the river were connected by a bridge, and also by a tunnel under the river. Among the wonderful buildings were, (1.) Nebn-2hadnezznr's Palace, an immense pile of buildings, believed to be nearly 6 miles in circumference. (2.) The Hanging-Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the world, built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his queen, Amytis, who longed for her native mountains. These gardens were 75 feet high and covered 3^ acres, enclosed in an ai'ea of larger ex-92
tent, some say 1000 feet on each side. Upon this mountain was soil of depth to support the largest trees, and water was drawn up from the river by means of a screw. (3). The Temple of Bel us, a vast pyramid or tower, 600 feet square, having eight stages, or stories, and according to Rawlinson 480 feet high, with a winding ascent passing around it, and a chapel of a god at the top.
Scripture History. —Babylon is named over 250 times in the Bible. It was founded by Nimrod, Gen. 10: 10 ; its builders dispersed, Gen. 11 : 9. Then, except some allusion to Shinar, Gen. 14 : 1, the Chaldaeans, Job 1: 17, and the Babylonish garment, Josh. 7:21, it drops out of Scripture history until the era of the Captivity. It was often subject to Assyria, 2 Chr. 33 : 11, and was the residence of at least one Assyrian king. After the fall of Nineveh, b. c. 625, it became an independent kingdom, and under Nebuchadnezzar was enlarged, beautified, and reached the height of its magnificence. See Isa. 13:19; 14:4; 47:5; Jer. 51 : 41, where it is called " the glory of kingdoms," " the golden city," " the praise of the whole earth," etc. It was the home of the chief of the captive Jews, Dan.l: 1-4, and was taken by the army of Cyrus under Darius, Dan. 5. Its desolation was frequently foretold. Isa. 13 : 4-22 ; Jer. 25: 12 ; 50': 2, 3; 51; Dan. 2 : 31-38 ; Hab. 1 : 5-10. It was taken by Alexander the Great, who died there. It gradually became a complete ruin, fulfilling the prophecy, Babylon " shall never be inhabited, . . . wild beasts of the deserts shall lie there."
Buiiis. —Though for centuries Babylon has been the soui-ce of building-material for the towns of all the adjacent region, yet the ruins are very extensive, covering, according to Oppert, 200 square miles. Among them are, (1.) The Ba-bil or Mujelliha, 600 feet square and 140 feet high, probably the site of the ancient temple of Belus. The mound is mainly built of sun-dried brick and filled with burnt brick, the latter bearing the name of Nebuchadnezzar. (2.) The Kasr, or Nebuchadnezzar's palace, south of Bahil, about 2100 feet long by 1800 feet broad, and 70 feet high. It is composed of bricks, tiles, and fragments of stone. Some of the bricks are glazed ; others resemble fire-
BAB
BAB
brick, and bear the name of Nebuchadnezzar. (3.) The Amram, a hirge mound, possibly the ruins of the fa-
Sculptured Lion over a Prostrate Man. {Discovered in the niins of Babylon by Rich.)
mous hanging - gardens, though more probably a palace of the earlier kings. See Rawlinson's Five Ancient Monarchies, 1870, ii. 532. (4.) Birs Nimrud, 6 miles south-west of Hillah, at ancient Borsippa, and by many regarded as covering the tower of Babel. See Babel.
Many corroborations of Scripture have
Birs Nimrud. {After PLumptre's '^Biblical Educator
been furnished by the Assyrian tablets I deciphered by Oriental scholars. Near |
the hanging-gardens a sculptured lion standing over a man with outstretched arms may illustrate the mode of punishment to which Daniel was condemned. Dan. 6:16.
George Smith, after a careful exploration, quite decidedly dissents from historians and other explorers in ascribing so great an extent to Babylon. In his opinion, there is no ground in the inscriptions or ruins for making Babylon over about 8 miles in circuit, or nearly the same size as its sister-city, Nineveli. He regards its shape as a square with one corner cut off. At the north was the temple of Belus, now the mound lia-hil; about the centre of the city were the palace and hanging-gardens, botli now rej)resented, in his view, by the mound Kasr, as he places the gardens between the palace and the river. George Smith concludes that the few pits and tunnels made in the ruins are acknowledged to be insufficient to decide any of the questions as to sites, which can only be done by satisfactory excavations, and hence that the "recov-er}' of Babylon is yet to be accomplished." Asuyrian Discoveries, 1875, pp. 55-59.—The modern town of Hillah now occupies a portion of the space covered by the ruins of ancient Babylon, and a telegraph connects it with the city of Bagdad. See Chald^.a, Assyria.
BAB'YLON, in Rev. 14 : 8 : 16 : 19 ; 17 : 5 ; 18 : 2, 21, is a symbolical name for heathen Rome, which took the place of ancient Babylon as a persecuting power. This is also the sense given to Babylon in 1 Pet. 5: 13 by the fathers and many commentators ; but others refer it to Babylon in Asia, since it is quite possible that Peter labored for a while in that city, where there was at that time a large Jewish colony ; still others maintain that Babylon in Egypt, now called 01 fl (\iiro. is meant.
BABYLON, PROVINCE
OR KINGDOM OF, the country
of which Babylon was the capital.
Dan. 2 : 1!) ; 3 ; 1, 12, 30 ; 4 : 29, Its
boundaries and history are involved
, in much obscurity. It was originally
known as the " land of Shinar " and
the '• land of Nimrod," Gen. 10 :10 ; Mic.
5:6. It was chiefly between the p]uphra-
BAB
BAB
tes and Tigris Rivers. Asshur or Assyria and Mesopotamia were on the north,Elam and Media on the east, Chaldsea on the south. As Chaldffia gained in power its name was applied to the whole country, including Babylon. See Chal-n^A. The early kingdom of Babylon is generally regarded as covering an extent of about 27,000 square miles, rich of soil and abundant in resources, the home of one of the earliest civilized nations. After the time of Nimrod, Babel or Babylon appears to be displaced in Scripture history by Chaldgea until the time of Joshua, Josh. 7 : 21 ; after this both again disappear until about the time of the Captivity. At the fall of Nineveh, b. c. 626, Babylonia speedily extended its sway over most of western Asia and Egypt, and under Nebuchadnezzar became a vast empire, lasting, however, less than a century, and fell before the Medians under Cyrus and Darius, b. c. 538, and soon after dropped out of history as a separate country.
General History. —Berosus gives a list of ten mythical kings, including Xisi-thrus, who ruled Babylonia before the Flood ; while the inscriptions so far discovered on the tablets and monuments give three mythical kings before the Flood, and four after it. From the inscriptions, long lists of kings during the historical period have also been deciphered. The earliest list of twelve kings in this period begins with Izdu-bar, who is identified with Nimrod by George Smith. To this list he adds from the inscriptions the names of six viceroys, six kings of Ur, five kings of Karrak, six of Erech and Larsa, five of Akkad, and four • Elamite kings ; and among the latter is Chedorlaomer of Gen. 14 : 1-17. Five native kings were contemporary with these Elamite kings, and twenty other kings ruled successively until the accession of an Assyrian dynasty in B. c. 1271. The last list given by George Smith from the inscriptions covers the period from b. c. 1150 to 539, and includes Sargon, B. c. 710, Mero-dach-baladan III., restored B. c. 705, Esarhaddon, who rebuilt Babylon, b. c. 681, Assurbanipal, b. c. 648, Nebuchadnezzar III., the Nebuchadnezzar of Scripture, B. c. 605, Amil-maruduk, the Evil-merodach of the Bible, b. c. 562, 94
and Bel-sar-uzar, the Belshazzar of the book of Daniel, and who reigned with his father until the fall of the Babylonian empire, B. c. 538. It is not certain how far back the records of Babylonia reach, but George Smith regards it as certain that they reach to the twenty-fourth century before Christ, and some scholars would stretch them nearly two thousand years beyond that early period. The civilization, literature, and government found in Babylonia two thousand years before the Christian era could not have sprung up in a day, but further explorations only can determine its age. Among the biblical cities named in the earliest inscriptions—those of Izdubar— are Babylon, Cuthah, and Erech, thus adding new light to the truth of Scripture history. See George Smith's Assyrian Discoveries, 1875, chap. 23.
The Babylonian Empire. —Upon the fall of Nineveh, b. c. 625, the Chaldaeans and Babylonians controlled all the southern and western portions of the former Assyrian empire. This Babylonian empire extended, therefore, over Susiana, Elam, Mesopotamia, Syria including Palestine and Phoenicia, Idu-mtea, northern Arabia, and lower Egypt. Among the important cities of the empire were Babylon, Borsippa, Sippara or Sepharvaim. Isa. 36 : 19, Cuthah, 2 Kgs. 17 : 24, Orchoe or Erech, in Babylonia ; and in the provinces, Susa, Car-chemish, Harran, Hamath, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon, Ashdod, Aske-lon, and Gaza. Of those in the provinces, Susa was of the first importance, and may be regarded as the second city of the empire. It had a royal palace, where the Babylonian kings spent a portion of their time, Dan. 8 : 2, doubtless during the heat of summer. The dominant people in the Babylonian empire were, according to Rawlinson and others, a mixed race, mainly descendants of the earlier Chaldaeans (who were chiefly Cushites), mixed with those of the later Assyrians, who were of the Semitic type. The Babylonians were celebrated for their wisdom and learning, Dan. 1:4; Jer. 50 : 35 ; Isa. 47 : 10, especially for their knowledge of astronomy. They were also a commercial, avaricious, and luxurious people, Hab. 2:9; Jer. 51 : 13 ; Isa. 47 : 8, though they were likewise valorous and war-
BAB
BAG
like. Their princes were proud and boastful. "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built ... by the might of mj power, and for the honor of my majesty?'' was the boastful speech of its greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar. Dan. 4: 30.
In architecture, sculpture, science, philosophy, astronomical and mathe-nuitical knowledge, and in learning the Babylonians made original investigations and discoveries not surpassed by any other ancient people. " To Babylonia," says (jr. Rawlinson, "far more than to Egypt, we owe the art and learning of the Greeks."— Five Ancient Monarchies, iii. 76.
In religion the Babylonians differed little from the early Chaldgeans. Their chief deities were Bel, Merodach, and Nebo. The names of these gods frequently apjjear in the names of noted princes, as Bel-shazzar, Nabo-polassar, Merodach - baladan, Evil - merodach^ Abed-nebo or -nego. Their gods were worshipped with great pomp and magnificence. The temples erected in honor of the gods and devoted to their worship were celebrated for their vastness, and for the massiveness and finish of their sculptures. Of the precise mode of their worship little is known. It was conducted by priests, through whom the worshippers made offerings, often of great value, and sacrifices of oxen and goats. Images of the gods were exhibited, probably on frames or sacred vehicles, and, as some suppose, were sometimes set up in a public place, as on the plain of Dura, Dan. 3:1; but late investigations indicate that the image there set up was a statue of Nebuchadnezzar. See on this text Canon Cook's Bible Commenfnri/, 1876. Some of the principal temples of their gods noted by Rawlinson were that of Bel at Babylon, another of the same god at Niffer, one of Beltis at Wnrha or Erech, one of the Sun-god at Sippara or Sepharvaim, and one of Nebo at Borsippa.
The empire began with the accession of Nabo-polassar, b. c. 625: was in its greatest prosperity during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, lasting forty-four years, to b. c. 561. See Nebttchadnkz-ZAR. Under the less able rulers who followed, the power of the empire declined, and it fell a comparatively easy
prey to the Medo-Persians under Cyrus, b. c. 538. See CHALByEA, Assyria, and Media. For sketch-map see Assyria, and also map at the end of this volume.
BABYLO'NIANS. Sec Babylox.
BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. See Captivity.
BABYLO'IVISH GAR'MENT, THE (literally, "garment of Shi-nar "), which Achan stole at the destruction of Jericho, JosL, 7 :21, is described by Josephus as " a royal mantle all woven with gold." But no accurate description is possible. Babylon was famous for the products of the loom.
BA'CA {weeping). The margin reads " mulberry trees." Ps. 84 : 6. It is generally supposed to refer to a valley near Jerusalem, though some later writers, as Robinson and Hackett, are inclined to regard it as not a proper name, but a figurative " valley of weeping."
BACH'RITES, the family of Becher the Ephraimite. Num. 26 : 35.
BADGERS'SKINS. Ex. 25:5; Eze. 16:10. The true badger is rare, if known, in Arabia. It is believed that the skins meant were those of such marine animals as the dolphin, dugong, and seal. Dr. Robinson writes : " The superior" (of the convent of Mount Sinai) "procured for me a pair of the sandals usually worn by the Bedouin of the peninsula, made of the thick skin of a fish which is caught in the Red Sea. . . . The skin is clumsy and coarse, and might answer very well for the external covering of the tabernacle which was constructed at Sinai, but would seem hardly a fitting material for the ornamental sandals belonging to the costly attire of high-born dames in Palestine described by the prophet Ezekiel." Tristram adds: "As the fachafih (badger) probably included also the seal, the sandals of the Jewish women may have been of that material, and so also may have been the covering of the tabernacle."
BAG, the English translation of several quite different words. When used in connection with money, it means the long cone-like receptacles in which coin was packed. 2 Kgs. 12: 10. These were made of various sizes, each to contain a precise amount of money. We read that the workmen on the temple
BAH
BAL
were paid in bags, which were probably delivered to them sealed. At this day in Eastern nations money passes in bags from hand to hand under the seal of a banker or other public officer, and without counting, as it is paid by one
Egyptian Money-bags. (After Wilkinson.)
to another. If the seal is genuine and unbroken, the exact value of each bag is known at sight. The shepherd's "bag" which David had was probably one in which the young lambs unable to walk were carried. The " bag" of Judas was probably a little box, John 12 : 6 ; 13 : 29.
BAHU'RIM {warriors), a place not far from Jerusalem, 2 Sam. 3 : 16 ; 16:5; 17:18; 1 Kgs. 2:8; probably east of Olivet, toward the Jordan.
BA'JITH {house). In Isa. 15 : 2 the Hebrew reads " the bajith" or ''the temple;" probably the temple of Che-mosh.
BAKBAK'KAR [destruction of the mount(tin), a Levite. 1 Chr. 9: 15.
BAK'BUK (a hottle). Among the Nethinim who returned with Zerubabbel are mentioned the children of Bakbuk. Ezr. 2:51 : Neh. 7:53.
BAKBUKI'AH {destruction from Jehovah), a Levite, Neh. 11: 17 ; 12: 9, 25.
Ar:iliiaii L;aUe-ij\ cii. { After Siebuhr.)
BAKE* The business of baking in early times was principally, if not 96
exclusively, the work of women. Lev, 26 : 26 ; 1 Sam. 8 : 13 ; 2 Sam. 13 : 8 ; Jer. 7 : 18. In Rome, as Pliny tells us, there was no such thing as a public baker for 580 years. It seems probable from Jer, 37 : 21 and Hos. 7:4-7 that public bakers were known in their day, and inhabited a particular section of the city of Jerusalem. See Bread, Oven.
BA'LAAM {glutton) was the son of Beor or Bosor, and a native of Pe-thor, a village of Mesopotamia. Num. 22: 5. He had a great reputation as a prophet or soothsayer, and appears to have been a worshipper of the one God, coming from the country of Abraham, where it is in every way probable that remnants of the primitive monotheism existed to his day. His history is given in Num. 22, 23, 24, and 31. So great was his fame that Balak, king of Moab, sent for him to curse Israel when they were encamped upon the plains of Moab; but he consulted God during the night, and the next morning refused, declaring the Lord had not given him leave. But Balak sent again, and Balaam at length obtained the desired permission to go, and went. It was on this journey that his ass spake. Num. 22 : 28. Arriving, he ordered Balak to build seven altars, and to offer a bullock and a ram on each. Then, proclaiming his intention of speaking only what God showed unto him, he twice went aside to watch for an augury. God met him each time and told him what to say, and on his return he uttered a blessing instead of the expected curse. The third time the sacrifices were offered, but Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel; so, without seeking an augury, he uttered these magnificent prophecies, in which Israel's complete supremacy is announced:
" How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob,
Thy tabei-nacles, O Israel!
As valleys are tliey spread forth.
As gardens by the river side.
As lign aloes which the Lord hath planted.
As cedar trees beside the waters.
He shall flow with water from his buckets,
And his seed shall be in many waters,
And his king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted.
God, he bringeth him forth out of Egypt;
He hath as it were the strength of a butfixlo;
He shall eat up the nations his adversaries.
And shall break their bones in pieces.
BAL
BAL
And smite them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, And as a lioness, who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee. And cursed is he that curseth thee."
Num. 24 :5-9.
And again
" There shall come forth a Star out of Jacob, And a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, And shall smite through the corneis of Moab, And break down all the sons of tumult."
Num. 24:17.
The prophecies of Balaam are justly regarded as some of the most remarkable in Scripture. But having won the anger of Balak by his course, and feeling himself cast out from the people of God by reason of his sinfulness, he became desperate, and endeavored to do as much immediate harm to Israel as he could, since he could in no wise injure her future. He therefore suggested that the Moabites destroy the purity of Israel by seducing the people into fornication while taking part in the worship of Baal. Num. 31 : 16; cf. 25:1-5. They did so; and the consequence was, a plague broke out among the Israelites and killed 24,000 of them. Num. 25 : 9. In a battle fought by Israel with the Midianites, Balaam was slain. Num. 31 : 8. The phrase "the doctrine of Balaam," used in Rev. 2: 14, refers to the above-mentioned sin.
BAL'AD AN (the name is part of a
sentence meaning " sent the son,"
the name of the god to be substituted), the father of Merodach-baladan, king of Babvlon. 2 Kgs. 20 : 12; Isa. 39 :1.
BA'LAH. Josh. 19 : 3. A shorter form of Baal ah.
BA'LiAK {spoiler), the king of Moab who hired Balaam to curse Israel. Num. 22-24 ; Josh. 24 : 9 ; Jud. 11: 25 ; Mic. 6:5; Rev. 2 : 14.
BAL'ANCES. Lev. 19 : 36. In the early periods of the world gold and silver were paid by weight, so that persons employed in traffic of any kind carried with them a pair of scales or balances and diiferent weights (generally stones of different sizes) in a pouch or bag. Dishonest men would carry two sorts of weights, the lighter to sell with, and the other to buy with. This explains the allusions Mic. 6:11; Hos. 12 : 7.
In pictures on monuments is represented a balance in which the scales are simply a pair of weights. There are 7
two bags of money which are to be equalized, one of which is a standard.
Egyptian Balancer weighing Rings of Goldi {After Wilkinson.)
The scribe stands by to register the result.
BALD'NESS, when voluntary, was a token of mourning and great distress, Isa. 3 : 24; Eze. 7 : 18, or else showed the conclusion of a Nazarite's vow. Num. 6 : 9. Natural baldness seems to have been uncommon. "Bald head" was a cry of contempt, 2 Kgs. 2 : 23, because it was generally caused by leprosy. Lev. 13 : 40-43. The people, and especially the priests, were forbidden to make themselves bald, since this was a heathen custom. Lev. 21: 5 ; Deut. 14: 1; Eze. 44:20.
BALM. Gen. 37 : 25. One of the articles of merchandise which the Ish-maelites (to whom .Joseph was sold) were carrying from Gilead to Egypt. It is worthy of remark that the particulars of this trading company or caravan, their character, course of travel and freight, though referring to a period 1700 years before the Christian era. correspond Avith wonderful accuracy to those of similar commercial expeditions across the desert at the present day.
The balm is supposed to be the production of the balm-of-Gilead tree {Bal-samodendron Gileadense), which grows about 12 or 14 feet high, with diverging branches. The resin which it produces is exceedingly odoriferous, and greatly esteemed in the East for its healing properties.
It was once an important article of merchandise among the Eastern nations. Eze. 27 : 17. Nothing can exceed the eloquence and tenderness of the language employed by the prophet Jeremiah to express his grief and disap-
BAM
BAN
pointment that the chosen people of God {the daughter of Zion) should remain spiritually wounded and diseased, when there was a healing Balm of unfailing virtue and a Physician of divine skill to administer it, and both within
Balm.
{Balsamodendron Gileadense. Dr. Birdwood.)
After
their reach. Jer. 8 : 22; 46 : 11 and 61:8.
BA'MAH (high place), the name applied to idolatrous places of worship. Eze. 20:29.
BA'MOTH (heights). See Bamoth-
BAAL.
BA'MOTH-BA'AL {heights of Baal), a place in Moab given to Reuben, Josh. 13 : 17. Conder suggests- el MaslUMyeh, 5 miles south of j^febo. 98
BAND. A band of Roman soldiers consisted of the tenth part of a legion, called a "cohort;" it varied, according to the size of the legion, from 400 to 600 soldiers. Matt. 27:27; Acts 21: 31, and elsewhere.
BA'NI {built). 1. A Gadite, one of David's warriors. 2 Sam. 23 : 36.
2. A Judite. 1 Chr. 9 : 4.
3. -The names of seven others, mostly Levites. IChr. 6:46; Ezr. 2:10; 10: 29, 34, 38; Neh. 3 : 17; 8:7; 9:4; 10:14; 11: 22.
BANISHMENT. See Punishment.
BANK. See Moneychanger.
BANNER, EN'-SIGN, STAND'ARD are translations of words used indiscriminately by the sacred writers. A standard pertained to each of the four grand divisions of the host of Israel, Num. 1 : 52, distinguished from the others by colors and by an emblematic device. Thus, according to the rabbins, the device of Judah was a lion ; that of Reuben Was a man; that of Ephraim, an ox; of Dan, an eagle. Another standard for subdivisions, denoted by another word, was probably nothing more than a common spear richly burnished or orna-(BalsamMonO^^^^^^^^ mented. The Egyptian
princes used a standard like this, surmounted with a ball of gold. There was another standard in use among the Jews, which is called a beacon. Isa. 30 : 17. It was stationary, erected on lofty mountains, and used as a rallying-token. Comp. Isa. 18 : 3 ; 62 : 10 ; Jer. 4:6, 21 ; 6:1; 51 : 12, 27. None of these standards were flags.
Some writers have supposed that the ancient Jewish ensign was a long pole, on the top of which was a grate not un-
Balm.
BAN
BAP
like a chaffing-dish, made of iron bars and supplied with fire, the size, height, and shape of which denoted the party or company to whom it belonged. This seems rather to describe the night-torches of Eastern encampments. The shape, etc., of the Roman standards are seen under the article Abomination.
BAN'QUET. See Feast.
BAP'^TISM, an ordinance or religious rite which was in use before Christ's ministry began, but which he recognized, and which was continued by his disciples as a Christian ordinance. Matt. 28 : 19, 20 ; Mark 16 : 16. On the due administration of this rite, the use of water in the name of the Holy Trinity becomes the sign or emblem of inward purification from sin and un-cleanness, while the subject of the rite is introduced into a peculiar relation to Christ and his Church. Baptism is in the N. T. what circumcision was in the Old—a sign and seal of the covenant of grace whereby God promises forgiveness of sin and salvation, and man vows obedience and devotion to his service. See Acts 2 : 41; Rom. 6 : 3, 4; Gal. 3 : 27 J 1 Pet. 3 : 21. It was first administered on the day of Pentecost. Christ himself did not baptize, John 4:2, and the apostles received instead the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, Acts 2. In the case of Cornelius regeneration preceded water-baptism, Acts 10 : 44-48 ; while, on the other hand, in the case of Simon Magus, water-baptism was not accompanied or followed by regeneration. Acts 8 : 13, 21-23. Nevertheless, God is true though men should abuse his gifts and turn his blessing into a curse. The controversy between Baptists and Paedobaptists refers to the subjects and to the mode of baptism. The former hold that adult believers only are to be baptized, and that immersion is the only valid mode of baptism; the latter maintain that children of believing parents may and ought to be baptized, and that baptism may be administered by sprinkling and pouring as well as by immersion.
Baptism with the Holy Ghost and WITH Fire. Matt. 3:11: Luke 3: 16.— The phrase is figurative, and refers to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers, as on the day of Pen-
tecost especially, but often since in the history of the Church.
Baptism of John the Baptist. — John was a preacher of righteousness; his baptism was significant of the inward cleansing which followed repentance, and was introductory to the higher baptism instituted by Christ. John said to his disciples, " I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Matt. 3 : 11. He demanded faith in the Messiah, sorrow for sin, and trust in God, as prerequisites for the administration of the rite, which, however, differed from Christian baptism in that it implied no belief in the Trinity, nor was it followed by the gift of the Holy Ghost. Those who had received John's baptism were rebaptized. See Acts 19 : 1-6 ; cf. Matt. 3 ; Acts 18 : 25, 26.
Baptism for the Dead. —There is only one allusion to this practice in the N. T., in 1 Cor. 15 : 29 : " What shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead ?" Paul evidently speaks of a well-known cei'emony. Various interpretations have been put upon the phrase. It is simplest to say with Meyer, Paul refers to the belief that a living Christian could be baptized for a dead Christian who was unbap-tized, and the latter would in consequence be accounted baptized and have part in the eternal joys. This custom, abandoned by the Church—a proof that it was condemned by the leaders— was kept up among heretics, such as the Cerinthians and Marcionites, and is practised at the present day by the Mormons in Utah. Chrysostom tells us that when an unbaptized catechumen died, a living man was put under the bed on which the dead body lay. The priest then asked the dead man if he desired baptism. The living man answered in the affirmative, and was baptized in place of the dead. The practice, of course, was superstitious, and Paul merely uses it in argument, but does not approve of it. Indeed, his use of the third person shows that the notion of the para-
BAR
BAR
mount importance of baptism which led to the custom was condemned by him.
Other interpretations of the phrase have been given. Thus, " If the dead rise not, then baptism could have no authority and no use, because then Christ did not rise." Again, " Baptized when death is close at hand." " Over the graves of the martyrs." '' If there be no resurrection, why art thou then baptized for the dead— i. e. for the dead bodies ? For in this faith thou art baptized, believing in the resurrection of the dead."
BARAB'BAS («o« of Abba), a noted criminal at Jerusalem who was in confinement for sedition and murder when Christ was condemned. Matt. 27 : 16. It was the custom of the Romans to release some one prisoner at the time of the Jewish Passover. The Jews were permitted to name any one whose release they desired ; and when the choice lay between Barabbas and Christ, they chose the robber. Matt. 27:21; Mark 15: 6-11; Luke 23 : 18 ; John 18:40; Acts 3: U. Pilate was anxious to save Christ, but at last released Barabbas.
The custom is said to have prevailed among the Venetians as lately as the close of the eighteenth centui-y to release a prisoner at the annual commemoration of our Saviour's resurrection.
BAR'ACHEIi {wJwm God hath blessed), the father of Elihu. Job 32 : 2 6.
BARACHI'AH (whom Jehovah hath blessed), in the N. T. form, Ba-rachaias. Zech. 1:7; Matt. 23 : 35. See Berechiah.
BA'RAK (lightning) was the son of Abinoam, and was distinguished for his share in the conquest of Sisera and the deliverance of Israel from long and severe oppression. A history of the transaction and a copy of their sublime triumphal song are given in Jud. 4 and 5. Barak's date cannot be determined, but probably he was a contemporary of Shamgar. See Deborah.
B ARBA'RIAN. This term is used to denote any one who was not a Greek. In its scriptural use it does not import any rudeness or savageness of nature or manners. Acts 28 : 2, 4 and Rom. 1: 14. 100
BARHU'MITE. 2 Sam. 23 : 31. See Bahurim.
BARI'AH ( fugitive), one of David's posterity, i Chr. 3 : 22.
BAR-JE'SUS was a magician who resided with Sergius Paulus at Paphos, on the isle of Cyprus, when Paul and Barnabas were there. Acts 13 : 6. He is also known by his Arabic designation Elymas the Sage. Sergius Paulus was an officer of high rank under the Roman government, and was anxious to receive religious instruction from the two missionaries. But Bar-jesus, seeing that his occupation and influence would cease wherever the light of the gospel should come, opposed himself to Paul and Barnabas, and tried to dissuade Paulus from giving heed to their preaching. Paul gave him a most severe reproof, immediately after which the wicked man was struck with temporary blindness as a rebuke from God. See Sergius Paulus.
BAR-JO'NA. Matt. 16 : 17. See
BAR'KOS (jMinter), the father of some of the returning Nethinim. Ezr. 2 : 53 ; Neh. 7 : 55.
BARXEY. Ex. 9:31. A well-known species of grain used for bread, Jud. 7:13; John 6:9-13, and also as food for horses and dromedaries. 1 Kgs. 4 : 28. Barley-harvest, Ruth 1: 22, usually comes in April—earlier at Jericho, later on the hills. It precedes wheat-harvest about three weeks in Palestine and a month in Egypt. As human food barley was held in low estimation, which adds significance to the connection between Gideon and the barley-cake in the dream which the man told " his fellow." Jud. 7 : 13. " If the Midianites were accustomed in their extemporaneous songs to call Gideon and his band ' eaters vf barley bread,' as their successors, the haughty Bedouins, often do to ridicule their enemies, the application would be all the more natural."— Thomson. The same fact adds force to Eze. 13 : 19, and elucidates Hos. 3 • 2 and Num. 5 : 15.
BAR'NABAS [son of consolation), a Levite of the island of Cyprus, and an early convert to the Christian faith. Acts 4 : 36. His original name was Joses, but he derived his usual title
BAR
BAS
from his remarkable powers of exhorting the people and ministering consolation to the afflicted. Barnabas was one of those who gave up all their worldly substance and all their strength and influence to the support and spread of the gospel. He introduced Paul to the disciples on the latter's visit to Jerusalem, three years after his conversion. Acts 9 : 27. Afterward he brought Paul from Tarsus to Antioch, and they labored for two years together with great success. Acts 11: 25, 26. They attended together the council of Jerusalem. Acts 15 : 22 ; Gal. 2 : 1. Afterward they separated, and Barnabas went on an independent missionary-tour with Mark. Acts 15. Some ascribe to him the Epistle to the Hebrews. We have under his name an epistle, which, however, is of doubtful genuineness.
BAR'SABAS {son of Saba), the name of two men.
1. Joseph Barsabas, surnamed Justus, was one of the two candidates for the vacancy in the apostleship occasioned by the apostasy of Judas. Acts 1 : 23. Some identify him with Joses Barnabas, the companion of Paul. See preceding article.
2. Judas Barsabas. Acts 15 : 22. He was appointed to accompany Paul and Barnabas from Jerusalem to Antioch on an important embassy. He is called one of *'the chief among the brethren," but is otherwise unknown. Some commentators infer from the surname that he was a brother of Joseph Barsabas,
BARTHOLOMEW [son of Tol-mai) is supposed to be the same person who is elsewhere called Nathanael. This conjecture rests in part upon the fact that Philip and Nathanael are associated together by John, and in the parallel ])assages of the other evangelists Philip and Bartholomew are associated ; and further, that Bartholomew is not mentioned in John's list of the twelve, nor is Nathanael in the list of the other evangelists. It is therefore in every way likely that he bore two names, as so many others did. We know nothing of his history save the fact of his conversion, John 1: 45-51, and his presence on the Lake of Tiberias when the risen Lord appeared to him and other disciples. John 21:2.
BABTIME'US (sou of Timeus), a
son of Timeus, who was instantly cured of blindness by our Saviour in the vi-cinitv of Jericho. Mark 10 : 46.
BA'RUCH (blessed). 1. The secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, was of a distinguished Jewish family. Jcr. 32 : 12. His friendship for Jeremiah was strong and constant. At his dictation Baruch wrote his prophecies. These he read before the princes, who rehearsed them to Jehoiakim, the king, having previously deposited the writing in one of the offices of the temple. The king ordered the writing to be read in his presence, and he became so much exasperated that he destroyed the manuscripts and gave orders to arrest both the prophet and his secretary, but they had concealed themselves. Jehovah, however, repeated the prophecies to Jeremiah, with some additions, and a second time did Baruch write them down. Baruch was falsely accused of influencing Jeremiah in favor of the Chalda:;ans, and they were both imprisoned until the capture of Jerusalem, B. c. 586. They were afterward forced to go down to Egypt. Jer. 43 : 6, 7.
2. The name of three other persons, otherwise unknown. Neh. 3:20; 10 : 6; 11 : 5.
BARUCH, BOOK OF. One of the Apocrypha of the 0. T., of uncertain date and authorship. See Jeremie, Epistle of.
BARZIL'LiAI (of iron, i. e. strong) was a wealthy Gileadite, and a fast friend of David when he was in exile on account of Absalom's revolt. 2 Sam. 17 : 27. After the rebellion had been suppressed, Barzillai, on account of age, and probably also from natural and proper pride, declined David's offer to be a resident of the court, but proposed his son Chimham should go instead. 2 Sam. 19 : 31-40. David, in his final charge to Solomon, enjoined it upon him to show kindness to Barzillai's family, and even to make them members of the royal household. IKgs. 2:7.
2. The Meholathite, father-in-law of Michal, Saul's daughter. 2 Sam. 21:8.
3. The husband of a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite, whose descendants returned from Babylon, but in vain sought admittance to the priesthood. Ezr. 2:61; Neh. 7 : 63, 64.
BA'SHAN {liyht soil), a district
BAS
BAS
reaching from Hermon to Gilead at the river Arnon, and from the Jordan valley eastward to Salcah. It is referred to about 60 times in the Bible.
Physical Features. — There are two ranges of mountains, one along the Jord.an valley, about 3000 feet high, another irregular range on the east side of Bashan ; between them are plains or undulating table-land watered by springs. The rock of basalt on the west is broken into deep chasms and jagged projections ; the hills are covered with oak-forests, as in former times. Isa. 2:13; Eze. 27 : 6 ; Zech. 11 : 2. The plain of the Jaulan (Golan of Scripture) is a vast field of powdered lava and basalt, a fertile pasture to this day. The north-eastern portion of Bashan, including the Argob of Scripture, is a wild mass of basaltic rock, 22 miles long by 14 wide, resembling a " Cyclopean wall in ruins." Fissures and chasms cut it like a network and it abounds in caves, yet has much fertile land. The centre of Bashan was mostly a fertile plain, and was regarded as the richest in Syria.
History. —Its early people were the giants Rephaim. Gen. 14 : 5. Og, its king, was defeated and slain by Israel^ Num. 21 : 33 ; 32 : 33, and the' country divided ; its pastures, cattle, sheep, oaks, and forests were famous. Deut. 32 : 14 ; Ps.22:12; Isa. 2: 13; Jer. 50 : 19; Eze. 39 : 18. After the Captivity it was divided into four provinces : (1) Gaulanitis, or modern Jaulan ; (2) Argob, or Trach-onitis, now Lejah : (3) Auranitis, now Haurau, ; (4) Batansea. Iturtea was not strictly a part of Bashan, though taken by Israel. Under the Roman rule the division was but slightly changed. The country is now nominally under Turkish rule, but is really held by tribes of Arabs, dangerous, warlike, and unsubdued.
Ruins. —Bashan is almost literally crowded with cities and villages, now deserted and in ruins, corroborating the account in Scripture. Josh. 13 : 30. There are four classes of dwellings : (1) the natural cavern fitted up for residence. (2) Long tunnels descending obliquely, sometimes 150 feet, at thebdt-tom of which run out a number of passages or underground streets, 16 to 23 feet wide, lined on either side by sub-102
terranean dwellings furnished with airholes in the ceilings, each generally having only one outlet, and that in a rocky, precipitous slope. (3) Dwellings cut in the rock and covered over with stone vaulting; not all of these, however, belong to early biblical times. Deut. 3 : 4-13. (4) The villages in the Hau-ran consist chiefly of dwellings built of handsome well-hewn stone, closely jointed without cement. Wood was nowhere used. The gates, doors, and window-shutters are of stone, turning on stone hinges; the roofs are also of stone, resting on supports and arches of the same material. Some of the gateways are ornamented with sculptured vines and bear numerous inscriptions yet undeciphered, while within are stone cupboards, benches, and candlesticks. Many of these dwellings belong to an age since the beginning of the Christian era, but, though deserted for centuries, seem almost as if the occupants had gone out only for a few hours. Porter's views on their antiquity are not accepted. Among its cities mentioned in Scripture are Golan, Ash-
TEROTH KaRNAIM, EdREI, SaLCAH, KeR-
lOTH, and BozRAH. See these titles, and Porter's Giant Cities (1865-6), Merrill's East of Jordan (1881), and Baedeker's Handbook of Syria and Palestine (1876).
BA SHAN - HA'VOTH- JA'IR (Bashan of the villages of Jair), the country of Argob, in Bashan, Deut. 3: 14, containing 60 great cities, and called Havoth-jair. Num. 32 : 41.
BASiH'EMATH (pleasing), one of Esau's wives. Gen. 26 : 34 ; 36 : d, 10, 13, 17.
Assyrian Basins. {British 3Iuseum.)
BA'SIN* It is impossible at tbig day
BAS
BAT
to tell wherein the basins, bowls, and cups so often mentioned together exactly differed, but the basins were probably small. " The ' basin ' from which Jesus washed his disciples' feet was probably larger and deeper than the hand-basin for sprinkling." John 13:5.
BAS^KET. The word is the uniform term by which several picturesque Hebrew terms are translated. The context will generally enable us to decide not only on the probable size of the " basket," but also on its material. Thus, that mentioned in Jud. 6 : 19 must have been of metal, while that in which Paul was let down from the wall at Damascus was of rope. 2 Cor. 11 : 33. Wicker was, however, probably the usual material. They were of all shapes, sizes, and for all purposes. The fact is unfortunately concealed in our version
Egyptian Baskets. {After Wilkinson.) that the word for " basket" in the account of the miracle of feeding the five thousand. Matt. 14 : 20 ; 16:9; Mark 6: 43 ; Luke 9:17; John 6 : 13, is entirely different from that similarly translated in the miracle of feeding the four thousand. Matt. 15 : 37 ; Mark 8 : 8—an indirect but striking proof that there were two miracles. It is not, however, possible to tell wherein the difference consisted.
BAS'MATH {pleasing), same name as Bashemath. A daughter of Solomon, and wife of Ahimaaz, one of his oflScers. 1 Kgs. 4:15.
BAS'TARD. Deut. 23 : 2 forbids for ever the entrance of a bastard into the congregation—/. e, " from intermarrying with pure Hebrews." But since concubinage was tolerated, the term evidently does not apply to one born out of wedlock. "The Rabbins, therefore, are probably right when they interpret the word as denoting only those born of incest or adultery." See Concubine.
BAT. Lev. 11: 19. An unclean beast whose resting-places are caves, old ruins,
and filthy and desolate places. Hence the allusion Isa. 2 : 20. It has no resemblance to a bird except that it can fly, but the organs it uses for this purpose are altogether different from those of a bird.
BATH. See Measttres. BATH, BATHING. In Eastern lands bathing is a necessity as well as a luxury. It is characteristic of the Mosaic cultus that it enjoins such frequent washings ; e. rj. Lev. 14 : 8 ; 15 : 5 : 17 : 15. The high priest on the day of atonement must pay particular attention to this regulation. 16 : 4, 24. The Jews bathed in running water or in pools in courts. It was not until their subjection to Greece and Rome that public baths were known. Then came in also the luxurious bathing-customs of those peoples.
BATH'-KOL (daughter, voice). See Prophecy.
B ATH'-RAB'BIM (daughter of many), a gate of Heshbon, near which were pools. Song Sol. 7 :4.
BATH-SHE'BA (daughter of the oath), the daughter of Eliam, 2 Sam. 11 : 3, otherwise called Ammiel, 1 Chr. 3 : 5, Ahithophel's son, 2 Sam. 23 : 34. She became the wife of Uriah, an officer in David's army. Her beauty proved a snare to David, for he not only committed adultery with her, but treacherously procured the death of her injured husband. 2 Sam. 11. The child of this intercourse died. When the days of mourning were accomplished, David married her, and she afterward bore him three sons besides Solomon. When Adonijah attempted to seize the throne, Bath-sheba told the king at the instigation of Nathan. 1 Kgs. 1:15. It was to her as queen-mother that Adonijah went with the request for the hand of Abishag. 1 Kgs. 2 : 13-22. See Adonijah.
BATH'-SHU'A (daughter of an oath), a variant of Bath-sheba; used in 1 Chr. 3 : 5.
BAT^TERING-RAM. Eze. 4: 2 and 21 : 22. This was a long beam of strong wood, usually oak, sometimes connected with a carriage or framework of heavy timber. One end was shaped like a ram's head, which when driven repeatedly and with great force against
BAT
BEA
the wall of a city or fortification either pierced it or battered it down. In the tower of the structure in which the battering-ram was hung were often posted
Aiicieut Battering-ram.
archers and slingers, who fired at the defenders upon the walls while their comrades were pushing the ram along or working it against the walls. See War.
BAT'TLE-AXE. See Armor.
BAT'TLEMENT. Deut. 22 : 8. A wall, parapet, or other structure around the flat roofs of Eastern houses, designed as a partition from an adjoining building or to prevent persons from falling off. The law required a battlement to be built upon every house. It is sometimes used in a more extensive sense to denote the fortifications of a city. Jer. 5:10. A traveller says that at Aleppo, where the houses join each other, the battlements are so low that he could walk over the tops of a dozen liouses without interruption. See Dwelling.
BAV'AI, one who helped rebuild the wall. Neh. 3 : 18.
BAY TREE. Ps. 37 : 35. "It may be questioned whether any particular tree is intended by the Psalmist; but if so, it must have been an evergreen, and may possibly be the sweet bay {Laurns nohilis), which is a native of Palestine. It is not very common, but may be found in most of the wooded 104
dells of northern and western Palestine."— Tristram. The leaves of the bay are much like those of the American mountain-laurel, but are fragrant when crushed, and often come to our market packed with figs. BAZ'LITHjBAZ'-LiUTH (rt strippiiKj), one whose descendants were among the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel. Ezr. 2 : 52 : Neh. 7 : 54.
BDELLIUM. Gen. 2 : 12. After much discussion, it is still impossible to say whether bdellium is a mineral, an animal production (pearl), or a vegetable exudation. It is probably the latter. There is a gum produced in the East Indies which has the same name and is thought by many to be the same substance. It resembles myrrh in color, and is of a bitter taste. Num. 11: 7. BEA'CON. Isa. 30:17. A mark or signal erected in some conspicuous place for direction or for security against danger. See Banners.
BEALI'AH {Jehovah is Baal, i. e. lord), a Benjamite who joined David at Ziklag. 1 Chr. 12:5.
BE'ALOTH {mistresses ; plur. feminine form of Baal), a town in the extreme south of Judah, Josh. 15:24; probably the same as Baalath-beer, 19:8, the modern Kurmih.
BEANS. Eze. 4:9. The Eastern plant ordinarily thus known ( Vieia /aba) is quite unlike the garden or field bean of the United States. It is of the same family, but is an erect annual with a stout stem, is one of the commonest field-crops of Europe and the Orient, and bears in its pods large coarse seeds which are fed to animals and much eaten by the poorer classes. Kidney-beans are now sometimes cultivated in Palestine.
BEAR. Prov. 17 : 12. The Syrian bear seems but a variety of the brown bear of Europe and Asia, though it is much lighter in color. Its food is seeds, fruits, and roots, to which it occasionally adds a goat or sheep. " I never but
BEA
BEA
once saw the Syrian bear south of Her-mon; this was in'winter, in a rugged ravine near the Lake of Gennesaret.
Syrian Bear. {After Tristram.)
When we visited Hermon, before the snow had melted from the top, we found the snow-ridges trodden in all directions by the tracks of bears, which were well known, but not much feared, by the shepherds ; and we also saw their trace in the snow on Lebanon. They descend both sides of Hermon and do considerable damage to the crops, especially the len-tiles, of which they are very fond."— Tristrmn. The attachment of the female bear to her young is very great, and nothing enrages her so much as to see her cubs hurt or taken from her. Hence the allusions 2 Sam. 17 : 8 ; Hos. 13 : 8, and also the passage above cited.
BEARD. Among the Jews much attention was paid to the beard. To show any contempt toward it by
Fig. 1. Egyptian Bearda. (After Wilkinson.) Fio. 2. Beards of Assyrian, and other Nations. (After Rosellini and Layard.)
plucking it or touching it, except from respect or courtesy, was esteemed a gross insult, while to kiss it respectfully and afifectionately was regarded as
a signal mark of friendship. Tearing out the beard, cutting it entirely oflF, and neglecting to trim and dress it were all expressions of deep mourning. Ezr. 9:3; Isa. 15 : 2 ; Jer. 41 : 5 and 48 : 37.
The Arabs and Orientals generally at this day cherish great respect for the beard. They solemnly swear by it; and their most significant and comprehensive phrase to express their good wishes for a friend is, " May God preserve your blessed beard !" We are told of an Arab who was wounded in the jaw, and chose to hazard his life rather than to have his beard cut oflF that the surgeon might examine the wound. Hence the keenness of the insult offered to David's ambassadors. 2 Sam. 10 : 4, 5. The Egyptians were accustomed to shave except when mourning, the direct opposite to the Jewish custom, but they wore false beards, made of plaited hair and graduated according to rank. The prohibition, Lev. 19 : 27, against marring the "corners of the beard " refers probably to the Arabian custom of shaving off that portion of the beard upon the cheeks on a line with the ears.
BEAST. Gen. 2 : 19. This word is generally used to distinguish all animals from man, as in Ps. 36 : 6. Sometimes quadrupeds only are denoted by it, as Lev. 11: 2 ; and in Gen. 1: 24, 25, it is supposed to refer to creatures that roam at large. Beasts were created on the sixth day, and were named by Adam. Paul describes some of his op-posers as wild beasts, so furious and brutal was their treatment of him, 1 Cor. 15 : 32. A similar application will be found in Ps. 22 : 12-16 ; Eccl. 3 : 18 ; Isa. 11:6-8, and in 2 Pet. 2:12 and Jude 10, to denote a class of wicked men. *'Wild beasts of the islands" Jer. 50 : 39, etc., seem to be jackals (literally, "the howlers," as in Arabic these animals are called " the sons of howling"). "Wild beasts of the desert" probably denote such creatures as the hyena.
Under the ancient dispensation the beasts were sometimes made to participate externally in the observance of religious ceremonies, Jon. 3 : 7, 8, and suffered, with men, the judgment of God. Ex. 9:6 and 13:15; Ps. 135:8;
BEA
BEE
Jer. 7 : 20 and 21:6 ; Eze. 32 : 13; 38 : 20; Hos. 4 : 3. See Clean and Unclean.
BEAT'EN OIL. See Olive.
BEAT E]V WORK. Ex. 25:18. Not cast, but wrought.
BEB'AI {})aternal), the ancestor of some who came back with Zerubbabel. Ezr. 2 : 11; Neh. 7 : 16. Later on some more returned with Ezra. Ezr. 8 : 11. Four of these came up for censure as the husbands of foreign wives, 10 : 28 ; but the cognomen was attached to the covenant. Neh. 10 : 15.
BE'CHER {ijfmtli). 1. One of Benjamin's sons. Gen. 46 : 21; 1 Chr. 7 : 6, 8.
2. A descendant of Ejihraim, Num. 26 : 35 ; called Bered in 1 Chr. 7 : 20.
BECHO'RATH {first bom), one of Saul's ancestors. 1 Sam. 9 :1.
BED. Gen. 47 : 31. The floors of the better sort of Eastern houses were of tile or plaster, and were covered with mats or cai'pets ; and as shoes were not worn on them and the feet were washed, their floors seldom required sweeping or scrubbing. Matt. 12 : 11; Luke 15 : 8. Thick, coarse mattresses were thrown down at night to sleep upon. The poorer people used skins for the same purpose. Such beds were easily moved. Matt. 9 : 6. On two or three sides of the room was a bench, generally a foot high and three feet broad, covered with a stuffed cushion. This bench, called the
divan, was used for both lying and sitting upon; but at one end of the room it was more elevated, and this was the usual place of sleeping. 2 Kgs. 1:4; 20 : 2 ; Ps. 132 : 3 ; Am. 3 : 12. But besides the divan, we find mention of bedsteads made of wood, ivory, Am. 106
6:4, or other materials. Deut. 3 : 11. This knowledge of the construction of Eastern beds relieves of difficulty such passages as Ex. 8 : 3 j 2 Sam. 4 : 5-7 ; Ps. 6 : 6 ; Mark 4 : 21.
Some part of the day-clothing usually served for bedclothes. Ex. 22 : 26, 27 ,• Deut. 24:12, 13. The Orientals do not generally undress before lying down for the night, but are content to take off the upper part of their clothing and unloose their girdle.
Bedsteads were used by the ancient Egj'ptians, as we know from the monuments. They also used wooden pillows of the same style as are now in use in Japan.
The pillow of the Hebrews was probably a goat-skin stuffed with some soft substance, since one of this sort is common to-day in Palestine. The pillow meant in Mark 4 : 38 was a rower's cushion. It has been conjectured that Saul and Elijah may have used their skin water-bottles, " a cruse of water," for the purpose of a bolster. 1 Sam. 26 : 12 ; 1 Kgs. 19: 6, margin.
BE'DAD {part), the father of Hadad, king of Edom. Gen. 36:35; 1 Chr. 1 : 46.
BE'DAN (servile). 1. In 1 Sam. 12: 11 the name of this judge stands between Jerubbael, or Gideon, and Jephthah, but probably it is a copyist's error for Barak, as several of the versions give it. The difference in Hebrew is not great.
2. A Manassite. 1 Chr. 7:17.
BEDEI'AH {servant of Jehovah), one who had married a foreign wife. Ezr. 10 : 35.
BEE. Deut. 1 : 44. The honeybee is probably the only species alluded to in the Bible. They must have been very numerous in Canaan, as honey was a common article of food, 1 Kgs. 14 : 3 ; Ps. 81:16; Song Sol. 5:1; Isa. 7 : 15, and commerce. Eze. 27 : 17.
The disposition of bees to take vengeance on any one who disturbs their hive is alluded to in Ps. 118 : 12.
Isa. 7: 18 doubtless finds its explanation " in the custom of the people in the East of attracting the attention of any one by a significant hiss, or rather hist." Zech.'lO:8.
We read, Jud. 14 : 8, that "after a time," probably many days, Samson r^-
BEE
BEE
turned to the carcass of the lion he had slain, and saw bees and honey therein. " If any one here represents to himself a corrupt and putrid carcass, the occurrence ceases to have any true similitude, for it is well known that in these countries, at certain seasons of the year, the heat will in the course of twenty-four hours so completely dry up the moisture of dead camels, and that, without their undergoing decomposition, their bodies long remain like mummies, unaltered and entirely free from oifensive odor."— (Edi)innn.
Wild bees often deposited their honey in hollow trees or the clefts of rocks. Ps. 81 : 16 ; 1 Sam. 14 : 25-27. See Honey.
BEELI'ADA {Baal knows), a son of David, 1 Chr. 14 : 7 ; called Eliada in 2 Sam. 5: 16; 1 Chr, 3:8.
BEEL'ZE - _
BUB. The name properly should be Beelzebnl in all the N. T. passages. Matt. 10 : 25 ; 12 : 24. 27 ; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18, 19. But this is, some say, merely because to the Greek tongue the latter form was easier. This name was in common use among the Jews in Christ's day as a title of Satan as the "prince of the demons." It means " lord of the house." Those who regard Beelzebul as a -: corruption of Baal-zebub {lord of flies),
the god of the Ekron- Well at Beer-sheba ites, 2 Kgs. 1 : 3, worshipped as the patron deity of medicine, interpret it '' lord of dung" or "filth," and explain the change in the name by the contempt of the .Jews.
BE'ER {well). 1. Near the Arnon, Num. 21:16,18; probably Beer-elim.
2. A town in Judah, Jud. 9:21; probably el-Bireh, 10 miles north of Jerusalem.
BEE'RA {a icell), an Asherite. 1 Chr. 7 : 37.
BEE'RAH {a well), a Reubenitish prince taken captive by Tiglath-pileser, I Chr. $;6.
BE'ER-E'LIM {loell of heroes). Isa. 15 : 8. See Beeb, 1.
BEE'RI {the well-man). 1. The father of Judith, one of Esau's wives. Gen. 26: 34.
2. The father of Hosea the prophet. Hos. 1:1.
BE'ER-L AHAI'-ROI {wellofthe liring), a fountain in the wilderness, south-west of Beer-sheba, Gen, 16 : 7, 14; 24 : 62 ; 25 : 11; perhaps Muweileh ; not the same as that in Gen. 21 : 19.
BEE'ROTH {wells), one of four Hivite cities. Josh. 9:17; now el-Bireh, 10 miles north of Jerusalem. See Bekr, 2.
BEE'ROTH OF THE CHILDREN OF JAAKAN. Deut. 10 : 6. Same as Bene-jaakan, Num. 33 : 31; possibly el-Mayin, 60 miles west of Mount Hor.
{From Palmer's " Desert of the Exodvs.")
BE ER-SHE'BA, or BEER'-
SHEBA {well of seven, or of oath), a city on the southern border of Canaan, 25 miles south-west of Hebron, on a line between the uplands and the desert. It is named 33 times in the Bible; only in the 0. T.
History. —It was first named by Abraham, Gen. 21: 31-33, who lived there, 22 : 19 ; was re-named by Isaac, Gen. 26; 33, and was then a city; visited by Jit-cob, 28:10; 46 : 1; given to Judah, Josh. 15 : 28 ; afterward to Simeon, 19 : 2: X Chr. 4:28: a place where judges
BEE
BEH
held court, 1 Sam. 8:2; often noted as the southern limit of Canaan, as Dan was the northern—" Dan even to Beer-sheba," Jud. 20 : 1; 1 Sam, 3 : 20 ; 2 Sam. 3:10; 17 : 11; 1 Kgs. 4 : 25 ; 1 Chr. 21: 2, etc.; a place of idolatrous worship, Am. 5:5; 8 : 14; was peopled after the Captivity, Neh. 11 : 30 ; was a city in Jerome's time ; now in ruins, but retains its ancient name, Bir-es-seha.
Wells and Ruins. —There are two large wells 300 feet apart, and five smaller ones some distance down the valley. The larger of the two chief wells is ]2i feet in diameter and 38 to 45 feet deep to the water, 16 feet of the lower portion being dug into solid rock, and the portion above this rock walled up with square hewn stones, hard as marble. The ropes of water-drawers for 4000 years have worn over 140 furrows in the face of the stones, some of them
4 inches deep. The second well is smaller, being only about
5 feet in diameter and 42 feet deep. Around the wells are 10 or 12 stone troughs, of oblong and irregular shape, for the use of cattle. All day long Arab herdsmen and women are drawing water in skins to fill the troughs, as in the days of Abraham and Isaac.
BEESH'-TERAH {house of Astarte), a city of Bashan, Josh. 21 : 27; same as Ashtaroth, 1 Chr, 6:71.
BEETLE. Lev. 11: 21, 22. Beetles have not "legs above their feet to leap withal upon the earth," neither are they ever eaten by man. From the connection, the word probably indicates an insect of the Locust family, which see. The Egyptians worshipped the beetle {scarnhxus) as a symbol of fertility and immortality.
BEEVES. Lev. 22: 19. As used in the Bible, this word is synonymous with "cattle," in its modern use. As they divide the hoof, and also chew the cud, they were reckoned among clean animals.
BEG'GAR, BEG'GIIVG. The poor among the Hebrews were much fa-108
vored. They were allowed to glean in the fields, and to gather whatever the land produced in the year in which it was not tilled. Lev. 19 : 10; 25 : 5, 6; Deut. 24 : 19. They were also invited to feasts. Deut. 14 : 29 and 26 : 12. The Israelite could not be an absolute pauper. His land was inalienable, except for a certain term, when it reverted to him or his posterity. And if this resource were insuflicient, he could pledge the services of himself and family for a valuable sum. Those who were indigent through bodily infirmities were usually taken care of by their kindred. A beggar was sometimes seen, however, and was regarded and abhorred as a vagabond, Ps. 109 : 10. In later times they were accustomed, it would seem, to have a fixed place at the corners of the streets, Mark 10 : 46, or at the gates of the temple, Acts 3 : 2, or of private houses. Luke 16 : 20.
Hippopotamus. {After Wood. "Animal Kingdom.")
BEHEMOTH. Job 40 : 15-24. The word elsewhere translated beasts — i. e. great beasts—is here given in its Hebrew form. Evidently this is right, for Job plainly refers to a beast preeminently great. The animal described as the behemoth in the passage above cited was of prodigioiis size and strength, and corresponds better with the river-horse of Africa (Hijjpopota-mus amphibms), than with any other known animal. It is very probable that this creature, though not now
BEK
BEL
found in Palestine, may once have inhabited the rivers of Western Asia.
The avc)-a(/c length of the male hippopotamus (including a tail about 1 foot long) is 14 feet. His girth is nearly the same, and his height at the shoulder is 5 or 6 feet. The huge, uncouth body of the animal is sujjported by short, stout limbs with four toes, each of which toes has a small hoof. The aperture of his mouth is 2 feet broad, and his tusks are more than a foot long. Cutting-teeth, which retain their sharpness by the same wonderful provision seen in the squirrel, enable him to mow as with a scythe the coarse, tough plants, aquatic roots, and grasses which are his food. A stomach capable of containing 5 or 6 bushels of vegetable matter prepares him to devour enormous quantities of herbage along river-margins and prove sadly destructive to neighboring crops.
Though clumsy on the land, in the water the movements of the hippopotamus are often graceful and rapid. For the most part, he loves to lie "in the covert of the reeds and fens," or float in the water with only his nostrils visible. By way of exercise, he walks at the bottom of the river or climbs the neighboring hillsides ("mountains" of the Bible).
" The old commentators have made all sorts of conjectures on the behemoth. Some have maintained it was the elephant, others the wild buff'alo, others the mammoth or some extinct pachyderm, others that it is a poetical description of these large creatures generally. But it appears clear that the description suits the hippopotamus exactly, and it alone; and this description has been adopted by Bochart and most modern critics. We know from the Egyptian monuments that this huge animal was hunted with spears; and noting its place in the description of the marvels of creation in Job, just before the leviathan or crocodile, the sequence seems to be that, powerful and terrible as is the hippopotamus, yet it may sometimes be taken with spears : ' But Avhat canst thou do with the crocodile? Will spears and barbs avail against him ?' "—
BE'KAH. See Measures.
BEL. See Baal.
BE'IjA (a swalloivincf tip, or destruction). 1. A king of Edom, eight generations before Saul. Gen. 36 : 32, 33 ;
1 Chr. 1 : 43, 44.
2. Benjamin's eldest son. Num. 26 : 38-40 ; 1 Chr. 7 : 6, 7; 8 :1-3. In Gen. 46 : 21 called Belah.
3. A Reubenite. 1 Chr. 5:8. BE'LiA (stoallowiny, or destruction).
Gen. 14:2, 8. See Zoah.
BE'LAITES. The descendants of Bela are so called in Num. 26 : 38.
BE'LIAL {icortldcssness). This word is applied by the sacred writers to such lewd, profligate, and vile persons as seem to regard neither God nor man. Deut. 13 : 13 ; Jud. 19 : 22, and 1 Sam.
2 : 12. Hence the question of the apostle, 2 Cor. 6 : 15, to the citizens of Corinth, which was remarkable for its lewdness and profligacy, has great force : " What concord hath Christ with Belial," the prince of licentiousness and corruption ?
BELIEVE'. See Faith.
BELL. Bells were attached to the bottom of the high priest's robe, that he might be heard when he went into or came out of the holy place. Ex. 28 : 33, 35. Many of the Eastern kings and nobles wear bells in the same manner at this day, not only for ornament, but to give notice of their approach. The Arabian ladies in the royal presence have little gold bells fastened to their legs, necks, and elbows, which make an agreeable sound when they dance. The " bells of the horses" mentioned in Zech. 14 : 20 were concave or flat pieces of brass, still used in the East as ornaments upon animals.
BEL'LOWS. The word occurs once only in the Authorized Version, Jer. 6 : 29, but the article must have been known before Moses's day, since without them smelting ores would be impossible. It is probable that the Jews had bellows of the same general appearance as the Egyptians', which are thus described by Wilkinson : " They consisted of a leather bag secured and fitted into a frame, from which a long pipe extended for carrying the wind to the fire. They were worked by the feet, the operator standing upon them, with one under each foot, and pressing them alternately while he pulled up each ex-
BEL
BEN
hausted skin with a string he held in his hand." The modern Palestinian bellows are even simpler, being a mere skin bag having a pipe fastened at one
Egyptian Bellows. (After CaiUiard.)
end: it is pressed between two boards, and thus the air expelled.
BELSHAZ'ZAR (Bel's pHuce, or may Bel protect the king !) was the son or grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and the last king of Babylon. Dan. 5:1,18. During the siege of the city of Babylon he gave a sumptuous entertainment to his courtiers, and impiously made use of the temple-furniture (of which Nebuchadnezzar had plundered the temple at Jerusalem) as drinking-vessels. In the midst of the festivities, to the terror of the king, a hand miraculously appeared to be writing upon the wall: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. Daniel was called in to explain the mystery, which, thus interpreted, proved to be a prophecy of the king's death and the kingdom's overthrow, which took place in the course of the succeeding night, when Darius the Median captured the city. Dan. 6:25-31.
BELTESHAZ'ZAR(5ers2jmice, ar Bel j)>'otect his life !), the name given to the prophet Daniel at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Dan. 1: 7. See Daniel.
BEN {son), a porter, a Levite, in David's time. 1 Chr. 15:18.
BENA'IAH {whom Jehovah hath built up). 1. Son of Jehoiada, the chief priest, and distinguished for his enterprise and bravery on several occasions. 2 Sam. 23 : 20-23. He was an adherent of Solomon against the pretensions of Adonijah, 1 Kgs. 1: 36, and after putting Joab to death succeeded to the command of the army. 1 Kgs. 2 : 29-35. 110
2. One of David's warriors. 2 Sam. 23 : 30 ; 1 Chr. 11 : 31 ; 27 : 14.
3. A Simeonite chief. 1 Chr. 4: 36.
4. A musical Levite in David's day. 1 Chr. 15 : 18, 20 ,: 16 : 5.
5. A priest in David's reign. 1 Chr. 15:24; 16:6.
6. A Levite. 2 Chr. 20 : 14.
7. A Levite in Hezekiah's day. 2 Chr. 31:13.
8. 9, 10, 11. Four persons who had foreign wives. Ezr. 10 : 25, 30, 35, 43.
12. The father of Pelatiah. Eze. 11: 1, 13.
BEN-AM'MI {son of my people), the son of Lot by his youngest daughter, and the progenitor of the Ammonites. Gen. 19: 38.
BEN'E-BE'RAK {son of lightning), a city of Dan, Josh. 19 : 45, probably Ibn Ibrak, near el- Yehudizeh.
BENEFACTORS was a title given to several rulers, particularly to two of the Egyptian Ptolemies, who are called accordingly in the Greek form Euergetes. Hence our Lord's remark, Luke 22 : 25. It is analogous to our title " Excellency."
BEN'E-JA^AKAN {children of Jaakan), a tribe probably descended from a grandson of Seir the Horite, and which gave a name to wells where Israel encamped. Num. 33 : 31, 32 ; same as Beeroth, and as the wells at el-Mayin, 60 miles west of Mount Hor.
BEN-HA'DAD {son, i. e. worshipper, of Hadad). 1. King of Damascus in the time of Asa, king of Judah, with whom he formed an alliance against Baasha, king of Israel. 1 Kgs. 15 : 18. See Asa, Baasha.
2. King of Damascus, and a son of the preceding. 1 Kgs. 20 :1. He was engaged in numerous wars with Israel, and once was taken prisoner. 1 Kgs. 20. See Ahab. Afterward he declared war against Jehorara, king of Israel, but the prophet Elisha disclosed his plans so accurately that Jehoram was able to defeat them. 2 Kgs. 6 : 8-33. It was Ben-hadad who sent Naaman to Elisha. 2 Kgs. 5. See Elisha.
In the siege of Samaria, which subsequently took place, that city was reduced to the greatest extremity. The Syrian army, under Ben-hadad, was lying around the walls, when in the course of the night they were led to
BEN
BEE
conceive that they heard the noise of an immense army in motion. Supposing that the city had been succored by supplies of men and provisions from abroad, and terrified with the fancied tumult of their apj)roach, the Syrians just at daybreak tied for their lives, leaving their camp, with all their horses, asses, provisions, utensils, etc., just as they were, and their garments and vessels scattered all along the road by which they had fled. The citizens of Samaria were thus unexpectedly relieved and supplied with an abundance of food.
The next year, Ben-hadad, being sick, sent Hazael to inquire of the prophet Elisha whether he would recover; and he received for answer that the king might certainly recover, and yet would surely die. Hazael also was informed by the prophet that he would be elevated to the throne of Syria, and would be guilty of enormous wickedness. The very next day Ben-hadad was murdered, and Hazael became king of Syria. 2 Kgs. 8:15. See Hazael.
Various successful campaigns against Ben-hadad II. are mentioned upon the tablets of the Assyrian king, Shalma-neser II., b. c. 858-823. Ben-hadad, who is called Ben-hadar, was in league with Ahab when the first campaign took place, as the Bible says. 1 Kgs. 20: 34.
3. Another person of the same name, and son of Hazael. 2 Kgs. 13:3, He suffered several defeats from the hand of Jehoash, king of Israel, and was compelled to relinquish all the land of Israel which his father, Hazael, had obtained in conquest. 2 Kgs. 13 : 25.
BEN'-HA'IL {son of the host, i. e. i-arrior), one of the *'princes" whom Jehoshaphat sent to teach the people the law. 2 Chr. 17 : 7.
BEN'-HA'NAN (son of one gracious), a Judite. 1 Chr. 4:20.
BEN'INU {our son), a Levite who sealed the covenant. Neh. 10 : 13.
BEN'-JAMIN {son of the right hand, i. e, of fortune). 1. The youngest son of Jacob and Rachel. His mother died immediately after his birth, which took place near Bethlehem when the family were on their journey from Padan-aram to Canaan, With her dying breath she called him Ben-oni {the son of my sorrow), but his father gave him the name
he bore. Gen, 35 : 16-18. The relation between him and Jacob was ever most tender, ])articularly after Joseph's supposed death. We know, however, nothing about him personally. The tribe formed from his descendants exhibited the traits of courage, cunning, and ambition foretold by the dying Jacob. Gen. 49 : 27. It had its portion of the Promised Land adjoining Judah ; and when ten of the tribes revolted, Benjamin continued steadfast in its attachment to Judah, and formed a part of that kingdom. 1 Kgs. 12 : 17, 23. Saul, the first king, and Paul were descendants of this tribe. 1 Sam. 10 : 21; Phil. 3 : 5.
2. A Benjamite chief. 1 Chr, 7:10.
3, One who had a foreign wife. Ezr. 10:32.
BEN'JAMIN {son of the right hand), LAND OF, the portion of Canaan between Ephraim, the Jordan, Judah, and Dan, containing 26 cities, including Jerusalem and the famous passes of Michmash and Beth-horon. See Josh. 18 : 11-28. It was about 25 miles long by 12 wide.
Physical Features. — This territory was a hilly country, its general level being about 2000 feet above the Mediterranean and 3000 feet above the Jordan valley. It includes mountains broken by deep ravines. For productions, etc., see Canaan, Palestine, and Judah.
Some of the most important events in Scripture history took place in this territory, which will be noticed under the kings of Judah.
BE'NO {his son), a Levite. 1 Chr. 24: 26 27.
BEN-b'NI. See Benjamin.
BEN-ZO'HETH {son of Zoheth), a descendant of Judah. 1 Chr. 4:20.
BE'ON. Num. 32:3. See Baal-Meon.
BE'OR {torch). 1. The father of Bela, king of Edom. Gen. 36 : 32 j 1 Chr. 1:43.
2. The father of Balaam, Num. 22: 5, etc.: called Bosor in 2 Pet. 2:15.
BE'RA {son of evil ), king of Sodom. Gen. 14:2.
BER'ACHAH {blessing), a Ben-iamite leader who joined David. 1 Chr. 12 :3.
BER'ACHAH, {blessing), VALLEY OF, where Jehoshaphat celebrated the victory over the Moabites,
BER
BES
2 Chr. 20 : 26 ; now Wady Breikdt, west of Tekua (Tekoa), and about 8 miles south-west of Bethlehem.
BERACHI'AH {whom Jehovah hath blessed), the father of Asaph. 1 Chr. 6:39.
BERAl'AH {whom Jehovah created), a Benjamite chief. 1 Chr. 8 : 21.
B£RE'A, a city of Macedonia, Acts 17: 10-13, on the eastern side of the Olympian Mountains ; now Verriu, with a population of about 6000, though some incorrectly give 20,000.
BERECHI'AH {whom Jehovah hath blessed). 1. One of David's posterity. 1 Chr. 3 : 20.
2. A Levite. 1 Chr. 9 : 16.
3. The father of Asaph, also called Berachiah. 1 Chr. 15 : 17.
4. A doorkeeper for the ark. 1 Chr.
15 : 23.
5. An Ephraimite in the days of Ahaz. 2 Chr. 28 : 12.
6. The father of a builder of the wall. Neh. 3 : 4, 30 ; 6 : 18.
7. The father of Zechariah. Zech. 1 : 1, 7.
BE'RED {hail), a place in southern Palestine, near the well Lahai-roi. Gen.
16 : 14. Grove suggests El-Khulasah, 12 miles south of Beer-sheba; Conder proposes Dereid.
BERENI'CE. See Bernice.
BE''RI {well), an Asherite chieftain. 1 Chr. 7 : 36.
BERI'AH {in evil, or a gift). 1. A son of Asher. Gen. 46 : 17 ; Num. 26 : 44, 45 ; 1 Chr. 7 : 30, 31.
2. A son of Ephraim. 1 Chr. 7 : 23.
3. A Benjamite chief. 1 Chr. 8 : 13,16.
4. A Levite. 1 Chr. 23 : 10, 11. BERI'ITES, the descendants of
Beriah, 1. Num. 26 : 44.
BE'RITES, THE {the people of the wells), a family mentioned in 2 Sam. 20 : 14, but it is not known who they were.
BE'RITH (rt covenant). Jud. 9 : 46. See Baal-berith.
BERNICE, OR BERENICE {victorious), was the eldest daughter of Agrippa, surnamed the Great, and sister to the younger Agrippa, kings of the Jews. Acts 25 : 13, 23 ; 26 : 30. Her first husband was her uncle Herod, the king of Chalcis. She appears in the Acts in connection with her brother, Agrippa II., with whom she 112
lived in incestuous intercourse after Herod's death, a. d. 48. To put an end to the scandal she married Po-lemo, king of Cilicia, whom she persuaded to be circumcised. The bond was soon dissolved, and she returned to her broth-
k°V^ /WHi L A. o/quently, so remarkable were her powers of attrac-
Bernice. (On a Com of Po- x- „ „„ j „^ lemoll.) ■' tion, and so
Beruice married Polemo II., king Well pre-of a part of Cilicia. The coin was g g r y e d her struck in 52 a.d., about the time i . + v. *
when Paul was at Corinth with oeauty, tUat Aquila and Priscilla. ghe became
mistress to both Vespasian and his son Titus. BERO'DACH-BAL'ADAN.
2 Kgs. 20 : 12. See Merodach-bala-
DAN.
BERO'THAH, and BER'O-THAI {my wells), one in the north of Palestine, Eze. 47 : 16, the other in the same region, 2 Sam. 8: 8. The two may be the same, and possibly modern Beirut, but more probably farther east, at Brithen or Bretdn, about 6 miles south-west of Baalbec.
BER'YL. Ex. 28 : 20. By the Hebrew word " tarshish " modern yellow topaz is supposed to be meant. This designation seems to indicate the place from which it was brought. Beryl, in the N. T., Rev. 21 : 20, is probably a different stone, and very likely the mineral now so called, which is found in Palestine, but was less abundant and more precious in ancient times than in modern. It is usually of a light-green color and considerably opaque.
BE'SAI (sioord, or conqueror), an ancestor to some of the Nethinim. Ezr. 2:49: Neh. 7:52.
BESODE'IAH {in the secret of Jehovah), the father of a repairer of the wall. Neh. 3 : 6.
BE'SOM. Isa. 14:23. A broom made of twigs.
BE'SOR. 1 Sam. 30 : 9-21. A torrent-bed in the south of Judah; probably Wady Sheriah, south of Gaza.
BET
BET
BE'TAH {confidence). 2 Sam. 8 : 8. Called Tibliath, 1 Chr. 18 : 8; possibly Tibhath, between Aleppo and Euphrates.
BEATEN. Josh. 19 : 25. A town of Asher, east of Ptolemais ,• now el Baneh.
BETH'-AB'ARA {house of the ford), a place beyond Jordan. John 1: 28. Some of the best manuscripts read Bethany same as Beth-abara; possibly at Beth-nimrah, or Nimrin ; or, as Conder thinks, at 'Abarnh: a leading ford of the Jordan on the road to Gil-ead.
BETH'-A'NATH {house of answer), a place in Naphtali, Josh. 19:38;
Jud. 1 : 83; possibly at Hanin, near Diblathaini; or at 'Ainatha.
BETH-A'NO Til {house of echo), a city of Judah, Josh. 16:59; perhaps Beit 'Aintin, 3 miles northeast of Hebron.
BETH'ANY {house of dates, or of misery). 1. A village on the eastern slope of Mount Olivet, about \h to 2 miles ("15 furlongs") east of Jerusalem, John 11:18, toward Jericho: the home of Mary and Martha, whither Jesus often went. Matt. 21:17; Mark 11: 11, 12. It was the home of Simon, Mark 14 : 3; the place where Lazarus was raised from the dead, John 11: 18-
Bethaiiy. {After Photographs.)
44; and near it Jesus ascended to heaven, Luke 24 : 50; named only in the Gospels, and there eleven times.
Present Ajix>earance. —Three paths lead from Jerusalem to Bethany—the first over Olivet, north of its summit; the third branches from the first, below Gethsemane, over the southern slope of Olivet; the second lies between these two. " The name, which signifies ' house of poverty,' was probably suggested by its solitary and remote situation, bordering on the desert, or by the fact that lepers, who are popularly called the 'poor,' once sought an asylum here." Mark 14 : 3.— Baedeker's Hand hook. The town is now a poor mountain-
hamlet of about 20 rude stone houses inhabited by Moslems. The water is good, and olive, fig, almond, and carob trees abound. The reputed sites of Simon's house and that of Mary, also ''the tower" and the tomb of Lazarus, are still pointed out. A church stands over the tomb. Bethany is now called el-Aziriyp.h, "place of Lazarus." See Schaif's liihh Lands, p. 27fi.
2. Some manuscripts read Bethany for Bethabara in John 1: 28. See Beth-abara.
BETH-ARAB AH {house of the plain), a city of .Tudah in the wilderness. Josh. 15 : 6, 61 ; counted as a city of Benjamin, Josh. 18:22; called
BET
BET
Arabah in Josh, 18: 18, in the valley of the Jordan near the Dead Sea.
BETH-A'RAM {house of height), a town of Gad in the valley, Josh. 13 : 27; perhaps same as Beth-haran. Num. 32 : 36; Merrill locates it at er-Jiama, on the Shittim plain.
BETH-AR'BEL {house of God's court, or ftmbush), probably Arbela or Irbid, between Tiberias and Sepphoris. Hos. 10 :U.
BETH-A'VEN {house of naught, or idols), east of Bethel, Josh. 7:2;
18 : 12 ; 1 Sam. 13 : 5 ,• 14 : 23 ; used as a name for Bethel, " house of God ;" changed to Beth-aven, '' house of idols." Hos. 4:15; 5:8; 10:5.
BETH-AZ MAVETH, a town in Benjamin : called Azmaveth, Neh. 7 : 28; 12 : 29; Ezr. 2 : 24; perhaps Hiz-meh, south-east of Jeba.
BETH-BA'AL-ME'ON. Josh. 13 : 17. See Baal-meo\.
BETH - BA'RAH. Jud. 7 : 24. See Beth-abara.
BETH'-BIR'EI {house of my creation), a town of Simeon, 1 Chr. 4:31; probably same as Beth-lebaoth and Le-baoth. Josh. 19 : 6 ; 15 : 32, in the south of Palestine; probably Btreh.
BETH'-CAR {house of lambs), a place west of Mizpeh. 1 Sam. 7 :1. Con-der locates it at 'Ain Kdrim.
BETH-DA'GON(AoMse o/Z)a^o»). 1. A town in Judah, near Philistia. Josh. 15 : 41. Perhaps at Beit Dejan.
2. A place in Asher. Josh. 19 : 27. Ganneau locates it at Deljun, southwest of Ekron ; Conder, at Tell D'a^k.
BETH-DIB'LATHA'IIW {house of fig-cakes), a town of Moab; same as Almon-diblathaim. Jer. 48 : 22 ; Num. 33:46.
BETH'EL {house of God). 1. A town about 12 miles north of Jerusalem.
Histori/. —Visited by Abraham, Gen. 12 : 8 ; 13 : 3 ; marked by Jacob after his vision of the ladder. Gen. 28 : 11-19; 31 : 13 ; dwelling-place of Jacob, Gen. 35 :1-8 ; name applied to Luz, Jud. 1: 22,23 ; before this the city and the altar-site appear to have had different names, see Josh. 16 : 2 ; Jud. 1 : 22, 23 ; Gen. 28
19 ; Samuel judged there, 1 Sam. 7 : 16 a place of calf-worship, 1 Kgs. 12 : 29 2 Kgs. 10: 29 ; called Beth-aven—)'. e. "house of idols," Hos. 10 : 5, 8 ; taken by Judah, 2 Chr. 13 : 19; home of
114
prophets, 2 Kgs. 2 : 2, 3; of priests, 2 Kgs. 17:28; 23:15-17; was desolate. Am. 3 : 14; 5 : 5, 6 ; settled by Benja-mites after the Captivity, Neh. 11: 31; named about seventy times in the 0. T.; not noticed in the N. T.; now called Beitin (9 miles south of Shiloh), a village of about 25 Moslem hovels, standing amid ruins which cover about 4 acres. Among the ruins is a Greek church, which appears to have been built out of the ruins of an older, and probably a Jewish, edifice. There are also the remains of a tower and a very large cistern. From the top of this ruined tower the Mount of Olives is distinctly visible, and Jewish tradition asserts, no doubt truthfully, that from the rival temple of Jeroboam idol-priests could look down upon the temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. The spot is hallowed by Jacob's dream of a ladder which reached from earth to heaven, and caused him to exclaim, " How dreadful is this place ! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Gen. 28: 17.
2. A town in the south of Judah; same as Chesil, Bethul, and Bethuel. Josh. 12:16; 16 : 30; 19: 4; 1 Chr. 4: BO. Either Beit Aula, or El-Khidasah,
3. Mount Bethel, Josh. 16 :1; 1 Sam. 13 : 2, a hilly district near Bethel.
BETH-E'MEK {house of the valley), a town of Asher, Josh. 19 : 27; possibly Amkah. 8 miles north-east of Akka.
BE'THER, THE MOUNTAINS OF. Song Sol. 2 : 17. Probably near the Lebanon range.
BETHES'DA {house of mercy, or flowing water), a pool in Jerusalem near the sheep-gate or market, John 5 : 2-9; tradition identifies it with the modern pool Birket-Tsrail, 360 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 80 feet deep, half filled with rubbish. Capt. Warren found an aqueduct leading from it, probably into the Kedron. Robinson, with more probability, regards Bethesda as identical with the intermittent Pool of the Virgin, outside of the city, above the Pool of Siloam.
BETH-E'ZEL {house of firm root). Mic. 1:11. Speaker's Commentary identifies it with Azal, near Jerusalem.
BETH-GA'DER {house of the ivall), possibly a place in Judah. 1 Chr. 11: 51; now Jedur. See Geder.
BET
BET
Traditional Pool of Bethesda. {Birket-Isruil.
After a Photograph by Bonfils.)
m^
BETH-GA'MUL (house of camel), a town of Moab, Jer. 48 : 23; perhaps Um-el-Jemal, near Bozrah, an unwalled town, having some of the most remarkable ruins in that country, houses, streets, walls, and gates deserted, but in perfect preservation. See Jer. 48 : 21-25. Grove, however, thinks Jemal too far north-east to be Gamul.
BETH-GIL'GAL. Neh. 12 : 29. Same as Gilgal, near Bethel.
BETH-HAC'CEREM [house of the vine), a place near Tekoa, Jer. 6:1; Neh. 3:14; probably the Frank Mountain, 4 miles south-east of Bethlehem.
BETH-HA'RAN. See Beth-
ARAM.
BETH-HOG'LA, or HOG'-
LAH [partridge-house), a town of Benjamin, Josh. 15 : 6; 18 : 19, 21 ; now 'A in Hajla, between Jericho and the Jordan.
BETH-HO'RON [house of the cave), the name of two places, the " Up-
fer" and "Nether" Beth-horon, Josh. 6 : 3, 5, about 3 miles apart, on the opposite sides of a ravine or steep pass —the Thermopylae of Palestine—on the road from Jerusalem to the seacoast. The " Nether" or lower town was the most important; now Beit Ur et- Tahtn. The Upper Beth-horon is now Beit Ur el-F oka. BETH-JES'IMOTH, and
JESH'IMOTH [house of wastes), a
town of Moab. Num. 33 : 49 ; Josh. 12 : 3 ; 13 : 20 ; Eze. 25 : 9. Schwarz places it at Beth-Jisimuth, north-east of the Dead Sea; Merrill, at Ain Suweimeh; Tristram, at er-Rama, 5 miles north-east from the mouth of the Jordan.
BETH-LEB'AOTH [house of lionesses). See Beth-birei.
BETH'LEHEM [house of bread). 1. A town in the ^' hill-country," about 6 miles south of Jerusalem, situated on a narrow ridge running eastward, which breaks down in abrupt terraced slopes to the deep valleys below. The town is 2527 feet above the sea. It is one of the oldest in Palestine.
History. —It was Rachel's burial-place (still marked by a white mosque near the town), and called Ephrath, Gen. 35 : 19; the home of Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth, Ruth 1:19; birthplace of David, 1 Sam. 17 : 12 ; burial-place of Joab's family, 2 Sam. 2:32; taken by the Philistines, and had a noted well, 2 Sam. 23 : 14,15; fortified by Rehoboam, 2 Chr. 11 : 6; foretold as the birthplace of Christ, Mic. 5:2; the birthplace of Jesus, Matt. 2:1; was visited by the shepherds, Luke 2 : 15-17, and by the magi, Matt. 2. It is noticed over 40 times in the Bible.
It has existed as a town for over 4000 years. It was a small place until after the time of Christ; was improved and
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its walls rebuilt by Justinian: had a famous church in a. d. 6U0; was destroyed by the Arabs, rebuilt by the Pranks, again twice destroyed, A. D. 12-1:4 and in 1489 ; rebuilt within the last two centuries; now has about 5000 inhabitants, nearly all nominally Christians, mostly of the Greek Church. The women of Bethlehem, as also those of Nazareth (the two homes of Christ), are exceptionally beautiful, and demonstrate the superiority of Christian women over Moslem women. It is now called
Beit-Lahm; is surrounded by nicely-kept terraces covered with vine, olive, and fig trees. The church of the Nativity, the oldest in Christendom, built in A. D. 330 by the empress Helena, stands over the grotto reputed to be the ])lace of our Lord's birth, and is the joint property of the Greeks, Latins, and Armenians, who have separate convents adjoining it. The "plain of the Shepherds" is about a mile from the town. The so-called David's well is pointed out nea r the city. A massive col-
Bethlehem, {trom Original Photograph by Bonfils.)
umn stands upon the reputed spot where monkish legends say 20,000 martyred innocents were buried. The claim of these places as the true localities where the biblical events occurred rests wholly upon traditions covered with the accumulated rubbish of superstition, which render the identifications of small value. The chapel beneath the church, however, was the study of St. Jerome, where he spent thirty years on his great work, the Latin version of the Bible, called the Vulgate, and which is still the standard version in the Roman Church. The "holy crypt," the reputed birthplace of our Lord, is a cave in the solid rock, twenty feet beneath the great choir of the church. At the entrance of a long winding passage cut out of the limestone rock is an irregular-shaped chap-116
el, containing two small recesses. In the northernmost of these is a marble slab, on which a silver star marks the supposed spot of the Nativity. Hepworth Dixon ( The Hohj Land, 1865, ch. xiv.) not only accepts this cave as the birthplace of Jesus, but also tries to prove that it belonged to Boaz and was the home of David. The tradition that Jesus was born in this cave is very old, and is first mentioned by Justin Martyr (about A. r». 140), who was a native of Palestine. The precise place of our Saviour's birth, as that of his crucifixion, has been left in obscurity by a wise Providence. The greeting of Boaz to the reapers may still be heard in the fields of Bethlehem. The farmer now salutes his laborers with " The Lord be with you!" and
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they reply, as in the days of Ruth, " The Lord bless thee !" Ruth 2 : 4.
2. A town in Zebulon, Josh. 19 : 15; now a poor village, Beit-Lahm, 6 miles west of Nazareth.
BETH-MA ACHAH. 2 Sam. 20 : 14, 15. Same as Abel-beth-maa-chah, Abel-maim, and Abel; now Abel el-Kamh, a village north-west of Lake Merom. Grove supposes Maachah was a petty Syrian kingdom north of Palestine.
BETH-MAR'CABOTH {house of chariots), a town in the south of judah. Josh. 19 : 5; 1 Chr. 4 : 13. Rowland identifies it with el-Murtabeh, 10 miles south-west of Beer-sheba.
BETH-ME'ON. See Baal-
MEON.
BETH-NIM'RAH {house of leopards), a fenced city east of the Jordan, Josh. 13 : 27 ; Num. 32 : 3, 36 ; same as Nimrah, and the modern Nimrin, on the Jordan, above Jericho. Some would identify it also with Beth-abara.
BETH-PA'LET {house of flight), a town in the south of Judah; same as Beth-phelet, Josh. 15 : 27 ; Neh. 11 : 26 ; either modern el-Kuseifeh, near Mola-dah, or el-Horn.
BETH-PAZ'ZEZ {house of dispersion), in Issachar, Josh. 19: 21, west of the Sea of Galilee; possibly, but not probablv. modern Beit-Jcnu.
BETH-PE'OR {temple of Peor), a place on Pisgah. Deut. 3:29; 4:46; 34 : 6 ; Josh. 13 : 20. See Pisgah.
BETH'PHAGE (house of green figs), a place near Bethany, Matt. 21 : i ; Mark 11:1 ; Luke 19 : 29, and possibly west of that place.
BETH-PHE'LET. See Beth-
PALET.
BETH-RE'HOB {house of Re-hoh), called Rehob, Num. 13 : 21 ; 2 Sam. 10 : 6, 8; was near Laish, Jud. 18 : 28; possibly Hunin, on the mountain west of the plain of Dan, and about 1000 feet above it.
BETHSA'IDA {house of fishing), a city of Galilee, near Capernaum. John 12 : 21; Matt. 11 : 21. Many recent writers urge that there were two Bethsaidas, since the desert-place where the 5000 were fed belonged to '' the city called Bethsaida," Luke 9:10, while after the miracle the disciples were to go before him unto the other side
to Bethsaida, Mark 6 : 45, which it is said could not refer to the same town.
1. If there were two towns of this name, the first one, in Galilee, was on the west side of the lake. Robinson, Grove, Porter, and others place it at Ain et-Tahighah, north of Khan Minyeh, others at Khan Mini/eh.
2. Bethsaida Julias, in Gaulanitis, on the eastern bank of the Jordan, near its entrance into the lake.
But it seems quite unlikely that two cities in such close neighborhood should have borne the same name. Hence Dr. W. M. Thomson supposes that there was but one Bethsaida, which was built on both sides of the Jordan, and places the site at Abu-Zani/, where the Jordan empties into the Lake of Galilee. The Sinaitic manuscript omits *' belonging to a city called Bethsaida" in Luke 9 : 10; hence, Wilson also holds that there is no necessity for two Bethsaidas ; and this seems the more probable view. The eastern part was beautified by Philip the tetrarch, and called Bethsaida Julias (in honor of a daughter of the emperor Augustus), to distinguish it from the western Bethsaida, in Galilee.— Sciiafp : Through Bible Lands, p. 353. See Capernaum.
BETH-SHE'AN {house of quiet), BETH'SAN, OR BETH'SHAN, a city 5 miles west of the Jordan, first in Issachar, but later in Manasseh. Josh. 17 : 11; 1 Chr. 7 : 29. Saul's body was fastened to its walls, 1 Sam. 31: 10, 12; after the Captivity it was called Scythopolis, and was a chief city of Decapolis; now Beisan, having ruins of temples, colonnades, hippodrome, theatre, and city walls.
BETH-SHE'MESH {house of the sun). 1. A city on the north of Judah belonging to the priests. Josh. 15:10: 21:16; same as Ir-shemesh and Mount Heres, Josh. 19:41; Jud. 1: 35 ; noted as the place to which the ark was returned, 1 Sam. 6 : 9-20; now a heap of ruins near 'Ain Shenis, about 14 miles west of Jerusalem.
2. A fenced city of Naphtali. Josh. 19 : 38. Conder proposes 'Ain csh Shem-styeh.
3. A city on the border of Issachar, Josh. 19 : 22: perhaps the same as No. 2.
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4. A place in Egypt, Jer. 43 : 13; same as Heliopolis, or On, See On.
BETH-SHIT TAH {house of acacia), now perhaps the village of Shattah, east of Jezi'eel. Jud. 7 : 22.
BETH-TAP'PUAH (house of apples), a town of Judah near Hebron, Josh. 15:53; now Tuffuh, 5 miles west of Hebron, and noted for olive-groves and vineyards. Traces of the ancient terraces still remain.
BETHU'EL (man of God), the son of Nahor, nephew of Abraham, and father of Laban and Rebekah. Gen. 22 : 22, 23 ; 24:15,24,47; 28:2. His son Laban plays the prominent part in the narrative.
BE'THUEL, AND BE'THUL. See Chesil and Bethel.
BETH'ZUR {house of rock), in the mountains of Judah; built by Re-hoboam ; its ruler helped to repair Jerusalem, 2 Chr. 11 : 7; Neh. 3 : 16; now Beit Siir, 4 miles north of Hebron.
BET'ONIM, a town in Gad. Josh. 13: 2(5.
BETROTH'. Deut. 28 : 30. A man and woman were betrothed or espoused each to the other when they were engaged to be married. It is giving one's troth— i. e. faith or promise— to marry at a future time.
Among the Jews this relation was usually determined by the parents or brothers, without consulting the parties until they came to be betrothed. The engagement took place very early, though it was not consummated by actual marriage until the spouse was at least twelve years of age.
The betrothing was performed a twelvemonth or more before the marriage, either in writing or by a piece of silver given to the espoused before witnesses. During the interval, however, from the time of espousals to the marriage, the woman was considered as the lawful wife of the man to whom she was betrothed ; nor could the engagement be ended by the man without a bill of divorce ; nor could she be unfaithful without being considered an adulteress. See Marriage.
BEU'LiAH (married), a word used by Isaiah, Isa. 62 :4, to set forth the intimate relation of the Jewish Church to God.
BE'ZAI (conqueror), father of some 118
who returned. Ezr. 2 : 17; Neh. 7 : 23: 10:18.
BEZAL'EEL (in the shadow of God). A famous artificer who received wisdom and instruction directly from God to qualify him for the work of building the tabernacle and preparing its various furniture. Ex. 31: 2.
2. One who had married a foreign wife. Ezr. 10 : 30.
BE'ZEK (lightning). 1. In the mountains of Judah, Jud. 1 : 3-5; probably Bezek, near Jerusalem.
2. Possibly a district. 1 Sam. 11: 8, 9. Schwartz places it at Bezik or Ah-sik; Conder at Ibzik, north of Tir-zah.
B E ' Z E R (ore), an Asherite. 1 Chr. 7 : 37.
BE'ZER IN THE WILDERNESS, a city of refuge east of the Jordan, Deut. 4:43; Josh. 20 : 8 ; 21: 36; 1 Chr. 6:78; possibly Burazin, 12 miles north-east of Heshbon.
BE'ZETHA, AxND BE'ZETH, a hill in Jerusalem north of Acra and Mo-riah. See Jerusalem.
BI'BLE. " The Holy Bible" is the name given to the collection of books which contains the revelation of God in the creation, redemption, and sanctifica-tion of the world; a history of the past dealing of God with his people; a prophecy of coming events till the final consummation : and a living exhibition of saving truth in doctrine, precept, and example for all men and all time. The name is from the Greek (ra. ^l^Ala, " the books"), and means the Book of books, the best of all books (so used since the fifth century in distinction from heretical and all uninspired writings). The collection is likewise spoken of as the " Scriptures," " the word of God." The Bible embraces the work of about forty authors from all classes of society, from the shepherd to the king, living during an interval of sixteen hundred years, but all of the Hebrew extraction, with the single exception of Luke, whose Gospel, however, came from Jewish sources, and whose fame from his association with Paul. All forms of literary composition unite to give the Bible its unique interest, aside from its■ religious importance. These books, though differing in age, contents, and style, represent one and the same sys-
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tem of truth as revealed by God in its various aspects and adaptations to the existing wants and progressive understanding of his people. The Bible is not a book simply; it is an institution. It never grows old; it renews its youth with every ago of humanity, and increases in interest and importance as history advances. It is to the Christian the only infallible source and rule of his faith and conduct; it is his daily bread of life, his faithful guide in holy living and dying, his best friend and companion—far more precious than all other books combined. It is now more extensively studied than ever, and its readers will continue to multiply from day to day to all parts of the earth and to the end of time. Let us add some testimonies to its importance.
The eloquent F. W. Robertson says: "This collection of books has been to the world what no other book has ever been to a nation. States have been founded on its principles; kings rule by a compact based on it; men hold it in their hands when they give solemn evidence affecting death or property; the sick man is almost afraid to die unless the Book be within reach of his hands; the battle-ship goes into action with one on board whose oflBce is to expound it; its prayers, its psalms, are the language we use when we speak to God; eighteen centuries have found no holier, no diviner language. The very translation of it has fixed language and settled the idioms of speech. It has made the most illiterate peasant more familiar with the history, customs, and geography of ancient Palestine than with the localities of his own country. . . . The orator holds a thousand men for half an hour breathless, a thousand men as one listening to his single word. But this word of God has held a thousand nations for thrice a thousand years spell-bound— held them by an abiding power, even the universality of its truth ; and we feel it to be no more a collection of books, but the Book." The translators of the A. v., in their Address unto the Reader (reprinted in the Cambridge Paragraph Bible), say of the Bible: "And what marvel ?—the original thereof being from heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man : the inditer, the Holy Spirit, not the wit of the apostles or
prophets; the penmen, such as were sanctified from the womb and endued with a principal portion of God's Spirit; the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness ; the form, God's word, God's testimony, God's oracles, the word of truth, the word of salvation, etc.; the effects, light of understanding, stableness of persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life, holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of the study thereof, fellowship with the saints, participation of the heavenly nature, fruition of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that shall never fadeaway. Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and thrice happy that medi-tateth jn it day and night!"
The Bible is ordinarily divided into two parts, called the Old and New Testaments. But it would be more accurate to say *' the Old and New Covenants," inasmuch as '' testament" implies the idea of a will and the death of the testator.
In the present article the general questions in regard to the Bible will be discussed. The matters relating to the formation of the collection will be found under Canon, and the particulars of the different books under their respective names.
I. The Original Languages of the Bible.
1. The 0. T. is written in Hebrew, a Shemitic tongue, differing in most respects very widely from the Japhetic or Aryan languages, to which family ours belongs. The difference is not simply in vocabulary, but in grammatical structure, and also in the manner of writing, which is from right to left, giving rise to the common saying that Hebrew books begin at the last page. It is triliteral— i. e. its words are built up according to certain rules from roots formed of three consonants. The verb has only two tenses, the perfect and the imperfect. There is no proper declension of nouns, and only two genders, masculine and feminine. There are three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. There are no compounds, in our sense of the term; the article, conjunction, and preposition, expressed each by a single consonant, are attached directly to the word. Pronouns undergo a similar treatment, *' whether they are the sub-
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ject or object of verbs or dependent upon other forms of speech. Thus the Hebrew * and from his land ' is written as one word, though it embraces a conjunction, preposition, noun, and pronoun ; but this is a mere aggregate, in which each element retains its separate force unchanged, not a compound, in which the several constituents combine in the expression of one idea."—Prof. W. H. Green. Hebrew is highly figurative— pre-eminently fitted for devotion, but by lack of precision singularly unfitted for philosophy. It was therefore just the requisite medium for an introductory revelation. The 0. T. does not argue against or analyze or defend any religion in set phrase, but it fills the mind with the knowledge of the true God and inspires the heart in his service.
2. The N. T. was written in Greek, which had, since the Macedonian conquest of Alexander the Great, supplanted Hebrew in common use among the Jews who dwelt in the Roman provinces, and was the medium of communication between all parts of the civilized world. The ancient Greek literature is a perennial source of inspiration and knowledge. The language is at once vigorous and flexible, profound and clear, remarkably well suited to express every variety of thought. It is equally adapted to the concise, the critical, and the commonplace. In short, every order of mind can use it appropriately. It was in that day a better channel than the Hebrew for a divine revelation, and that of the highest kind. Hebrew no longer met the wants of culture. By nature it was hampered. It was the language of monotheism, but not of developed trinita-rianism.
The N. T. Greek is the Macedonian, and more particularly the Hellenistic, dialect, more or less mixed with Hebraisms, arising from the fact that the writers were Jews. In some books this tinge is very strong, especially in Matthew, Mark, and Revelation. On the contrary, the Greek of James and Luke, particularly in the preface of Luke's Gospel and in the latter part of the Acts, is good and forcible. Paul has a style of his own; broken and involved, interminable at times, as his sentences are, they are bold, pregnant, and lively. 120
But whether with classical finish or unadorned simplicity, in this language the apostles addressed their own countrymen and the Gentiles upon the momentous truths and facts of the everlasting gospel.
II. The Text of the Bible.
The Bible, like the Saviour whom it presents, is divine-human in its character. The written word became flesh, as well as the personal Word. The eternal truth of God passed through the mental faculties of the prophets and apostles, and uttered itself in human speech. Its contents were first in the mind, and then written out, either directly by the inspired man or at his dictation. The autographs have perished. We possess at best but copies of other copies. These, although made with reverent care, are not free from the imperfections of human writings. Errors would be perpetuated and new ones constantly made. This was pre-eminently the case with the N. T. The number of textual variations in the Greek N. T. or " different readings," as they are called, amounts to 150,000. And yet we may claim that a special Providence has watched over the purity and integrity of the text of Holy Scripture, since only about 400 of these are of any consequence, the rest being trifles of spelling, etc., r.nd none of these 400 affect a doctrine or precept.
1. The Hebrew Bible of to-day is a reprint of the so-called Masoretic text —/. e. the text punctuated and vocalized by a body of Jewish scholars who lived at Tiberias, and at Sora in the Euphrates valley, from the sixth to the twelfth century, and who committed to writing the mass of traditional notes of all kinds called the Masora— i. e. tradition. Up to the beginning of that period the Hebrew text was written without "points," as the vowel-points are called. These were added, and thus the pronunciation was fixed. By means of other marks punctuation and the tone-syllables were indicated. The separation of the text into verses by means of two dots arranged like a colon and the assortment of the books in a fixed order had been previously effected. It is stated that after the Masoretes had finished their labors all the manuscripts which had not this text were con-
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demned as " profane and illegitimate," which caused most of these rejected copies to perish. Thus the facts that there are very few old Hebrew manuscripts—the oldest dating from the tenth century—and that the same text is found in each, are accounted for. But happily for the scholars of Hebrew, the Masoretes marked their corrections upon the margin instead of inserting them in the text, and therefore they are at liberty to reject or use them.
The Hebrew character has changed from an irregular to a square form. The Rabbins, however, in their books employed still another form, which is more cramped. The manuscripts whose use is obligatory in the synagogues to-day are written without punctuation-marks upon rolls, and are very carefully written and preserved.
The whole Hebrew Bible was first printed in 1488; a second edition appeared in 1494. This was the one used by Luther. All subsequent Hebrew Bibles have been little more than reproductions of these two editions.
2. The Greek New Testament. —It is quite in keeping with the character of Christianity, which is free, active, bold, and progressive, that the little book upon which it rests for its initial history, its theology, and, to a certain extent, for its polity, should exhibit such diverse elements at work upon it, and likewise that the book itself should exist in so many more or less variant texts. Superstition, which secured the Jew a verbatim copy, as far as possible, of his sacred Scriptures, did not operate to anything like the same extent in the case of the Christians. They esteemed it a great privilege to have the Gospels and Epistles, but as copies multiply in the Church we find the thoughts of the inspired writer are better preserved than his exact words. At all events, the "various readings" increased, A very fruitful source of variation was the habit of writing at dictation, for a word incorrectly heard would be of course incorrectly written. Then, too, the use of " ligatures," or combinations of letters, to save time, the arbitrary signs employed, and the inarks of correction or doubt gradually worked into the text from the margin, ^ach and all contributed to destroy the
correctness of the copy. Superfluous words, filling out one sentence by piecing to it a part of another (e. g. Rom. 8 : 1 compared with 8 : 4 shows conclusively that the latter clause of ver. 1 is repeated by inadvertence from ver. 4), marginal glosses which at last crept into the text,—these are some of the unintentional faults of all copies. But these variations evince the lively interest which all classes took in the book, and therefore are an indirect proof of its divinity. They multiply the means for ascertaining the original reading and supersede the necessity of conjecture, to which we must often resort in the case of the ancient classics. So far from being alarmed at this state of things, we see in it the hand of God, who does not want his Church to be bound to the letter, but to be free in the Spirit, and to exercise all its powers of research upon his holy word.
In the case of the N. T. the number of manuscripts is very large, considering the labor and expense of transcribing. They are divided into two classes : The uncials, which are written throughout in capitals, and with no division of words or of sentences, and with very few and simple marks of punctuation. The writing is in columns of uniform width, from one to four on a page, the letters filling out the page irrespective of the completion of a word. The material was parchment in book-form. The uncials go down to the tenth century. The most important uncial manuscripts are the Sinaitic of the fourth century (discovered by Prof. Tischendorf in the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, 1859, and published in fac-simile, 1862), the Vatican of the same age (in the Vatican Library at Rome), and the somewhat later Alexandrian (in the British Museum, London). The second kind of manuscripts, the cursives, are so called because written in running-hand. The uncial form was, however, retained for some time after this in church copies. From about the eleventh century paper made from cotton or linen superseded parchment. The style of penmanship and other peculiarities in writing enable " diplomatists," as such experts are called, to tell the century to which any given manuscript belongs. The later manuscripts
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are of little or no critical account since the discovery of the older or uncial manuscripts.
The N. T. in Greek was first printed as part of the Complutensian Polyglot, which Cardinal Ximenes patronized, at Alcala, the modern name for the Spanish townComplutum, in 1514, but the Polyglot was not published till 1622. The editors, probably in their ignorance, pretended to have relied for the text upon very ancient manuscripts received from Rome; but as a matter of fact, the manuscripts were comparatively recent and very inaccurate. The first Greek Testament/>H6^;'sAerf was that of Erasmus, which appeared in 1516. The so-called " Textus Receptus," or received text, is derived from the second edition of Elzevir, published at Leyden, 1633. It is in the main a copy of Beza's (1565-1589). The typographical beauty of the Elzevir edition and its handy shape, and not its critical merit, determined its acceptance. In England the text of Stephens (1550), which is substantially the same with the text of Elzevir, has often been reprinted and taken as the basis of critical editions from Mills down to Tregelles, although Bentley suggested a new basis from the oldest sources. The text of the N. T. has been brought into its present satisfactory condition after long-continued and patient study, and every Bible student should thank God for the scholars he has raised up to do this work. All honor to the immortal names of Gries-bach (1754-1812), Lachmann (1793-1851), Tischendorf (1815-1874), Tregelles (1813-1875), Westcott, and Hort, for to them are we indebted for the oldest and purest text of the Greek Testament which can be attained at the present day, and which makes a revision of our English version at once desirable and safe.
III. The Order op the Books and the Names of their Divisions.
1. The Old Testament. —The Jewish arrangement diff'ers widely from ours. The N. T. recognizes a division of the 0. into " the Law and the Prophets," Matt. 11:13; 22:40; Acts 13 : 15, etc., which phrase was doubtless a popular way of speaking of the whole book. AVe also find a longer phrase, 122
"the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms," Luke 24 : 44. The Jews divided their sacred Scriptures into (a) the Law — i. e. the five books of Moses, commonly known as the Pentateuch, the five-fold book; (6) the Prophets, divided into the earlier, including Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, and later, which are subdivided into the greater — Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Eze-kiel—and the twelve so-called minor prophets; (c) The Holy Writings, or Hagiographa, as they are usually denominated, comprising the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, First and Second Chronicles. In this probably chronological order the books are arranged in the Hebrew Bibles.
The Christian division into historical, poetical, and prophetical books is topical and more apj^ropriate. It is not necessary to enumerate the books, as a full list is appended to almost every copy of the Bible.
2. The New Testament is divided into the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, both Pauline and Catholic (the latter—those of James, Peter, John, and Jude—so called because not addressed to particular churches or individuals, but of universal import), and the Revelation ; or more briefly into the historical, the doctrinal, and the prophetical books. The oldest manuscripts vary in their arrangement. Many put the Catholic Epistles immediately after the Acts, while the Sinaitic puts the Pauline Epistles before the Acts.
IV. The Division of the Text into Chapters and Verses.
The ancient mode of writing was continuous; no stops of any kind were made, nor were words separated. See article Book. As soon as any break is made we get the germs of a system of division, for these breaks will indicate punctuation, and thus serve the secondary purpose of facilitating reference and remembrance. We find that the division of the sacred text into sections was early made as a matter of necessity, but that chapters and verses were of much later origin.
Specimens of existing MSS. of the Scriptures.
M ycTH f / o Kj:oce
4th Cent. Codux Siiiaiticus.—1 Tiiu iii. IG. TO T1J? euaejSeta? | /avo-TTjpioc [Oe late corr.] os e.
N O PC M H C ^^^PfT
4th Cent. Codex Sinaiticus.—John i. 18. roYevTjs 0[eo]s [o oiv corr.J eis tov.
T -A.eNGinoN6<po&oYN I -: -
t
4th Cent. Codex Vaticanus.—Mark xvi. 8. iTTaai; Kai ovSevi ov | See eiTTov €(^o/3ovc | ro yap:
^4Apx•riHNOxqrocKAloxoracM ^ Tn|^oc-rOMo7>r'UAieCHhio\oroc •
5th Cent. Codex Alexandrinus.—John i. 1. El* o-PXt ^^ ** A.070? Kttt 0 A070S >)»' I Trpos to;' 0[eo]v xai 0[eo] s rjv o Aoyos^