BAY-TREE

BAT-TREE CesrUch, Ps 37») is probably a mistrans-lation for 'a tree in its native soil' (RV). Many authorities, however, would here emend the Heb. text to read 'eree, 'cedar.' E. W. G. Mastehman.

BAZLITH (Neh 7"), Bazluth (Ezr 2M=Basaloth, 1 Es 5'')- — Founder of a family of Nethinim who re-turned with Zerubbabel.

BDELLIUM.— The probably correct tr. of the Heb. bedslach, which in Gn 212 is classed with gold and onyx as a product of the land of Havilah, and in Nu 11' is described as characterizing the 'appearance' (RV) of manna. Bdellium is the fragrant yellow resin of the tree Balsamodendron mukul, growing in N.W. India, Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and at one time perhaps in Arabia. E. W. G. Masterman.

BE. — To be is to exist, as in 'To be, or not to be, that is the question.' This primary meaning is found in Gn 5" 'Enoch walked with God; and he was not'; He 11° 'he that cometh to God must believe that he is.' The auxiliary use is later. In 1611 'be' and ' are ' were interchangeable auxiliary forms in the pres. indie, plu., as Ps 107'° 'Then are they glad because they be quiet.'

BEALIAH CJ" is lord'). — A Benjamite who joined David at Ziklag (1 Ch 12').

BEALOTH (Jos 15«).— An unknown town in the extreme south of Judah. See Balah.

BEAM. — 1. A tree roughly trimmed serving as support of the flat roof of an Eastern house (2 K 6'- ', Ezr 6" RV, Mt 73«-, Lk 6"'), or more elaborately dressed (2 Ch 34" RV, Ca 1") and gilded (2 Ch 3'). See House, Mote. 2. The weaver's beam (see Spin-ning and Weaving). 3. See Balance.

BEANS (,pdl, Arab. fffl). — A very common and popular vegetable in Palestine, used from ancient times; they are the seeds of the Vicia faba. The bean plant, which is sown in Oct. or Nov., is in blossom in early spring, when its sweet perfume fills the air. Beans are gathered young and eaten, pod and seed together, cooked with meat; or the fully mature beans are cooked with fat or oil. As the native of Palestine takes little meat, such leguminous plants are a necessary ingredient of his diet (2 S 17'*). In Ezk 4' we read of beans as being mixed with barley, lentils, millet, and fitches to make bread. E. W. G. Mastehman.

BEAR (£(56). — The Syrian bear (Ursus syriacus, Arab. dubb) is still fairly common in Hermon and the Anti-L§banon, and is occasionally found in the Lebanon and east of the Jordan; it is practically extinct in Palestine. It is smaller and of a lighter colour than the brown bear iUrsus arctos). It is a somewhat solitary animal, eating vegetables, fruit, and honey, but, when hungry, attacking sheep (1 S 17*-'') and occasionally, but very rarely, to-day at any rate, human beings (2 K 2^). The fierce-ness of a bear robbed of her whelps (2 S 17', Pr I712, Hos 13") is well known. Next to the lion, the bear was considered the most dangerous of animals to encounter (Pr 28'*), and that it should be subdued was to be one of the wonders of the Messiah's kingdom (Is 11').

B. W. G. Mastehman.

BEARD.— See Haih.

BEAST.— 1. In OT (1) behSmah, commonly used for a quadruped, sometimes tr. 'cattle'; see Gn 6' 7*, Ex 9'- i"- 25, Lv 112 etc. (2) chayyah, used of animals in general but specially 'wild beasts'; see Gn 7" 8' 9' etc. (3) be'lr sometimes tr. 'beasts' and sometimes 'cattle'; see Gn 45", Ex 22= etc. (4) ^z, 'wild beasts,' Ps 50" 8015.

2. In NT (1) thSrion: Mk l'', Ac 28< (a viper). Tit I12, He 122", Ja 3', and over 30 times in Rev. (2) zBon, of the 'beasts' (AV), or 'hving creatures' (RV), round about the throne (Rev 5. 6. 8. 11, etc.).

E. W. G. Mastehman.

BEATITUDES

BEAST (in Apocalypse). — In Revelation, particularly ch. 23, are symbolic pictures of two beasts who are represented as the arch-opponents of the Christians. The first beast demands worship, and is said to have as his number 666 — a numerical symbol most easily referred to the Emperor Nero, or the Roman Empire. In the former case the reference would be undoubtedly to the myth of Nero redivivus, and this is, on the whole, the most probable interpretation.

It instead of 666 we read with Zahn, O. Holtzmann, Spitta, and Erbes, 616, the number would be the equivalent of Gaius Csesar, who in a.d. 39 ordered the procurator Petronius to set up his statue in the 'Temple of Jerusalem. This view is, in a way, favoured not only by textual varia-tions, but by the fact that Revelation has used so much Jewishapocalyptic material. However this may be, it seems more probable that the reference in Rev 17'"-", as re-edited by the Christian writer, refers to Nero redivivus, the in-carnation of the persecuting Roman Empire, the two to-§ ether standing respectively as the Antichrist and his king- om over against tne Messiah and His kingdom. As in all apocalyptic writings, a definite historical ruler is a rep-resentative of an empire. Until the Messiah comes iUa subjects are at the mercy of His great enemy.

The present dimculty in making the identification is due not only to the process of redaction, but also to the highly complex and, for the modem mind, all but unin-telligible fusion of the various elements of the Antichrist belief (see Antichbist). Shaileh Mathews.

BEATING. — See Crimes and Punishments, § 9.

BEATITUDES.— This word comes from the Latin abstract beatitudo, used in Vulg. of Ro 4", where David is said to 'pronounce the beatitude' or blessedness of the forgiven soul. Since the time of Ambrose the term has been used to describe the particular collection of sayings (oast in the form of which Ps 32' is an OT specimen) in which Christ depicts the qualities to be found in members of His kingdom — as an introduction to the discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5'-i2=Lk 62''-22). Each of these sayings follows the form 'Blessed (happy) are . . ., because . . .' Mt. records eight of these general declarations, with a special application of the last of them; Lk. has only four, to which are added four corresponding Woes. There is no guarantee that even Mt. gives all the Beati-tudes pronounced by Jesus on different occasions, or again that those he does give were all pronounced on that occasion. It is at least possible that in other parts of the NT we have quotations from sayings of the same kind. Thus 1 P 4w, Ja 1>2, Rev 1413 might easily be supposed to rest on words of Christ.

According to the prevailing view of the history of our Gospels, the Beatitudes are derived from an early col-lection of Logia, or sayings of Jesus, in the original Aramaic language. To a very large extent the authors of Mt. and Lk. seem to have used identical translations of this document; but in the Beatitudes there is a con-siderable divergence, together with some significant agreements in phraseology. Putting aside Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7 in Mt., which have no counterparts in Lk., we see the following main lines of difference — (1) Lk.'s are in the second person, Mt.'s in the third, except in the verses which apply No. 8 (5"- ''); (2) Lk.'s are ap-parently external: the poor, the hungry, those that weep, receive felicitation as such, instead of the com-miseration ('Woe') which the world would give them. But since in Lk. disciples are addressed, the divergence does not touch the real meaning. A theodicy is pro-claimed in which the hardships of the present, sanctified to the disciple as precious discipline, will be trans-formed into abiding blessedness. Such a reversal of the order of this life involves here, as elsewhere, the cast-ing down of those whom men count happy (cf . Is 65"- '*, Lk 152- ra 16", Jn 1&">, Ja 1»- ">). The paradoxical form of the sayings in Lk. produces a strong impression of originality, suggesting that here, as often elsewhere, Mt. has interpreted the words which Lk. has transcribed unchanged. Mt. has arranged them according to the

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