BACCHIDES

as

the name of a spot (see R

EPHAIM

, VALLEY

OF)

where there were Baca-trees.

David took his stand

there to wait for YahwB's signal to attack the

S.

speaks of it

as

a grove,' mean-

ing an

there is no mention of trees in

@.

On the meaning of Baca trees see M

ULBERRY

.

[

I

Macc.

78,

A],

91,

the chief general of D

EMETRIUS

I.

I

],

who

was sent to Judaea to enforce the claims of Alcimus to
the priesthood

(

I

Macc.

7 8

Almost immediately

after the death of

he was sent again with

Alcimus, and inflicted a severe defeat on the
party at

who lost their leader Judas (chap.

9,

161

Judaea suffered heavily at the hands of

Bacchides nor did any real advantage accrue when
Jonathan took

the leadership

The capital

and other important strongholds remained in the hands
of Bacchides, who was engaged in fortifying them until
the death of Alcimus

when he returned to

Demetrius

(9

57).

At the end of two years the opponents

of the Maccabzean party (whose hands had become
strengthened) agreed to betray Jonathan and his fol-
lowers to Bacchides.

This piece of treachery was

discovered and avenged

(958

Bacchides set out

against

(158 B

.c.)

and besieged Beth-basi, but

met with ill

everywhere, until at last he was

only too glad to accept Jonathan's overtures of peace

(968).

The

of the former wars were

restored, and the Maccabees had rest for four or five
years.

singer in list of those with foreign wives

(see

end),

I

Esd.

924;

but not in

[MT

E V

though

adds

BACCHUS

the equivalent of the Greek

Dionysus (so

[AV]), is mentioned

in

Macc.

67,

where it is said that on the occasion

of the birthday of Antiochus Epiphanes

-

164)

the unhappy Jews were compelled to attend the feast
of Bacchus

feast of Dionysia

wearing the ivy-wreath

the peculiar emblem

of the god. A few years later Nicanor (the general of

threatened to

down the temple and

it by one dedicated to Bacchus unless Judas

was handed over to him

[A]). The

worship of Bacchus seems to have been introduced
first by the Ptolemies, of which family he was the
patron-god, and according to

3

Macc.

229

several years

previously the Jews in Alexandria had been branded
by Ptolemy Philopator

with the sign of the

ivy; the object of this obviously being forcibly to
identify the unwilling Jews with the detested worship

of

Bacchus.

See CUTTINGS

OF T H E

F

LESH

,

6.

His

worship would he specially abhorrent to pions Jews,
since one of the greatest of the Dionysian festivals fell in
the month Elaphebolion (March-April), thus
ing closely with the passover. In course of time the

Jews and Greek residents were more attracted

by the cult, and when Jerusalem became a Roman
colony

we find Dionysus with his

thyrsus and panther figuring upon the coins

as

one of

the patron

The worship

of

Dionysus flourished at

a t Damascus, and in the

H e was the special

patron of Scythopolis, and from him the town Dionysia
(Soada) received its name.

Dionysus, however,

soon

became identified with the

deity Dusares

(the Baal, the

god

of heaven, and of wine). The

In

24

emend

to

for

[BA]) when

the sound

of a stormy wind

in the tops of

Baca trees.'

If

is in the tempest that

'goes out against the Philistines.

BACCHURUS

Doubtless an error for
See Madden, Coins

1881,

p.

455

BADGERS'

SKINS

character which the latter presents is not

:

it

is directly due to the northern

priest of Dionysia (see above) calls himself the priest

Dusares, and on the coins of Bostra the latter appears

vith the Dionysian emblem of the wine-press.

Figures

the vine and wine-cup are still found upon the lintels

n many of the villages in the

Although the

vorship of

had little in common with that of

Tacit.

classical writers, observing the musical and

nature of their ceremonial rites, now and then

ell into the error of making Bacchus a Jewish god

hat had

worshipped by the earliest patriarchs (cp

Plut.

146).

For the various mythological forms of Bacchus, see

Ency.

Dionysus' and Roscher,

BACENOR

occurs in an uncertain passage,

Macc.

It is

whether it is the name of a captain or the

of

a

company or division in the army of

See D

OSITHEUS

.

BACHRITES, THE

Nu.

2635,

See B

ECHER

.

BADGER

,

R

OC

K

Lev.

BADGERS'

SKINS,

RV

SEALSKINS

Sym., Ezek.

[BAL]

35723

[BAL om.]

4 6 8

Ez.

are mentioned as the fourth or outer-

most covering of the tabernacle (next above the 'rams'
skins dyed red'), and as outer wrappings for the ark
and different vessels of the tabernacle during journeys.

In

figurative description of YahwB's adorning

of Israel as

a

beautiful maiden, shoes of this material

are included. As to the

of

there have

been many opinions : five chief views

be indicated.

(I)

The ancient versions with one consent understood

a

colour :

Syr. Chald. Vg. render blue or violet,'

Ar. Samar.

black or dark.' This view, which has

been strongly 'maintained by Bochart, rests, however,

on

no philological ground, and is refuted by the syntax

of the Hebrew

Apart from the versions, all

Hebrew tradition is

favour of the view that

is

an

animal.

In the discussion on this animal in the

c.

fol. 28) the opinion prevails that it is a

species of

(prob.

=

ferret

'),

a

description which

roughly suit the

and the claim of this

animal has been supported (by Ges. and others) by
comparison with late Lat. Taxus

or t a r o

(Ital.

Fr.

and Germ.

The common badger,

taxus, found throughout Europe and Northern

Asia, reaches its

limits in Palestine, where

it is common in the hilly and woody parts of the
country.

It is, however, improbable that the reference

is to the skins of these animals. They would be diffi-
cult to procure either in Egypt or in the desert, and
there is no evidence of their being used in those regions
for such a purpose.

For the god Dusares

on

Nab. inscr.

see

ZDMG 14465,41711,

Baethg.

and We.

The name means

The latter is often taken

t o

he equivalent

to

'Sarah,' in which

case Dusares is equivalent

to

Abraham-a hazardous theory.

is

obviously

gen. after

equivalent

to

not

to

in the phrase for 'rams' skins dyed red.'

Philological explanations involving roots common

to

the

and Semitic languages are, however, notoriously pre-

carious.

4

How little value attaches

to

the opinion of the

may

be gathered from another view, strongly supported in the
Talmud, that the

was a kind

of unicorn which specially

appeared

to

Moses for this purpose, and immediately afterwards

disappeared (Bochart, 3 30).

456

BAEAN

(3)

more scientific etymology is that which com-

pares the

tubas

or

a dolphin.’

This would

indicate a marine animal,-probably (u)

the

seal

(RV

text), or

(6)

the

or ( c ) the

or

sea-cow.

( a )

has in its favour the adaptability

of sealskins to the purposes referred to, the statement
of Artemidorus (in Strab.

16776)

that seals abounded

in the Red Sea, one island there being called

and the actual use of a sealskin covering in

antiquity to protect buildings, because it was supposed
that lightning never

this material

Pliny,

Suet.

90).

One species of seal,

undoubtedly occurs in the Mediter-

ranean, and some authorities are of opinion that the
same is true of the common seal,

(6)

The

like the seal, is as a rule a denizen of

the colder waters of the globe but
the common porpoise of the British coasts, occasionally
enters

Mediterranean, whilst the Indian porpoise,

Ph.

inhabits the shores of the Indian

Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan, and
have been captured in the Red Sea.

( c )

The

being more like the dolphin, has the etymology

in its favour. According to

(Comm.

on

Ex.

255)

this animal

‘ i s found

in

the

Red Sea, attaining a length of

8

to

IO

or more feet, is

hunted like the whale, and has a skin well adapted for
sandals or coverings.’ Friedr. Del. sought to strengthen

the case for this identification (Prol. to Baer’s

by comparison with Ass.

an animal whose

skin, according to various Ass. inscriptions, was used
to cover the beams of ships in the manner described by

Herodotus

(1

He has since

77-79

however, abandoned the view that

the

dugong, and supposes it to mean

The dugong

of the Indian Ocean, with the Manatee of the Atlantic,
composes the class

They are usually found

in the estuaries of large rivers browsing on sea-weed,
and they are still actively sought

off

the coast of

Queensland for the sake of their blubber and hide.

(4)

Much less probable is the opinion of Bottcher

that

is a form of

goat) with the middle radical hardened; he supposes
that goat-skin was

into a kind of morocco

leather.

It is natural that ‘rams’ and ‘he-goats’

should come together as in Gen.
but apart from this the explanation has little to recom-
mend it.

(5) The latest and perhaps most probable view is

that put

by Bondi

I

who

makes

a loan-word from Egyptian

Egyptian

leather,’ and gives

a

thorough discussion of views.

This meaning is especially suitable to

Ez.

but

is also appropriate in the other passages.

Of all the explanations those by Ar.

or

by Ass.

and by Eg.

most deserve attention.

M.-A. E.

BAEAN

I

Macc.

AV

B

EAN

.

BAG.

Several of the Hebrew words are

more

general in signification than the English bag.’-(I)

Pr.

Mi.

Is.

or the weights employed by merchants.

In Pr.

renders P

URSE

.

( z )

(cp

bag of skin, etc., and see Frank.

in

K.

of Naaman’s bag which con-

tained a talent

of

silver.

In Is. 322 it is mentioned

in the list of ‘women’s adornments, and signifies
probably a satchel (so

AV ‘crisping

pin’).

( 3 )

a

word of very general meaning (see V

ESSEL

),

used of a sack for containing corn (Gen.

or

Cp

Shalmaneser; Monolith inscr.

56,

‘on boats of skins of wethers

so

for good

reasons;

see references in Muss-Arnolt,

Dict.

457

BAHURIM

if .the instruments carried by a shepherd (Zech.

11

15).

is rendered ‘ b a g ’ only in

I

vessel‘)

:

see S

LING

. (4)

cp verb in

2

‘and they put in bags’), Job1417

Pr.

bag with holes‘

(Hag.

It is rendered bundle’ in

I

S.

Gen

4 2 3 5

(of

noney) and Cant.

(of myrrh,

‘ b a g ’ ) . (5)

Lk.

RV ‘purse’ and (6)

(Jn. 126

‘box’). See

Box, 3.

[A]),

I

Esd.

3.

BAGOAS

(from Pers.

God’ see Ed. Meyer,

cp Bigvai,

Abagtha), a eunuch in

the household of Holofernes

in

[A”]).

[A]),

I

Esd.

B

IGVAI

,

BAGPIPE

of

Dan.

3 5

I

O

[in

IO

Kr.

Gr.

EV dulcimer

’).

The Aramaic word is from

a late Gr. word,

curiously enough, by

in his account of

the festivities in which Antiochus Epiphanes (who is so
frequently alluded to in Daniel) indulged (xxvi.

xxxi.

48; see D

ANIEL

,

7).

For the form of the

agreed,’ in the Fiscal Inscription from

Palmyra,

A.D.

(col.

3,

See M

USIC

,

4

BAHARUMITE, THE

I

Ch.

3 3

o

o

evidently a scribe’s error for ‘the

the man of

The same reading should be restored in

2

S.

2331.

See

B

ARHUMITE

.

BAHURIM

and

[ B ] ,

[ L ] ;

1 6 5

[ B ] ,

16

[B],

[ A L ] ,

a place in Benjamin

(z

S.

19

not included

in

the list of Benjamite towns, which appears prominently

in two very interesting narratives-that of the return of

to David, and that of the flight of David from

Absalom. Michal had been given by David‘s angry
father-in-law to

or Paltiel of Gallim, and

David in his returning prosperity demanded her back.
Followed by her weeping husband, Michal went from
Gallim to Bahurim. There Abner commanded
to return. It may naturally be asked, Why was Bahurim
selected as the scene of this leave-taking? The answer
is furnished by the story of David’s flight.

It is clear

from

S.

1 6

I

5

(cp

17

24)

that Bahurim lay near the road

from Jerusalem to the Jordan valley. Abner would have
to take this road on his return to Mahanaim, and would
naturally wait at Bahurim until he knew for certain that a
visit to Hebron would he acceptable to the king.

Mean-

time the envoys of David conducted Michal to Hebron.

it was David’s turn to pass by Bahurim, when

he sought the Jordan valley

as

a fugitive

At Bahurim he would apparently have made his first
halt had not the insults

compelled him to go

farther

2

S.

It was at

also that

Jonathan and Ahimaaz lay hid in a well, when pursued
by the servants of Absalom

S.

The spot

which best answers the topographical conditions

(as

was the first to see) SE. of the village of

(see L

AISHAH

). Here, to the

S.

of the old

Roman road, van Kasteren found in the upper

a ruin without a name, which he believes to

be

on

the site of Bahurim

For

a

less probable view, fully discussed by van

see

3

Sir

G.

Grove (Smith’s

thinks this may he doubtful.

The rendering of

however, in

S.

3

suggests

that the verse originally closed with

‘from Gallim.’ That

was with Ishhosheth at

seems very improbable.

The name

of the village where he ‘refreshed himself’

S.

seems

to have dropped out.

T. K.

C.

See

458

BAITERUS

BAKEMEATS

morsel,’ RV loaf’),

I

S.

must have been round,

a

Scottish bannock’

which, from the

hold good also of the barley-cake

of Gideon’s

(Judg.

7

The

possibly

to prick) may have been thin cakes pricked

like a modern biscuit, or dotted over with the seeds

some condiment

(see

below). They were part of the

which the wife of Jeroboam

I.

took

to

the

Ahijah

(

I

and are rendered by EV

for which the American revisers prefer to

cakes.’

Still, judging from etymology, we may

the

the cake which so frequently

in the sacrificial ritual,

as

having been perforated

to pierce) like a modern Passover cake.

It was

made of the finest

flour

Mention is made of

mother kind

of

sacrificial cakes, apparently

of

foreign

which the women of Jerusalem kneaded and

baked in

with the idolatrous worship of the

‘Q

UEEN

O

F

Jer.718

merely

transliterates the Heb. word

[BKAQ]

[Q”]

in Jer.

and the

exegetical tradition varies. That these

were

some kind of bakemeats is clear from the kneading of
the dough in their preparation

It is generally

thought that they may have resembled the

cakes shaped like the full moon, which were

offered in Athens to

the moon-goddess, at the

time of full moon (see especially

essay ‘ D e

melecheth des hemels,’ translated in

edition of his

and the comm. of Graf and of

Giesebrecht i n

).

A similar custom is said to have

prevailed in the worship of the Arabic goddess
(We.

A

Y

.

ed.

With regard to what may be called the pastry of the

Hebrews, all that can be said with any degree of certainty

is that a more delicate relish was imparted to
the preparation of certain kinds of bakemeats

in three ways.

(

I

)

The dough was baked in olive oil.

Thus the taste of the manna is said in one passage (Nu.

J E ) to be, like the taste of ‘calces baked with oil’

generally understood of some dainty

cooked

(but EV ‘like the taste of fresh oil’).

The dough was prepared by being mixed with oil and
then fired. This mode of preparation was extensively
used in

the

ritual of

P

: see, for example, Lev.

where a distinction is made between cakes ‘mingled

in

BDB

with oil and cakes merely

anointed

with oil.’

( 3 )

In the passage parallel

to that quoted above (

I

), viz., Ex.

the taste of

the manna is likened to ‘wafers

for which

B

READ

) made with honey.’ From this passage, from

the prohibition of honey in the ritual (Lev.

and

from the post-biblical use of the verbal stem
we learn that honey

doubt both the product

of the bee and the artificial grape-syrup (the modern

see HONEY)-was used

the preparation of certain

of bakemeats.

in both the passages dis-

cussed

(Nu.

11 8 Ex. 1631) renders by

which,

according to

(in Di. on Ex.

denoted

‘ a

balcemeat made with oil and honey.’ Saadia’s word
here

is

a species of confec-

tion still made in Syria.

et

defines it as a flaky paste

made with walnut and sugar and,

spring, with

Some sort of dainty confection

is

evidently intended by

the obscure

S.

136

8

EV cakes

which Tamar baked for

If the etymology

For

Josh.

95,

the only other passage where

(EV

‘mouldy’), see

Di.

The curious in these matters are referred to Landberg’s hook

for

a detailed list

of modern Arab confections,

; cp

BAITERUS

[BA]),

I

Esd.

RV,

AV

BAJITH,

RV

the temple’ text of

differs), is taken in EV of Is.

as the name of a

place, the article being neglected (cp A

IN

,

2).

It is

perhaps more defensible to render the stichus containing
the word thus : They go

np

to the temple, Dibon (goes

to the high places to weep’ (so Ges. and formerly

Che.). The temple referred to might be the Beth-
bamoth of the inscription of Mesha

26 ;

cp

BAAL

).

and

however, are

so

easily confounded

(see,

Is.

that it is still better to read

the daughter (=people) of Dibon

gone up,’

Duhm and Cheyne

BAKBAKKAR

form strange, probably

which in vu.

8

etc.

Jeroham), a Levite

in list of inhabitants of Jerusalem (see

E

ZRA

,

[

I

]

a ) ,

I

Ch. 915 not in

Neh.

11

16,

but perhaps

transposed to

17

(where M T and

read

though

omits,

BAKBUK

38,

71,

‘pitcher’ but see

below

[AL]).

The b’ne Bakbiik,

a

family

of Nethinim in the great post-exilic list (see

E

ZRA

,

ii.

Ezra251

[B],

[B],

[A];

EV,

l h e name can hardly be Hebrew.

It

may be corrupted from Assyr. Habbakuka,

a

plant name

BAKBUKIAH

38, ‘pitcher of

[or else= Bakbuk,

being probably a simple

tive (Jastrow,

13

cp

om.), one of the Nethinim

a

singer in list of Levite inhabitants of Jerusalem (see

E

ZRA

,

[

I

]

a,

and cp

Neh.

omitted in

I

Ch.

before

of Neh.); and porter in Zerubbabel’s

baud (see

E

ZRA

,

ii.

6

6,

and

In Neh.

of the three persons named,

Mattaniah is a son’ of Asaph, and Abda is a son
of

It

is

plausible, therefore, to take

to be the same name as

(cp

and identify

“with

one of the sons of

The

three great

of temple-singers will then be repre-

sented.

In his dream Pharaohs chief baker

carried on his head

three baskets of white bread’

Gen.4016-so RV and most

modern scholars AV three white baskets‘

in the uppermost of which were all manner of bakemeats
for Pharaoh,’ literally, as we read. in the margin of

AV,

meat [food] of Pharaoh, the work of a baker (40

17).

The best commentary on these verses is the representa-
tion of the royal bakery on

tomb of Ramses

at

Thebes, which has been reproduced

1878,

and more recently by Erman

191). The process of making the ordinary house-

hold supply is described under B

READ

;

here it is pro-

posed to bring together the scattered notices in Scripture
regarding other products of the baker’s skill. In this
connection, it is interesting to note. the remarkable variety

of

shapes assumed by the bread and pastry in the repre-

sentation referred to.

Additional varieties are collected

Erman from other sources and represented

on

the

same page.

How

far

the Hebrew court bakers

(

I

8

were able to imitate those of Egypt we do not know.

There is certainly no lack of names for different species

of

bakemeats in the

but it is now impossible to

Thus we can

only conjecture, although with a fair amount

of

certainty, that the cake named

AV

Cp

A

KKUB

,

It is possible, however, that

omit the

name

(L

has

since

etc. may be

a duplicate

of

G

IBBAR

.

corrupt

[B],

[AL]

Pesh. has

(see H

ABAKKUK

).

T. K. C.

BAKEMEATS.

identify them (cp B

READ

).

459

ZDMG

11

On the reading in v. see C

OOKING

U

TENSILS

,

5

BAKING

BALAAM

from

(heart) were more

we might conclude

that the tit-bit in question was heart-shaped.

In

Ez.2717

we find among the trade-products of

Tyre a substance called

which, according

to the

was a kind of confection

so

The meaning is quite uncertain, and probably the text
is corrupt

would read

wax; see

For the frequently mentioned

or grape-cake, see

F

RUIT

,

5

and for the use of condiments in baking,

BAKING.

See B

READ

,

O

V

E

N

.

BAKING PAN

Lev.

See C

OOKING

U

TENSILS

,

7.

BALAAM

etymology uncertain

[GZ

1

seems improbable cp perhaps

me-e

Tab.

)

and see

[BAL]

Joseph.

b.

a

soothsayer or prophet

whom

king of Moab, made anxious by Israel's

victory over the Amorites, summoned to curse his
enemies.

Instead of doing

so,

Balaam bore himself

as

the prophetic mouthpiece of

whom he acknow-

ledged

as

his God

(Nu.

and by the spirit of

(242)

foretold the future glory of Israel.

wonder that a prophet of Judah, writing probably in
the dark and idolatrous days of Manasseh, recalled the
history of Balaam, when he would remind his ungrateful
countrymen of YahwB's beneficent deeds (Mic. 6 5 ) .
Balaam's character has long been regarded as

an

enigma,

and from Bishop Butler's time onwards many subtle'
solutions have been offered. The enigma, however, is
mainly produced by the combination of two traditions
belonging to different periods, and it is the duty of the
critic to distinguish,

as

far as possible, the two traditions

which, though one in spirit, present a palpable difference
in details.

According to

Balak, king of Moab, dismayed by

the number of his new and unwelcome neighbours,
called Balaam from the land of the

to

curse Israel.

protested that he could not, for

all the royal treasure, go beyond

word but he

saddled his

ass

and set

On the road, the

'of

invisible

to

Balaam, but visible to the beast

he rode, stopped his way with a drawn sword.
endowed the ass with speech, and at last opened

the

prophet's eyes to the apparition, and, had it not been
for the fear which held the animal back, Balaam would
have paid for his rashness with his,

life.

Still, he re-

ceived permission to go, and was only warned to report
YahwB's oracle faithfully.

The

has no

occasion for these marvels.

In his account, Balaam,

who is an

of

P

ETHOR

)

on the Euphrates

perhaps rather

a N.

Arabian of Rehoboth by the

river of

did not yield to

repeated solici-

tations till God

appeared in

a

dream and told

him to go with the Moabite ambassadors.

From this point it is not possible to separate the

E

and

J

documents with full confidence.

In what

follows we have four great prophecies concerning Israel's
future, besides three short oracles on the destruction of
the Amalekites, the Kenites, and the Assyrians.

Prob-

ably the first two of the four great prophecies come to
us

their present form from the hand of the

The word confection here used in the

refers every-

where else in

E V

toperfumes or spices

35,

RV

'perfume'

;

Ch. 9

ointment,'

RV

confection ; Ecclus. 38

8 )

;

cp the

confectionaries or perfume-compounders of

I

S.

8 13.

2256; read

for

with Di. after

Sam.

Pesh. Vg.,

and some Heb.

MSS.

For a third view, however, see

Nu. 22

belongs to

E.

The reason why Balaam went

is

not told in the extant portions of

J.

The Elohistic account of the prophecies must however, have

made some reference to Moab and must

have

con-

tained more than is now given

chap. 23.'

see F

OOD

and S

PICES

.

'A. R.

K.

while the last two are derived from the narrative of

the

Yahwist.

Balaam prepares for his work rather after the fashion

of

a

sorcerer' than in accordance with the spiritual

of Hebrew prophecy.

In

order to influ-

ence

he directs

to offer

sacrifices of special solemnity

1

(seven

altars, seven oxen, seven rams; cp B

EER

-

SHEBA

).

the scene of the sacrifices, was no ordinary

'high place,' but (probably) one of those high hills

where huge dolmens still suggest

communing

with God, and,

as

we learn, it commanded

a

view of at

least the utmost part

'

of the Israelitish encampment.

This was important, for

a

curse must be uttered in sight

of those upon

it

is

to fall (cp

When

Balaam returns to Balak and his princes after meeting
God, he can but break forth into jubilant praise of
Israel. Curse it he cannot.

The people has a destiny

of its own which parts it from the surrounding nations.
The Israelite hosts

N.

of

Arnon

are the token of a

mightier multitude unborn.

All individual desire loses

itself in the sense of Israel's greatness.

Happy is

he who dies in Jeshurun, and, dying, knows that his
people is immortal !

In

vain Balak changes the seer's

place of outlook. As Balaam beholds all Israel from
the top of

he receives

a

divine oracle which

confirms and transcends the former blessing.

God,

says Balaam, is not a man : he does not change his

mind.

Nor can trouble touch Israel, for

himself

reigns in their midst and the people (if

may trust

the

greet this divine king with exultant shout.

With the strength of

a

wild-ox, they fling their foes to

the ground.

No

magical arts avail in Israel's case : even

now

all has been decided, and one can but cry What

has God done !

Like

a

lion, Israel rises up to devour

the prey.

Again sacrificial rites are performed, and again Balaam

has to disappoint the king (see

P

EOR

).

The third

prophecy (J), together with some striking

to the

has characteristic

The poet still dwells

on the numbers and prowess of Israel, but adds a
panegyric of its well-watered and fruitful land, and
surprises us by a definite mention of the kingly power

as

distinct from the reign of

The

of

Israel

is described

as

raised even above A

GAG

Still

more definite

the fourth prophecy.

seer beholds

in spirit the rise of David, and chaunts the victories
which are to crush Moab and subdue Edom.

The basis of the story of Balaam is evidently a patri-

otic legend, which, as we now have it, presupposes a

comparatively advanced historical period.
It is true, the story of the ass, which sees
the angel invisible to man, and speaks

(Nu.

cp

2

Pe.

has

a

highly primitive

Still, this story, though welded with some

psychological skill into the surrounding narrative,

is

a

decoration derived from folklore, and the narrative as
a whole is designed to accentuate the uselessness of

jealous

and rebellious feelings in the Ammonitish and

Edomitish neighbonrs of Israel.

and Edom

I t is Balak, not Balaam, who sacrifices. Balak and Balaam

in

Nu.

should evidently be omitted

This is certainly

E's

meaning in

Nu.

23

The second

part of

v.

13, which limits Balaam's range of vision to 'the

utmost part of the people,' must be due

a redactor. Its

object is to harmonise

with

which tells us

that Balaam is

taking

first complete

of the people

of Israel.

I n reality, however. v. 136 destroys the progress

which

E

intended from

Since a limited view of

Israel had not resulted in the utterance of a curse, Balak deemed
it necessary to try the effect of the wider outlook from Pisgah.

3

Cheyne,

reads

'and

the glory of the king

is among them.

It is doubtful, however, whether

Nu.

23 is not a

fragment (see Bacon,

Tradition,

228, and cp

note).

According to

occurs both in

d a n d

in

v.

the speaking horse in

Hom.

19

and the speaking

in Genesis.

of its own.

5

Cp the Babylonian beast-stories

BALAAM

BALANCE

were older

as

but Israel alone had secured

permanent foothold

W.

of Jordan, and for a timereduced

the oldest nationalities to vassalage.

The story of

Balaam points out that

had ordained these

privileges of Israel long before.

The Moabitish king

and the Ammonitish, Arabian,’ or

sooth-

sayer had striven to turn aside the irreversible decree,
and

had turned the very means they took into the

instrument by which he announced the triumphs and
the unique destiny of his people.

It is much harder to fix the date and origin of the

poems. W e can scarcely attribute them

reserve

to J and

E,

for the points of contact

between the prophecies (cp especially
and

2 4 8 )

suggest that an ancient poem

has been expanded and changed in diverse ways. The
kernel of the poem may

go

back to the early days of

the kingdom,-even, it may be, to those

of

Solomon.

national fortune is painted in glowing colours, and

the historical references stop short at David, who was
the only king to conquer both Moab and Edom.

On

the other hand, the clear sense of Israel’s separateness
from the nations

not arisen,

so

far as is

known, before the time of the literary prophets, and
the phraseology does not permit

us

to

place the

as

we now have them, earlier:

The appendix

at any rate, is generally

to be comparatively modern (note the

geration respecting the Amalekites). The

shows that the oracles are from

one hand (cp

end, with

24,

end).

The writer was quite familiar with the Assyrian power,
and speaks of the deportation of the

by the

Assyrians. H e speaks of the Kenites, rather than more

peoples, becanse he considers them to be (like

the Amalekites cp

I

1 5 6 )

within Balaam’s horizon.

He also (if the text of

be correct) predicts that

in its turn will be destroyed by ships from

Was he thinking

of

the Persian

empire

Persia,

and its overthrow

by

Alexander the Great (cp

I

Macc.

1

I

) ?

The theory

has hcen widely accepted, and much controversy as to
the limits of prophecyhas grown out of it.

It seems

bolder than the evidence as

a

whole warrants (see

and it has lately been pointed out that ‘they shall

v.

24)

is a misreading which has arisen out

of

the loss of an ethnic name in

v.

23.

Analogy requires

that the last of the three little oracles in

22-24

should

begin thus

:

And he saw

.

. .

and

his oracle, and said,

Alas who will live (survive)

of

. . .

And the discoveries of the Tell of Zenjirli enable us to

‘restore the missing name, which was, not

Samuel’

as

many MSS and some editions), but

Then in

we may

:

And there shall he ships from the direction

of Cyprus,

shall

him

and Eher shall

him,

And he too (shall come) to destruction.2

The kingdom of

in NW. Syria was not

so

very

far from Balaam’s native place Pethor.

(The

poet,

at any rate, placed Pethor in Aram.)

That it was

destroyed by Assyrians and peoples from the other side
of the Euphrates

and plundered by

from Cyprus, was probably within the recollection of the
author, who is, therefore, not to be regarded as

See above, $

I

,

second paragraph. Cp Gen. 3632, and see

The importance of this correction will appear if we

the alternative explanation of Hommel

( A H T

produces the following most unnatural and unworthy

:

‘Jackals

shall come from the north

where ‘jackals

’

and ‘wild cats are figurative expressions

for

wild invaders, and Kittim is, Hommel says,

familiar term

for the Hittites (var. chittim).’ See

And wild cats

from the

coast

of Kittim,’

463

exilic. Assyria may have been no longer

at

the height

of its prosperity,

was still a conquering

We have passing notices of Balaam’in Josh.

and in

cp Neh.

3).

In Dt.

as in E, he is an

from Mesopotamia, hired to curse Israel
but

turned his curse into a blessing.

T h e Priestly Writer represents Balaam in a much more
unfavonrable light, Nu.

3 1 8 16

Josh.

(cp Nu.

H e is a sorcerer, at whose instigation the

Midianite women seduced the Israelites into sensual
idolatry and he died in the battle between the Israelites
and the

Jos.

(Ant.

iv.

6 6 )

dwells at great

length on the corrupting advice of Balaam, given in the
first instance (cp Rev.

to Balak, and in Rabbinical

literature Balaam is the type of false teachers

cp Rev.

and sorcerers. Cp also

Pet.

215

For Arabic parallels to the efficacy of

Balaam’s oracles, see Goldziher,

26

See

and cp

Gesch. Bileams

1

de

1860; Kalisch,

Bible Studies,

I

,

8 .

Literature.

1877: Kue.

van Hoonacker Observations critiques

cernant

’

L e

’

Rev.

1894

pp.

C O T

1

C H

Kit.

1

202,214, 229

(sketch of literature appended

to

; Hommel,

Che.

W.

E.

A.

.

See B

ALAK

.

BALAC

[Ti.

WH]), Rev.

BALADAN

K

.

See

DACH-BALADAN.

BALAH

Josh.

19

3.

[BAL];

b. Zippor,

an early king of Moab (Nu.

22-24

Judg.

1125,

and else-

where; cp Rev.

214,

B

ALAC

), inseparably connected with

Balaarn. For the alliteration cp Jabal and Jubal, Bera

and Birsha,

and

etc.

BALAMO,

Balamon

Judith

8 3 .

See

BALANCE.

(

I

)

dual

refers to the two

ear-like

are scales for

weighing money (Jer.

32

IO

),

hair

(Ez.

5

I

,

etc.

cp the metaphor of weighing calamity

men

[

IO

],

cp Dan.

and hills

The

of the balance is a simile for an insignificant

or negligible quantity (Is.

4015).

frequent metaphor

of a

just

or even balance

Lev.

cp Job316

Ez.

45

I

O

Prov.

16

RV

scales

’),

as

opposed

to one that is false

Prov.

11

cp

23

Am.

8

5

Hos.

Mic.

is analogous to the well-

known Heb. and Aram. idiom which expresses honour
and integrity by the simile of

‘

heaviness (cp

and

For

kind,

(Is.

4 6 6 :

only here in this sense),

see R

EED

,

I

,

Other words are

Prov.

16

RV, AV ‘weight,’ Is.

EV

scales ; cp the verb in Ps.

58

but hardly

in

‘the balancings

of the clouds?’ (see

Budde).

(4)

Rev. 65, frequent in

for the

above.

The balances used in Palestine were probably similar

to those found on Egyptian monuments.

One type

consists of an upright pole rising from a broad base with

Che.

1896, pp. 77-80 (following

D.

H .

Die

In Ar.

with

e,

whereas

has

see

198.

Cp Phcen.

‘B.

hath weighed out.’

Cp

the deprecation

of

unfair weights

lit. stones in

See

See B

ALAAM

.

Lev. 1935 Prov. 11

I

Mic. 611.

BALASAMUS

cross beams turning upon a pin. An arm on either side
ended in

a

hook

to

which the article to be weighed was

attached

bags (cp Wilk.

2246,

fig.

see B

AG

,

I

).

Small ones of a particularly ingenious

nature,

well as hand-scales, are found (Wilk.

fig.

95).

Above the pole is sometimes placed the

of a baboon representing Thoth the regulator of

measures. The steelyard (in Egypt) does not seem to
have been known until the

period.

BALASAMUS

I

Esd.

Neh.84.

M

AASEIAH

,

15.

BALD LOCUST

[BAFL]).

The

is apparently

a

species of edible locust, or

a

locust in

a

particular stage of growth.

See further

L

OCUST

,

2.

BALDNESS.

BALM

[

PIT.

[E'

once]

:

cp Ezek.

'rosin'

Vg.

resina

Gen.

Jer. 822

Ezek.

a

valuable product of Palestine,

the identification of which has given much trouble.

rendering, balm,' is an unfortunate inheritance

from Coverdale's Bible (see

New

Let

us

look first at the Hebrew name

The Arabic

or

is identical with it, and since the root

to drip or bleed,' the product referred to must

be

but it need

not

be aromatic.

From the

OT

notices we learn that

(EV balm

was found

abundantly in Gilead, that it was in early times exported
thence to Egypt (Gen.

was sufficiently prized to

form an appropriate gift to

a

lord of that country (Gen.

was applied

as

a remedy for violent pain

(Jer.

and was among the chief products of Pales-

tine that were brought into

market

(Ez.

27

Next, we must point out that the modern

name balm of Gilead has, like the botanical specific
name

no foundation but the hypothesis that

the substance so designated is the O T

of Gilead'

and that from the earliest times resins and turpentines
have been used in medicine, as stimulants

as anti-

septics for wounds, arid as counter-irritants for pain.

( E V

of Jer. 822 4611 is clearly a local

product in Gilead

its association with

(EV

myrrh in Gen.

37

25

43

proves that it

was

a

valuable

article of commerce.

It has been shown elsewhere (B

ALSAM

) that the

so-

called 'balsam of Mecca,' produced by the

See

I

H

AIR

.

BALSAM

dendron

is most probably

not the

of

Gilead' but the Hebrew

renders 'myrrh'

=mastic.

(see B

ALSAM

, M

YRRH

).

(EV

balm), then, must

be something else.

( I )

Arabic usage is in favour of the rendering of

Gen.

37

etc.,

the resin yielded by the

mastic tree,

This tree 'is a native of the Mediterranean shores, and is

found in Portugal Morocco and the Canaries' (Fliickiger and
Hanbury's

According to Tristram

it is extremely

in all the Mediterranean countries,

especially on the African coasts and in the Greek islands, where
it overruns whole districts for many miles. Tristram states, also,
that it is indigenous in

all

parts of Palestine, though, according

to Post (Hastings

it is not now to he found

E.

of the

Jordan.

T h e

of commerce

is

derived from the

Isle of Scio.

Down to the seven

century mastic was

an

ingredient

of

many medicines.

most resins, it readily

softens with moderate heat, even that of the mouth.

As

the Arabic word

(or

is used mainly of

this tree and its products, we are not rash in concluding
that a substance of this kind is intended in the biblical
passages, though it seems unnecessary to limit
to the resin of

it may include the resins

of the terebinth

and

pine

see A

SH

).

former yields Chian

T h e Syriac

must he a loan-word from Arabic

30

turpentine,' which has recently been brought into notice

as

an .alleged remedy for cancer. According to Tris-

tram

the terebinth

is

not now tapped for

turpentine in Palestine, where the inhabitants seem to
be ignorant

of

its commercial value.'

There is abundant

evidence of the medicinal use of these resins in antiquity
(see

iii.

1223).

Balanites

called

hy the

(Tris-

tram,

yields

an

oil

'prepared

the Arabs of

Jericho and sold

large quantities to the pilgrims as balm of

Gilead.' This, however, was the

of

Greek writers, and

clearly, therefore, distinguished by them from

or

(3.)

Lastly must be mentioned Lagarde's view that

Gr.

There is great probability in this

identification

of the words, for

is employed in several

instances to transliterate

but evidence is wanting to con-

nect

with the substance

which seems to have been

called

Hebrew

See further

S

T

O

R

A

X

.

It

is merely a modern substitute.

W.

M.

BALNUUS

[A]),

4.

BALSAM

appears in

once for

(Cant.

and twice

in

rendering the

phrase

'bed

of

balsam' (Cant. 51362,

TOY

spice, 'bed of spices.

The verb (in Aram.

signifies to have pleasure,'

be attracted by desire,'

and in Heb. the nominal forms2 denote enjoyment con-
nected with one particular sense-that of smell. From
one or other of the Semitic forms comes Gr.
Although

and

in the above passages

may

have the general sense of spice or

it is more

probable that, like

and

they denote the

balsam tree or plant

par

W e now know

that the proper source of Mecca balsam

is

dron

(see

4 )

and

a

tree of this kind

seems to be intended in the passages from ancient
writers which are here sunimarised.

(a)

Theophrastus

Plant.

96)

has a long passage about

the production of balsam. I t is produced he says ' i n the

about Syria

Ancient

This

Stackhouse explains

References.

from Strabo

meaning

; but

a t the present day

does not grow farther

N.

than

i t is essentially a tropical plant. Theophrastus, who

so

minutely accurate in all his other details (note his happy

expression

. . .

'with leaves like

rue') cannot have meant what Stackhouse supposes. I t is

that the term

in the Greek

period had ,a wider application, and

rightly remarks,

esse

Hierichubtis

. . .

persuademur.

T h e fruit, Theophrastus

continues, resembles the terminth (turpentine) in size, shape, and
colour.

The 'tear' is gathered from an excision made

iron a t the season when the stems and the upper

are

tensest

The odour is very strong ; the twigs also are

very

No wild balsam is met with anywhere.

The unmixed juice

is sold for twice its weight in silver ;

the mixed, which is often met with in Greece,

is

singularly

fragrant.

(6) Strabo (763) is somewhat less full; but there can he no

doubt that it

the Mecca balsam plant which he describes a s

grown

a

a t Jericho.

H e says that it is

resembling

and

minth, and sweet-smelling.

juice is obtained by means of

incisions in the bark;

i t

is very much like a viscous milk

and solidifies when stored in little shells

H e praises its medicinal use, and

that it

else.

(248)

mentions 'a certain hollow' in the

neighbourhood of the Dead Sea as the

of the

and adds that great revenue

is

derived from this plant,

because it is met with nowhere else in the world, and

of

great value to physicians.

Pliny too

affirms that the balsam

is confined

Curiously enough, Ar.

the contrary sense of

Lag.

hut

denotes the balsam

tree.

Heb. does not possess the

3

See

is the word used in

I

K.

10

(Queen of

visit to Solomon).

466

BALSAM

BAN

of

syrupy, consistence, having a very grateful

something like oil of rosemary.'

Jewish tradition

seems to have held that Mecca balsam is what the O T
writers call

the rendering

of AV

and

(text) but the tradition was impugned long

ago by Bochart

and does not agree

with the use of the Arabic cognate word

(mastic

see B

ALM

,

I

).

holds that the

name

for Mecca balsam was not

(EV balm, perhaps

really mastic; see B

ALM

,

I

) ,

nor

(see above,

I

) ,

but

(see M

YRRH

). Certainly

(like

Mecca balsam) strongly aromatic and also a
substance (Ex.

Cant.

5

whilst the O T refer-

ences do not necessarily imply that

was aromatic.

It is not unlikely that both

I

)

and

mean

Mecca balsam.

(Cp

for

1896,

BALSAM TREES

2

I

Ch.

89.)

See M

YRRH

.

N.

T.

1414

846).

BALTHASAR,

Baltasar (

Bar.

1

See B

ELSHAZZAR

.

BAMAH

Ez.

See H

IGH

P

LACES

,

BAMOTH

[RAFL]),

a

station of

the Israelites between N

AHALIEL

and the glen

which is in the field [plateau] of Moab,

[by] the summit of [the] Pisgah, etc.' (Nu.

21

19).

Eus.

(OS

describes it as

'on

the Arnon' (like Nahaliel),

which must be wrong.

BAMOTH-BAAL

the high places

of

Baal')

lay

the Moabite territory (see

R V ;

T

O

Y

[BAFL]), to the north of the

Arnon, and was

to

(Josh. 1317:

enumeration in Nu.

21

where it is called simply

leads to the supposition (so Di.) that it must

have lain somewhere on or near the Jebel

on

the south side of the Wady

Ma'in (cp Is.

:

the high places

').

Conder

and

and G.

A.

Smith

( H G

however, find the Bamoth

in

the dolmens immediately north of

near the

The Beth Bamotb of the

Moabite stone is perhaps the same place (cp B

A

JITH

)

whole region is thickly strewn with the remains

of ancient altars and other religious monuments (Conder,

The name

is

suggested

also by

Nu.

21

28,

where the

(EV lords

of the high places of

see

are mentioned

See B

AMOTH

-

BAAL

.

in

parallelism with Ar of Moab.

G.

A.

BAN,

(B

A

N

BAN

t o Ban

Esd.

T

OBIJAH

,

renders by

and

in a few instances

and other words denoting destruc-

tion

and more rarely

1.

Terms.

once

I

4

and in a

few instances

denoting

or 'de-

stroy.' Vg. has

anathema,

etc.

;

AV

translates curse,

destroy,

thing,

etc.

RV,

destroy,

thing.

The root

in Hebrew denotes devoting any-

thing to

by destroying it :

is any person

or thing thus devoted. The root is found in a similar
sense in all the Semitic languages, of sacred things
which men are partly

or

wholly forbidden to use.

It

especially common in Arabic :

the sacred territory

of Mecca and Medina is

and the

(harem)

is ground

to all men other than the master

and his eunuchs. It may be noted that the exclusive
use of the root

in

the strong. sense

of

devoting by

destroying is characteristic of Hebrew (and

of

the dialect

spoken by the Moabites see

and that in other

bears a meaning more nearly approaching

(unclean),

(consecrated).

to Judaea.

'In

former times it was cultivated only in two

gardens both of them royal one of

was

no more

than

extent, and the other less.

emperors Vespasian and Titus had this shrub exhibited at

.

.

.

it bears a much stronger resemblance to the vine

in the stems; here Pliny seems to borrow from 'l'rogus

than to the myrtle.

The leaf bears a very close

resemblance to that of

and it

is

an evergreen.

.

.

.

At

the present day it is cultivated by the fiscal authorities,

the

plants were never known

to

be mpre

They never

exceed a couple of cubits in height.

Josephus makes several references to the balsam. H e says

( A n t .

F6)

that the first routs of balsam

were

brought

to

Palestine by the queen of Sheba. T o

give an idea of the site of Pompey's camp (at Jericho)

he says it is where that balsam

which is of

unguents

the chief grows, and describes how the juice

is obtained

(Ant.

xiv. 4

I

).

Again, when speaking of the

districts

Jericho assigned to Cleopatra, he speaks of the

preciousness of this plant, which grows there alone

XV

.

42).

Lastly in

a

second reference to Pompey, he says that the region

of

bears the balsam tree

stems

were cut with sharp stones, upon which the juice 'drops

down like tears

i. 6

6).

a n author of the time of Augustus, is reproduced by

Justin (36

3).

H e describes the closely shut-in valley in which

alone

the opobalsamum grows the

of the

place is Jericho

that valley

is a wood, notable alike for its fertility and its pleasantness,
being adorned with a palm grove and opobalsamum. The opo-
balsamum trees have a form

pine trees

except that

they are less tall

and are cultivated after the

manner of vineyards.

at

a

certain time

of

the year sweat

balsam.'

It is remarkable that the

and the Roman writers

dwell

so

constantly

on

the uniqueness of the balsam-tree

of Jericho.

Some of them, at any rate

Strabo,

Diodorus), were

not unaware that the plant grew on the

coasts of Arabia and Josephus, in his legendary style,
actually attributes to importation from Arabia its
presence in Palestine

(Ant.

66).

No

doubt this is

substantially correct.

Prosper Alpinus

(De

and Veslingius

1643) long

ago investigated the subject. In the time of the former,
balsam plants were brought to Cairo from Arabia;
Alpinus himself (of.

64) apparently possessed a

living specimen. The Arabic writer

( d .

1231)

also speaks of the balsam tree as in Egypt at
Shems ('Fountain of the

in the gardens of

close to

It was about a cubit

high, and had two barks the outer red and fine, the
inner green and thick. When the latter was macerated
in the mouth, it left an oily taste, and

aromatic

odour.

Incisions were made in the barks, and the

amount of balsam oil obtained formed a tenth part of
all the liquid

The last balsam tree cultivated

in Egypt died in

but two were alive in 1612.

This was the only place in Egypt where the balsam
tree would grow. W e can well understand, therefore:
that the neighhourhood of Jericho was the only habitat
of the tree in Palestine.

It would, however, be unreasonable to suppose that

the needs of the luxurious 'class in Palestine in

Roman times were altogether supplied

from Jericho. The precious unguent
derived from the balsam tree, not less
than the costly frankincense, was doubt-

less always one of the chief articles brought by Arabian
caravans. The tree that produces the so-called balsam
of Mecca' is the

Opobalsamum.

This

tree, as Schweinfurth

averages above

ft. in

height, possesses a yellow papery exfoliating bark, and
produces thin, grayish black twigs, from the ends of
which a small quantity of balsam exudes.'

It is widely

distributed over the coast territory of Arabia, the adjacent
islands, and

hut the balsam is collected

only in the valleys near Mecca.

It is thus described by

Dymock

1

:

Balsam of Mecca,

when freshly imported into

a greenish turbid

in old editions

Mayhoff prefers

See

ed. De

88 (Budge,

The

Nile,

3

We quote from a

of his researches in

April 1894, p. 897.

467

BAN

are

in themselves. In Dt.

the

Israelites are ordered to burn all heathen idols and not

The idols

are

and

those who keep them

herem.

(6)

The Israelites

or

their

are ordered to treat as

in certain

circumstances, guilty citizens or obnoxious enemies.

In

Ex.

22

19

of the Covenant,

E)

any one sacri-

ficing to any deity other than Yahwb is to be made

So

in substance

though the term

does not occur till

In Dt.

any idolatrous Israelite city is to be made herem : all
living things are to be killed and all its spoil' is to be
burnt.

S o

far, in (a)

as

in

the

is something

abominable in itself and distasteful to God.

Its de-

struction is

a

religious duty, and an acceptable service

to

Similarly, in

Dt.

all Canaanite cities

are

to be made

that they may not seduce Israel

to idolatry. In Dt.

if any distant city refuses

to surrender when summoned, all the males are to be
slain, and all other persons and things may be taken

as

spoil. The term 'herem' is not used in that paragraph,
and is perhaps not applicable to it.

(c)

W e gather

from certain passages that individuals might devote
some possession to destruction as a kind of service to
Yahwb, and that also is called herem (see

V

O

W

).

In a

section of

concerning vows, Lev.

27,

two verses

deal with this individual

Other vows may be

redeemed but individual (like public) herem must be
destroyed-it may not be sold or redeemed : it is most
holy

Yahwb. Among the objects

which an individual

make

men are specially

mentioned

:

they must be put to death.

It is startling

to find such a provision

of the latest strata of the

Pentateuch.

Possibly only criminals could be made

or the text may be fragmentary.

Cp Dillmann

and

on Lev.

27

In Josh. 624 we have a provision that metal hhem

(obviously because indestructible) is to be pnt into the
treasury of the sanctuary.

By an extension of this

principle, Nu.

( P ) and

ordain that

shall be the property of the priests.

is met with in Hebrew literature in all periods.

The sweeping statements that all Canaanite cities

E.

and

W.

of the Jordan were made herem

are late generalisations

but Nu.

(JE) and Judg.

(J), though otherwise discrepant,

agree that the city on whose site Hormah

was

built

was made

Other instances of

are

(Judg. 21

IO

Jericho (rebuilding forbidden

under supernatural penalty, Josh. 6 26

the

kites

and the children

of

Ham at Gedor

( I

Ch.441). Similar cases-in regard to which, however,

the term

is not used-are

Benjamin

(Judg.

20)

and Saul's attempt to execute Jonathan

(

I

S.

1424-46).

On

the Moabite stone

says

that he made the whole Israelite populace of Nebo

to

Ashtarchemosh.

The prophets speak of

Israel or

of enemies

(Is.

34

etc.

)

or of enemies' property (Mic.

or, conversely,

of the heathen (Jer.

or

(Is.

herem of Israel.

In the later literature the root

often only means exterminate

Ch.

The old

meaning, however, was not quite forgotten, and in

Ezra 108, if any Jew failed to obey Ezra's summons
to Jerusalem, his property was to be made herem and

he himself excommunicated.

In

post-biblical Hebrew

came to mean excommunication

as

well as pro-

perty set apart for the priests and the temple (Levy and

Dictionaries,

Mandl,

Der

'98,

24-51)

The character of

the

of the root in a

similar sense throughout Semitic languages, and its use
in the Hebrew sense by the Moabites, show that it was
an ancient Semitic institution belonging to Israel in
common with its kinsmen. Stade

(Gesch.

holds

to bring them into their houses.

See, further, EXCOMMUNICATION.

BANI

that

a

Semitic

besieging a citv vowed to make it

,

to, their god in order to secure his

aid.

Moreover, the idea of

as

the use of the root in allied

languages shows-was kindred to that of sanctity and
uncleanness. Like these, it was contagious (cp C

LEAN

,

14)

:

the possessor of hhem

hhem (Dt.

Josh. 618

Achan). O T legislation, as we have seen,

converts the bribe to a venal deity into

a

legitimate

penalty. The various degrees of severity are not im-
portant in relation to the principle.

has something in common with taboos,

especially in its fatal effect on its

in

New

tabooed food is fatal to any one who eats

(Frazer,

Bough,

vol.

Taboos ;-but it is

not

so

closely allied to taboos as the idea of uncleanness

WRS,

The Arab

often assimilates

to

:

clothes used at the

circuit of the

are

and may not be worn

or sold.

Cp also the Roman ceremony of

by

which an enemy was devoted to destruction as an
offering to the infernal gods (Preller,
466). The instance of Kirrha and the Amphictyonic
council, in which the cultivation of land laid under a
curse was made the pretext for a holy war, may also be

compared with the case of Jericho.

BANAIAS

[BA]),

I

Esd.

IO.

BAND.

I

.

In the sense of

a

troop or company of

men, soldiers, etc. (see A

RMY

,

The rendering of

wings, cp Bab.

1 2 14,

etc.

I

K.

11

24

AV

13

etc.

force),

I

S.

AV

Gen.

AV

(prop. camp), see

aiid

I

Ch.

AV Job 117

by bands,' Pr. 3027, represents

a

participle

'dividing (itself).' In this sense the

Gr.

word is

(cp Mt.

Mk.

etc.),

W.

H.

B.

3).

cohort

(so

Acts 10

I

).

In the sense of a ribbon.

So

Ex.

288,

RV 'cunningly woven band'; AV

curious girdle.

3.

Finally, to denote anything that connects

or

encloses, the following words (also rendered bonds,'
etc.

)

are employed.

Judg. 15

cp

Aram.

Dan. 415

23

Ps.

11961

(RV C

ORDS

,

and esp. Zech. 11 7 14,

where Bands ' (mg. 'binders or 'union') is the name of one of
the prophets staves;

Is. 586 and

Ps.734

pangs,' doubtful)

Lev. 26

Ez.

3427,

R V

(A

GRICULTURE

,

4)

Job 39 Ps.

2 3,

of

the 'bands' of Orion; see

S

TARS

,

3

Job 39

IO,

elsewhere (in

rendered 'cords, 'ropes, etc.

BANI

5 2 ; cp Palm. and Nab.

probably shortened from

Yah hath built

u p '

cp Gen.

Dt.

and see

Or.

22

is a frequently occurring name (chiefly post-exilic),
in some cases it is difficult to separate the persons
bearing i t ; there is often confusion between it, the
parallel names

and

and the noun

B'ne

I

.

A

Gadite one of David's 'thirty';

S.

23

ut.

Ch.1138,

on which see

A family of B n e Bani occurs in the great post-exilic list

(see

E

ZRA

,

9

8

2

IO

=

Neh.

AV

Esd. 5

; and

various members of it are enumerated in Ezra 10

29

Esd. 9 30

[BA])

and among

who had

married foreign wives (see

E

ZRA

,

i.

5)

Ezra 10 34-42 :

in

v.

34

Esd. 9

34

AV

RV

and

in

v.

38

See Mey.

142.

5

11

BANIQ

E V B

ANI

and

(EV

It

is plausible, however, to correct

Bani into

or perhaps Bigvai in

v.

34 (cp 2

The

family is also referred to on important occasions

in Neh. 3 17

and 10 13

[Ll?)

and as in Ezra's

(see

E

ZRA

,

(

I

)

d), Esd. 636,

AV

RV

Bl,

Ll,

where Bani should be

restored in M T (see Be. ad

3. One of the expounders of the Law (Neh. 7 see

E

ZRA

:

cp

8,

who officiated at the ion-

of the 'congregation'

see E

Z

RA

,

$

s

I n 9 4 (Bani Kadmiel ;

the name

is repeated, probably by an error

Ryssel);

Pesh., reads

for

In 9 5

has

simply

Cp also Ezra 2

and

of the children

of

743 with

I

Esd. 526

[A]). I n Neh. 11

h. Bani

is

called overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem.

4. Signatory to the covenant (see

E

ZRA

,

7),

Neh. 10

cp

I

).

5. A Merarite

I

Ch.

6.

A

Judahite

I

Ch. 9 4

omit).

RV

[B]),

B

ANI

[end]).

BANISHMENT.

On various forms of temporary

or

permanent exclusion from the community

as

a

con-

sequence of crime or ceremonial disqualification, see
B

AN

,

3

CLEAN

AND

UNCLEAN,

15

SYNA-

GOGUE

E

XCOMMUNICATION

.

I n

a

S.1414 allusion-is made t o Absalom in the

'banished'), elsewhere usually rendered

('out-

casts' or 'dispersed of Israel'); see D

ISPERSION

,

s

I

.

The

nature of the punishment threatened in Ezra7

26t

'rooting out'

[L])

was

already

ob-

scure to the editor of

I

24

:

&&

('separated

the congregation

of

the

ity may give an explanation of the phrase.

BANK.

For

in

2

S. 20

Is. 3733

AV (elsewhere

EV

always M

OUNT

) and

in Llc.

T

RENCH

,

P

ALISADE

) see F

OR

-

BANK

BANKER

RV).

See

T

RADE

AND

C

OM

-

BANNAIA

[A]),

I

Esd.

9 3 3

AV=

BANNAS

[BA]),

I

Esd.

BANNEAS

[BA]),

I

Esd.

BANNER

See E

NSIGNS

,

I,

a, c.

[BA]),

I

BANQUET, Banqueting House.

See M

EALS

.

BANUAS (B

A

N

[BA]),

I

Esd.

5

26,

apparently

a

TIFICATION.

MERCE.

5 .

B

ANI

, 3.

7.

B

ANI

,

misprint for

(so

RV). See B

ANI

(3).

BAPTISM

the permanent witnesses to the birth of Christianity

of Judaism is the primary institu-

tion of the Christian Church, the rite of

baptism. With the Jews the bathing of the whole body
in pure cold water-if possible, in a running
was a recognised means of restoration from a state of

ceremonial uncleanness.

Passages like Num.

19

,

31

also Is.

1 1 6

Zech.

13

I

,

especially Ezek.

36

may be compared. The pouring of water on the

hands-a symbolic representation, perhaps, of baptism
in a running stream-was a Pharisaic precaution in-
sisted on before every meal (cp Mk.

7

3

Lk.

The

Gentile, whose whole life had been ceremonially un-
clean, was required to submit to baptism among other
conditions of his reception as a Jewish proselyte (Schurer,

3rd ed.

3

See P

ROSELYTE

,

The connection between Jewish and Christian baptism

471

BAPTISM

s

strikingly illustrated by the regulations prescribed for

:he latter in the

to be noticed presently but,

the ceremonial baptisms of Judaism, though they lie
behind Christian baptism and exert an influence on its
history, are not its immediate antecedent.

The Jewish

baptisms were the outcome of the Jewish distinction
between clean

unclean-a distinction which was

done away by Christianity (cp W

ASHINGS

). Christian

baptism is a purification, not from ceremonial, but
from moral impurity.

The historical link is found

in the baptism of John in the river Jordan.

John

adapted the familiar ceremony of baptism to a
moral purpose

:

his was

baptism of repentance for

the remission of sins,' a purification of the nation
from that moral uncleanness of which ceremonial un-
cleanness was properly typical. It was by means of

this

of its true significance that baptism

was rescued from mere formalism, and prepared
become the initiatory rite of the new Christian society.

As Jesus' work took up John's, and

as

he him-

self had chosen to be baptized by

it was natural

that his first preaching of repentance should be coupled,
like John's, with

a

baptism.

It is significant,

ever, that he did not perform the rite himself: only
his disciples did

so

(Jn.

Christian baptism

was not yet instituted; and

it came it was to

add a spiritual element which John's baptism lacked.
Meanwhile Jesus was indicating by his own action, and
by his defence

of

the action of his disciples, that the

frequent Pharisaic baptisms-

the ceremonial washing

of the hands,

and

the baptisms of vessels and dishes

(Mli.

no permanent claim

the conscience

and certain of his words are

by one

of the Evangelists as repealing

the ceremonial

distinction of clean and unclean, and as cleansing all
meats

Only when the whole purport of

Jewish baptisms was annulled was the way clear for the
institution of the Christian rite, one of the essential

principles of which was that it shonld be performed once
for all, with no possibility of repetition.

.

On the day of Pentecost Peter answers the inquiries

of the multitude in words which, whilst they recall the
baptism of John, indicate the fuller significance of

Christian baptism

:

Repent ye, and be baptized, each

one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit

About three thousand were there-

upon added by baptism to the original

of believers.

It is expressly stated that at

as

the result

of Philip's' preaching, both men and women were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus

but the gift

of the Holy Spirit did not follow until the arrival of Peter
and John from Jerusalem

The eunuch after

Philip's instructions

asks

for baptism

and 'they go

down both together into the water

( 8

36

baptized by Ananias at Damascus

(9

16).

When Peter

preached to Cornelius and his friends the Holy Spirit
fell on all that heard the word

whereupon the apostle

'

commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus

Christ

Special stress is laid on this incident

as

the first occasion of the baptism of Gentiles as such

It was justified by the apostle on the

ground of the,

gift of the Holy Spirit, which

was the baptism promised by Christ in contradistinction
to John's baptism

Baptism was thus recognised as the door of admission

into the Christian

for Jews and Gentiles

and certain disciples of the Baptist whom Paul found
Ephesus were baptized afresh in the

of the Lord

Jesus

(19

5).

Of

Lydia, the purple seller of

found by

Paul

at Philippi. we read that she 'was bap-

tized, and her household'

and of the

gaoler, that he was baptized, he and

his

way,'-Le.,

the middle of the night

(1633).

At

Corinth a few of the earliest converts were baptized by

Gains,

the household of

472

BAPTISM

;-hut the apostle's language shows that this

was'quite exceptional

(

I

Cor.

In

I

Cor.

Paul mentions

a

custom; apparently prevailing in

Corinth, of vicarious baptism

behalf of the dead.

H e neither commends nor rebukes it, and it 'would
seem to have soon died out.'

The earliest notice of the method of baptism is

perhaps that which is found in the

and, as we

have already said, it illustrates the recog-
nition of a connection between the Jewish

the Christian baptisms. The

here as

elsewhere, is strongly anti-Judaic in its tone, and at the
same time shows the influence of Jewish practices upon
the community which it represents.

The

draws

six distinctions in the kinds of wafer available for

purificatory purposes

1

qnoted

by Schiirer,

and in certain cases it insists

upon the full stream of running water, in which the
whole body can be immersed.

The

(chap.

recognises living water

the running

other water,'

'

cold,' and

'

warm'

;

and finally allows.

a

triple pouring, where a

of any water for

immersion cannot be h a d ; but, though it indicates

a

preference in the order here given, it admits the validity
of baptism under any of these conditions.

It is sometimes urged that, because

means

to dip,' Christian baptism must originally have been

by immersion.

In

the

however, as in classical

writers, the usual word for to dip is
Jn.

had a wider usage, and could

be used even of a mere

handwashing,

as

we see from

11

38,

he marvelled that he had not

first washed

before

Already the

partial ablution would seem to have been regarded as
symbolical of the whole.

It

is difficult to suppose that

the 3000 converts on the day

of

Pentecost could all have

been baptized by immersion. Such

a

method is indeed

as

the ideal, at any rate, in Paul's words

about death, burial,

and

resurrection in baptism (Rom.

6 3

but pouring water on the head was in any case

symbolical of immersion, and tantamount to it for ritual
purposes.

Although

is the preposition most frequently

we find

in

Acts

1 0 4 8

and theinterchangeability

of the two prepositions in late Greek

may be plentifully illustrated from the

NT.

Moreover,

the expressiou is a Hebraism; cp
Mt.

11826

so

in the baptismal formula

of Mt.

28

19

the Syr. ,version has

(Lat.

in nomine).

(6)

of

or

the

The former expression is used in Acts

2 3 8 1 0 4 8

the

latter in Acts

8

19

5

cp also Acts

22

Arise and

be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling

on

his

name.'

From these passages, and from Paul's words

in

I

Cor.

1 1 3

Was Paul crucified for

or were ye

baptized in the name of Paul?

'),

it is natural to conclude

that baptism was administered in the
the name of Jesus Christ,' or in that of the
This view is confirmed by the fact that the e
of the. baptismal confession appear to have been single
-not triple,

as

was the later creed. When Philip's

baptism of the eunuch appeared to have been abruptly
narrated, the confession was inserted in the simple form,

I

believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son

of God (Acts

(Res. 48 c.

Marc. 5

I

O

)

assumes that the custom

was current

Paul's time, hut

is wrongly cited as attesting it for

his own day. Chrysostom (ad

says that

prac-

tised it and

6)

had heard of a tradition

that the Corinthians had done the same. This is very weak
evidence for

a

second-century custom, and it is most probable

that if the practice

was

found it was

to the passage

Paul's

Epistle, and cannot be regarded

as independent testimony to

the existence of the custom among primitive Christians.

The

in

reject the

meaning

of the words find themselves involved may he seen at

length in Stanley's

(ad

473

( a )

Name,

not

into the name.'

BAPTISM

8

37)

and the

Jesus

is

Lord appears soon to

have become a stereotyped confession of Christian faith

(cp

Ro.

I

Cor.

Phil.

moreover the 'ques-

tion and answer

connected with baptism

in

I

Pet.

would appear to represent only the central

section of the later creed.

On

the other hand, we have in Mt.

the full

formula, in the name of the Father and of the.

Son

and

of the Holy Ghost.'

W e have no synoptic parallel at

this point and thus, from a documentary point of view,

must regard this evidence

as

posterior

to

that of

Paul's

of Acts.

The apparent contradiction was felt by Cyprian, who

suggested

that in baptizing Jews the

apostles may have been contented with the one name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they already believed in the
Father whilst in baptizing Gentiles they used the full
formula, which was given (as he points out) with the
command to 'make disciples of. all the nations' or

Gentiles.

This explanation, however, breaks down

in face of Acts

1045-48,

the opening of the door

Gentiles.

Three explanations deserve consideration-:

(

I

)

that

in Acts we have merely

a

compendious statement-;.e.,

that as a matter of fact all the persons there spoken of
were baptized in the

name, though for brevity's

sake they are simply said to have been baptized in the
single name;

that Matthew does indeed report

exactly the words uttered by Jesus,

but

-that those

words were not regarded as prescribing an
to be used on every occasion, and that the spirit of them
was fulfilled

ba ism in the name of the Lord Jesus

( 3 )

that Matth

es not here report the

verba of Jesus, b

ransfers to him the familiar language

of the Church of

evangelist's own time and .locality.

The first of the

xplanations cannot be regarded

as

satisfactory in the absence of any historical evidence of
the employment

of

the threefold formula in the earliest

times.

A decision between the second and the third

would involve an inquiry into the usage of the evangelist
in other parts of his Gospel, and belongs to the dis-
cussion of the synoptic problem but in favour of the.
third it may be-stated that the language of the First
Gospel, where it does not exactly reproduce an earlier
document, shows traces of modifications

of

a

later kind.

It has been argued that when. Paul

in

answer to the statement of the Ephesian disciples of the
Baptist,

have not

so

much as heard if there be

a

Holy Spirit'

said, Unto what,

then, were ye baptized? he presupposed the use of the
longer formula which 'expressly named the Holy Spirit.
The statement can hardly mean, however, that they had
never even heard of a Holy Spirit, for disciples of the
Baptist could scarcely

so

speak

(Mk.

1 8 ) :

it

refer to

the special gift of the Holy Spirit which Christians were
to receive. Accordingly, Panl's question simply implies
that Christian baptism could scarcely have been given
without some instruction

as to

this gift which was to

follow it.

In

any case, it would be exceedingly strange

that at this point Lk. should not have referred to the
threefold formula, had it been in use, instead of simply
saying, 'When they heard it, they were baptized in

name of the Lord Jesus (Acts

The threefold formula is attested by the

(chap.

7),

both in express words and by the mention of

the alternative practice of triple effusion; but, as the

shows elsewhere its dependence on Matthew,

this is not independent evidence.

Justin Martyr (chap.

in describing baptism

to

heathen readers, gives the full formula in a paraphrastic
form

the name of God, Father of the

Universe and Ruler, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ,

and

of

the Holy Spirit.'

Such a paraphrase was neces-

sary

to

make the meaning clear to those for whom h e

wrote.

We find the full formula again in Tertullian some

474

BAPTISM

BARABBAS

forty years later (De

26) and

when the First Gospel was widely known it

was

certain

to prevail. Exceptions are found which perhaps point
to an old practice dying out.

Cyprian

7 3 )

and the

Apostolic Canons

combat the shorter formula,

thereby attesting its use in certain quarters.

The ordin-

ance of

Can.

50

runs-' If any bishop or pres-

byter fulfil not three baptisms of one initiation

but one baptism which is

given (as) into'the death of the Lord, let him be
deposed.'

This

was

the formula of the followers of

(Socr.

for they baptize not into the

Trinity, but into the death of Christ' (for other refer-
ences see Usener,

1 8 8 9 ,

1184)

;

they,

accordingly, used single immersion only.

No

statement is found in the N T

as

to the age at

which baptism might be administered.

Circumcision,

which Paul regards as fulfilled in Christian

(see below,

enrolled the Jewish

boy in the covenant of his fathers on the eighth day
after birth,

so

that there could be no doubt that young

children were truly members of the holy people. Thus,
if children had been excluded from baptism when
whole families were won to Christianity, we should
almost certainly have had some record of the protest
which would have been raised against what must have
seemed so inconsistent

a

limitation to the membership

of the new Israel of God.

It seems reasonable to

pose. therefore, that where households are spoken of
as

being baptized

31-33 I

Cor.

there must

have been, at least in some cases, instances of the
baptism of

That Paul could speak of the

children of a believing husband, or of

a

believing wife,

as

holy' is

an

indication in the same direction.

Paul, as we might expect, sees in baptism the means

by which the individual is admitted to his place in the

one body, of which he thus becomes a
member

For as the body is one and

hath many members, but all the members,

many though they he, are one body,

so

also is the

Christ for indeed by one Spirit

(Q

Y

we

all were baptized into one body-whether Jews or Gen-
tiles, whether bondmen or free

( I

).

Bap-

tism was thus the fundamental witness of Christian
unity (Eph.

one baptism')

and in both the

here referred to it is emphasised as such in

view of the variety of spiritual gifts.

A

parable of

Christian baptism might be found in the

and the

sea

which all the Israelites had alike passed

they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in

the sea

(

I

Cor.

10

In Rom. 61

Paul regards baptism

as

effecting a

union with the death of Christ

:

we were baptized into

his death.'

It was

a

kind of burial of the former self,

with a view to a resurrection and a new life. The same
conception recurs in Col.

where it is immediately

preceded by the thought that'it corresponds in

a

certain

way to the circumcision of the old covenant. It is the
putting off '-totally, not merely partially and

ally-of the whole

'

body of the flesh

' ;

and

so

it is the

fulfilment of the old rite : it is the circumcision of the

Christ.

In Gal.

Paul further speaks of baptism

as

a

kind of identification with the person

of

Christ,

so

that the divine

becomes ours in him

For ye

are all sons of God, through faith (or ' t h e faith') in
Christ Jesus for as many of you as were baptized into
Christ put on (or clothed yourselves with Christ.' The
old distinctions, he again reminds us, thus disappeared
-Jew and Greek, bond-man and free, male and female

for ye all are one [man] in Christ Jesus

Eph.

speaks of Christ as cleansing the Church

by the 'washing

'washing,' probably

not

laver.'

[In

is

always

:

is

Cant.

42

65 Ecclus.

so

Aquilarenders

in

475

xp.

'I.).

Ps.

of water

the word'

last expression finds its interpretation in the

formula of faith, to which we have already

which, whether as the confession in the

of the

or as the baptismal formula on the lips of the

baptizer, transformed the process of ablution into the
rite of Christian baptism.

With this passage we may

Tit.

3 5 ,

He saved us through the washing of

regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit

TU.

This last passage reminds us of the teaching of

3.

The relation of that chapter to the sacrament of baptism

is

exactly parallel to that of chap

6

to the sacrament of

the eucharist (see

E

UCHARIST

).

W e are secure in

saying that the evangelist's interpretation of the signifi-
cance of baptism must have followed the line of Jesus'
conversation with Nicodemus

as

there related.

That

a

Gentile, or even a Jew who had been neglectful of

the Rabbinical discipline of ablutions, should need to
begin entirely anew in the religious life, to be 'born
again of water and the Spirit,' as a condition of entry
into the kingdom of God,' would seem natural. The
marvel and the stumbling-block was that this should be
required of those who, like this teacher of Israel,' had
been strictest in their ceremonial purity

Marvel not

that

I

y e

must be born again.'

Jn., then, recognises, with Paul, the universal character

of the initial rite whilst at the same time the narrative
teaches the radical nature of the change in the individual
soul.

J. A.

R.

BAPTISMS

7 4 ,

etc.,

EV

W

ASHINGS

BARABBAS

[Ti.

WH],

the name

of

the prisoner whom, in accordance with a Passover

custom,

released at the demand of the Jews while

condemning Jesus to death (so Mt.

Mk.

Lk.

Jn.

More precisely

Mt., who simply calls him a

'notable'

prisoner, and

who calls

robber, Mk. describes him as lying

bound with them that had made insurrec-

tion

men who in the

insurrection had committed murder.'

As

Mk. has not

previously referred to these insurgents, it seems all the
more probable that he is borrowing verbatim from
another source, although about this particular insurrec-
tion we are in as complete ignorance as about the
Galileans mentioned in Lk.

13

I

.

Lk.

whofollows

adds that the insurrection had occurred in Jeru-

salem, but says nothing about any

with

Barabbas, and thus leaves the impression that Barabbas
personally had committed murder.

Mk. is entitled to

the preference, not only on this point but also when he
represents the Jews

as

having demanded the release of

a

prisoner on their own initiative, as against the less

probable view that Pilate offered them this of his own
accord.

Those who find some difficulty in accepting the

narrative

as

it stands may perhaps find themselves

better able to explain its origin

on

the lines 'indicated

by

W.

Brandt, by whom every detail has been discussed

with great care

1 8 9 3 .

pp.

Brandt takes the kernel of the story to be

that a certain prisoner who had been arrested in con-
nection with some

but against whom no

BARACHEL

JESUS

crime

or

at least' n o grave crime

be proved, was

released on the application of the people, who intervened
in his behalf because he was the son of a Rabbin (see
below,

z).

incident, even although it

was

not

simultaneous with the condemnation of Jesus, gave
occasion in Christian circles for the drawing of this
contrast : the son of the rabbin was interceded for and
released, Jesus was condemned. In the course of
transmission by oral tradition the

of

this con-

trast might gradually, without any conscious departure
from historical truth, have led to the assumption that
the two things occurred at the same time and on the
same occasion. Finally, the liberation of a seditious
prisoner-in any case a somewhat surprising occurrence
-seemed explicable only

on

the assumption of some

standing custom to account for it

this assumption

must presumably have arisen elsewhere than in Palestine.

The above theory presupposes that

stands

for

'son of the father'-Le., here, of the

(It was not till after-

wards that

began to come into use

as

a

proper name [of

explained by Dalman

[Gram.

as an abbreviation, like

of

: in

the time of Jesus it was a title of honour [Mt.

Jerome indeed, in his commentary

on

Mt.

16-18

says that

in the

of the Hebrews

is explained as son of their teacher

where

apparently implies an etymology similar

to

that found

a scholion of a Venice MS in W H App.

that

(only another form for

see Winer

5 ,

n.

means 'son of our teacher.'

In that c a d

we mnst (with Syr. hr.) write

taking the second

element as being 'teacher,' and assume that

was explained

a s =

teacher,' or

'their teacher.'

T h e mean-

ing, however,

not essentially changed by

this,

as

]:

?

(as

also

is,

like

a title of honour for a great teacher.

The most remarkable fact in connection with the

of

Barabbas is that Origen knew

and did

not absolutely reject them, in which Mt.

read

Jesus

before Barabbas

'-

a

reading still

extant in some cursives,

as

well as in the Armen. vers.,

in Syr. sin.,

partly also in

Syr.

hr.

Whether the

Gospel of the Hebrews, referred to by Jerome, also had
this reading is uncertain (see

WH).

In this reading

Barabbas would be only an addition made for the

of distinction,

as

in Simon Bar-jona, but not yet

with the full force of a proper name.

Some support for it might perhaps he found in the fact that

the first

the name in Mk. is preceded

The meaning would then be ' H e who,

for distinction's sake

(though it was

his proper name) was called Barabbas.'

Only, in that case, in Mt. the

(here

without the

article) since it is followed on the reading a t

in question

simply mean whose name

Jesus Barabbas'. and it may be so in Mk. also. In any case

is

remarkable

in all the

MSS

in question Barahbas should

have the name

exclusively in

Mt.

and there only in two

verses, while

and 26 simply give

as a n antithesis.

we may be tolerably certain that

the name Jesus a s given to Barabbas has arisen merely from
mistake.

A fairly obvious explanation would be the conjecture

of Tregelles. that

a

very early transcriber had 'per

incuriam repeated the last

of

and that

these were at a later date taken for the familiar abbrevia-
tion of the name of Jesus. If this theory be adopted we
must assume further that

a

later copyist inserted

also

in

the name

which he had found in

17

but it

is

specially interesting to observe that in the

Latin translation of Origen the word Jesus

in

17

but not in

16

also. Cp Zahn,

Gesch.

des

N T

[BKA]), the father of Job's friend Elihu

BARACHIAH

Zech.

the

reading of AV ed.

1611,

and some other old editions.

See B

ERECHIAH

(4).

BARACHIAS,

RV

Barachiah

[Ti.

WH]),

See Z

ACHARIAS

.

rabbinical master.'

P.

s.

477

BARAK

66,

Sab.

Palm.

Pun.

[the snrname of

tnd the Ass. divine names

and

[Del.

Ass.

b. Abinoam (Judg.

[BL],

[A]).

BARBARIAN

primarily, one who

in

unintelligible manner : hence a foreigner

cp 12.2

in which sense it is employed

Paul in

Cor.

1 4

Acts

28

This usage was not restricted to

:he Greeks alone : it is met with among the Romans

Ovid,

v.

and (according to Herod.

2

among the Egyptians. In agreement with this, the

people of Melita, who perhaps spoke some

are called

barbarians

(Acts

and

uses

to render the

of

Ps.

1141-a

people

See D

EBORAH

.

'of

strange tongue' (Targ.

The not

uncommon

accordingly, includes

the whoie world : cp Rom.

(also

Ant.

xi.

7

the similar Barbarian, Scythian,' Col.

see

H

ELLENISM

,

2.

T h e

of

became so customary that the term was

actually

referring to the speaker's or writer's own

peo

le

5

and Jos.

I

)

who

the

'upper

to his

beyond the

At a

later date the word gets the

meaning cruel 'savage,' etc. (cp Cic.

10

barhara

in which sense it recurs in Macc.

and in the

of

Ez.2136

(for

M T

'brutish').

BARBER

Ph.

Ass.

See B

EARD

.

BARCHUS

[A],

I

Esd.

B

ARKOS

.

BARHUMITE, THE

o

o

BARIAH

[B],

a

de-

[L]).

See

scendant of Zerubbabel

(

I

Ch.

3

BARJESUS,

the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet

in

train of the proconsul Sergius

at Paphos,

in Cyprus, who

withstood the preaching of

Paul, and was punished with temporary blindness.

At the outset, the names present great difficulties.

In

136

his name

is expressly said to have been

Barjesus

and such a compound

(son

of

a

father named Jesus) can quite

easily have been a proper name (cp Barabbas, Barnabas,
Bartholomew). In

8,

however, he is abruptly called

Elymas

the sorcerer, for

so

is his name by interpreta-

tion

A translation has relevance only when

it is a translation into the language of the readers : in
any other case it would be incumbent on the author to
state what foreign language he is translating into.

This being assumed, we must take it that 'the

sorcerer'

(6

is

the translation. Elymas

in that case, would be the word translated.

Accord-

ingly, the name has been identified with the Arabic

which occurs in the Koran

2633 and

36

and

as an adjective following the noun

which denotes

a

sorcerer, and has thus been taken to

mean wise,' able.'

Less appropriate is the derivation

from Aram.

or

meaning 'strong.'

Equate

however, etymologically, with

Ehupas as

we

Del.

(Ass.

explains Ass.

'jackal.'

Akin to this are the expressions

Cor.

(like the Heb.

see G

ENTILES

,

I

) to denote those

outside the Christian world.

Similarly, the Jews frequently

in the

barbarian,'-and so

the Syr. translations of the NT,

influence retain the

term to translate

time it

was felt that a word which was

in the N T to designate

'heathen could

he borne by

Christian people, and

the old name was modified into

NO.

25

Wright,

Cp the Talm. use of

BARJESUS

,

BARJESUS

m a y ,

it

still

has to

b e explained

how

Bxrjesus

came

suddenly

to b e called

by

t h e o t h e r nanie, Elymas.

'The only

way

i n which

a

plausible explanation could

be

reached would

be

if E l y m a s ( i n t h e sense indicated)

could

be

t a k e n

as a

title

or

cognomen assumed

by

foreign

tongue

being used t o heighten' still

further t h e

prestige

which

he

sought t o acquire

by

it.

It

is

n o t

as a

title, however, t h a t t h e a u t h o r employs

it.

On

t h e contrary, h e gives t h e word without t h e definite

article, a n d expressly a d d s t h a t

the

word which h e i s

translating w a s t h e a c t u a l n a m e

of

the

bearer.

It

w a s quite s o u n d m e t h o d , therefore,

to

t a k e

for t h e n a m e translated,

and

E l y m a s for t h e

translation.

Even Pesh., in

8,

for Ehvpas b

arbitrarily has 'this

sorcerer Barshuma [so Pesh. reads for

in

6 ;

see

whose name, being interpreted, means Elymas.'

Klostermann

pp.

how-

ever, is

to support this view only on three assumptions,

each

one

of which is bolder than the other. We must read, h e

holds not Ehupas hut

.

we must read, not

hut

or, 'to be

the

and, in the third place, the

]$:

so

transcribed

(whether we derive it etymologically from the root

or, with

more probability, from the root

which underlies

est) means 'son of preparedness' or 'son of fitness,' and thus,
by the

Hebraism as we find in the name

paratus,

a.

As to the first of these assumptions it has to be noted

that the reading

is met with only

Lucifer of

and even there not as

but as Etcemus;

has

which, indeed, we cannot explain, but which

from its ending, is clearly intended to be taken as a
name ;

paratus is found only in Lucifer, one Vg.

MS,

and two

Latiu

MSS,

in which in many places is found the markedly

divergent text of Acts which

takes to be Luke's earliest

draft (see A

CTS

,

is

found only in

only in the Latin translation of

or rather, according to the one

MS

known to

only in Lucifer. The corrector of

D

has re-

stored

which, as accusative, fits his reading

for

but, in spite of

is found also

in

and the Greek margin of the Philoxenian

;

Vg.,

Copt., Armen., and the

version as well as

known to Jerome read

is to say, the simple

Hebrew form without a Greek termination. On this Jerome

(on the Hebrew names in Acts; Opera ed. Vallarsi 399)
remarks

Barjesu corrnpte

himself

the

reading to

Barieu or Berieu,

which, by very

daring etymologisinq from the Hebrew, he obtains the meanings

or

or in malo. Perhaps, however even

Jerome's

to

rests upon the very

dogmatic 'consideration put forward

Beda in the eighth

century, 'non convenit hominem flagitiosum

et

filium

Jesu, id est,

quem e contrario Paulos (v.

IO)

filium

The form Barjeu in Jerome can

readily be accounted for as merely a clerical error for Barjesu
or as arising out of the Greek abbreviation IHY which is
with in the oldest

MSS

along with the more frequently occurring

IY

for

The explanation in the case of the readings

preferred

Klostermann is much less easy. On this account

in spite of their weak attestation, one might he inclined
regard them

as

the true ones hut all the authorities for the read-

ing paratus have the word, not in v. 8 instead of Ehupas, hut as
an

interpolation after

in v. 6, 'quod interpretatur

paratus.' This addition is met with elsewhere only in

E,

in

the form

in the

of this

M S

:

guod

I t is evident that in neither

case have

more than a late attempt to obviate the impression

that Elymas, first introduced in

8,

was the name of another

person. Blass, on

other hand, regards the added words as

part of Luke's earliest draft. H e sees, however, that Luke
could not have written at the same time in v. 8 'for thus is his

name interpreted

accordingly, he rejects these words from

earliest

draft.

For

this he has not a single authority and how can he

explain Luke's having after all, introduced the words into his
second transcript,

out those in v. 6 instead? Are we

really to believe that with

hands Luke changed his good

thoroughly intelligible first text into a positively misleading

after-text? Cp A

CTS

,

(f).

If, however, the addition

a t the end of

6

is to be regarded as a

late interpolation, Lucifer also, who has it, lies open to suspicion

:

his form Etcemus in

8

may be not taken from an authoritative

source, but a mere conjectural adaptation to allow of the word's
being rendered paratus

itself regarded as a rendering of

What etymology he was following when he preferred

(or

perhaps conjecturally intrcduced) the form

is

a

matter of indifference. In ancient

as the

Sacra

abundantly show, people made out Hebrew etymologies

in a most reckless way.

479

Next, as regards the second assumption.

Klostermann's proposed etymology,

rests

a

weak foundation,

as

no such word as

mportance in this connection), and

root

or

which is

ised

frequently for

as

also

for

in

used for

as

we have said, the codex has not

but

Above all, however, Klostermann's hypothesis

untenable as

as one is unprepared to accept the

assumption that b

after

(or

in

8

is a mere gloss to he deleted ;

for

necessarily leads

o

the assumption dealt with under (a).

had no doubt

ilready been perceived

the scribe of

H,

who

b

the great) for

and so also by Lucifer, if the

(of

is right in attributing the reading

o

him (the only

MS

of Lucifer at present known has

Lucifer really wrote

this increases the suspicion

hat the other variants in Lucifer are i n like manner arbitrary

unauthorised alterations of the text.

In

o r d e r t o m a k e o u t Elymas

to be

a

translation

the

n a m e of

the

sorcerer, stress h a s been laid o n

the

rendering B a r s h u m a for

Already, in

seventeenth century, we find

(Lex.

and Lightfoot

ad

as filius

and deriving Elymas

the Arabic

Over and above the

to the contrary that have already been urged under

6)

however it has to be observed (see above) that a trans-

into Arabic would explain nothing to the readers : it

would itself require to be explained.

A

somewhat

different turn is given to the matter by Payne Smith

598).

Barshuma was in the first

given

v. 8

a

rendering of Elymas, and only later introduced by copyists

also

v.

6 in substitution for Barjesus

the erroneous

belief that it was the man's proper name. But the Peshitta in

arbitrary change of text in

8 (see above

ad

says

precisely the opposite -that Barshuma was the proper name,

Elymas the

I t must, therefore, from the outset

have held Barshuma to be a reproduction of

proper name

Barjesus. Thus Barshuma probably means merely 'son of the
name ; and the name' is most easily to he accounted for as a
substitute for 'Jesus' from the feeling of reverence which we
have already heard expressing itself

[see above (h)

a

similar to that shown by the Jews when they

'the name' instead of

( d )

Van

contrariwise

1,

Leyden,

1890,

pp. 98

holds E l y m a s

to

b e t h e proper

n a m e ,

interprets Barjesus i n t h e H e b r e w sense

as

s o n of Jesus

e . ,

follower of Jesus.

I n this he assumes that the primary document here made

of

the author of Acts did not refer to the man as a

Jew or as a sorcerer, or

a false prophet; that it simply

the information that at Paphos Paul came into

opposition with

of the older and very conservative disciples

of

Jesus,

and got the better of him with Sergius Paulus.

hypothesis admittedly departs so widely from the trxt

of

Acts

that it is impossible to control it thereby.

( e )

D a l m a n

n.

I

proposes

a

purely

Greek

explanation.

(so

accented) he regards

as

from

(on

these contractions see

86

In

[except

Apocrypha] and N T indeed, the

are always

; hut with the Greeks the forms are as in-

variably

su

Tobit 2

I O

Judith 1

6

;

I

Macc. 6

I

has

Philologically this derivation i s t h e simplest

of

a l l ;

b u t it contributes nothing towards t h e solution

of

t h e

riddle.

T h e failure

of

all

t h e a t t e m p t s enumerated above

renders inevitable t h e suggestion t h a t here t h e author

of

Acts h a s a m a l g a m a t e d t w o sources, o n e
of which called t h e

Barjesus while

t h e other called him Elymas.

E v e n

K l o s t e r m a n n , i n order t o explain t h e peculiar distribu-
tion of t h e n a m e s i n

6 8, seeks t h e

aid

of

this

hypothesis in addition t o t h e hypotheses already referred
t o [above

(a),

beg.].

T h e

(for

so

is

his n a m e translated),

however, would i n a n y case b e

a

very unskilful way of

a m a l g a m a t i n g t h e t w o sources unless

6

(sorcerer),

as

above,

be

deleted a s

a

gloss.

Still, it

o n c e i t

agreed t o assume t w o sources,

a

further a n d

larger question arises

:

t h e question, namely, whether t h e

addition itself b e substantially right- that

is to

say,

t h e o n e n a m e

be

really

a

translation of t h e other.

Nay,

m o r e

:

it is even conceivable t h a t

the

two

names d o

not

d e n o t e t h e s a m e person

;

t h a t accounts relating

to

So

Nestle, in private letter to the present writer.

BARJESUS

BAR JESUS

two different persons

been transferred

'single

'person. 'This inference is suggested also by the epithets

applied for, though it is

altogether inconceivable

that a

should be

a

"false prophet"

the two ideas are widely different.

.

Of. the critics mentioned in

A

CTS

,

who discuss our

present passage with reference to the

of

sources,

only Spitta and

B.

Weiss regard

as

of one piece.

Hilgenfeld are convinced of the opposite,

n o definite suggestions as to separation of the portions Sorof
and Jiingst derive

v.

from a written source,

from

the

of

the redactor or

oral tradition.

further

attributes

to

the redactor the word

in

6.

Yet not even

all the difficulties cleared up.

How far the narrative as a whole is to be accepted as

historical becomes

a

serious question

as

soon as it has

been traced to more than one source

but its credibility has been doubted

even by Spitta,

and others,

who defend its unity.

.

As

regards the miracle in

particular, one is not only surprised by its suddenness,
but is also at a loss to see its moral justification.

On

the other hand, a misunderstanding would account for

it readily enough. A sorcerer, a false prophet-nay,
any Jew

in the judgment of the Christian,

spiritually blind, and this is what Paul and Barnabas
proved of Barjesus in their disputation with him.

In

being handed down by tradition this thought could
easily undergo such a change as would lead to the
representation that physical blindness had been brought

'on

as

punishment- by the words of Paul.

On the

other hand, one would expect the blindness, if it is to
be regarded as merited, to be permanent, or, at least,
would expect to be told of some reason for its subse-
quent removal, as, for example, that the sorcerer had

'ceased to

and Barnabas, or even had

become a convert to Christianity.

It is very noticeable

that the narrator shows

little interest in the subse-

quent history of the man. The conversion of the pro-
consul (not his existence

;

see

A

CTS

, § 13

also

is doubtful to

All the more does it now become incumbent to

enquire whether the narrative reveals
in any

the tendencies dis-

cerned elsewhere in Acts.

In the first place, and generally, it is clear that

a

place in the parallelism between Peter and Paul

(Xcrs,

4),

respect alike of the miracle of chastise-

ment, the confutation of a sorcerer, and the conversion
of a high Roman officer (cp

It is also in harmony with that other tendency of Acts,
to represent the Roman authority as friendly, and the
Jews

as

hostile to Christianity (A

CTS

,

4

compare very specially the Jewish

close

to sorcery,

13-16).

A conjecture of wider

connects itself with

what

is

said of Simon Magus (see S

IMON

M

AGUS

).

If

Paul was the person originally intended in the story

of Simon. then in Acts

89-24

we find attributed to

,him the one deed which used to be flung in his teeth

by his Judaistic adversaries-that, by his great col-
lections made in Macedonia and Achaia, he had sought
to, purchase at the hands of the original apostles that
recognition of his equality with them which they had

so

.persistently withheld. The romance of Simon Magus,

however, of which we still possess large portions (see
S

IMON

M

AG

U

S

), had for its main contents something

different,

that the sorcerer had spread his false

doctrines everywhere and supported them by miracles,
but in one city after another was vanquished in dispute
and excelled in miracle by Peter. Thus, apart from
the repetition of the occurrence in many cities, we are

See for example, Hilgenfeld,

1868,

pp.

D e

Wette-Overbeck on Acts

der &xi-

1876, p.

;

and

specially

afterwards withdrew his

earlier view; see

1

cp.

n.

31

told of Barjesus in Acts

exactly what is told in

the romance about Simon (that is, Paul), and of Paul

is told in the romance about Peter. Hence

the belief that in

we can discover the same pur-

pose on the part of the author

as

we discover in

8

18-24.

H e was acquainted with the unfriendly allegation about
Paul, did not believe it, and wished

to

set forth another

view.

In the two passages, however, the method is

not the same.

it is shown that Paul could

not possibly have been the infamous sorcerer, inasmuch
as

Simon the sorcerer was a Samaritan and was quelled

by Peter indeed, but before the conversion of Paul.

In

on

the other hand, it is shown that it was Paul

himself who victoriously met a sorcerer of this kind.
One of the reasons for this divergence is seen in the
desire, already noted, to establish

a

close parallelism

between Paul and Peter.

It is believed possible also' to

explain on the same lines why in Acts

the scene

is laid in Cyprus, with a Jew in the

of a high

Roman officer as one of the

T o

Cyprus, according to Josephus

(Ant.

xx.

belonged the Jewish sorcerer Simon, who, at the instance
of Felix of Judaea, procurator

highest Roman

officer), had induced Drusilla to quit her husband, King

of Emesa, and marry Felix.

The purpose of the

narrator would have been sufficiently served had he
been able to say that the sorcerer in question-Simon,
to wit-under whose name the Judaisers imputed to
Paul so much that was shameful, had been met and
vanquished by Paul himself.

That, however, was im-

possible; the tale had already been related of Peter.

Accordingly

(so

it is supposed) the narrator found it

necessary to give another name to the sorcerer worsted
by Paul.

His choice of the names Barjesns and Elymas is

still unaccounted for. There is, therefore, a motive for
our attributing

a

historical character to a certain other

sorcerer, Barjesus (or Elymas), as well as to a Samaritan
sorcerer named Simon. Although it is not easy to
believe that Peter met the Samaritan Simon, there is no
reason for assuming that Paul did not meet Barjesus.

Indeed, it can easily be conceded that in Acts

just

as,

in Acts

89-24,

the author was not consciously

giving a false complexion to what he had heard.

He

believed himself able to offer a material correction. H e
assumed, that is to say, that what the Judaisers were in
the habit of relating of Simon the sorcerer, while really
intending Paul and his opposition to the true Gospel,
rested in actual fact upon a mistaken identification with

this Barjesus (or Elymas), and that the latter was van-
quished not by Peter but by Paul.

It is less easy to

suppose that Cyprus was

by tradition

as

the scene

of the occurrence. Even without any 'tradition, the

name could be suggested by Josephus's mention of the
native place of the Jewish sorcerer, and the name

of

Paphos would naturally present itself from the fact that
the Roman proconsul had his residence there.

( d )

The hypothesis has received developments to a

point where we have to depend on less clear indications.
If the accusations in Acts against Simon and Barjesus
had originally been brought against Paul, what is said
of the intimate relations of Barjesus with Sergius Paulus
would belong to 'the same class.

Now,

in Acts

2426,

it

is said that Felix often sent for Paul and communed
with him.

It is assumed that the Judaisers had gone

so

far as to allege that Paul had

the friendli-

ness of Felix with money; or even, perhaps, to insinuate
that he had been negotiator between Drusilla and Felix.
It is to meet those accusations

(so

assumed) that

the writer of Acts alludes to bribery by Paul as merely
a hope on the part of Felix, and informs

us

that Paul

had stirred Felix's conscience by a solemn reasoning
with him

sinful marriage

).

( e ) There are two more explicit indications that what

we now read about Barjesus was originally told of Paul.

enemy,' the epithet applied by Paul to

BAR-

JONA

BARNABAS

(13

IO

),

is, with or without the substantive

standing designation for Simon (that is, Paul) in

the

Homilies and Recognitions.

The name, enemy of righteousness,’ fits Paul and his
doctrine of the abrogation of the Mosaic law through
Christ (Rom.

all the more because his Judaistic

opponents in Corinth came forward as servants of
righteousness,’ that is, men of strict observance of the

law

Cor.

11

In that case, the temporary blind-

ing of Barjesus will represent what befel Paul at his
conversion ; even the expressions

(without

sight) and

(leading by the hand) in

have their parallels

Here, then, unless

the whole hypothesis under consideration be rejected,
we may say, with

probability, that the

blindness of Paul at his conversion (whether historical

or

not is immaterial) was originally represented by the

Judaisers as

a

divine visitation for his hostility to the

true’ (that is, the legal) gospel, and that it was simply

passed on by the author of Acts to Barjesus the Jew.

Whatever else be the result

of

what has been said in

the present section, one thing at least is clear: it

is

impossible to reach

a

definite conclusion unless the

tendency of the author is taken into account.

According to the

legendary work

composed by a Cyprian abont 488-Barjesus opposed the

Barnabas when, along with Mark

Barnabas visited Cyprus for

a second time.

H e withstood him in

various ways at his entrance into the cities where he
desired to preach, and at last stirred

up

the Jews to

burn him at the stake at Salamis. (Cp Lipsius,

2,

278

)

BAR-JONA, RV

the patronymic

of

Simon Peter (Mt.

I 6

[Ti.

WH]).

See

P

ETER

.

P.

w.

s.

Iova

is

a Gr. contraction of

(cp

Jn.

1 4 2

[Ti.],

21

2.

[Ti.],

2.

;

etc. present

see

Var. Bib.), which

corresponds

to

an Aram.

;

cp

B.

Talm.

a,

Dalm.

Aram.

142

n.

and see

JOANNA.

BARKOS

8 2 ,

[L]).

The B n e

a

family of

in

the great post-exilic

list (see

E

ZRA

,

ii.

Ezra253

755

[BKA],

The N

ETHINIM

were mainly of foreign origin,

and the name Barkos seems to be Aramaic and to
signify ‘son of the God

Kos

or

The name of

this god occurs in many theophorous proper names
among the Northern Semites

we have

king of Edom on an Assyrian inscription (Schr.

Kosnathau

in Euting’s

I

,

and

a

variety

of

Semitic names on

Greek inscriptions from Egypt containing the same
element

Feb. 1870, p.

Cp

also the Edomite

(Jos.

xv.

7 9 ) .

Names designating the worshipper

as

son

of his god are

common in

the biblical

[probably], the Palmyrene

‘

son of

(cp

B

ARNABAS

,

I

),

‘sons

of the son of the

Sun-god,’ the Syrian

‘son of the lord

of heaven,’

‘son of God,’ etc.

Ex.

Dt.

Judg.

713,

etc.)

m

times one

of

the most character-

istic products of Palestine (Dt.

re-

garded

as

one

of

the necessaries of life

It comes second in the series of grains

[A]).

w.

R.

s.

BARLEY

u

s

e

*

may perhaps be a scribal error for

finds a striking parallel in the name

gabri, an Edomite king mentioned on a n inscription of

(cp Schr.

The less common singular form

is

used for the growing

crop.

but not with

is derived from

a

root

meaning ‘ t o

rough or bristling.’

T h e name which Hebrew has in common with Aramaic

483

mentioned in

Ez.

(49)

as

ingredients to be used in

bread-making-wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and

(cp B

READ

).

It

may be inferred from a variety of

passages, such as Ru.

2 1 7

Jn. 6913, that barley

was,

even

the times when it was cultivated along with wheat,

the staple food of the poorer class (cp

F

O

O

D

).

Such a

reference

as

that in

I

K.

8)

shows

us

bow largely it

was used to feed horses and

It may also be

from the part played by the barley-cake in the

of the

overheard by

(Jndg.

where

stands as a type of the Israelite peasant

army, that as in other countries,

so

Palestine, the

cultivation of barley preceded that of wheat, and was the
earliest stage in the transition from a nomadic to an agri-
cultural

(Cp

72,

antiquissimum in

hordeum.’)

This is, on the whole, more probable

the view of Jos.

64).

which has been very

generally accepted, that barley-cake represented the

of Gideon’s three hundred, and we are entitled

to

conclude that there was a time when barley was the

staple food of all classes among the Israelites. The
fact referred to in

Ex.

9 3 1

that in Egypt barley

ripens some time earlier than wheat, is supported by
the testimony of Pliny

106)

as

well

as

of

modern writers (see references

Di. ad

the single case in which the use of barley is pre-

scribed

an offering under the ritual law (see J

EALOUSY

,

it

is

somewhat difficult to

Some

Bahr,

2

445)

have regarded it as expressive of the

sordid nature of the alleged offence and the humilia-
tion of the accused

3

(a wife suspected of adultery).

A reason which has recently found more acceptance

is

that in the case of a simple appeal to God for

a judicial decision a less valuable offering was
than was requisite

a

besought God for

the bestowal or continuance of his divine

(Di.

on Nu.

etc.).

The prohibition to mingle oil or

frankincense with the offering will, of course, receive a
similar explanation.

Two-rowed barley (Hordeum

which may

be presumed to be the feral form, is a

of

W.

It may

been cultivated by

races

but it is not represented

on Egyptian monuments. The kind most frequently
cultivated in antiquity was six-rowed barley

This occurs on the most ancient Egyptian

monuments and on the coins

of

six cen-

turies

B.C.

It was no doubt derived by cultivation from

the two-rowed

(cp De Candolle,

and authorities quoted there).

The word

‘is

defined by Rabbinical

writers as equal to sixteen barley-corns ;

hut see

W

EI

GHTS AND

M

EASURES

.

BARN

Hag.

;

see A

GRICULTURE

,

IO.

Also for

Job 3912

and (AV B

ARNFLOOR

)

K.

6

RV correctly ‘threshing floor.’

BARNABAS

W H ]

J

OSEPH

(or J

OSES

).

According to the author of Acts

the name Barnabas

derived from the Aram.

(son)

and

the same root as the Heb.

-

the

duty of

(‘address, exhortation’), ac-

cording to

I

Cor. 14 3, and also according to Acts

When more

ORDEAL

OF,

determine the reason.

N. M.

-

W.

T. T. -D.

being one of the duties of the

So

the

(Land,

Syr.

4

cited hy

barley is called the food of cattle as apposed to wheat

the food of man.

Cp, especially, the parallel cited by Budde

from Radloff’s

C

D

also

Moore on the

,

passage.

3

I t

is

noteworthy that barley formed part of the price paid by

Hosea to redeem his adulterous wife (Hos. 3

;

hut this may be

a mere coincidence.

4

See, especially the full discussion by

(Arch.

2

who agrees

Dillmann’s view, and points

that the

in question

is

neither a sin-offering nor a guilt-offering

in the ritualistic sense.

484

BARNABAS

closely examined, however, this etymology is not without its
difficulties.

It

combines words from two different languages,

and moreover fails to account for the form

Klostermann

to

derive the mean-

BARNABAS

Acts

Even if this

accepted

as a

historical

.

_.

_ _

..

ing

from the Aram.

but finds

in it no further reference than to thesatisfaction which Barnabas
caused to the apostles by becoming a convert to Christianity.

Ualman’s etymology (Gram. a‘.

1894,

p.

which makes

a rendering of

this last

being an abbreviation (not elsewhere met with) of a proper name

or

takes

us very

from the form to be

explained. Deissmann comes nearer the sound when

15-17

he

compares the

of a

Palmyrene inscription of the

year

A

.

D

.

(see D e

La

no.

73)

and

the Semitic

(son

on a North Syrian

of the third or fourth century

In

Is.

I

,

a s also

in

is transliterated into

Greek with

a

instead of

and

termination

may possibly

have been substituted for

with the view of disguising the

name of the heathen divinity. (For examples of such a custom,
see Winer,

a‘.

5

On

this theory the rendering

is merely piece of popular

etymology: Nestle

is inclined to

take the

Syr.

which signifies

as

the starting-

point of the etymological interpretation ; but ‘he refrains from
explaining more minutely the structure of the form.

If

Joseph really did first receive the surname of

Barnabas from the apostles, this seems to have been on
account. of his distinction

as

a

speaker.

In this re-

spect, however, the author of Acts (13

15 16

1 4

invari-

ably subordinates him at least to Paul.

Many Jews,

with a view to

dealings with Greeks and Romans,

assumed in addition to their Jewish name

a

Greek (or

Latin) or at least Greek-sounding surname

Acts

and it may

at least be asked whether this cannot perhaps have
been the case with Barnabas also (see N

AMES

,

48,

84).

According to the Epistle to the Galatians (our

primary source), Barnabas was

a

companion of

Paul

in

his missionary

for at least

some time before the council of
Jerusalem. In the council he

Paul in supporting- the immunity of Gentile Christians
from the Mosaic Law (Gal.

2 1

9),

which makes it all

the more surprising that he afterwards retreated from
the position he had taken long before, that

a

Jewish

Christian was at liberty to eat at the same table
with a brother

freed from the law (Gal.

2

13).

As in the case of Peter, so also in that of Barnabas,

the reproach of hypocrisy hurled at both by Paul
on this account may safely be toned down into
one of inconsistency (see C

OUNCIL

OF

J

ERUSALEM

,

3).

In point of fact, Barnabas

had

shaken off the

Mosaic law

but he had never thought out all the

bearings of the step

so

fully as to be able to vindicate

it

when the venerable and sacred duty of observing the

whole law

was

so

authoritatively pressed upon him.

From this date it was, of course, no longer possible for
him to work along with

Paul

on the same lines and

thus the dispute at Antioch more than sufficiently ex-
plains why the two separated. The mention of

in

I

Cor.

9

6

only proves that at that time also

he was a prominent missionary, and that he held
to the Pauline principle of supporting himself by his
own labour it is no evidence that he was personally
known to the Corinthians, or that he had again become

one of the companions of Paul.

In the Acts of the Apostles the separation of Barnabas

from Paul is explained as due not to a difference on a

matter

of

principle, but to a personal

question Barnabas wished to take John

Mark-a near relation of his, according to Col.

4

To-as

companion on

a

second journey planned by Paul and

himself; but Paul objected, because on a previous
occasion

had left them in

lurch

32

(‘98)

Dalman comes over to

view, which

defended by

G.

B.

Gray

Times, Feb. 1899,

Cp also Arnold

(‘96).

I n

Die

3

485

we have no means of controlling it), it

be said to have been the chief one (see

as

to which Acts (see A

CTS

,

4,

6 )

is scrupulously

In

the intermediate position,

-as

between

and Jewish Christianity,-which was held, as

ve have seen, by Barnabas, he is admirably fitted for

a

in Acts.

Although a native of Cyprus,

is regarded

as

a

member of ’the church of Jerusalem

on the sale of his

see C

OMMUNITY OF

I

,

it is he who negotiates Paul’s

to that church

it is on that church’s

that he inspects the church which had been founded

dispersed Christians at Antioch in Syria

(1122-24)

is he who fetches Paul to Antioch from Tarsus and

ntroduces him to his field of

and he

is the apostle’s travelling companion when the

for the poor Christians

is being brought

Jerusalem

as

in this case,

so

also in

.he so-called first missionary journey, undertaken along
with Paul through Cyprus and the south of Asia
Minor, his name is placed first, at least till

and

then again in

and even

this

not easy to reconcile with

Paul’s

well-known inde-

pendence

as

shown in his letters

but the journey

must also on other grounds be pro-

nounced’ unhistorical (see C

OUNCIL O

F

I

),

and the rest of what is related in

is in-

consistent with the order
in Gal.

as

is the rest of what we read in Acts

with Gal.

(cp A

C

TS

,

4,

and, for the doubt-

fulness of the contents of Acts

and the probability

of a Barnabas source there,

and

I

O

).

But,

although the object

of

the narrative in Acts is incon-

sistent with history in as far

as

it seeks to suggest

that the missionary activity of

among the Gentiles

was no departure from the

of the primitive

church,-that on the contrary it was authorised and
even set on foot by it,-we may without hesitation accept
as

historical (see A

CTS

,

4 )

not only the co-operation

of Barnabas with Paul shortly before and at the Council
at Jerusalem, which is vouched for by the Epistle to
the Galatians, but also the part which he took in the
first missionary journey (Acts

and even perhaps

in Paul’s introduction to Jerusalem (of course accord-
ing to Gal.

at his first visit to that city three

years after his conversion. We may also accept in all
probability the second journey of Barnabas to Cyprus
in company with Mark

From this point

his name disappears

from

the

NT.

Accord-

ing to Clem.

§

116

;

cp

H E

1

4),

he was one of the Seventy of

Lk.

10

I

the frankly anti-Pauline

which

of the second

or the beginning of the third century-or rather, in the
sources from which these Homilies were

was

a

personal disciple of Jesus, Palestinian

origin, but

Alexandrian by residence, a strict adherent of the law
according to Nom.

8,

4,

Clement meets him in

Alexandria, but in

Clem.

(1

7 )

the meeting was

in Rome. According to this presumably earlier (but
none the less unhistorical) representation, he pro-
claimed the gospel in Rome even during the lifetime of
Jesus, and therefore before Peter.

In

Nom.

1 7

this

statement is made only of some person who is left
unnamed, and later means were found for the com-
plete suppression

any such tradition, so full of

danger to the authority of Peter and his alleged
successors. From the fifth century onwards its place
was taken by the statement that Barnabas was founder
and bishop of the Church of Milan-a statement, how-
ever, accompanied by the clause,

‘

after he had been the

first to preach the

in Rome.’ It was upon this

allegation that the archbishops of Milan afterwards
based their claims to metropolitan authority over the

Our

later notices of him are of little value.

BARODIS

BARSABAS

whole of Northern and part of Central Italy.

In the

interests of Roman supremacy (which had originally
been helped by it), the allegation was violently disputed
by Roman theologians of the eighteenth century.

In complete independence of the Roman and

Milanese tradition, there arose, after

A.

D

.,

the

legend that Barnabas had been the missionary to his
native island of Cyprus, and had suffered niartyrdom at
Salamis, where he was buried.

On this plea the

Cyprian church, between 485 and 488

A.

obtained

from the Emperor

its independence of the Patri-

archate of

The implied assumption is that

Barnabas was an apostle in the full sense of the word.

Ecclesiastical writers often substitute him for Barsabbas

(Acts

123

cp

perhaps on account of

the name Joseph, common to both (the

and

Philoxenian versions have,

on

the other hand, Joses in

both cases, and there are isolated authorities for
Barnabas alone), but perhaps in order to bring him
nearer the apostolic circle. This object is effected in

a

more pronounced way by

(1

which

identify him with

(Acts

26).

There is an

isolated notice in the (Gnostic) Actus Petri

to the effect that Barnabas was sent along with Timothy
to Macedonia before Paul's journey to Spain.

Cp.

Lipsius,

2,

pp.

(especially

373.

Tertullian's claim of the authorship of the Epistle to

the Hebrews for Barnabas is quite inadmissible. It is

to attribute to a born Levite

(Acts

such grave errors about the

temple (or tabernacle) as occur in Heb.

9

3

;

or to any member of the primitive church of

Jerusalem any such declaration as that in Heb.

that

he had first received the gospel at second hand through
hearers of Jesus.

Nor is such an origin consistent with

the thoroughly Alexandrian character of the Epistle.
Even, however, if we must refrain from basing any
argument on the statements about Barnabas in Acts

we are still confronted by a decisive fact

:

the man

who at a critical moment was so much subject to the

law (Gal.

could not have spoken of its

abolition and even of its carnal character, as the writer

of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks
Doubtless the Epistle to the Hebrews was attributed
to Barnabas because it was supposed that tlie

of Heb.

could only have come

from the

of Acts

436.

That Barnabas should have written the anonymous

epistle which since

time of Clement of Alexandria

has borne his name, and

on

that account bas been

included among the writings of the apostolic fathers,'
is still more inconceivable than his authorship of the

Epistle to the Hebrews. It goes far beyond Paul in
its assertion of freedom from the law. As to its date,

[BA]), a group of children of

Solomon's

servants (see

in the great post-

exilic list (E

ZRA

, ii. §§ 9 8

I

a ) ,

one of the eight

inserted in

I

Esd.

after Pochereth-hazzebaim

of

Ezra

7

59.

BARREL

[BAL]

I

1833).

See C

OOKING

U

TENSILS

,

2

BARRICADE

I

S.

See C

AMP

,

BARSABAS

or

BARSABBAS

48,

The

has been derived

from

son

and

or

Sheba,'

-which, however, as far

we know, is

always the name of a country, never of a person), from

and

warrior'

cp Nu.

31

or from

and

('

old man's son,').

([Ti. WH] the

better attested form of the name) suggests child of the

see under A

CTS

16).

P.

w. s.

etymology is doubtful.

1.

Name.

487

Sabbath.'

Dalman (Gram.

d.

p.

instances analogies to show that

or

could by contraction become

though

is what we should more naturally expect in such a case.

I

.

Joseph Barsabbas, surnamed Justus

[Ti.

WH]), was nominated, though not chosen, for the

vacancy in the apostolate caused by the

The account of the election

in Acts

could not be held to be historical if we

regarded the number twelve for the original apostolate
as having been fixed, and invested with special dignity.
only after the controversy as to Paul's equality in privi-

lege with the apostles of Jerusalem.

But even were we

to set aside the reference to the

in

I

Cor.

as

being unparalleled elsewhere in the Pauline writings, we
should still be at a

loss

to explain why Paul never

vigorously protested against an innovation--if inno-
vation it was--so arbitrary and so derogatory to his
own position. Occasion enough for doing

so

presented

itself in Gal.

2

and Cor.

W e must, accordingly,

ascribe to Jesus himself the choice of twelve of his
disciples who stood in peculiarly close relations to their
Master.

But in that case it was very natural that these

should seek to keep up their number-that'of the twelve
tribes

of

Israel.

Whether the election was in Jerusalem is more open

to question.

On

the arrest of Jesus all the disciples,

according to

1 4 5 0

Mt.

2656,

had taken to flight,

and that they should have returned to Jerusalem so soon
is not likely. The view of Lk. and

according to

which they are present in Jerusalem

on

the day of the

resurrection of Jesus (and remain there), cannot be
reconciled with what we are told by Mk. and Mt.

the

explanation is .that the third and

evangelists

found the statement of the first and second incredible.
According to this last, Jesus,

in,

Jerusalem, through the

women, sends the disciples, who are also in Jerusalem,
to Galilee, in order that he may there show himself to
them. The kernel of historical fact, however, is not as

and Jn. have it, but the reverse : namely, that the

apostles were not in Jerusalem at all, but in Galilee, and
thus in Galilee received the manifestations of their risen

Lord.

It may even be questioned whether they were

again in Jerusalem and able to come forward publicly
and unopposed

so

early as at the following Pentecost

(see G

IFTS

, S

PIRITUAL

).

In a still higher degree must the discourse of Peter

in Acts

be regarded as entirely the work of the

author (see A

CTS

,

14).

Instead of

in

there is some (though

inferior) authority for

a reading due perhaps to

a

conjecture that the brethren

of

Jesus named in Mk.

6 3

the number of the Twelve the same con-

jecture, if in Acts123 the reading

be retained,

appears to find support in the fact that in Mt.

13

55

the

brother of Jesus in question is called, not as in Mk.

6 3

but according to the best

MSS

The

assumption, however, is quite inadmissible (see

According to

(Eus.

HE

Justus

Barsabas

deadly poison with impunity.

From

the fifth century onwards he is named as one of the
seventy of Lk.

101

in the list of these preserved in

(Bonn ed.

400) he is identified with

in that of Pseudo-Dorotheus

with Jesus Justus (Col.

to whom the

see of Eleutheropolis is assigned. In the
(attributed to

but really dating from the 5th or

6th cent.) Barnabas et Justus,' in another redaction

Barnabas Justus,' and in a third

6

are enumerated among servants of Nero who, converted
by Paul, are cast into prison and condemned to death
by the emperor, but afterwards released after an appear-
ance of the risen Paul to the latter.

The identification

of this Justus with the biblical Barsabas seems to have

death of Judas.

BARTACUS

been made at a comparatively late date.

See Lipsius;

i.

24 ii.

1

94-96,

161,

Another

called Judas appears in Acts

along with

as a prominent member of the

early church in Jerusalem, and as a

is to say, as a man endowed

with the gift of

(see B

ARNABAS

,

I

) .

The

mission ascribed to him-that of conveying the decree
of the council of Jerusalem-cannot, of course, be more
historical than the decree itself (see COUNCIL

OF

SALEM,

I O ) .

P.

BARTACUS (

[Vg.]), father of Apame, a concubine of

( I

Esd.

His title or epithet

is

obscure. Jos.

si.

35)

gives it as

T

O

O

which may possibly be for

Pers.

(simply 'colonel'), and, at any rate, is hardly

a

mis-

understanding

of

the

in

I

Esd.

(RV

the

illustrious

which is not a very natural epithet.

The form given by

(cp Syr.

seems nearest to

the

original name,

which was probably

Out

of

this 'Bartacus'

may have arisen in this way : the

MS

had

and over the first four letters was written
correction which the scribe misunderstood

(so

Marq.

BARTHOLOMEW

[Ti.

WH]) is

enumerated in Mt.

Mk.

Lk.

614

13

(see

I

)

as one of the twelve apostles

The second portion of the name

re resents the

proper name vocalised by M T as

for the variants see

Josephus

xx.

1

I

the name Tholomaios

occurs as borne by a robber-chief.

It is not

necessary to derive from Ptolemy

;

the

instead of

is against this, though the second

for

E

presents no difficulty

5

d).

mew may have been either a

proper name like

Barnabas, Barjesus, etc., or a mere addition to the real
proper name of the bearer, given for the sake of dis-
tinction, like Simon Bar-jona (cp B

ARARBAS

,

2 )

on

the latter supposition we do not know the true name of
Bartholomew.

It

is the merest conjecture that identifies

him with Nathanael [see N

ATHANAEL

). If we neglect

this conjecture the

N T

has nothing further to tell

us

about Bartholomew.

Ecclesiastical tradition makes him a missionary to the most

widely separated countries, and attributes to him a variety of

martyrdoms. The oldest writer from whom we have

2.

an

account

of

him is Eusebius

( H E

v.

103) who

represents him as having preached

India

those

days a very wide geographical expression, including,

for example, Arabia Felix), and

as

having left behind him there

the Gospel according to Matthew in Hebrew but Lipsius

2

cp

from the

closely related

of the tradition

him and

Matthew, assigns an earlier date to a tradition that the shores of
the Black Sea were the scene of the labours of both, although

tradition is found only in authors later than Eusehius.

According to other accounts he preached the Gospel among
the Copts, or (with Thomas) in Armenia, or (with Philip)

in

Phrygia, and, after the death of Philip, in

In the

lists of the apostles his name is always coupled with, that of
Philip,-a fact which makes it

all

the more remarkable that in

this group of legends he is expressly designated

as

one of the

seventy disciples of Lk. 10

I

.

On

the other hand, the Parthian

legend which gives Mesopotamia and Persia

as

the field of

his labours, identifies him with Nathanael.

A

heretical

is mentioned

Jerome in his preface to

Mt.

65).

of Jesus.

P.

w.

BARTIMEUS

[Ti. W H ] ;

on

the

accent see below,

2,

end), the name of the blind

beggar whom (according to Mk.
Jesus healed as he was leaving Jericho

for Jerusalem. The parallel narratives of Mt. and
show various discrepancies in points of detail. According
to

18

35-43

the healing happened as Jesus was enter-

ing, not when he was

Jericho, and according

489

two blind men were healed. It might

be suggested that each of the two evangelists,

r at least Mt., was thinking of some occurrence other

that recorded by

Mk.

but, as against this, the very

lose coincidence with the text of Mk. shows clearly that

are dealing with the story which is associated in

with the name of

As regards this pardcular class of miracle, our judgment on

must depend on

doctrine of miracles

in

general, so

iuch

at

least may he remarked that in speaking to the disciples

f

of

giving sight to the blind, and

ther similar wonders, Jesus meant to

understood in a

piritual, not in a physical, sense. Otherwise the closing words,

and to the poor the gospel is preached,' would have no

;

no

propf of supernatural physical power is involved in this

rowning instance. I t is plain however, that the

inderstood his words in a

sense. For in Mt.

ecorded, before the account of the message to John, not only
he healing of a leper

and of a lame man

in

Lk.,

also

the bringing to life of Jairus's daughter

which

records after that message

the healing of a

which Mk. does not record

at

all

and which Lk.

elates, like the raising of

daughter, after the message to

(11

and, above all, the healing of two blind

vhich does not appear in the parallel narratives.

I t thus appears

hat, in the first gospel, instances of

all

five classes of miracle

recorded

as

having occurred before Jesus a peals to them (if

may disregard the consideration that

is

ised in the sense of dumb while Jesus in the message to John

it in the sense of

Lk., on the other hand, in whose

the message to John is preceded only

the raising of

he widow's son a t

in addition to the healing of a

eper and a lame man

relates in 727 that Jesus wrought

ipon many persons in the presence

the disciples of John the

to which he was immediately afterwards to appeal.

these miracles we have no indication in the other evangelists.

conclusion is that the words

the poor the gospel is

cannot have been the addition of the evangelists or of

my

of their predecessors. The words destroy the

interpretation which rhe evangelists

to

put

the preceding clauses.

are the authentic words of

himself, and they prove that he did not claim

to

be a

iealer of the physically blind.

Some of the critics who

that the evangelists

misapprehended Jesus's words do not deny the

iistoricity of the story of

They point

that, in

narrative at least,

'casting away his garment, sprang up and came to

(and thus cannot have been completely blind)

that the event helps to render intelligible the

popular enthusiasm at the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
immediately afterwards. They account for the divergence
of

Lk.

by

out that for the story of

a

great concourse of people

the entry of Jesus into

Jericho is required, and that the evangelist (erroneously)
believed this to have been due to the healing of the
blind m a n ;

divergence they account for by

supposing that he had fused together the story of
Bartimaeus and that of the blind man, recorded in Mk.

which he had previously passed over.

Finally,

they appeal to the express mention of the name

of

the

person healed-a rare thing in the gospels-as guaran-
teeing a genuine reminiscence.

This last argument would,

of

course, lose its validity

should the name prove to be no real name

According to Payne Smith's

588,

the

Syrian lexicographers Bar

(circa 885

A

.

D

.)

and

of

(circa

interpret

a s meaning blind

similarly

Sacr., ed.

;

and Jerome

IO)

even gives the corrected form

filius

and

'quod et

conrupte

The reading

however has no

support except in

who

in two

Greek MSS

bar

and the interpretation

T h e reading is suspicious for the veryreason that it depends

on

that of the Syriac translation, which could not render

otherwise than by the awkward and meaning-

less

of

I t accordingly left

1,

untranslated, thus

making

the blind man's own name, and designating

him

(so

in Syr. sin. and nearly so

in

hr. cp

Land

4

141

:

This might he held to

that the

o

cannot

he due to the evangelist who habitually introduces the Greek
translation of an

expression

7

T I

34) or

152234). Thus

is

the marginal note of some very ancient reader.

but merely a description.

BARUCH, BOOK

OF

‘blind’ cannot he

Hitzig, who upholds it, has

only inferred an Aramaic

‘to he blind,’

as

the inter-

mediate step between the Syr.

and the Arabic

of this meaning (in Merx’s

Archiv,

and

1870,

the inference is not sound.

It would appear, then, that the ancient interpretation ‘blind

’

was hit upon simply because

stood

near.

(Stud.

without expressing any view as to the

etymology, gives

as the original form. This rests,

however only on the writing of the name

in

some

of the

Vet.

with

instead of and the termination

of

which, however, the unanimous testimony

of

the Greek

MSS

is surely

to

he preferred (only D has

Thus

the

most

likely rendering of the name would he

‘son

of

the unclean.’

this interpretation,

still regarded the name

as only a description of the actor in the story.

armed. is the characteristic

of

the Gentile world

:

what

.

.

.

to

say is

an individual man but that the

whole Gentile

freed from spiritual

by

Jesus-

that is, hy the preaching of his gospel

;

Jesus

in

sight of Christianity, Judaism, as well as heathenism is blind,

and Volkmar

Judaism too, represented, in the

man

whose healing is

an earlier chapter (Mk.

8

22-26

;

see

Marcus,

;

243-5). The

text, however, supplies not the slightest indication or hint that

in the one place the Jews, in the other the Gentiles, are intended

;

in

fact as

uses the words ‘son

of

David’ and

Volkmar finds himself constrained to pronounce him

not a Gentile in the

full

sense of the word but a proselyte-

thereby, however, destroying his own

which is that

two healings taken

express the

hy the

gospel of the whole of humanity from spiritual blindness.

W e are shut up, then, to the conclusion that Bartimaeus

is

a

proper name like Barnabas, Barjesus, and the like,

and it

is

a

matter of indifference whether the second

element be the appellative

‘unclean,’ or the

personal name

(Levy,

or the place

or the second part of

the Syriac place-name

Syr.

486,

and whether any or all of the last three forms admit

of being traced to

a

root

to close

up’

Bartimaeus remains a proper name, also, if the second part

of

it be supposed to he the Greek name

(found

Origen seems to have had this derivation in his

when

Such

a

blending,

,however, of Aramaic and Greek is unlikely. On the other

hand, it is not impossible

that

the Greek word

have had

influence on the accent. With

a

Semitic derivation this would

naturally be

as

in

and

so

forth.

But just as, on the analogy

of

the very common Greek termina-

tion

the accepted pronunciation of

and Silvanus

was

and

(Rom. 169 Cor.

in

the accent lay on the penultimate,

so

the

name under consideration may have been accented

even without supposing it

to

be etymologically derived from the

Greek.

For the

see, especially Nestle,

1893,

pp.

and for the subject in

Keim,

Gesch.

3

(ET 5 61-64).

BARUCH

‘blessed [of God]’

son of Neriah and

of

.,

4), one of Jeremiah’s most faithful

friends in the upper class of the citizens of Jerusalem

(cp

x.

91,

W e hear of Baruch first in 604

as

the scribe who

committed to writing the prophecies delivered by his
master

up

to that date, and

603

B.C.

(?)

as

the fearless reader of those prophecies before the
people, the princes, and the king (Jer.

36).

After the

roll from which he read had been burned, Baruch
wrote down the substance of the former roll afresh

-a

fact not without significance for the cr

of the Book of J

EREMIAH

In 587

it was

to

Baruch that Jeremiah when in prison committed

the deeds of the land which he purchased from his
cousin Hanamel at Anathoth

and after the fall

of Jerusalem it was this

scribe who was charged

This personal name

however, is not certainly made

out,

for,

according to

Lit.-Glatt,

and

in the

sole

proof-text cited, the reading in the first

is

which he

explains from

P.

w.

vith having induced Jeremiah to dissuade

his

country-

nen from seeking

a

refuge in Egypt

(433).

The

appears to have been similar in character to his

In

the language of

emotion he

of the troubles which had come

upon

him, and

the wandering life which he was forced to lead.

great things for thyself’

(i.

e . ,

the

of

a

new and better Israel) ?

:

‘

Seelc them

’ was

he

answer ; for still worse troubles are in prospect
Baruch‘s own life will be spared

;

cp

We

be thankful for this brief record of Baruch‘s

nner life, Its genuineness has been too

.he date given in

45

I

is, of course, too early to suit the

and must be interpolated but the prophecy

tself is altogether in character with

No

other trustworthy facts respecting Baruch have reached

us

the

(on

Cant.

5

j)

and

in

he is said to have been the teacher of Ezra

;

and the

that Ezra did not go up to Jerusalem directly after the

of Cyrus, because

did not like to miss the instructions of

his teacher. This is

an attempt

to

prove the unbroken

transmission of the oral tradition. An equally great and

equally groundless honour was conferred on Baruch when

Bunsen represented him as the ‘great unnamed’ prophet who

Is.

That various apocryphal writings claimed

Baruch as their author is not surprising

:

Ezra

Baruch, the

two great scribes, were marked out for such distinctions. See
A

POCRYPHA

.

A

POCALYPTIC

L

ITERATURE

,

and

.

B

ARUCH

of.

[

I

]

11

ii.

[

I

]

I n

of

inhabitants

o f

Jerusalem (see E

ZRA

,

list

of

N

EHEMIAH

,

to

the covenant (see E

ZRA

,

7)

Neh.

Not

in

I

Ch.

BARUCH,

Book

of,

a

short book which in the

L X X is

placed immediately after Jeremiah, and is reckoned by
the Roman Catholic Church

as

one of the so-called

deutero-canonical writings.

Its contents may be

as

follows

:-

(Chap.

)

The book is said to have been written

by Baruch the son of Neriah a t Babylon
in the fifth year, a t the time when Jeru-

salem was burned by the

Baruch reads his book in the presence

of Jeconiah

Jehoiachin), the son of

king

of Judah, and in the presence of the other Jewish exiles
who dwell a t Babylon by the river Sud

(

After

mourning and fasting, they send money to Jerusalem to
the priest Jehoiakim

the son of

com-

manding him to offer sacrifices in behalf

of

(Nehuchadrezzar)

of Babylon and his son

Belshazzar, in order that Israel may find mercy.

At

the same time, the Jewish exiles send the following book,
which is to be read publicly on feast days in the Temple.

(Chaps.

This section

is a

confession of sin,

put into the mouth of Israel and accompanied by prayers
that God will at length pardon his people whom he

has

so

justly punished.

Special stress is laid upon the

sin which the people committed in refusing

to

serve the

king of Babylon, notwithstanding the solemn injunctions
of the prophets.

(Chaps. 39-5

)

Now follows a discourse addressed

to

the Israelites dispersed among the Gentiles. It begins

by showing that the calamities of the people are due
to their having forsaken God, the only source of wisdom,
and then proceeds to console them with promises of
restoration-Jerusalem will he gloriously re-established
for ever and ever, and the oppressors of Israel are to
be

to the dust.

It

will be seen that the book is very far from present-

ing the appearance of

organic unity.

After the

heading of chap.

These are the words

of the book which Baruch wrote,’ etc.,

we might expect the book itself to follow immediately
but, instead of this, we have a long account of the effect
produced

upon

the people by the reading of the hook.

Nor are we clearly informed whether the book’ sent

BARUCH, BOOK O F

BARZILLAI

by the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem

which they

cite at

full

length in the following section

(1

is or is not identical with the book written by Baruch.
Moreover, the historical situation described in the
narrative

does not agree very well with the sub-

sequent portion, since the narrative assumes the con-
tinued existence of the temple, whereas 226 implies
its destruction. Finally, the discourse which occupies
all the latter half of the book begins quite abruptly and

stands in no definite relation to what precedes : it pre-
supposes, indeed, the dispersion of Israel but to Baruch
and to the special circumstances of the

there is no allusion.

To

these general considerations may be added several

difficulties of detail. The date given

in

is

so

ob-

scurely worded that several modern commentators
Ewald and Rneucker) have felt obliged to emend the
text.

Even if the omission of the month be explained,

we still have to decide whether the fifth year

’

means

the fifth year of Jeconiah’s captivity or the fifth year
after the burning of Jerusalem ; and to both views there
are serious objections.

Chap. 1 8 disturbs the sense,

and

if

it be genuine must originally have stood in some

other place.

Though the Book of Baruch never formed part of the

Hebrew Canon (for which reason Jerome excluded it

from his Latin translation of the Bible), it
was regarded

as

authentic by many of the

Christian fathers, from the second century onwards.
Sometimes, owing to the place which it occupies in the

LXX,

it is cited as a part of Jeremiah.

Even in quite

times, it has been maintained by Roman Catholic

theologians that the book is a translation of

a

genuine

work of the well-known Baruch, the friend and
secretary of the prophet Jeremiah.

All competent

critics, however, have long ago concluded that it dates
from

a

very much later period, ’and belongs to the

large class of Jewish books which were put forth
under false names. Its origin and history remain, how-
ever, in some respects obscure. That

and

are by different authors is generally acknowledged :

both in substance and in style there is a marked con-
trast, the language of the former section being simple
and full of Hebraisms, while that of the latter is highly
rhetorical. The dates of the various parts, however, and
the question whether the whole or any part was originally
written in Hebrew are matters about which critics differ.

Ewald ascribed the first half

(1

8)

to a Jew living in

Babylonia or Persia under one of the latter

and regarded the rest of the book

as

having been

written soon after the capture of Jerusalem by Ptolemy
Soter

( 3 2 0

B.

C.

)

Ewald explained as

a

reference to

the deportation of Jews to Alexandria. Very few critics,
however, are now in favour of

so

early a date.

Kneucker

thinks that the work, in its original form, was com-
posed in the reign of Domitian, and

of only the

heading

in part,

and the discourse contained

in 3

9-5

the confession of sin

(1

8)

was, according

to

probably written

a

little earlier (in any case

after the year

73

of our era)

as

an

independent work,

and was subsequently inserted into the Book

of

Baruch

by a scribe, who himself composed

Schurer, on

the contrary, whilst admitting that the middle of chap.

1

does not harmonise very well with what precedes and
follows, thinks it on the whole probable

the first

half of the book

1-38)

is by the same author, whom

he places soon after the destruction of Jerusalem

(70

the second half being by a different hand but

of

about the same period.

With regard to the

original language, Ewald,

and others believe

the whole to be a translation from the Hebrew, whilst
Bertholdt, Havernick, and Noldeke regard the Greek
a s the ,primitive text. Fritzsche, Hilgenfeld,

Reuss,

and

Schiirer maintain the theory of a primitive Hebrew text
in the case of the first half only.

In favour of this

hypothesis, it niay be mentioned that

on

the margin of

493

the Syro-Hexaplar text of Baruch there are three notes

a

scribe stating that certain words in

and

‘not found in the Hebrew’ (cp A

POCRYPHA

,

6

As to the question of historical credibility, it

that if, with the majority of critics, we ascribe the book

to the Roman period, its value as

a

record

of facts

is

reduced to nothing.

Whether,

for example, thestatements about Baruch‘s

residence in Babylon, the river

and the priest

Jehoiakim are based upon any really ancient tradition
it is impossible for us to decide.

The author of the

first half borrows largely from Jeremiah and from Daniel
in the second half we find many reminiscences of Job
and of the latter part of Isaiah; and it may be that
sources now lost also were employed.

It is par-

ticularly important to observe that the closing passage

(4

bears a striking resemblance to one of the pieces

in the so-called Psalms of Solomon (Ps.

I

1-see the

edition of Ryle and James, pp.

which prob-

ably date from about the

of the first century

B.

Since there is every reason to believe that the Psalms
of Solomon were originally composed in Hebrew (cp
A

POCALYPTIC

,

the close verbal agreement seems

to indicate that the author of this part of Baruch

used the Psalms

of

Solomon

their present Greek

form.

The most important

of

the MSS containing the Greek text

B,

the Marchalianus (Q). I n this hook is

missing. Fritzsche’s edition of the Apocrypha

6.

Texts

and

does not accurately represent the B text of

Baruch

;

but trustworthy

about this

may be obtained from Swete’s

in the pre-

paration of which the photographic reproduction of B was used.

The ancient versions

the old Latin, contained in the

editions of the Vg.;

another Latin version, first published a t

Rome in 1688 by Joseph Maria a Caro Tommasi ;

the Old

Syriac, edited by Paul de Lagarde in his

from a

MS

the British

Museum, Add.

;

the Syriac

translation of Origen’s Hexaplaric text-contained in the Codex

which was reproduced in photo-lithography by

Ceriani in

1874

(5)

the Ethiopic-a much abridged form of the

by

(Berlin

in the 5th vol. of his

;

(6)

the Armenian, of which the best

edition is contained in

Armenian Bible published a t Venice

(7) the Coptic edited by Brugsch in

Of

the most valuable are those of

Fritzsche (in

Handb.,

Reusch

des

Baruch,

Ewald

des

iii.

Kneucker

and

(in Wace’s

The best general account of the

book will be found in Schiirer

pp.

ET).

The reader may consult also Bertholdt

pt. iv.) Havernick

(De

(in

ZWT 3

Hilgenfeld

5

22

437’454

23

( A

Lit.

1868

Reuss (Gesch.

d.

and the

on this

book

in Smith’s

3 an

valuable chiefly on account of the additions made

Ryle.

I n many

MSS

and printed editions the apocryphal

of

Jeremiah is appended to Baruch, and it is reckoned in the Vg.

as

the sixth chapter of the book.

The Book

6.

Appendices.

of Baruch is not to be confounded with the

Baruch (see

A

POCALYPTIC

L

ITERATURE

The work known as ‘The Rest of the

words of

extant in Greek, Ethiopic, and Armenian,

seems to be a

imitation of the Apocalypse of Baruch.

We possess, moreover, a third apocalypse of Baruch extant in
Greek and

and a fourth extant only in Ethiopic.

T h e Greek text of the former has been puhlished by James in
his

second series

Studies,

no.

I

)

where

information will be found also about

the

A.

A.

B.

BARZILLAI

The

meaning can scarcely be iron,’ for such

a

name would

be without

a,

parallel.

According to Nestle

cp Kampfmeyer,

9),

the

is Aramaic

son

of

;

but the latter part

of

it is still

obscure.

I.

A wealthy Gileadite of

who befriended

David in his flight from Absalom at Mahanaim

S.

He refused David’s offer to live at the court at

Jerusalem, but entrusted

to

him his son C

HIMHAM

494

BASALOTH

.

2

the sons of Barzillai to Solomon

( I

K.

27).

David on his death recommended

A man who married one of the daughters of

(2)

and changed

his name to

In post-exilic times the b’ne Barzillai

were among those deposed from the priesthood because they were

to

prove their pedigree. In

I

Esd. 5 38 the original name

of the founder of the family is said to have been

AV

Jos.

Ant. xi. 8 4 ;

;-but in the parallel passages he is simply called

;

[B],

7

[A]), and so

L

in Esd. 5 38

The same

passage gives

as

the name of his wife.

A

.

A

man of

(not far. therefore. from Gilead).

son

also

has been thought to bear

Aramaic name

21

8).

BASALOTH

=

6),

an unknown place, in Gilead, where Jonathan

the Maccabee was put to death by Trypho

(I

Macr.

23).

Furrer’s identification

V12

151)

with

on the

(to the E. of the extreme N.

of Lake Tiherias)

is

precarious (see Buhl,

241).

Equally unsubstantiated

is

the identification with

i.

BASE.

For

the word em-

ployed to denote the structure upon which each of Solomon’s
lavers rested (

I

27

34

:

17

25

16

Ch. 4 14,

[sing. and

Jer.

27

om.

[Theod.] Jer.

17

see

also

for

Ex.

etc., R V [AV ‘foot’]. For

Gen.

3 6 3

RV

AV

BASEMENT

Ez. 418

RV.

See G

ABBATHA

,

E

X

. 25 31

17

‘shaft’], see CANDLESTICK,

n. 3 ;

and for

Ezek. 43 RV, see A

LTAR

,

MATH.

PAVEMENT.

always in prose [except

I

and sometimes also in poetry, with the art.

:

the

appellative sense of the word, to judge
from the

probably

fertile, rich and stoneless soil : see Wetzstein, in Del.

:

or

the name of the broad and fertile tract of country
on the

E.

of Jordan, bounded (somewhat roughly)

on

the

S.

by the Yarmiik and a line passing through

and Salchah (mentioned as border cities in

Dt.

on the

E.

by the imposing range

of

extinct

volcanoes called the Jehel Hauriin, on the W .
Geshur and Ma‘acah (see Josh.

and on the N.

stretching out towards Hermon (cp Dt.

: see

further, on the

of Bashan,

ZDPV, 1890,

pp.

The name (in its

Gk.

form

and its Arabic form

was, however, after-

wards restricted to the

portion of the area thus

defined, other parts of the ancient Bashan being dis-
tinguished as

the remarkahle

pear-shaped volcanic formation in the NE. now called
the

(probably the Jebel Hauriin and

its environs in the SE.), and

(which, how-

ever, may have included parts of Geshur and
beyond the limits of Bashan proper) in the West.

The

principal part of the Bashan of the O T must have
been the broad rolling prairie now called by the
dawin

a word properly denoting the

‘

hollow

hearth’ dug

the Bedawi in the middle of his tent,

and applied

to

this great plain because, though it is

The adoption of the family name of the wife suggests that

she was an heiress.

See Schiirer

1353.

Wetzstein,

83-88,

and in the app. to Del.

where it is shown also that the modern

el-

Bathaniyeh,’ or ‘Land of Bathaniyeh,’ is the name of a
paratively small district

N.

of

the Jebel

and

E.

of the

which can never (as was supposed by Porter and others)

have formed part of either

or the province of

495

BASHAN

some

1800-2000

above tlie level of the sea, it forms

a

depression between the hilly

(across the Nahr

on the

the Zumleh range on the

and

the Jebel

and the

on

the E.

the

and

SE.

part of en-Nukra also hears the special name of

.

Bashan, as defined above, is distinguished geologically

from the country

S.

of it. The

a

natural

dividing line, on the

of which the

limestone comes to the surface, while

on the N. it is covered by volcanic deposits. Jebel
Hauriin, on the

is simply a range of extinct vol-

canoes volcanic peaks extend from N. to

S.

in

along the edge

of

the Jordan valley, on the W.

and

there are isolated volcanic hills in other parts of the
country. The

that strange petrified ocean

of the Jebel

which measures some

25

m. from

N. to

S.

by

from E. to

(see

T

RACKONITIS

),

owes its origin entirely to streams

of

basaltic lava

emitted from the

el-Kibliyeh, a now extinct

volcano at the NW. corner of the Jebel Hauriin.

The

soil

of the slopes of the Jebel

and

of

the

Nukra is

a

rich red

formed

the lava scoria,

which has

disintegrated under atmospheric

action. The soil thus constituted is celebrated for its
fertility

:

the best corn grows upon

it,

and in summer

time the plain is covered far and wide with waving crops.
The country is, however, in general almost entirely
destitute of trees

:

only on the

Jebel

especially in its central and southern parts, are there
abundant forests of evergreen oak (cp the allusions to
the oaks of Bashan

’

in the OT

:

Is. 2

Zech.

11

6,

also

Is.

Nah.

1 4 ) .

ancient

times, also, it

have supplied rich pastures : the

strong and well-nourished herds of Bashan are men-
tioned in

Ps.

(@

omits) Am.41

(@

omits) Dt.

;

cp also

omits). The lofty conical summits of the volcanoes

forming the

range (cp Porter,

rgo,

227,

250)

are no doubt the mountains with peaks,’ which the

poet of

pictures as looking enviously

at the

unimposing mountain of Zion.

The principal towns of Bashan mentioned in the

OT

are the two royal cities of ‘Og (Dt.

Josh.

[B]),

now probably either

Tell

or Tell

in the middle

of

and

now

on its

S.

border,

(Dt.

somewhere in the

and

(Dt.

how

a frontier-fortress

a

com-

manding position overlooking the desert in the SE.
corner of Bashan,

S.

of Jebel Hauriin.

between

and Salchah, though not mentioned till

I

Macc.

but see

also was, no

donht, an important place

:

the site

is

still

by extensive remains belonging

to

the Roman age.

Threescore fenced cities, with high walls, gates

bars,’ forming the kingdom of ‘Og, are likewise men-
tioned in Dt.

3 4

(cp

I

K.

4 1 3 )

as situate in the

‘

region

of Argoh,’ in Bashan. The position of Argob, and,
consequently, the positions of those cities as well, are
uncertain (see A

RGOB

,

I

) ;

hut there are remains of

many ancient towns and villages in these parts, especi-
ally in the

and on the sloping sides of the Jehel

Hanriin according to Wetzstein, for example

there are

300

such ancient sites on the

E.

and

slopes of the Jebel Hauriin alohe.

The dwellings in these deserted localities are of a remarkable

character.

Some are the habitations of Troglodytes, being

caverns hollowed out in the mountain-side, and so arranged a s

Wetzstein,

87

n.,

GASm.

HG

See the excellent map of this district

in the

Heft 4, chiefly on the

of

survey.

Schumacher,
Wetzstein,

Cp the map a t the end of the

Porter,

Years

in

186.

etc.

The mountainous region of

of

volume.

GASm.
the

also is well wooded.

496

BASHAN

to

chambers

;

these are found chiefly on the

the Jebel

Others are subterranean abodes entered by

shafts

these are frequent on

W.

of the

Zumleh range, and a t Edrei the dwellings thus constructed
form quite an underground city. Commonly, the dwellings

built in the ordinary manner above ground; but they

are constructed of massive well-hewn blocks of black basalt
-the regular and indeed the only building material used in

the country-with heavy doors moving

pivots, outside stair-

cases,

and roofs all of the same material

;

of

kind .are, for

houses a t

on the N. edge

of the

at

Sauwarah, El-Hazm, Deir

Hit,

Bathaniyeh,

Shnhba,

E.

of it,

and

on the W. slo es'of Jebel

Kureiyeh and

Bosra on its

slope,

Ezra', Khubab,

and Mismeiyeh, within the

Many of these cities are

in such a

state of preservation that it is difficult for the

traveller

to

realise that they are uninhabited, and in the

especially, where the ground itself is of the same dark and
sombre hue, unrelieved by a touch of green,

or a single sign of

life, a feeling of weirdness comes over him as he traverses their
desolate and silent streets.

The architecture of the buildings contained in these

cities (comprising temples, theatres, aqueducts, churches,
etc.) stamps them as belonging to the
age, and is such as to show that between the first and
the seventh centuries

A

.

D.

they were the home of a

thriving and wealthy people.

May any of these cities

date from a remoter antiquity, and be actually the
fortified places pointed to with wonder in Dt.

and

I

K.

The question was answered in the affirma-

tive b y Porter and by Cyril Graham,' who believed
that they had really rediscovered the cities built and
occupied

forty centuries ago by the giant race of

the

hut this view cannot be sustained. The

best authorities are unanimous in the opinion that,
though in some cases very ancient building materials

be preserved in them, the extant remains are not,

as a rule,

o f

a date earlier thap the first century,

Dt.

3 4

f.

and

I

413

are sufficient evidence that in

the seventh century

B

.

C

.

there were in Bashan strongly

fortified places which were popularly supposed to have
belonged to the ancient kingdom of O g ; but none
of the existing deserted cities Can be as ancient

as

this.

At the same time, it is not improbable that some of
the cities built during and after the reign of Herod

may have stood upon the sites of cities belonging to

a

much earlier age, and that in their construction the

materials employed in building the more ancient cities
may in some cases have been

and preserved.

As regards the history of Bashan, it is stated in Nu.

21

33-35

that the Israelites after their conquest of Sihon,

king of Heshbon, turned in the direction
of

Bashan, defeated Og its king, who

came out to meet them as far as his frontier fortress

of

Edrei, and took possession of his territory.

The

the context of JE but it agrees

so

closely,

in form as well as in substance, with Dt.

that

and other critics consider this to have been

its original place, supposing it to have been inserted
afterwards into the text of Numbers for the purpose of
supplying what seemed to be an omission.

All other notices of the same occurrence in the historical books

are Deuteronomic (or later) : Israel's ancient victories over

'

Sihon king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan

'

being

two national successes, to which, especially, the writers of the
Deuteronomic school were never weary of referring

(Dt.

1 4

447

see also, later, Nu.

33

Neh. 9

Ps 135 136

The territory

of

Bashan fell to the possession of the

half-tribe

(Dt.

313 443

Josh.

B

v.

Golan and 'Ashtaroth are stated in

P

to have

See more fully Wetzstein Hauran,

on Edrei, also,

Schumacher,

See for particulars Porter,

chaps.

Percy,

A

Visit

t o

Bashan and

Argob,

1895,

pp.

etc. (with

photographs).

263

f.

Giant

Cities of Bashan,

30, etc.

4

Essays for 1858, p.

Wetzstein Hauran, 49,

:

Waddington, Inscriptions

et

etc.,

1534;

De

the

principal authority

the architecture of

Civile

et

4

(cited in

East

63); GASm.

624.

32

497

BASHEMATH

Levitical cities (Josh.

2127,

cp

I

Ch.

656

the

also is named

as

a

city of refuge (Dt.

443

Josh.

Bashan played no prominent part in the

;

and

it

is rarely mentioned in a historical connection.

In

I

K.

4

13

it forms one of Solomon's commissariat dis-

tricts and in

K.

1 0 3 3

it is included in the enumera-

tion of trans-Jordanic regions which were smitten by

Its inhabitants may be presumed to have

suffered, like their neighbonrs in Gilead,

on

other

occasions during the Syrian wars, and finally to have
been carried into exile by

in 734

K.

15

;

but in neither connection are they expressly

mentioned.

Apart from the prehistoric

'

threescore

cities of the Argob, settled civilisation appears to have
begun for the region of Bashan about the time of the
Christian era, when its Semitic inhabitants first
under Greek and Roman influence.

The most im-

portant event in the history of the country, however,
was its incorporation by Trajan, in

in his

newly-founded province of Arabia. Then it was that
Roman culture impressed itself visibly upon both the
surface of the country and the character of its in-
habitants;

towns, with great public buildings, of

which the remains, as described above, survive to this
day, sprang up in every part of it and continued to
thrive for many

The most important works on the topography of Bashan are,

Wetzstein's

und

die

and Guthe and Fischer's art: in the

6.

Literature.

Z D P V

Heft 4, pp.

(containing

Dr.

sitineraryand map, and numerous

bibliographical references) ; on Southern

or the

Schumacher, Z D P V ,

pp.

; on Western

also,

Scbumacher,

Across

Jordan,

.

Porter Five

Years in Damascus; GASm.

Inscriptions

(chiefly Greek and Latin) have been published by Wetzstein in
the

of the Berlin Ac.

p.

; Waddington,

cif. Nos.

;

Clermont-Ganneau

;

Rev.,

;

W. Ewing,

BASHAN-HAVOTH-JAIR

occurs

B A C A N

(ut vid.) AFL]), where AV renders, 'and

called them after his own. name,

This version does justice to the present text, but

certainly does not represent the mind of the original
writer.

The awkward (indeed, impossible) expression

Bashan-havoth-jair can be accounted for only

on

the

hypothesis that the first element in it (Bashan) is a
placed gloss from the margin.

RV seeks to evade the

difficulty by rendering, called them, even Bashan, after
his own name, H

AVVOTH

-

JAIR

.'

On

the geographical

difficulty which still remains, see H

AVVOTH

-J

AIR

.

BASHEMATH,

or, as

RV,

correctly,

54

Other readings are : Gen.

34

elsewhere

;

3

;

; 4

[El

;

IO

13

[DEI ; 17

I

.

Daughter

of

and wife of Esan, called

in

and Hittite

[A];

2634

names and tribal origin of Esau's three wives are given
twice (cp

: by

P

in Gen.

2634

and by R

(?)

Gen.

A

wife Basemath, and descent from

Ishmael and from

the Hittite occur in both

accbunts (see

9),

but differently assigned

while the other names have no connection whatever

:

thus-

P

Elon-Hittite

Ishmael

R.

I

I

.

3.

R

(or

J)

I

I

.

3. Basemath

See, further, GASm.

HG

498

BASILISK

BASTARD

(AV

RV

daughter

of

Solomon,

I

4

15

[A]).

BASILISK,

RV rendering of

(Is.

(Is.

for which

AV

has C

OCKATRICE

,

,

BASKETS

of

kinds were used by the Hebrews,

were doubtless not unlike those which are often

found depicted upon Egyptian monuments-large open
baskets for fruit etc. (cp illustration, Wilk.

1

which could be borne upon the head

383,

cp

Gen.

40

baskets to collect earth in the manufacture

of bricks (on a supposed reference to which in Ps.

81

6 ,

see B

RICK

), or deep wicker ones slung upon

a

yoke

380).

Especially noteworthy is the large carpenter’s

tool-basket made of rush (a kind common throughout

W.

Asia), a specimen of which is now in the British

Museum (cp

401).

The references to baskets

present many points

of

interest suffice it

to

refer to the

difficult saying in Prov.

2511,

which RV renders,

‘ A

word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets (AV

pictures

filigree work

of silver,’ where

the implied notion is that the golden-hued apples look
all the more beautiful in silver baskets.

But

(

I

)

golden,

not golden-hued apples (quinces) must be meant, if the
text be correct

;

gold and silver must both be

literally.

Baskets

is

an impossible rendering,

‘filigree work,’ though more plausible, is still hypo-

thetical.

( 3 )

:Fitly’

has

no sound linguistic basis.

This is

a

case

which no weak emendation, affecting

one or two letters, suffices.

Frankenberg has tried such a one ; the sense produced is-
Golden gravings

on silver chased work,

(So

is) a word spoken to the trustworthy

cp

a

word spoken to

receptive is as ineffaceable a s the

chased work referred to.

Not very natural, and not a good

parallel to

By

the text more boldly (but avoiding

arbitrary guessing, and following parallels

else-

where) it is possible to reach this excellent sense

A necklace of pearls in sockets of

gold,

(So

is) a word of the wise

to

him who hears it.

It is really only a slightly different version of

next

proverb :

A

ring of gold and an ornament of fine

gold,

(So

is) a word of the wise to a hearing ear.

Of

the other Hebrew words rendered ‘basket,’

and

were used for general purposes, see

C

O

O

KIN

G

,

Nowack (Arch. 1146) suggests that these were similar in

character to the clay and straw

of the modern fellahin.

The former may perhaps denote-loosely any pot or jar since we

it used for cooking in

I

S.

2

(cp BDB

’The last-

named (sal), areed

to the Gr.

which

it is rendered] and Lat.

has been brought into con-

nection with the reduplicated form

Jer. 6 (EV

‘

grape-

gatherers’ baskets’. @

This, however,

doubtful,

and indeed the

is uncertain (cp Pesh.).

renders

‘shoots’; but this is

;

cp V

INE

.

For

(Am.

;

used also of

a

bird-cage, see C

AGE

.

which should take the place of

but

must have come from

is a corruption of

(Ex. 28

I

T

,

see O

UCHES

).

evidently conceals the name of some precious stone

or

the like. I f so, there is but one possible explanation

;

comes from

(just

as

36

39

comes from

;

see

which means pearls strung

(see N

ECK

-

LACE

).

Lastly,

probably comes from

(string or necklace).

Thus

corresponds closely to

v.

must correspond to

where, with

we should

read

(see

is based on

might

come from

‘for its purpose,’ hut more probably comes

from

which is equivalent to

Render a s above, and

G

O

LD

.

On the sacred canistrum of early Christian times, see Smith,

Ant.,

The

(also

10 7

for

and in Dt. 26 4 for

a

basket with a tapering extremity.

4

(cp Dt. 23 25

I

K.

17

IO

M T

used of vessels

of various kinds :

cp in N T , Mt. 13

25

4

prefer

I n

Am.

Sym., more suitably, has

(cp

in

24

for

a

vase-shaped basket ; especially the basket upon the

head of Demeter in ancient statues.

499

I n the N T mention is made of ( a )

a

basket of

work (used especially of fish-baskets),

which Paul escaped

From Damascus

(2

Cor. 11 33).

In Acts 9

25,

however the word

is (6)

( W H prefer

the basket in the

of

15 37

etc.).

larger

the

in the miracle of the

(Mt.

etc.). T h e

mentioned was an essentially Jewish article

Juv. 3

whose size may perhaps be

from the use of the word to denote a

about gallons (vide

46).

T

.

I

K.

415

see

MATH,

2.

(Amer. RV B

ASIN

).

That all the words

(one Greek and

Hebrew) denote hollow vessels

adapted to receive and contain liquids

is

certain but

what was the general

and wherein the peculiarity

of each consisted we

have

no means of determining.

This

uncertainty is sufficiently proved by the frequent

variations in the

EV

renderings.

On the whole subject,

see

B

O

W

L

,

C

UP

,

G

OBLET

, and cp A

LTAR

,

I O ;

C

OOKING

U

TENSILS

,

F

OOD

,

M

EALS

,

;

P

OTTERY

.

I

.

(see BDB

a large

bason (EV) or bowl used in the temple ritual (Ex. 246).

In

Is.

2224

E V .

a

[Theod.

On

account of its

is

in Cant.

7

as a

simile

in

eulogy of the bride (EV ‘goblet ’); see Cbe.

April 1899.

2.

M H

goblet), for which AV bason,

R V ‘bowl

’

consistently, occurs only as a vessel used in the

temple.

found it unintelligible.

I

Ch.

[A]

and

[A],

Esd. 2

13

and Ezra 8

L

as

in 1

Esd.

8 57

(a vessel for throwing or tossing a liquid,

With the exception of Am. 6

6

though

see M

EALS

,

and

2

this

utensil is used only in the temple sacrificial ritual. E V renders

‘bason’

Ex.

2

K.

etc.) or

bowl’ (Am.

Zech. 9 15

13

etc); see A

LTAR

,

4.

a temple utensil

(I

K. 7

50

K.

12 13

Jer.

52

[where

Aq.

Sym.

AV ‘howls,’ but

RV ‘cups’ [so E V in

used also in the ritual of

the Passover (Ex. 1 2

The pl.

evidently denoting

domestic utensils, occurs in

S.

17

28

but see

Klo. ad

used

Jn. 13 5 of the

(EV)

in which Jesus

washed the feet of the disciples (cp

Gen.

T h e utensil must have been larger than any of the above.

The Pal.-Syr. (Evang.

renders by

cp

Heb.

see

B

OWL

,

7.

BASSA,

RV

Bassai

[B]),

I

Esd.

BASTAI,

Basthai

[BA]),

I

Esd.

B

ESAI

.

BASTARD

The

mentioned along

with the Ammonite and Moabite as excluded from the

‘congregation

(Dt.

The Heb. word

is

of

uncertain derivation, and the

EV

rendering is based

upon the Vss.

et sup ras

om.).

More probably the word means one of

mixed or alien birth

(so

Zech. 96,

[BKAQ]),

and among the

it was the term applied to

relations between whom marriage was forbidden (cp
Mish.

4

It is presupposed by

in Nah.

(6

where M T has

(EV thy crowned ones

’),

and is rather infelicitously

accepted by Wellhausen who thinks that the refer-
ence is to the mixed population of

Ruben

is certainly right in conjecturing

thy measuring

In some cases where several vessels are named

appears

to

have transposed

: see

Nu.

4

Apart from the two exceptions mentioned,

regularly

thinks of

‘threshold,’ and renders

(in Jer.

The only kind

marriage which D contemplates

seems to be found in Dt. 21

I n

Dt.

7

only

peoples are excluded ; but

I

K.

11

I

assumes the exclusion

of

other nations, and so, in Ezra

9,

law is extended to cover

all

foreign neighbours (from

MS

note of WRS).