International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Bitumen — Bought (1)

Biziothiah - biz-yo-thi'-a, biz-joth'-ja (bizyotheyah; Septuagint hai komai auton, literally "their villages"; the King James Version Bizjothjah, "place of Jah's olives" (Young), or "contempt of Jah" (Strong)): According to Massoretic Text, a town in the south of Judah, near Beersheba (Joshua 15:28). Septuagint reads "and her daughters," only one consonant of Massoretic Text being read differently; and so We, Hollenberg, Di and others The Septuagint has probably preserved the original text (compare Nehemiah 11:27).

Biztha

Biztha - biz'-tha (Septuagint Mazan; also Bazan and Bazea): One of the seven eunuchs or chamberlains of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). It is possible that the name is derived from the Persian besteh, "bound," hence, "eunuch" (Esther 1:10).

Black

Black - See COLORS .

Blackness

Blackness - (kimririm, "obscurations"; qadhruth, "darkness"; gnophos, "darkness" zophos "blackness"): Terms rarely used but of special significance in picturing the fearful gloom and blackness of moral darkness and calamity. Job, cursing, the day of his birth, wishes that it, a dies ater ("dead black day"), might be swallowed up in darkness (Job 3:5). Because of Israel's spiritual infidelity Yahweh clothes the heavens with the blackness of sackcloth (Isaiah 50:3), the figure being that of the inky blackness of ominous, terrifying thunder clouds. The fearful judgment against sin under the old dispensation is illustrated by the appalling blackness that enveloped smoking, burning, quaking Sinai at the giving of the law (Hebrews 12:18; compare Exodus 19:16-19; 20:18). The horror of darkness culminates in the impenetrable blackness of the under-world, the eternal abode of fallen angels and riotously immoral and ungodly men (Jude 1:13; see also Jude 1:6 and 2 Peter 2:4, 17). Human language is here too feeble to picture the m oral gloom and rayless night of the lost: "Pits (the King James Version "chains") of darkness" (compare the ninth plague of Egypt, "darkness which may be felt" (Exodus 10:21)). Wicked men are "wandering stars," comets that disappear in "blackness of darkness .... reserved for ever." In art this figurative language has found majestic and awe-inspiring expression in Dore's illustrations of Dante's Purgatory and Milton's Paradise Lost.

Dwight M. Pratt

Blains

Blains - blanz (abha`bu`ah: only in Exodus 9:9-10): Pustules containing fluid around a boil or inflamed sore. It is an Old English word "bleyen," used sometimes as a synonym for boil. Wyclif (1382) uses the expression "stinkende bleyne" for Job's sores. The Hebrew word is from a root which means that which bubbles up.

See BOIL.

Blasphemy

Blasphemy - blas'-fe-mi (blasphemia): In classical Greek meant primarily "defamation" or "evil-speaking" in general; "a word of evil omen," hence, "impious, and irreverent speech against God."

(1) In the Old Testament as substantive and vb.: (a) (barakh) "Naboth did blaspheme God and the king" (1 Kings 21:10, 13 the King James Version); (b) (gadhaph) of Senna-cherib defying Yahweh (2 Kings 19:6, 22 = Isaiah 37:6, 23; also Psalms 44:16; Ezekiel 20:27; compare Numbers 15:30), "But the soul that doeth aught with a high hand (i.e. knowingly and defiantly), .... the same blasphemeth (so the Revised Version (British and American), but the King James Version "reproacheth") Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people." Blasphemy is always in word or deed, injury, dishonor and defiance offered to God, and its penalty is death by stoning; (c) (charaph) of idolatry as blasphemy against Yahweh (Isaiah 65:7); (d) (naqabh) "And he that blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 24:11, 16); (e) (na'ats) David's sin is an occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14; also Psalms 74:10, 18; Isaiah 52:5; compare Ezekiel 35:12; 2 Kings 19:3 the King James Version; Isaiah 37:3).

(2) In the New Testament blasphemy, substantive and vb., may be (a) of evil-speaking generally, (Acts 13:45; 18:6); The Jews contradicted Paul "and blasphemed," the Revised Version, margin "railed." (So in the King James Version of Matthew 15:19 = Mark 7:22; Colossians 3:8, but in the Revised Version (British and American) "railings"; Revelation 2:9 the Revised Version, margin "reviling"; so perhaps in 1 Timothy 1:20; or Hymeneus and Alexander may have blasphemed Christ by professing faith and living unworthily of it.) (b) Spea king against a heathen goddess: the town clerk of Ephesus repels the charge that Paul and his companions were blasphemers of Diana (Acts 19:37). (c) Against God: (i) uttering impious words (Revelation 13:1, 5-6; 9, 11, 21; 17:3); (ii) unworthy conduct of Jews (Romans 2:24) and Christians (1 Timothy 6:1; Titus 2:5, and perhaps 1 Timothy 1:20); (iii) of Jesus Christ, alleged to be usurping the authority of God (Matthew 9:3 = Mark 2:7 = Luke 5:21), claiming to be the Messiah, the son of God (Matthew 26:65 = Mark 14:64), or making Himself God (John 10:33, 36). (d) Against Jesus Christ: Saul strove to make the Christians he persecuted blaspheme their Lord (Acts 26:11). So was he himself a blasphemer (1 Timothy 1:13; compare James 2:7).

The Unpardonable Sin:

(3) Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come" (Matthew 12:31-32 = Mark 3:28-29; Luke 12:10). As in the Old Testament "to sin with a high hand" and to blaspheme the name of God incurred the death penalty, so the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit remains the one unpardonable sin. These passages at least imply beyond cavil the personality of the Holy Spirit, for sin and blasphemy can only be committed against persons. In Mt and Mk a particular case of this blasphemy is the allegation of the Pharisees that Jesus Christ casts out devils by Beelzebub. The general idea is that to attribute to an evil source acts which are clearly those of the Holy Spirit, to call good evil, is blasphemy against the Spirit, and sin that will not be pardoned. "A distinction is made between Christ's other acts and those which manifestly reveal the Holy Spirit in Him, and between slander directed against Him personally as He appears in His ordinary acts, and that which is aimed at those acts in which the Spirit is manifest" (Gould, Mark at the place). Luke does not refer to any particular instance, and seems to connect it with the denial of Christ, although he, too, gives the saying that "who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven." But which of Christ's acts are not acts of the Holy Spirit, and how therefore is a word spoken against Him not also blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? John identifies the Holy Spirit with the exalted Christ (John 14:16-18, 26, 28). The solution generally offered of this most difficult problem is concisely put by Plummer (Luke ad loc.): "Constant and consummate opposition to the influence of the Holy Spirit, because of a deliberate preference of darkness to light, render repentance and therefore forgiveness morally impossible." A similar idea is taught in Hebrews 6:4-6, and 1 John 5:16: "A sin unto death." But the natural meaning of Christ's words implies an inability or unwillingness to forgive on the Divine side rather than inability to repent in man. Anyhow the abandonment of man to eternal condemnation involves the inability and defeat of God. The only alternative seems to be to call the kenotic theory into service, and to put this idea among the human limitations which Christ assumed when He became flesh. It is less difficult to ascribe a limit to Jesus Christ's knowledge than to God's saving grace (Mark 13:32; compare John 16:12-13). It is also noteworthy that in other respects, at least, Christ acquiesced in the view of the Holy Spirit which He found among His contemporaries.

See HOLY SPIRIT.

T. Ress

Blast

Blast - (neshamah, ruach):

(1) The blowing of the breath of Yahweh, expressive of the manifestation of God's power in Nature and Providence. "With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up" (Exodus 15:8), referring to the east wind (Exodus 14:21; compare 2 Samuel 22:16 and Psalms 18:15). "I will send a blast upon him" (2 Kings 19:7 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "put a spirit in him," i.e. "an impulse of fear" (Dummelow in the place cited.); compare Isaiah 37:7). "By the blast of his anger are they consumed" (Job 4:9; compare Isaiah 37:36).

(2) The word ruach is used with reference to the tyranny and violence of the wicked (Isaiah 25:4).

(3) The blowing of a wind instrument: "When they make a long blast with the ram's horn" (Joshua 6:5).

M. O. Evans

Blast; Blasting

Blast; Blasting - blast'-ing (shiddaphon--root, shadhaph, literally "scorching"): This is the effect produced upon grain or other plants by the hot east winds which blow from the desert of Arabia. They usually continue to blow for two or three days at a time. If they occur in the spring near ripening time, the grain is often turned yellow and does not properly mature. The farmers dread this wind. In some localities, if they suspect that the east wind is coming, they set up a great shouting and beating of pans, hoping to drive it off. Sometimes this wind is a double pestilence, when it brings with it a cloud of locusts (2 Chronicles 6:28). The writer, while journeying in the northern part of the Arabian desert, the source of these winds, witnessed such a cloud of locusts on their way toward habitable regions. It did not call for a very vivid imagination on the part of the children of Israel to realize the meaning of the curses and all manner of evil which would befall those who would not hearken to the voice of Yahweh. Deuteronomy 28:22-24 could easily be considered a poetic description of the east winds (Arabic howa sharki'yeh) which visit Palestine and Syria at irregular intervals today. The heat is fiery: it dries up the vegetation and blasts the grain; the sky is hazy and there is a glare as if the sun were reflected from a huge brass tray. Woodwork cracks and warps; the covers of books curl up. Instead of rain, the wind brings dust and sand which penetrate into the innermost corners of the dwellings. This dust fills the eyes and inflames them. The skin becomes hot and dry. To one first experiencing this storm it seems as though some volcano must be belching forth heat and ashes. No other condition of the weather can cause such depression. Such a pestilence, only prolonged beyond endurance, was to be the fate of the disobedient. This word should not be confused with mildew. Since the words blasting and mildew occur together it may be inferred that mildew (literally "a paleness") must mean the sickly color which plants assu me for other causes than the blasting of the east wind, such, as for instance, fungus diseases or parasites (1 Kings 8:37; Amos 4:9; Haggai 2:17).

James A. Patch

Blastus

Blastus - blas'-tus (Blastos, "shoot"): The chamberlain of Herod Agrippa I, whose services as an intermediary between them and the king were gained by the people of Tyre and Sidon. These cities were dependent on Palestine for corn and other provisions, and when Herod, on the occasion of some commercial dispute, forbade the export of foodstuffs to Tyre and Sidon, they were at his mercy and were compelled to ask for peace. "Having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend," probably by means of a bribe, the Phoenician embassy was given an opportunity of setting their case before Herod (Acts 12:20 ff).

S. F. Hunter

Blaze

Blaze - blaz ("to publish"): Found only in the King James Version of Mark 1:45, for Greek diaphemizein, translated by the Revised Version (British and American) "spread abroad," as in Matthew 9:31; 28:15.

Blemish

Blemish - blem'-ish:

(1) mum, me'um; momos: This word signifies no particular skin disease, as has been supposed; but is used generally for any and all disfiguring affections of the skin, such as eczema, herpes, scabies, etc., even for scratches and scars, as in Leviticus 24:19-20; and thence for moral defects, as in Ephesians 5:27. The existence of a blemish in a person of priestly descent prevented him from the execution of the priestly office; similarly an animal fit for sacrifice was to be without blemish. In the New Testament Christ is presented as the antitype of a pure and ritually acceptable sacrifice "as a lamb without blemish and without spot" (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19), and the disciples are admonished to be blameless, "without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27). Rarely the word is used to designate a reprobate person (2 Peter 2:13).

(2) Blemish in the eye, tebhallul (from a root balal, "to overflow"; Arabic balla, balal, "to moisten"), cataract, white spots in the eye (Leviticus 21:20).

H. L. E. Luering

Bless

Bless - (barakh): This word is found more frequently in the Old Testament than in the New Testament, and is used in different relations.

(1) It is first met in Genesis 1:22 at the introduction of animal life upon the earth, where it is written, "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply," etc. The context furnishes the key to its meaning, which is the bestowal of good, and in this particular place the pleasure and power of increase in kind. Thus it is generally employed in both Testaments, the context always determining the character of the bestowal; for instance (where man is the recipient), whether the good is temporal or spiritual, or both.

Occasionally, however, a different turn is given to it as in Genesis 2:3 the King James Version, where it is written, "And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." Here the good consists in the setting apart and consecrating of that day for His use.

(2) In the foregoing instances the Creator is regarded as the source of blessing and the creature the recipient, but the order is sometimes reversed, and the creature (man) is the source and the Creator the recipient. In Genesis 24:48, for example, Abraham's servant says, "I bowed my head, and worshipped Yahweh, and blessed Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham," where the word evidently means to worship God, to exalt and praise Him.

(3) There is a third use where men only are considered. In Genesis 24:60, her relatives "blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands" (the King James Version "millions"), where the word expresses the wish or hope for the bestowal of the good designated. There are also instances where such a blessing of man by man may be taken in the prophetic sense, as when Isaac blessed Jacob (Genesis 27:4, 27), putting himself as it were in God's place, and with a sense of the Divine concurrence, pronouncing the good named. Here the word becomes in part a prayer for, and in part a prediction of, the good intended. Balaam's utterances are simply prophetic of Israel's destiny (Numbers 23:9-10, 11, 23 margin,Numbers 24:1-25).

Although these illustrations are from the Old Testament the word is used scarcely differently in the New Testament; "The blessing of bread, of which we read in the Gospels, is equivalent to giving thanks for it, the thought being that good received gratefully comes as a blessing"; compare Matthew 14:19 and Matthew 15:36 with 1 Corinthians 11:24 (Adeney, HDB, I, 307).

Blessed

Blessed - bles'-ed (barukh): Where God is referred to, this word has the sense of "praise," as in 1 Samuel 25:32, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel." But where man is in mind it is used in the sense of "happy" or "favored," and most frequently so in the Psalms and the Gospels, as for example, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked" (Psalms 1:1); "Blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1:42); "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3).

See BEATITUDES.

Blessedness

Blessedness - bles'-ed-nes: This translation of makarismos (a word signifying "beatification" or "the ascription of blessing"), is used but three times, in Romans 4:6, 9, and Galatians 4:15, in the King James Version only. In the first two instances it refers to the happy state or condition of a man to whom Christ's righteousness is imputed by faith, and in the last to a man's experience of that condition.

See HAPPINESS.

Blessing

Blessing - (berakhah; eulogia): Sometimes means the form of words used in invoking the bestowal of good, as in Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 8:34; and James 3:10. Sometimes it means the good or the benefit itself which has been conferred, as in Genesis 27:36, "Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" and Proverbs 10:22, "The blessing of Yahweh, it maketh rich." "The cup of blessing" (to poterion tes eulogias, a special use of the word in 1 Corinthians 10:16), means the cup for which we bless God, or which represents to us so much blessin g from God.

James M. Gray

Blessing, Cup of

Blessing, Cup of - (to poterion tes eulogias, "the consecrated cup," 1 Corinthians 10:16): A technical term from the Jewish liturgy transferred to the Lord's Supper, and signifying the cup of wine upon which a blessing was pronounced. The suggestion that it carries with it a higher significance, as a cup that brings blessing, is not without force. The succeeding words, "we bless," are equivalent to "for which we give thanks." It was consecrated by thanksgiving and prayer.

Blessing, Valley of

Blessing, Valley of - See BERACAH.

Blindfold

Blindfold - blind'-fold (perikalupto): A sport common among the children of ancient times, in which the blindfolded were struck on the cheek, then asked who had struck them, and not let go until they had correctly guessed. This treatment was accorded Christ by his persecutors (Luke 22:64).

Blinding

Blinding - blind'-ing.

See PUNISHMENTS.

Blindness

Blindness - blind'-ness (`awar, and variants; tuphlos): The word blind is used as a verb, as John 12:40, usually in the sense of obscuring spiritual perception. In reference to physical blindness it is used as a noun frequently or else as an adjective with the noun man. There are 54 references to this condition, and there is no reason to believe, as has been surmised, that blindness was any less rife in ancient times than it is now, when defective eyes and bleared, inflamed lids are among the commonest and most disgusting sights in a Palestine crowd. In the Papyrus Ebers (1500 BC) there are enumerated a number of diseases of the eye and a hundred prescriptions are given for their treatment. That the disease occurred in children and caused destruction and atrophy of the eyeball is testified to by the occurrence of a considerable number of mummy heads, in which there is marked diminution in size of one orbit. The commonest disease is a purulent ophthalmia, a highly infectious condition propagated largely by the flies which can be seen infesting the crusts of dried secretion undisturbed even on the eyes of infants. (In Egypt there is a superstition that it is unlucky to disturb them.) This almost always leaves the eyes damaged with bleared lids, opacities of the cornea, and sometimes extensive internal injury as well. Like other plagues, this disease was thought to be a Divine infliction (Exodus 4:11). Minor forms of the disease destroy the eyelashes and produce the unsightly tender-eyes (in Genesis 29:17 the word rakh may mean simply "weak").

Blindness from birth is the result of a form of this disease known as ophthalmia neonatorum which sets in a few days after birth. I have seen cases of this disease in Palestine. Sometimes ophthalmia accompanies malarial fever (Leviticus 26:16). All these diseases are aggravated by sand, and the sun glare, to which the unprotected inflamed eyes are exposed. Most of the extreme cases which one sees are beyond remedy--and hence, the giving of sight to the blind is generally put in the front of the mighty works of healing by our Lord. The methods used by Him in these miracles varied probably according to the degree of faith in the blind man; all were merely tokens, not intended as remedies. The case of the man in Mark 8:22 whose healing seemed gradual is an instance of the phenomenon met with in cases where, by operation, sight has been given to one congenitally blind, where it takes some time before he can interpret his new sensations.

The blindness of old age, probably from senile cataract, is described in the cases of Eli at 98 years of age (1 Samuel 3:2; 4:15), Ahijah (1 Kings 14:4), and Isaac (Genesis 27:1). The smiting of Elymas (Acts 13:11) and the Syrian soldiers (2 Kings 6:18) was either a miraculous intervention or more probably a temporary hypnotism; that of Paul (Acts 9:8) was doubtless a temporary paralysis of the retinal cells from the bright light. The "scales" mentioned were not material but in the restoration of his sight it seemed as if scales had fallen from his eyes. It probably left behind a weakness of the eyes (see THORN IN THE FLESH). That blindness of Tobit (Tobit 2:10), from the irritation of sparrows' dung, may have been some form of conjunctivitis, and the cure by the gall of the fish is paralleled by the account given in Pliny (xxxii.24) where the gall of the fish Callionymus Lyra is recommended as an application in some cases of blindness. The hypothesis that the gall was used as a pigment to obscure the whiteness of an opaque cornea (for which Indian ink tattooing has been recommended, not as a cure but to remove the unsightliness of a white spot) has nothing in its favor for thereby the sight would not be restored. The only other reference to medicaments is the figurative mention of eyesalve in Revelation 3:18.

Blindness unfitted a man for the priesthood (Leviticus 21:18); but care of the blind was specially enjoined in the Law (Leviticus 19:14), and offenses against them are regarded as breaches of Law (Deuteronomy 27:18).

Figuratively, blindness is used to represent want of mental perception, want of prevision, recklessness, and incapacity to perceive moral distinctions (Isaiah 42:16, 18-19; Matthew 23:16 ff; John 9:39 ff).

Alex. Macalister

Blindness, Judicial

Blindness, Judicial - ju-dish'-al, joo-dish'-al: Among the ancient Israelites in the pre-Canaanite period disputes within the family or clan or tribe would be settled by the natural head of the family or clan or tribe. According to Exodus 18:1-27 Moses, as the leader of the tribes, settled all disputes. But he was compelled to appoint a body of magistrates--heads of families--to act in conjunction with himself, and under his judicial oversight. These magistrates settled ordinary disputes while he reserved for himself the more difficult cases. After the conquest of Canaan, the conditions of life became so complex, and questions of a difficult nature so constantly arose, that steps were taken (1) to appoint official judges--elders of the city (Joshua 8:33; Judges 8:3; 1 Kings 21:8); (2) to codify ancient custom, and (3) to place the administration of justice on an organized basis. It is significant that in one of the oldest documents in the Pentateuch--namely, in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:20 through Exodus 23:33)--the miscarriage of justice was of such frequent occurrence as to require special mention (Exodus 23:1-3, 6-8). In fact the Old Testament abounds with allusions to the corruption and venality of the magisterial bench (Deuteronomy 16:19; Leviticus 19:15; Amos 5:12; Micah 3:11; 7:3; Isaiah 1:23; 5:23; Zephaniah 3:3; Psalms 15:5; Proverbs 17:23). According to the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 23:8) `a bribe blindeth the eyes of the open-eyed.' This descriptive phrase indicates a prolific cause of the miscarriage of justice--an exceedingly common thing in the East, in the present no less than in the past. The prohibition in Exodus 23:3, "Neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause," is rather remarkable and many scholars are of opinion that "a great man" should be read for "a poor man" as, according to Exodus 23:6 the King James Version, the common fault was "wresting the judgment of the poor." The rich alone could offer a satisfactory bribe. But it should be pointed out that Lev (Exodus 19:15) legislates in view of both tendencies--"respecting the person of the poor:" and "honoring the person of the mighty." Sympathy with the poor no less than a bribe from the well-to-do might affect the judgment of the bench. Dt (Exodus 16:19) reproduces the words of the Book of the Covenant with a slight alteration--namely, "eyes of the wise" for "eyes of the open-eyed" ("them that have sight"). Both phrases vividly bring out the baneful effect of bribery--a magistrate otherwise upright and honest--open-eyed and wise--may be unconsciously yet effectively influenced in his judicial decisions by a gift sufficiently large. A similar phrase is found in the story of Abraham's life (Genesis 20:16). A gift of a thousand shekels to Abraham was intended to be a "covering of the eyes" for Sarah, i.e. compensation or reparation for the wrong which had been done. For a gift of such magnitude she ought to wink at the injury. Job (Genesis 9:24) declares in his bitterness that God "covereth the faces of the judges"--inflicts judicial blindness on them so that justice in this world is out of the question. Judicial corruption was the burden of the prophets' preaching--"judges loved bribes, and followed after rewards," with the result that "the fatherless" and "the widow" were helpless to have their grievances redressed (Isaiah 1:23). A satisfactory reward would always secure the acquittal of the offender (Isaiah 5:23). Micah combines judges, priests and prophets under a similar charge; they are all guilty of gross venality (Isaiah 3:11). Prov (Isaiah 17:14) defines the wicked person as one who is always prepared to take a "bribe out of the bosom, to pervert the ways of justice"; on the other hand the good man is he who will not take a reward against the innocent (Psalms 15:5) or "shaketh his hands from taking a bribe" (Isaiah 33:15). In regard to Yahweh alone is absolute incorruptibility affirmed--he "regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward" (Deuteronomy 10:17).

T. Lewis

Blood

Blood - blud (dam, probably from 'adham "to be red"; haima): Used in the Old Testament to designate the life principle in either animal or vegetable, as the blood of man or the juice of the grape (Leviticus 17:11, et al.); in the New Testament for the blood of an animal, the atoning blood of Christ, and in both Old Testament and New Testament in a figurative sense for bloodshed or murder (Genesis 37:26; Hosea 4:2; Revelation 16:6).

1. Primitive Ideas: Although the real function of the blood in the human system was not fully known until the fact of its circulation was established by William Harvey in 1615, nevertheless from the earliest times a singular mystery has been attached to it by all peoples. Blood rites, blood ceremonies and blood feuds are common among primitive tribes. It came to be recognized as the life principle long before it was scientifically proved to be. Naturally a feeling of fear, awe and reverence would be attached to the shedding of blood. With many uncivilized peoples scarification of the body until blood flows is practiced. Blood brotherhood or blood friendship is established by African tribes by the mutual shedding of blood and either drinking it or rubbing it on one another's bodies. Thus and by the inter-transfusion of blood by other means it was thought that a community of life and interest could be established.

2. Hebrew and Old Testament Customs: Notwithstanding the ignorance and superstition surrounding this suggestively beautiful idea, it grew to have more than a merely human significance and application. For this crude practice of inter-transference of human blood there came to be a symbolic substitution of animal blood in sprinkling or anointing. The first reference in the Old Testament to blood (Genesis 4:10) is figurative, but highly illustrative of the reverential fear manifested upon the shedding of blood and the first teaching regarding it.

The rite of circumcision is an Old Testament form of blood ceremony. Apart from the probable sanitary importance of the act is the deeper meaning in the establishment of a bond of friendship between the one upon whom the act is performed and Yahweh Himself. In order that Abraham might become "the friend of God" he was commanded that he should be circumcised as a token of the covenant between him and God (Genesis 17:10-11; see CIRCUMCISION).

It is significant that the eating of blood was prohibited in earliest Bible times (Genesis 9:4). The custom probably prevailed among heathen nations as a religious rite (compare Psalms 16:4). This and its unhygienic influence together doubtless led to its becoming taboo. The same prohibition was made under the Mosaic code (Leviticus 7:26; see SACRIFICE).

Blood was commanded to be used also for purification or for ceremonial cleansing (Leviticus 14:5-7, 51-52; Numbers 19:4), provided, however, that it be taken from a clean animal (see PURIFICATION).

In all probability there is no trace of the superstitious use of blood in the Old Testament, unless perchance in 1 Kings 22:38 (see BATHING ); but everywhere it is vested with cleansing, expiatory, and reverently symbolic qualities.

3. New Testament Teachings: As in the transition from ancient to Hebrew practice, so from the Old Testament to the New Testament we see an exaltation of the conception of blood and blood ceremonies. In Abraham's covenant his own blood had to be shed. Later an expiatory animal was to shed blood (Leviticus 5:6; see ATONEMENT), but there must always be a shedding of blood. "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). The exaltation and dignifying of this idea finds its highest development then in the vicarious shedding of blood by Christ Himself (1 John 1:7). As in the Old Testament "blood" was also used to signify the juice of grapes, the most natural substitute for the drinking of blood would be the use of wine. Jesus takes advantage of this, and introduces the beautiful and significant custom (Matthew 26:28) of drinking wine and eating bread as symbolic of the primitive intertransfusion of blood and flesh in a pledge of eternal friendship (compare Exodus 24:6-7; John 6:53-56). This is the climactic observance of blood rites recorded in the Bible.

LITERATURE.

Trumbull, The Blood Covenant and The Threshold Covenant; Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas; Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites.

Walter G. Clippinger

Blood and Water

Blood and Water - (haima kai hudor): The remarkable passage (John 19:34) from which this expression is taken refers to the piercing of the Savior's side by the soldier. The evangelist notes here what he, as an eyewitness of the crucifixion, had seen as a surprising fact. Whereon this surprise was founded cannot now be more than guessed at. Nor is it necessary here to discuss the reason or reasons why the apostle mentions the fact at all in his report, whether merely for historical accuracy and completeness, or as a possible proof of the actual death of Christ, which at an early date became a subject of doubt among certain Christian sects, or whether by it he wished to refer to the mystical relation of baptismal cleansing ("water") and the atonement ("blood") as signified thereby. Let it suffice to state that a reference often made to 1 John 5:6, 8 is here quite out of place. This passage, though used by certain Fathers of the church as a proof of the last-named doctrine, does not indeed refer to this wonderful incident of the crucifixion story. The argument of 1 John 5:8 concerns the Messiahship of Jesus, which is proved by a threefold witness, for He is the one whom at the baptism of John ("water") God attested as the Messiah by the heavenly voice, "This is my beloved Son," who at the crucifixion ("blood") had the testimony that the Father had accepted His atoning sacrifice, and whose promise of sending the Comforter fulfilled on Pentecost ("spirit") presented us with the final proof of the completed Messianic task. The same expression in 1 John 5:6 refers probably to the same argument with the implied meaning that Jesus came not only by the merely ceremonial water of baptism, but also by the more important, because vivifying, blood of atonement.

The physiological aspect of this incident of the crucifixion has been first discussed by Gruner (Commentatio de morte Jesu Christi vera, Halle, 1805), who has shown that the blood released by the spear-thrust of the soldier must have been extravasated before the opening of the side took place, for only so could it have been poured forth in the described manner. While a number of commentators have opposed this view as a fanciful explanation, and have preferred to give the statement of the evangelist a symbolical meaning in the sense of the doctrines of baptism and eucharist (so Baur, Strauss, Reuss and others), some modern physiologists are convinced that in this passage a wonderful phenomenon is reported to us, which, inexplicable to the sacred historian, contains for us an almost certain clue to the real cause of the Savior's death. Dr. Stroud (On the Physiological Cause of the Death of Christ, London, 1847) basing his remarks on numerous postmortems, pronounced the opinion that here we had a proof of the death of Christ being due not to the effects of crucifixion but to "laceration or rupture of the heart" as a consequence of supreme mental agony and sorrow. It is well attested that usually the suffering on the cross was very prolonged. It often lasted two or three days, when death would supervene from exhaustion. There were no physical reasons why Christ should not have lived very much longer on the cross than He did. On the other hand, death caused by laceration of the heart in consequence of great mental suffering would be almost instantaneous. In such a case the phrase "of a broken heart," becomes literally true. The life blood flowing through the aperture or laceration into the pericardium or caul of the heart, being extravasated, soon coagulates into the red clot (blood) and the limpid serum (water). This accumulation in the heart-sac was released by the spear-thrust of the soldier (which here takes providentially the place of a postmorten without which it would have been impossible to determine the real cause of death), and from the gaping wound there flow the two component parts of blood distinctly visible.

Several distinguished physicians have accepted Dr. Stroud's argument, and some have strengthened it by the observation of additional symptoms. We may mention Dr. James Begbie, fellow and late president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Sir J. Y. Simpson, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and others (see Dr. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth, Appendix I). The latter refers to the loud cry, mentioned by the Synoptists (Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46), which preceded the actual death of Jesus, as a symptom characteristic of cases of "broken heart." He adds that Dr. Walshe, professor of medicine in University College, London, one of the greatest authorities on the diseases of the heart, says that a "piercing shriek" is always uttered in such cases immediately before the end.

While we may never reach a state of absolute certainty on this subject, there is no valid reason to deny the probability of this view of the death of Christ. It certainly gives a more solemn insight into Christ's spiritual anguish, "the travail of his soul" on our behalf, which weighed upon Him so heavily that long before the usual term of bodily and therefore endurable suffering of crucified persons Christ's loving heart broke, achieving the great atoning sacrifice for all mankind.

H. L. E. Luering

Blood, Avenger of

Blood, Avenger of - See AVENGER .

Blood, Issue of

Blood, Issue of - ish'-u.

See BLOODY FLUX.

Bloodguiltiness

Bloodguiltiness - blud-gilt'-i-nes: Found in the King James Version only in Psalms 51:14. The Revised Version (British and American) adds Exodus 22:2-3; 1 Samuel 25:26, 33. Ezekiel 18:13 seems to indicate that the phrase does not necessarily signify bloodshed, but any grievous sin which, if it remains, will block God's favor to His land and people (compare Deuteronomy 21:8; Isaiah 1:15). Psalms 51:1-19 is to be interpreted in this light.

Blood-revenge

Blood-revenge - blud-re-venj':

See AVENGER .

Bloodshedding

Bloodshedding - blud'-shed-ing (haimatekchusia, Hebrews 9:22): In this passage the indispensability of expiating sacrifice is positively set forth.

Bloodthirsty

Bloodthirsty - blud'-thurs-ti ('anshe damim, "men of blood"): This occurs in the King James Version only in Proverbs 29:10; in the Revised Version (British and American), Psalms 5:6; 55:23; 59:2; 139:19.

See BLOODY.

Bloody

Bloody - blud'-i (dam = "blood" of man or an animal; and where the King James translators have rendered with the adjective "bloody," the Hebrew employs the noun in the construct case, "of blood"): "A bridegroom of blood" (Exodus 4:25-26, the King James Version bloody husband). Zipporah, not being an Israelite, probably objected to the circumcision of infants, if not to the rite altogether; apprehending, however, that her husband's life was imperiled possibly through some grievous sickness (Exodus 4:24) because of their disobedience in this particular, she performed the ceremony herself upon her son, saying, "A bridegroom of blood art thou to me."

In the Revised Version (British and American) the expression (the King James Version "bloody") is variously rendered, "man of blood" (2 Samuel 16:7-8); "men of blood" (Psalms 26:9); "bloodthirsty" (Psalms 5:6; 59:2; 139:19). In 2 Samuel 21:1, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house," might be rendered "Upon Saul and his house rests bloodshed."

Ezekiel calls Jerusalem "the bloody city" (Ezekiel 22:2; 24:6; compare Ezekiel 7:23), referring to those unjustly put to death by the wicked rulers of Jerusalem. Nineveh also is called "the bloody city" (Nahum 3:1). The capital here virtually stands for the kingdom, and history bears witness to the enormous cruelties perpetrated by the Assyrian rulers. It is siege on siege, pools of blood everywhere, the flaying of men alive, "great baskets stuffed with the salted heads of their foes." For two hundred years it is th e story of brute force and ruthless cruelty. "The prey departeth not." And now every cruelty which they have visited upon others is to be turned upon themselves (Nahum 3:19).

M. O. Evans

Bloody Flux

Bloody Flux - fluks (puretos kai dusenteria, literally "fever and dysentery"): The disease by which the father of Publius was afflicted in Malta (Acts 28:8). the Revised Version (British and American) calls it "dysentery"; a common and dangerous disease which in Malta is often fatal to soldiers of the garrison even at the present day (Aitken, Pract. of Medicine, II, 841). It is also prevalent in Palestine at certain seasons, and in Egypt its mortality was formerly about 36 percent. Its older name was due to the d ischarge of blood from the intestine. Sometimes portions of the bowel become gangrenous and slough, the condition described as affecting Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:19). There seems to have been an epidemic of the disease at the time of his seizure (2 Chronicles 21:14-15), and in the case of the king it left behind it a chronic ulcerated condition, ending in gangrene. Somewhat similar conditions of chronic intestinal ulceration following epidemic dysentery I have seen in persons who had suffered from this disease in India.

Alex. Macalister

Bloody Sweat

Bloody Sweat - swet hosei thromboi haimatos): Described in Luke 22:44 as a physical accompaniment of our Lord's agony at Gethsemane (on the passage, which is absent in some manuscripts, see Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek). Many old writers take this to mean that the perspiration dropped in the same manner as clots of blood drop from a wound, regarding the Greek word prefixed as expressing merely a comparison as in Matthew 28:3, where leukon hos chion means "white as snow." Cases of actual exudation of blood are described in several of the medieval accounts of stigmatization, and Lefebvre describes the occurrence of something similar in his account of Louise Lateau in 1870. For references to these cases see the article "Stigmatization" in Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition),XXII , 550. It is perhaps in favor of the older interpretation that the word used by Aeschylus for drops of blood is stagon (Agam. 1122) and by Euripides stalagmos, not thromboi. None of the instances given by Tissot (Traite des nerfs, 279), or Schenck (Observ. med., III, 45:5), can be said to be unimpeachable; but as the agony of our Lord was unexampled in human experience, it is conceivable that it may have been attended with physical conditions of a unique nature.

Alex. Macalister

Bloom; Blossom

Bloom; Blossom - bloom, blos'-um.

See FLOWERS.

Blot

Blot - blot (mum, contracted from me'um, "spot"): Occurs in the sense of scorn (Proverbs 9:7). In Job 31:7 (the King James Version) it is used figuratively of a moral defect; the Revised Version (British and American) has "spot." Blot out (machah, "to wipe out," exaleipho, "to smear out"), to obliterate or destroy: "That a tribe be not blotted out" (the King James Version "destroyed," Judges 21:17). To blot men out of God's book is to cut them off by an untimely death (Exodus 32:32).

Figuratively: "To blot out sin" is to forgive sin fully (Psalms 51:1, 9; Acts 3:19; Colossians 2:14). Not to blot out sin is to reserve for punishment (Nehemiah 4:5). The names of those who inherit eternal life are not blotted out of the "book of life" (Revelation 3:5).

See BOOK OF LIFE; BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE; FORGIVENESS.

L. Kaiser

Blow

Blow - blo (nashaph): Used with reference to the wind (Exodus 15:10; Psalms 78:26; 147:18; pneo, "to breathe," Luke 12:55; John 3:8; Revelation 7:1); taqa`, with reference to trumpet sound (Numbers 10:3-10; 31:6 the King James Version; Judges 7:18, 20; 1 Kings 1:34; 1 Chronicles 15:24; Psalms 81:3; Ezekiel 33:3, 6; Hosea 5:8; Joel 2:1, 15); puach, with reference to the strong expulsion of the breath (Ezekiel 21:31; Ezekiel 22:20-21; Haggai 1:9; Isaiah 40:7; 54:16; Job 20:26); nashaph, with reference to a forcible slap or stroke with hand or an instrument (Psalms 39:10; Isaiah 40:24; Jeremiah 14:17 the King James Version).

Frank E. Hirsch

Blue

Blue - bloo.

See COLORS .

Boanerges

Boanerges - bo-a-nur'-jez (Boanerges; bene reghesh, "sons of thunder"): The surname bestowed by Jesus upon James and John, the sons of Zebedee, when they were ordained to the apostleship (Mark 3:17). See JAMES. It has also been regarded as an equivalent of the "Heavenly Twins," the Sons of Zeus or Thunder. According to this interpretation, the name Boanerges would represent the Dioscuri in some form or other of their varied presentation in the cults of the Mediterranean (compare Professor J. Rendel Harris in The Expositor, series vii, III, 146).

C. M. Kerr

Boar

Boar - bor (chazir): In lamenting the troubled state of the Jewish nation the Psalmist (Psalms 80:13) says: "The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, and the wild beasts of the field feed on it," with evident reference to Israel's enemies, the Assyrians, etc. The wild boar is abundant in certain parts of Palestine and Syria, especially in the thickets which border the lakes and rivers, as about the Chuleh, the sea of Galilee, the Jordan, and in the deltas of streams flowing into the Dead Sea, as Ghaur-us-Cafiyeh. Several fountains in Lebanon bear the name, `Ain-ul-Chazir, though chazir is not an Arabic word, khanzir being the Arabic for "swine."

See SWINE.

Alfred Ely Day

Board

Board - bord (qeresh, "a slab or plank," "deck of a ship," "bench," "board"): This word is found in Exodus 26:16-21; 36:21 ff; its plural occurs in Exodus 26:15, 17-29; 35:11; Exodus 36:20-34; 39:33; 40:18; Numbers 3:36; 4:31. This word also is used in translation of luach (Exodus 27:8; 38:7; Song of Solomon 8:9; Ezekiel 27:5 the King James Version) = "a tablet" (of stone, wood or metal), "board," "plate," "table"; also of tsla` = "rib," hence, a "side," "timber," "plank" (1 Kings 6:15 f). In 1 Kings 6:9, sedherah = "a rank," "a row," hence, "a range" or "board" is used. In the New Testament we find the expression "on board" in Acts 27:44 the King James Version, in translation of epi sanisin = "planks."

Frank E. Hirsch

Boast

Boast - bost (halal, "to praise"; kauchaomai, "to vaunt oneself," used both in a good and a bad sense): To praise God: "In God have we made our boast all the day long" (Psalms 44:8); to praise oneself, to vaunt (Psalms 10:3). In the New Testament the Revised Version (British and American) frequently translates "glory," where the King James Version has "boast," in a good sense (2 Corinthians 7:14). In the sense of self-righteousness (Ephesians 2:9; Romans 2:17, 23). Boaster (alazon, "a braggart") occurs in the King James Version (Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2); the Revised Version (British and American) has "boastful."

Boat

Boat - bot.

See SHIPS AND BOATS.

Boaz

Boaz - bo'-az (bo`az; Booz; "quickness" (?) Ruth 2:1-23 through Ruth 4:1-22; 1 Chronicles 2:11-12; Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:32):

(1) A resident of Bethlehem and kinsman of Elimelech, Naomi's husband. In Ruth 2:1 he is described as a gibbor chayil, a phrase which can mean either "a mighty man of valor" or else "a man of position and wealth." The latter is probably the sense in which the phrase is applied to Boaz (compare 1 Samuel 9:1). He had fields outside the town, and to them Ruth went to glean. Boaz noticed her and extended special kindness and protection to her, bidding her remain with his female workers, and charging the men not to illtreat her, and also giving her of the reapers' food at mealtime. Boaz awoke one night and found Ruth lying at his feet. He praised her virtue, and promised to take charge of her if her dead husband's next-of-kin failed to do so. He laid her case before the next-of-kin, and finally redeemed the family property himself and bought as well the right to take Ruth in marriage. The son of Boaz and Ruth was Obed, father of Jesse, and grandfather of David. 1 Chronicles 2:11, 12 makes Boaz a descendant of Hezron, and so probably a chief of the Hezronite clan in Bethlehem. Jewish tradition identifies Boaz with Ibzan (Judges 12:8-10).

Boaz "is set before us as a model of piety, generosity and chastity" (H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, 398). He found virtue and rewarded it. HPM, sections 501-8, gives a picture of the life of "a well-to-do landed proprietor of central Palestine," much of which could aptly be taken as a description of Boaz.

(2) The name of one of the two bronze pillars erected in front of Solomon's temple, the other being Jachin (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:17).

See JACHIN AND BOAZ; TEMPLE.

David Francis Roberts

Boccas

Boccas - bok'-as (Bokkas): A priest in the line of Ezra (1 Esdras 8:2) called Bukki in Ezra 7:4 and Borith in 2 Esdras 1:2.

Bocheru

Bocheru - bo'-ke-roo (bokheru): A son of Azrikam, Saul's descendant (1 Chronicles 8:38 = 1 Chronicles 9:34). For the ending ("-u"), compare the forms gashmu (Nehemiah 6:1, 6) and melikhu (Nehemiah 12:14 the King James Version and the Revised Version, margin).

Bochim

Bochim - bo'-kim (ha-bokhim: A place on the mountain West of Gilgal said to have been so named (literally "the weepers") because Israel wept there at the remonstrance of the angel (Judges 2:1, 5). No name resembling this has been discovered. Given on the occasion mentioned, it may not have endured. Many, following Septuagint, identify it with Bethel.

Body

Body - bod'-i:

I. PHILOLOGICAL: Generally speaking, the Old Testament language employs no fixed term for the human body as an entire organism in exact opposition to "soul" or "spirit." Various terms were employed, each of which denotes only one part or element of the physical nature, such as "trunk," "bones," "belly," "bowels," "reins," "flesh," these parts being used, by synecdoche, for the whole: etsem = "bone," or "skeleton," hence, "body," is found in Exodus 24:10 the King James Version; Lamentations 4:7; nephesh = "living organism" ( Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6-7, 11; 11, 13, 16; Haggai 2:13); nebhelah = "a flabby thing," "carcass" (Deuteronomy 21:23; Isaiah 26:19; Jeremiah 26:23; 36:30); beTen = "womb" (Deuteronomy 28:4, 11, 18, 53; 30:9; Job 19:17 the King James Version; Psalms 132:11; Micah 6:7); yarekh = "thigh," "generative parts," "body" (Judges 8:30); gewiyah = "a body, whether alive or dead" (1 Samuel 31:10, 12; 2 Kings 8:5 the King James Version; Daniel 10:6); me`im, "body" (Song of Solomon 5:14); guphah = "corpse" (1 Chronicles 10:12); gewah = "the back," i.e. (by extension) "person" (Job 20:25); she'er = "flesh, as living or for food," "body" (Ezekiel 10:12); geshem = "a hard shower of rain" hence, "a body" (Daniel 4:33; 5:21; 7:11); nidhneh = "a sheath," hence, the receptacle of the soul, "body" (Daniel 7:15).

The Greek word which is used almost exclusively for "body" in the New Testament is soma, Latin corpus (Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 6:22-23, 25; 26:26; John 2:21; Acts 9:40; 1 Corinthians 15:35, 37-38, 44; Ephesians 1:23; 2:16; 4, 12, 16; 23, 30). chros, signifying primarily the "surface" or "skin," occurs in Acts 19:12. A compound word with soma, as its base, sussomos = "a member of the same body," occurs in Ephesians 3:6. From the above, it appears that the New Testament places the body as a whole into opposition to the spirit or the invisible nature. Paul, of course, employs the term also to designate the sublimated substance with which we are to be clothed after the resurrection when he speaks of the "spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:44).

Frank E. Hirsch

II. GENERAL: 1. In the Old Testament: soma, Latin corpus: The term "body" is not found in the Hebrew of the Old Testament in the sense in which it occurs in the Greek "The Hebrew word for `body' is gewiyah, which is sometimes used for the `living' body (Ezekiel 1:11), `bodies of the cherubim' (Genesis 47:18; Nehemiah 9:37), but usually for the dead body or carcass. Properly speaking the Hebrew has no term for `body.' The Hebrew term around which questions relating to the body must gather is flesh" (Davidson, Old Testament Theology, 188). Various terms are used in the Old Testament to indicate certain elements or component parts of the body, such as "flesh," "bones," "bowels," "belly," etc., some of which have received a new meaning in the New Testament. Thus the Old Testament "belly" (Hebrew beTen, Greek koilia), "Our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth" (Psalms 44:25 the King James Version)--as the seat of carnal appetite--has its counterpart in the New Testament: "They serve .... their own belly" (Romans 16:18). So also the word translated "bowels" (meim, rachamim) in the sense of compassion, as in Jeremiah 31:20, King James Version: "Therefore my bowels are troubled for him," is found in more than one place in the New Testament. Thus in Philippians 1:8 the King James Version, "I long after you all in the bowels splagchna) of Christ," and again, "if there be any bowels (splagchna) and mercies" (Philippians 2:1 the King James Version).

2. In the New Testament: "Body" in the New Testament is largely used in a figurative sense, either as indicating the "whole man" (Romans 6:12; Hebrews 10:5), or as that which is morally corrupt--"the body of this death" (Romans 6:6; 7:24). Hence, the expression, "buffet my body" (1 Corinthians 9:27, hupopiazo, a word adopted from the prize-ring, palaestra), the body being considered as the lurking-place and instrument of evil. (Compare Romans 8:13 the King James Version "Mortify the deeds of the body.")

3. Other Meanings: Between these two the various other meanings seem to range. On the one hand we find the church called "the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13), with diversity of gifts, enjoying the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." On the other we read of a spiritual, incorruptible body, a resurrection-body as opposed to the natural body, which is doomed to corruption in death (1 Corinthians 15:44). Not only do we find these meanings in the word itself, but also in some of its combinations. On the one hand we read in Ephesians 3:6 of the Gentiles as "partakers of the promise in Christ" as "fellow-heirs," and "of the same body" (sussoma) in corporate union with all who put their trust in the Redeemer of mankind; on the other, we read of mere "bodily (somatic) exercises," which are not profitable. (1 Timothy 4:8)--where "body" evidently is contrasted with "spirit." And again, we read of the Holy Ghost descending in "bodily" (somatic) shape upon the "Son of God" (Luke 3:22), in whom dwelt the "fullness of the Godhead bodily" (somatically) (Colossians 2:9). So, too, the "body" is called a temple of the Holy Ghost: "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

4. The Body and Sin: From all this it is apparent that the body in itself is not necessarily evil, a doctrine which is taught in Greek philosophy, but nowhere in the Old Testament and New Testament. The rigid and harsh dualism met with in Plato is absent from Paul's writings, and is utterly foreign to the whole of Scripture. Here we are distinctly taught, on the one hand, that the body is subordinated to the soul, but on the other, with equal clearness, that the human body has a dignity, originally conferred upon it by the Creator, who shaped it out of earth, and glorified it by the incarnation of Christ, the sinless One, though born of a woman. Julius Muller has well said: "Paul denies the presence of evil in Christ, who was partaker of our fleshly nature (Galatians 4:4), and he recognizes it in spirits who are not partakers thereof (Ephesians 6:12 the King James Version, `spiritual wickedness in high places'). Is it not therefore in the highest degree probable that according to him evil does not necessarily pertain to man's sensuous nature, and that sarx (say body) denotes something different from this?" (The Christian Doctrine of Sin, I, 321, English edition). He further shows that the derivation of sin from sense is utterly irreconcilable with the central principle of the apostle's doctrine as to the perfect holiness of the Redeemer, and that "the doctrine of the future resurrection--even taking into account the distinction between the soma psuchikon and the soma pneumatikon (1 Corinthians 15:44)--is clearly at variance with the doctrine that sin springs from the corporal nature as its source" (318).

5. The First Sin: The very first sin was spiritual in its origin--an act of rebellion against God--the will of the creature in opposition to the will of the Creator (Genesis 3:1-24). It was conceived in doubt--"Hath God said?"; it was born in desire--"The tree was good for food"; it was stimulated by a rebellious hankering after equality with God: "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil"; it was introduced from without, from the spiritual world, through the agency of a mysterious, supernatural being, employing "a beast of the field more subtle than any which Yahweh God had made." That the serpent in the Old Testament is not identified with Satan, and that the clearest utterance in pre-Christian times on the subject is to be found in the Book of Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 ("by the envy of the devil death entered into the world"), may be true. That the narrative of the Fall is figurative or symbolical may also be granted. But the whole tendency of the early narrative is to connect the first human sin with a superhuman being, employing an agent known to man, and making that agent its representative in the "subtlety" of the great temptation as a prelude to the mighty fall. The New Testament is clear on this point (John 8:44; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 12:9). Great historic truths are imbedded in that narrative, whatever we may think of the form which that narrative has assumed. There can be no doubt that the oldest and truest traditions of the human race are to be found there. It is not denied that sin has desecrated the temple of the liv ing God, which is the body. That body indeed has become defiled and polluted by sin. Paul recognizes "an abnormal development of the sensuous in fallen man, and regards sin as having in a special manner entrenched itself in the body, which becomes liable to death on this very account (Romans 6:23; 7:24)" (Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I, 761). But we may safely say that theory which connects sin with the physical body, and gives it a purely sensuous origin, is alien to the whole spirit and letter of revelation.

J. I. Marais

III. FIGURATIVE: In the New Testament (soma, "the body" both of men and animals) the word has a rich figurative and spiritual use: (1) the temporary home of the soul (2 Corinthians 5:6); (2) "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19); (3) "temple" (John 2:21); (4) "the old man," the flesh as the servant of sin or the sphere in which moral evil comes to outward expression (Romans 6:6; 7:7; compare Paul's use of sarx, "flesh"); (5) the "church" as Christ's body, the organism through which He manifests His life and in whichH is spirit dwells (Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:24); (6) the spiritual "unity" of believers, one redeemed society or organism (Ephesians 2:16; a corpus mysticum, Ephesians 4:4); (7) "substance" (spiritual reality or life in Christ) versus "shadow" (Colossians 2:17); (8) the ascended and glorified body of Jesus (Philippians 3:21); (9) the resurrection or "spiritual" (v. natural) body of the redeemed in heaven (1 Corinthians 15:44); (10) the whole personality, e.g. the spiritual presence, power and sacrificial work of Christ, the mystical meaning of "the body and the blood" symbolized in the bread and cup of the sacrament (1 Corinthians 11:27). The term body is exceptionally rich in connection with the selfgiving, sacrificial, atoning work of Christ. It was the outward sphere or manifestation of His suffering. Through the physical He revealed the extent of His redeeming and sacrificial love. He "bare our sins in his body upon the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), thus forever displacing all the ceaseless and costly sacrifices of the old dispensation (Hebrews 9:24-28). Special terms, "body of his flesh" (Colossians 1:22); "body of sin" (Romans 6:6); "body of this death" (Romans 7:24); "body of his glory" (Philippians 3:21).

ptoma, used only of fallen, i.e. dead bodies (Revelation 11:8-9).

Dwight M. Pratt

Body of Death

Body of Death - deth (soma tou thanatou): These words are found in Paul's impassioned argument on the reign of the law, which dooms man to continuous disappointment and convinces him of the terrible power of indwelling sin. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24 the King James Version). It is the "picture of the still unredeemed man in his relation to the law" (Meyer). The translation, "this body of death," though grammatically possible, is logically impermissible. The picture here before the mind of the apostle is not physical but ethical. Death points to the dominion of sin, to the reign of the law, as revealed in his physical life, from which he is delivered only through regeneration, by faith in Christ. It points to the "I must" and to the "I cannot." It is therefore the bondage under the law of sin, the body as the seat of this conscious and bitter struggle, that the figure points at. And yet the ethical may have a physical background. There may be a distant reference here to the dreadful punishment of the ancients of chaining the living body to a corpse, that the constant corruption of death might extinguish the life of the victim of this exquisite torture.

Henry E. Dosker

Body of Heaven

Body of Heaven - The King James Version translates the Hebrew idiom, etsem ha-shamayim, by "the body of heaven" (Exodus 24:10). A more correct rendering is given in the Revised Version (British and American), "the very heaven," taking the word `etsem in its idiomatic use as an intensive, which is derived from its literal meaning, "bone," as "strength," "substance," and then as "self" (compare Job 21:23); the substance of the blue, unclouded sky, hence, the clear sky itself.

Body, Spiritual

Body, Spiritual - spir'-it-u-al: Paul describes the body after the resurrection as a spiritual body (soma psuchikon) and contrasts it with the natural (psychical body, soma pneumatikon, 1 Corinthians 15:44). Our present natural body has for its life-principle the soul (psuche) but the resurrection body is adapted and subordinated to the spirit (pneuma). See PSYCHOLOGY. The apostle does not argue for a literal and material identity of that future body with the present one, but thinks of it as the counterpart of the present animal organism so conditioned as to be adapted to a state of existence which lies wholly within the sphere of the spirit. Against his Corinthian readers he argues that the resurrection cannot be succeeded by a state of non-existence, nor is he willing to admit a mere etherealized state. There must be a body, but between it and our present body there is a similar difference to that between the first and second Adam. The present body and the first Adam were alike dominated by the soul (psuche); but as the second Adam became a life-giving spirit, so will the resurrection body be a spiritual one. Christ became a life-giving spirit through the resurrection (Meyer on 1 Corinthians 15:45); and since we are to bear His image (1 Corinthians 15:49), it becomes evident that Christ's resurrection-body is the nearest possible approach to a sensible representation of the spiritual body. For this Paul argues more directly when he affirms that our resurrection-body shall be transformed according to the body of His glory (Philippians 3:21; compare 1 John 3:2). The body of Christ after the resurrection was conformed in many respects to the body of His earthly life, yet with some marked differences. He ate (Luke 24:42-43); He breathed (John 20:22); possessed flesh and bones (Luke 24:39), and could be apprehended by the bodily senses (Luke 24:40; John 20:27). His body possessed characteristics which differentiated it entirely from the popular fancy of ghosts or apparitions (Luke 24:36-43). Yet His body was superior to the usual barriers which restrict human movements. Barred doors and distances did not impede His going (John 20:19-26; Luke 24:31-36). The context shows that the purpose of His eating was to convince the disciples that it was really He (Luke 24:41-43), and not to sustain life which His body was probably capable of maintaining in other ways. John speaks of His appearances after His resurrection as "manifestations" (John 21:1-21). A change in His person and appearance had certainly taken place, for those who knew Him best did not at once recognize Him (Luke 24:16; John 20:14). It is evident therefore that the post-resurrection-body of Jesus was one that had the power of materializing itself to natural senses, or withdrawing itself at will. It was this same body which was taken into the heavens at the ascension, and which remains in heaven (Acts 1:11; 3:21). There is no hint that it underwent any change in its removal from earth. Hence, the spiritual body of which Paul speaks is not to be unlike the body which Jesus possessed after His resurrection. There is to be an absence of the desires and passions which belong naturally to the present bodily existence (Matthew 22:30; Luke 20:35-36).

William Charles Morro

Body-guard

Body-guard - bod'-i-gard: The expression occurs in Apocrypha (1 Esdras 3:4), "the body-guard that kept the king's person."

Bohan

Bohan - bo'-han (bohan, "thumb," "stumpy"): A son of Reuben according to Joshua 15:6; 18:17. No mention is made of Bohan in the genealogies of Reuben. "The stone of Bohan" ('ebhen bohan) was a boundary mark on the Northeast frontier of Judah, separating it from Benjamin. Site unidentified.

Boil (1)

Boil (1) - (noun) (shechin; helkos): A localized inflamed swelling. The Hebrew word is derived from a root probably meaning "to burn," and is used as a generic term for the sores in the sixth plague of Egypt (Exodus 9:9-11); for a sore which might be confounded with leprosy (Leviticus 13:18-23); for Job's malady (Job 2:7) and Hezekiah's disease (2 Kings 20:1; Isaiah 38:21). Our English word is derived from the verb "to beal," i.e. to suppurate, now obsolete except as a dialect word in Scotland and Ireland. Wyclif uses the name f or Lazarus' sores (Luke 16:20), "houndis lickeden his bylis." The Egyptian word schn is the name of an abscess, and occurs in the reduplicated form chnchnt in Papyr. Ebers, CV. The plague of boils in Egypt came without warning immediately after the insect plagues of kinnim (sandflies) and that of `arobh or flies, and followed the epizootic murrain, which is suggestive in the light of the transmission of toxic germs by insects. It has been supposed by some to be elephantiasis, as Pliny says that this di sease was peculiar to Egypt (xxvi.5). A stronger case has been made out for its identity with confluent smallpox; but as it is not described as being a fatal disease, it may more probably have been an aggravated form of the ordinary gregarious furuncles or boils, due to the microbe streptococcus pyogenes.

Job's body is said to have been covered with itchy, irritating sores which made his face unrecognizable, Job 2:12, caused continual burning pain (Job 3:24; 6:4), and which were infested with maggots (Job 7:5) and exhaled a nauseous fetor (Job 19:17). His sleep was destroyed and his nervous system enfeebled (Job 3:26) so that he required assistance to move, as he sat in the ashes (Job 2:8). Various diagnoses have been made of his malady, but it is most probable that it was a form of the disease known as "oriental sore," or "Bagdad boil," called in Algeria "Biskra batton," in which the intensely itchy sores are often multiple, affecting the face, hands, and other exposed parts. The cases which I have seen have been very intractable and disfiguring.

Hezekiah's boil was apparently more localized, and the indefinite description would accord with that of a carbuncle. It seems to have rendered him unclean (Isaiah 38:22), though the reference may be to the practice referred to in Leviticus 13:18 f. The "botch" of Egypt (Deuteronomy 28:27, 35 the King James Version) is translation of the same word, as is "boil" in the Revised Version (British and American). Botch is an old English name for boil and occurs in Piers Plowman, and the adjective "botchy" is used in Troilus and Cressida (II, 1, 6). The word is cognate to the old French boche or poche, a form of our later word "pock." The sores of Lazarus (Luke 16:20) were probably old varicose ulcers, such as are as common on the legs of the old and poor in the East as they are in the West.

Alex. Macalister

Boil (2)

Boil (2) - (verb) (bashal, rathach): "Boil" is the translation of bashal, "to bubble up," "to boil," "to be cooked," Piel, "to cause to boil," "to cook" (Leviticus 8:31; 1 Kings 19:21; 2 Kings 6:29; Ezekiel 46:20, 24 bis); of rathach, to be hot," "to boil," "to be made to boil," "to be greatly moved" under strong emotion (the bowels), Hiphil "to cause to boil" (Job 30:27 the King James Version "My bowels boiled, and rested not," the English Revised Version "My bowels boil." the American Standard Revised Version "My heart is troubled"; Job 41:31, "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot"; Ezekiel 24:5, "make it boil well"); of ba`ah, "to bubble" or "well up" (Isaiah 64:2 (1, in Hebrew) "The fire causeth the waters to boil"); in King James Version, margin of Psalms 45:1 ("My heart is inditing a good matter") we have Hebrew "boileth" or "bubbleth up" (rachash, "to boil" or "bubble up," the Revised Version (British and American) text, "My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter").

"Boiling-places," occurs in Ezekiel 46:23 as the translation of mebhashsheloth, "hearths," "boiling-places." The American Standard Revised Version has "boiling-houses" for "places of them that boil" (Ezekiel 46:24), "boil well" for "consume" (Ezekiel 24:10); the American Standard Revised Version has "boiling over" for "unstable" (Genesis 49:4; the English Revised Version, margin "bubbling over").

W. L. Walker

Boldness

Boldness - bold'-nes (parresia, "confidence," "fearlessness," "freedom of speech"): This was one of the results of discipleship (Acts 4:13, 29, 31; Ephesians 3:12; Philippians 1:20; 1 Timothy 3:13; 1 John 4:17). It was a necessary qualification for the work assigned them. They were not only subject to violent persecutions, but also were the constant subject of ridicule and contempt. Paul uses the word in the sense of plainness in 2 Corinthians 3:12. In Hebrews 10:19; 1 John 2:28; 4:17, it has the sense of freeness resulting from confidence. In Philemon 1:8, the reference is to the authority which Paul claims in this case.

Jacob W. Kapp

Bolled

Bolled - bold (gibh`ol, "the calyx of flowers"): Hence, "in bloom," and so rendered, in the Revised Version (British and American), of flowering flax (Exodus 9:31).

Bolster

Bolster - bol'-ster: Found in the King James Version only in 1 Samuel 19:13, 16, "Behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goat's hair at the head thereof" (the King James Version "for his bolster"), and 1 Samuel 26:7, 11-12, 16, "Saul lay sleeping .... with his spear stuck in the ground at his head." "Bolster" in these passages in the King James Version was used to translate a Hebrew word whose true significance is "the place of the head," or "the head-place." It will be noted that it has disappeared from the Revised Version (British and American), which rightly has throughout "head," instead of "bolster."

See CUSHION.

Bolt

Bolt - bolt (na`al, "to bind up"): The ancient Hebrews had fastenings of wood or iron for the doors of houses (2 Samuel 13:17-18; Song of Solomon 5:5), city gates (Nehemiah 3:3, 6, 13-15), prison doors, etc. (Isaiah 45:2), which were in the form of bolts. These were sometimes pushed back from within; but there were others which, by means of a key, could be unfastened and pushed back from without (Judges 3:23 ff). These were almost the only form of locks known.

See BAR; LOCKS.

In Habakkuk 3:5, resheph (a poetic word for "flame") is rendered "fiery bolts" (the King James Version "burning coals"). It seems to denote "the fiery bolts, by which Yahweh was imagined to produce pestilence or fever" (Driver, Deuteronomy, 367).

M. O. Evans

Bond

Bond - See BAND; BILL; CHAIN.

Bondage

Bondage - bon'-daj: Used in two senses in Scripture, a literal and a metaphorical sense.

(1) In the former sense it refers (a) to the condition of the Hebrews ('abhodhah) in Egypt (Exodus 1:14 the King James Version; Exodus 2:23 and often) which is frequently called "the house of bondage" ("slaves," `abhadhim), Exodus 13:3, 14; 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6 and often. It also refers to the condition of the Hebrews in Babylonia (Isaiah 14:3, the King James Version) and in Persia (Ezra 9:8 f), where a slightly different form of the same root (`abhedhuth) is used in the original. In both these cases the bondage was not so much personal as national. As a rule individuals were not subject to individuals, but the whole Hebrew people were subject to the Egyptian, Babylonian and the Persian states. They were forced to labor on public works, and otherwise, and were denied their own freedom when the exigencies of state seemed to demand it. The former word `abhodhah is also used in Nehemiah 5:18 as descriptive of the subject and depressed conditions of the Hebrews in Palestine during the earlier years after their return from captivity, when they were still living under Persian suzerainty. (b) The word bondage (`abhadhim) is also used to describe the slavery into which the poor Jews were being forced by their more prosperous brethren in the earlier years under the Persians in Palestine (Nehemiah 5:5). Here true personal, though temporary, slavery is meant. (c) Marriage is once referred to as a bondage (1 Corinthians 7:15) (verb douloo).

(2) It is used in the metaphorical sense only in New Testament. he douleia, "bondage," is the power of physical corruption as against the freedom of life (Romans 8:21), the power of fear as over against the confidence of Christian faith (Romans 8:15; Hebrews 2:15), and especially is it the bondage of the letter, of the elements, of a ceremonial and institutional salvation which must be scrupulously and painfully observed, as contrasted with the freedom of the sons of God, emancipated by faith in Jesus Christ. This bondage is a peculiarly Pauline idea since he was fighting for Christian freedom (Galatians 2:4; 3, 9, 24, 25; 5:1). In 2 Peter 2:19 the idea is essentially different. Libertinism, masquerading under the name of freedom, is branded as bondage, in contrast with the true freedom of righteous living.

See SLAVERY .

William Joseph McGlothlin

Bondmaid

Bondmaid - bond'-mad: Occurs but three times in the King James Version (Leviticus 19:20; 25:44; Galatians 4:22 (the Revised Version (British and American) "handmaid")). The first instance is that of Hebrew girl who has by birth, purchase or otherwise come into temporary slavery. The word here is shiphchah. It occurs often in the Old Testament, but is elsewhere translated "maid," "handmaid," "woman servant," "maidservant," etc. The other instance (Leviticus 25:44) refers to foreign slave girls and has different word, 'amah, which also occurs number of times, but is elsewhere translated "handmaid," etc. The New Testament instance (Galatians 4:22) refers to Hagar, Abraham's Egyptian slave girl. The original word paidiske, occurs several other times, but in the King James Version is elsewhere translated "maid," "damsel," etc. It means a slave girl.

See SLAVERY .

William Joseph McGlothlin

Bondman

Bondman - bond'-man: One of the translations of the word `ebhedh, very common in the Old Testament. It refers to the ordinary slave, either foreign (Genesis 43:18; 9, 33; Leviticus 25:44, 46) or Hebrew (Leviticus 25:42; 2 Kings 4:1). Hebrews were forbidden to enslave Hebrews, but did it nevertheless. It also refers to the Israelites in the bondage of Egypt (Deuteronomy 15:15, and often), and in the exile of Babylonia (Ezra 9:9). The intended treatment of the men of Judah in Samaria (2 Chronicles 28:10) was apparently to sell them into ordinary slavery or bondage. The word is used once in the New Testament (Revelation 6:15) to translate doulos, where it evidently means a slave in contrast with a freeman.

See SLAVERY .

William Joseph McGlothlin

Bondservant

Bondservant - bond'-sur-vant: Appears only once in the King James Version (Leviticus 25:39) where it translates `ebhedh, "a slave": "Thou shalt not cause him to render the service of a bondservant" or slave. the Revised Version (British and American) frequently uses bondservant (doulos) instead of the word "servant" of the King James Version (John 8:34-35; 1 Corinthians 7:21; Galatians 4:7).

See SLAVERY .

Bone; Bones

Bone; Bones - bon (`etsem, `otsem; Aramaic gerem, by extension used for "bony frame," "body," "strength," Psalms 35:10; "the whole man"; Luke 24:39, "flesh and bones = the solid and tangible framework of the body; figuratively the substance, the idea of a thing, the thing, per se): Figurative: Very often we find the use of these words in metaphorical phrases, in which a disease or a discomfort of the body denotes certain emotions or mental attitudes. Thus the expression "rottenness of the bones" (Proverbs 12:4; 14:30) signifies the feelings of a man whose wife causes him shame and confusion, or is equivalent to "envy," "jealousy." The translation of the Septuagint in these passages by skolex, "worm," and ses, "maggot," "moth," is incorrect. The same phrase is used in Habakkuk 3:16 for utter dejectedness through the anticipation of approaching evil. Similarly the "shaking of the bones" (Job 4:14) is expressive of fear, and denotes dejection and sadness in Jeremiah 23:9. The "burning of the bones" is found as a symptom of J ob's disease (Job 30:30), and stands for grief, depression of spirits in Psalms 102:3 and Lamentations 1:13, and also for the feeling of Jeremiah, when he attempted to hold back the Divine message (Jeremiah 20:9), while "dryness of bones" (Proverbs 17:22) is the opposite of "good health." Other similar expressions of mental distress are the "piercing of the bones" (Job 30:17), the bones are "troubled" (Psalms 6:2), "out of joint" (Psalms 22:14), "consumed" (Psalms 31:10 the King James Version), "wasted away" or "waxed old" (Psalms 32:3), "broken" (Psalms 51:8; Lamentations 3:4), "ill at rest" (Psalms 38:3), "bone of my bones," etc. (Genesis 2:23), having the same nature, and the nearest relation (2 Samuel 5:1) and affection (Ephesians 5:30). In the last-mentioned passage, the Revised Version (British and American) omits "of his flesh, and of his bones" as an interpolation from Genesis 2:23. The figs. in Micah 3:2-3 are expressive of the most cruel oppression and murder.

H. L. E. Luering

Bonnet

Bonnet - bon'-et: In the King James Version the designation of the special headdress of the rank and file of the priesthood, the Revised Version (British and American) "head-tire" (Exodus 28:40). It consisted of a long swath of fine white linen wound around the head in oriental fashion. The Hebrew word found in Exodus 29:9 the Revised Version (British and American), "to bind head-tires," literally "to wind head-tires," means, in the light of usage, "to form an egg-shaped turban." Compare Josephus, Ant,III , vii, 3; and see Rich, Dict. Roman and Greek Ant, under the word pileus, for illustration of the egg-shaped cap of Ulysses, with which Jerome compared the priestly turban.

See DRESS; MITRE, etc.

Book

Book - book (cepher; he biblos):

1. Definition

2. Inward Books

3. Publication

(1) Mechanical Copies

(2) Personal Copies

4. Oral Transmission

5. Manuscripts

(1) Epigraphy

(2) Sphragistics

(3) Numismatics

(4) Diplomatics

(5) Paleography

6. Printed Books

7. Variations

8. Textual Criticism

9. Higher Criticism

10. Literary Criticism

11. Origin of New Forms

12. Survival

13. Book Collections

14. Early History of Books in Bible Lands

LITERATURE

A book is any record of thought in words. It consists of a fixed form of words embodied in some kind of substance.

1. Definition: The form of words is the main factor, but it has no existence without the record. The kind of record is indifferent; it may be carved on stone, stamped on clay, written or printed on vellum, papyrus or paper, or only stamped on the mind of author or hearer, if so be it keeps the words in fixed form. Looked on as a form of words the book is called a work, and looked on as a record it is called a volume, document, inscription, etc., as the case may be; but neither volume nor work has any real existence as book save as united.

The Biblical words for book, both Greek and Hebrew, oscillate in meaning (as they do in all languages) between the two elements, the form of words and the material form. The common words for book in the New Testament, from which too the word "Bible" comes, refer back to the papyrus plant or the material on which the book is written, just as the English word "book" was long supposed to be derived from the beech tree, on whose bark the book was written. The usual word in the Hebrew of the Old Testament (cepher) may possibly refer to the act of writing, just as the Greek word grammata and the English "writings" do, but more likely, as its other meanings of "numbering" and "narration" or even "missive" indicate, it refers neither to the material nor to the writing process but to the literary work itself. It suggests at least the fact that the earliest books were, indeed, books of tallies. The knot-books and various notchbook tallies are true books. In the King James' version the "word" (dabhar) is sometimes translated book, and, althoug h changed in these places in the Revised Version (British and American) to "acts" or "deeds," it was nevertheless quite properly translated a book, just as the "word" in Greek is used for book, and indeed in English when the Bible is called the Word. Besides these terms commonly translated book in the English Versions of the Bible, various book forms are referred to in the Bible as roll or volume (which is the same in origin), tablet, and perhaps rock inscription (Job 19:23-24).

The fact that the Bible is a book, or indeed a library of many kinds of books, makes necessary that to approach its study one should have some systematic idea of the nature of the book; the origin of new forms and their survival, oral and manuscript transmission, the nature of the inward book and the various kinds of inward books. Apart from the matter of general archaeological use for historical interpretation, the questions of inspiration, the incarnate, creative, and indwelling word and many other doctrines are wholly bound up with this question of the nature of the book, and many phrases, such as the Book of Life, can hardly be understood without knowing with some degree of clearness what a book is.

The archaeology, text criticism and higher criticism of the past few years have revolutionized book history and theory in their respective fields. Above all the young science of experimental psychology has, in its short life, contributed more even than the others to an understanding of the book and The Book, the word of God and the Word of God, the Bible and Jesus Christ.

2. Inward Books: Modern experimental psychology by its study of inward images, inward speech, inward writings and other kinds of inward book forms has, in particular, thrown on Biblical inspiration, higher criticism and text criticism and the various aspects of the doctrine of the word, an unexpected light. Inward books, it appears, are not only real, but of many kinds, visual and auditory, oral and written, sensory and motor, and these different kinds have perhaps a material basis and local habitation in different parts of the brain. At least they have real existence; they are real records which preserve a fixed form of words, to be brought out of the recesses of the mind from time to time for re-shaping, re-study or utterance. (See Dittrich, Sprachpsychologie, 1903; LeRoy, Le langage, Paris, 1905; Van Ginneken, Principes de linguistique psychol., 1907; A. Marty, Untersuch. Sprachphilosophie, 1908; Macnamara, Human Speech, 1909; the classical work is Wundt, Volkerpsychologie: Die Sprache, Leipzig, 1900.)

Inward books may be originals or copies. Every book is, to begin with, inward. Men sometimes speak of an autograph as the "original," but it is in fact only a first-hand copy of the original, which is inward, and never by any chance becomes or can become outward. Besides these originals there are also inward copies of the books of others. The fact that a book may be memorized is no new thing, but the analysis of the process is. It seems that a book may be inwardly copied through eye or ear or touch or any sense from some outward book; or again it may be copied back and forth within, from sense copy to motor copy, from visual to oral, auditory to inward writing. In reading aloud the visual image is copied over into oral; in taking dictation the auditory image is copied over into inward writing. Many men, even in reading from print, cannot understand unless they translate as they go into oral images or even move their lips. Many others either hearing or reading a French book, e.g. have to translate inwardly into English and have in the end two memory copies, one French and one English, both of which may be recalled. In whatever way they are recorded, these memory impressions are real copies of outward books, and in the case of tribal medicine men, Vedic priests, the ancient minstrels, village gossips, and professional story-tellers of all kinds, the inward collection of books may become a veritable library.

3. Publication: The end for which a book is created is in general to reach another mind. This means the utterance or copying into some outward material and the re-copying by another into memory. The commonest modes of utterance are oral speech and writing; but there are many others, some appealing to eye, some to ear, some to touch: e.g. gesture language of the Indian and the deaf mute, pressure signs for the blind and deaf, signal codes, drum language, the telegraph click, etc. If the persons to be reached are few, a single oral speech or manuscript may be enough to supply all needs of publication, but if there are very many the speech or writing must somehow be multiplied. This may be done by the author himself. Blind Homer, it is alleged, repeated the Iliad in many cities; and the modern political orator may repeat the same speech several times in the same evening to different audiences. So too the author may, as many Latin writers did, copy out several autographs. If the audience is still too great to be reached by authors' utterances, the aid of heralds, minstrels, scribes and the printing-press must be called in to copy from the autographs or other author's utterances; and in case of need more help yet is called in, copies made from these copies, and copies again, and so on to perhaps hundreds of copyings. This process may be represented as x plus x1 plus x2 plus x2 plus x3 plus xn where x = an original, x1 a first-hand copy of author's utterance, x2 a second-hand copy, x3 a third-hand, etc.

Books may thus be divided into originals, first-hand or authors' copies and re-copies. Re-copies in turn whether at second-, third-, fourth- or nth-hand, may be either mechanical or personal, according as the copy is direct from outward material to outward material or from the outward material to a human memory.

(1) Mechanical Copies: Mechanical copies include photographic copies of manuscripts, or of the lips in speaking, or of gesture, or any other form of utterance which may be photographed. They include also phonographic records, telegraph records, and any other mechanical records of sound or other forms of utterance. Besides photographic and phonographic processes, mechanical copies include founding, stamping by seal or die, stereographic, electrotype, stencil, gelatine pad and printing-press processes, any processes, in short, which do not pass via the human mind, but direct from copy to copy by material means. They do not include composition in movable types or by type-setting machines, typewriting machines and the like, which, like writing, require the interposition of a human mind. These mechanical copies are subject to defects of material, but are free from psychological defects and error, and defect of material is practically negligible.

(2) Personal Copies: Personal copies include inward copies, or memory books, and the re-uttered copies from these copies, to which latter class belong all copied manuscripts. The memory copy may be by eye from writing, or from the lips of a speaker in the case of the deaf. Or it may be by ear from oral speech, telegraph key, drum or other sound utterances. Or it may be again from touch, as in the case of finger-tip lip-reading or the reading of raised characters by the blind. Each of these kinds may perhaps be located in a different part of the mind or brain, and its molecular substratum may be as different from other kinds of inward record as a wave of light is different from a wave of sound, or a photograph from the wax roll of a phonograph; but whatever the form or nature, it somehow records a certain fixed form of words which is substantially equivalent to the original. This memory copy, unlike the mechanical copy, is liable to substantial error. This may arise from defects of sense or of the inward processes of record and it is nearly always present. Why this need be so is one of the mysteries of human nature, but that it is, is one of the obvious facts; and when memory copies are reuttered there is still another crop of errors, "slips of tongue and pen," equally mysterious but equally inevitable. It comes to pass, therefore, that where oral or manuscript transmission exists, there is sure to be a double crop of errors between the successive outward copies. When thus a form of words is frequently re-copied or reprinted via the human mind the resulting book becomes more and more unlike the original as to its form of words, until in the late manuscript copies of early works there may often be thousands of variations from the original. Even an inspired revelation would thus be subject to at least one and perhaps two or three sets of errors from copying before it reached even the autograph stage.

4. Oral Transmission: Before the knowledge of handwriting became general, oral publication was usual, and it is still not uncommon. The king's laws and proclamations, the works of poets and historians, and the sacred books were in ancient times published orally by heralds and minstrels and prophets; and these primitive publishers are survived still by town criers, actors, reciters, and Scripture readers.

Up to the point of the first impression on another mind, oral publication has many advantages. The impression is generally more vivid, and the voice conveys many nice shades of feeling through inflection, stress, and the delicate variations in tone quality which cannot be expressed in writing. When it comes to transmission, however, oral tradition tends to rapid deterioration with each re-copy. It is true that such transmission may be quite exact with enough painstaking and repetition; thus the modern stage affords many examples of actors with large and exact repertories, and the Vedas were, it is alleged, handed down for centuries by a rigidly trained body of memorizers. The memorizing of Confucian books by Chinese students and of the Koran by Moslem students is very exact. Nevertheless, exact transmission orally is rare, and exists only under strictly artificial conditions. Ear impressions, to begin with, tend to be less exact than eye impressions, in any event, because they depend on a brief sense impression, while in reading the eye lingers until the matter is understood. Moreover, the memory copy is not fixed and tends to fade away rapidly; unless very rigidly guarded and frequently repeated it soon breaks up its verbal form. This is readily seen by the great variety in the related legends of closely related tribes; and in modern times in the tales of village gossips and after-dinner stories, which soon lose their fixed verbal form, save as to the main point.

There is great difference of opinion as to the part which oral transmission played in the composition of the Old Testament. The prevailing theory of the higher critics of the 19th century made this the prime factor of transmission to at earliest the 8th century BC, but the recent remarkable revelations of archaeology regarding the use of written documents in Palestine at the time of the Exodus and before has changed the situation somewhat. The still more recent developments as to the Semitic character of Palestine before the invasion of the Israelites, together with the growing evidence of the prevailing use of handwriting all over Palestine by not later than the 9th century, point in the same direction. It is now even asserted (Clay, Amorites) that the Semitic wave was from the north rather than the south, in which case the only possible ground for ascribing illiteracy to the Hebrews at the time of the conquest, and therefore exclusive oral tradition, would be removed.

Whatever may be the facts, it may be said with some definiteness that theory which implies two sets of traditions, handed down for several centuries and retaining a considerable amount of verbal likeness, implies written tradition, not oral, for no popular tradition keeps identical verbal forms for so long a time, and there is little ground for supposing artificial transmission by professional memorizers. The schools of the prophets might, indeed, have served as such, but there is no evidence that they did; and it would have been curious if, writing being within easy reach, this should have been done. As in almost all literatures, it is far more likely that the popular traditions are derived from and refreshed by literary sources, than that literature was compiled from traditions with long oral transmission.

Biblical references to oral publication are found in the references to heralds (see under the word), to Solomon's wisdom as "spoken" (1 Kings 4:32-34), proclamations and edicts, the public reading of the law in the Old Testament, and the reading in the synagogue in the New Testament. All the oracles, "thus saith the Lord" and "the word of Yahweh," to Moses, etc., and all allusions to preaching the word, belong to this class of oral publication and transmission. A direct allusion to oral transmission is found in Psalms 44:1, "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us."

5. Manuscripts: The distinction of handwriting as against oral utterance lies first in the permanence of the record, but it has also a curious psychological advantage over speech. The latter reaches the mind through hearing one letter at a time as uttered. With writing, on the other hand, the eye grasps three to six letters at a time, and takes in words as wholes instead of spelling them out. The ear always lags, therefore, the eye anticipates, although it may also linger if it needs to. While therefore impressions from hearing may perhaps be deeper, one may gather many more in the same time from reading.

When it comes to transmission, the advantage of handwriting is obvious. In the first place, even the poorest ink hardly fades as rapidly as memory. Then at best few men reach a hundred years, and therefore no memory, copy, while on the other hand the limit to the life of writing has never been reached. We have writings that have lasted 6,000 years, at least; while if the Palermo stone, e.g. had been orally transmitted it must needs have passed through some 200 copyists at least, each producing two sets of errors. The advantage of manuscript transmission over oral tradition in its permanence is thus very great. It is true, of course, that in the case of fragile material like papyrus, paper, or even leather, transmission ordinarily implies many re-copyings and corresponding corruption, but even at worst these will be very much better than the best popular oral tradition.

In the broad sense manuscripts include all kinds of written books without regard to material, form or instruments used. In the narrowest sense they are limited to rolls and codices, i.e. to literary manuscripts. Inscriptions are properly written matter engraved or inscribed on hard material. Documents, whether private letters or official records, are characteristically folded in pliable material. Literary works again are usually rolls or else codices, which latter is the usual form of the printed books as well. These three classes of written books have their corresponding sciences in epigraphy, diplomatics and paleography.

(1) Epigraphy: Epigraphy has to do primarily with inscriptions set up for record in public places. These include published laws, inscriptions, biographical memorials like the modern gravestone inscriptions and those on memorial statues, battle monuments and the like. It includes also votive inscriptions, inscriptions on gems, jewels, weights and measures, weapons, utensils, etc. Seals and coins from all points of view belong here and form another division under printing. These have their own sciences in numismatics and sphragistics. The chief Biblical reference is to the "tables of stone" (Exodus 24:12).

See TABLE; ALPHABET; WEIGHT; WRITING; etc.

(See Lidzbarski, Handb. nordsemit. Epigr., 1898-.)

(2) Sphragistics: Sphragistics is the science of seals. Scripture references to the seal or signet (Genesis 38:18; Job 38:14; Revelation 5:1; etc.) are many.

See SEAL; SIGNET.

(3) Numismatics: Numismatics has to do with inscriptions on coins and medals, and is becoming one of the greatest sources of our knowledge of ancient history, especially on account of the aid derived from coins in the matter of dating, and because of the vast quantity of them discovered.

See MONEY.

(4) Diplomatics: Diplomatics, or the science of documents, has to do with contracts of sale and purchase (Jeremiah 3:8; 32:14), bills of divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1) and certificates of all sorts of the nature of those registered in the modern public records. These may be on clay tablets, as in Babylonia and the neighboring regions, or on ostraca as found especially in Egypt, but everywhere in the ancient Mediterranean world, and notably for Biblical history, in Samaria, as discovered by the Harvard expedition. Multitudes of the Egyptian papyri discovered in modern times are of this character as well as the Italian papyri until papyrus was succeeded by vellum. Many are also found on wax, gold, silver, brass, lead tablets, etc.

See LETTERS; OSTRACA; PAPYRUS.

(5) Paleography: Paleography has to do with volumes or books of considerable bulk, chiefly. It has, therefore, to do mainly with literary works of all sorts, but it shades into diplomatics when official documents, such as collections of laws (e.g. Deuteronomy), treatises, such as the famous treaty between the Hittites and Egypt, and modern leases are of such bulk as to be best transmitted in volume form. It has to do chiefly with the clay tablets, papyrus, leather, vellum and paper volumes. The clay tablet is mentioned in the Old Testament at various points (see TABLET), the roll in both Old Testament and New Testament (see ROLL). The leather roll is the traditional form for the Hebrew Scriptures up to the present day, although the codex or modern volume form had been invented before the conclusion of the New Testament, and the earliest extant copies are in this form. The books of the Old Testament and New Testament were all probably first written on rolls. For the different methods of producing these var ious forms--graving, casting, pressing, pen and ink, etc., see WRITING.

6. Printed Books: Printing differs from writing chiefly in being executed in two dimensions. In writing, a chisel or brush or pen follows a continuous or interrupted line, while printing stamps, a letter or a part of a letter, a line, a page, or many pages at a stroke. The die, the wedge for clay tablets, seals, molds, xylographic plates, as well as the typewriter, movable type or electrotype plates, etc., belong properly to printing rather than writing. The wedge stamp, or single-letter die, the typewriter, the matrix and movable type form, however, a sort of transition between the pen point and the printing-press in that they follow letter after letter. Coins and seals, on the other hand, differ little from true printing save in the lengths of the writings; Babylonian seals and the rotary press are one in principle. Sphragistics, or the science of seals, and numismatics, or the science of coins, medals, etc., belong thus with printing from this point of view, but are more commonly and conveniently classed with epigrap hy, on the principle that they depend on the light and shade of incision or relief in one color as distinguished from the color contrasts of ink or paint. Printed books include the xylographic process of Chinese and early European printing, page and form printing from movable type, and all electrotype, stencil, gelatine pad, etc., processes.

The advantage of printing over writing is in the more rapid multiplication of copies, and still more in the accuracy of the copies. The first setting in movable type is as liable to error as any written copy, but all impressions from this are wholly without textual variations. For printed editions of the Bible see TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT; TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT; VERSIONS, etc.

7. Variations: In the natural process of transmission all reprints in movable type, manuscripts or oral repetitions accumulate variations with each re-copying. These are, in general, errors, and the process is one of degeneration. In oral transmission the average error with each generation is very great, and it is only with incredible pains that the best copies are made equal to even the average manuscript, which in turn at its best only equals the first type-set copy. The same expenditure of care on this type-set copy produces thousands of copies in printing where it produces one in manuscript. The phonograph, the typewriter, type-bar composition, photographic and electrotype methods have reduced the average error in modern books to a very low point. But even after incredible pains on the part of the authors and professional proofreaders, the offered reward of a guinea for each detected error in the Oxford revised version of the Bible brought several errors to light. This version is however about as nearly free from textual error as any large book ever made, and millions of copies of it are now printed wholly without textual variation.

But textual errors are not the only variations. It often happens that the author or someone else undertakes to correct the errors and makes substitutions or additions of one sort or another. The result is a revised edition, which is, in general, an improvement, or evolution upward. Variations are thus of two kinds: involuntary and intentional, corresponding pretty well with the words "copies" and "editions" of a work.

Strictly speaking, every book with intentional changes is a new work, but colloquially it is counted the "same work" until the changes become so great that the resemblance of the form of words to the original is hard to recognize. It is a common thing for a work to be edited and reedited under a certain author's name (Herzog), then become known by the joint name of the author and editor (Herzog-Plitt or Schaff-Herzog), and finally become known under the name of the latest editor (Hauck). In this case it is often described for a time on a title-page as "founded" on its predecessor, but generally the original author's name is dropped from the title-page altogether when no great portions retain the original verbal form. All editions of a work are recognized in common use in some sense as new works; and in the bookshop or library a man is careful to specify the latest edition of Smith, or Brown's edition of Smith, to avoid getting the older and outdated original work.

Sometimes the original work and the additions, corrections, explanations, etc., are kept quite separate and distinct--additional matter being given in manuscripts in the margins, or between lines, and in printed books as footnotes or in brackets or parentheses. This is commonly the case with the text-and-comment editions of Biblical books and great writers. Sometimes, as often in ancient manuscripts, it happens in copying that what were marginal and interlinear notes become run in as an undistinguished part of the text and, still more often, what was indicated as quotation in an original work loses its indications and becomes an undistinguished part of the work. In the case of the paraphrase the comment is intentionally run in with the words of the text; and most editors of scientific works likewise make no attempt to distinguish between the original matter and additions by another hand, the whole responsibility being thrown forward on the editor. Sometimes the original work itself to begin with is largely made up of quotation, or is a mere compilation or collection of works in which the "originality" is confined to title-page or preface or even a mere title, as in the case of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Bible, and the order of arrangement of parts.

Almost all books are thus composite. Even in a manuscript copy of a manuscript, or an oral repetition of an oral tale, two human minds have contributed to the net result, and the work of each may perhaps be distinguished from that of the other. In the case of a new edition by the same author, the result is still composite--a new work composed of old and new material. With all new editions by other authors the compositeness increases until, e.g. an edition of the Bible with textual variants and select comments from various writers becomes the combined work of thousands of writers, each distinguished as to his work from all the rest by his name or some symbol.

The work proper or work unchanged, save for involuntary error, includes thus copies, translates, abridgments, selections and quotations; the revised work or work with voluntary changes includes editions and paraphrases (which are simply texts with commentary run into the text), digests, redactions, etc., and perhaps compilations.

These two kinds of variations give rise to the two sciences of text-criticism and higher or historical criticism. The former distinguishes all accidental errors of transmission, the latter all the voluntary changes; the former aims to reconstruct the original, the latter to separate in any given book between the work of the original and each editor.

In this connection it must not be forgotten that the original itself may be a composite work--containing long quotations, made up wholly of selections or even made up of whole works bound together by a mere title. In these cases textual criticism restores not the original of each, but the original text of the whole, while higher criticism takes up the task of separating out the elements first of later editions and redactions of this original, then of the original itself.

8. Textual Criticism: The involuntary variations of manuscripts or oral tradition give rise to the science of text-criticism. The point of the science is to reconstruct exactly the original form of words or text. Formerly the method for this was a mere balancing of probabilities, but since Tregelles it has become a rigid logical process which traces copies to their near ancestors, and these in turn farther back, until a genealogical tree has been formed of actual descent. The law of this is in effect that "like variations point to a common ancestor," the biological law of "homology," and if the groupings reveal as many as three independent lines of copies from the original, the correct text can be constructed with mathematical precision, since the readings of two lines will always be right against the third--granting a very small margin of error in the psychological tendency of habit in a scribe to repeat the same error. The method proceeds (1) to describe all variations of each manuscript (or equally of each oral or printed copy) from the standard text; (2) to group the manuscripts which have the most pronounced variations; (3) to unite these groups on the principle of homology into larger and larger groups until authors' utterances have been reached and through these the inward original. The results are expressed in a text and variants--the text being a corrected copy of the original, and the variants showing the exact contribution of each copyist to the manuscripts which he produced.

It is carefully to be remembered that text-criticism proper has only to do with a particular form of words. Every translation or edition is a separate problem complete in itself when the very words used by translator and the editor have been reconstructed. These may in turn be useful in reconstructing the original, but care must be had not to amend, translate or edition from the original, and the original in turn, when it contains quotations from other writers, must not be amended from the originals of these writers. The task of textual criticism is to set forth each man's words--each original author, each copyist, each translator, each editor, just as his words were--no more and no less.

See TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT; TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

9. Higher Criticism: Higher criticism has to do with voluntary variations or variations in subject-matter. Like text-criticism it has to do with distinguishing the share of each of several cooperators in a composite work; and like it higher criticism traces the contributions of various authors each to its source. It differs, however, in dealing with original matter. While the variations by officious scribes, or intelligent scribes who correct spelling, grammar, wrong dates and the like, come pretty closely into the region of editing, and on the other hand the redactor is sometimes little more than an officious copyist, still the line of involuntary and voluntary change holds good, whether it be the grafting into an original work by the author of many quotations, or the grafting onto the work by others of the work of themselves or of other authors. It is not the business of the textual critic to separate out either of these (it is expressly his business not to), although his work may greatly help and even furnish results which can be used automatically. The whole of this double field of composite authorship belongs to higher criticism.

In the case of most modern works the task of the higher critic is a simple one. Quotation marks, a growing ethical feeling against plagiarism, the mechanical conveniences of typographical display, and the like, all contribute to a careful separation of the work of each contributor. Nevertheless, in many cases as, for example, in the editing of textbooks and newspapers, this is not regarded. While the signed article in the encyclopedia is now nearly universal, the signed review more and more common, the signed editorial is still rare, and the others by no means universal. It is still a matter of interest to many to pick out by his "style" the author of an unsigned article, review or editorial--which is higher criticism.

In ancient literature, where there were few such mechanical conveniences in discriminating, and little or no conscience had been developed about incorporating anything which suited the purpose of the writer in part or as a whole, the result was often a complete patchwork of verbal forms of many writers. The task of higher criticism is to sort out the original and each of its literary variants, and to trace these variants to their originals. The net result in the case of any work does not differ much from an ordinary modern work with quotation marks and footnotes referring to the sources of the quotations. It restores, so to speak, the punctuation and footnotes which the author omitted or later copyists lost. It includes many nice questions of discrimination through style and the historical connection of the fragments with the works from which they were taken; and after these have been analyzed out, many nice questions also of tracing their authorship or at least the time, place and environment of their composition. It includes thus the questions of superhuman authorship and inspiration.

10. Literary Criticism: Literary criticism has to do with originals as originals, or, in composite works, the original parts of originals. An original work may include quotations from others or be mainly quotations, and its "originality" consists in part in the way these quotations are introduced and used. By "original," however, is meant in the main new verbal forms. The original work must not plagiarize nor even use stereotyped phrases, although it may introduce

proverbs or idiomatic phrases. In general, however, originality means that literary food has been digested--reduced to its chemical elements of word or briefest phrase and rebuilt into a wholly new structure in the mind. The building in of old doorways and ornaments may be a part of the literary architect's originality, but they themselves were not "original" with him.

The literary critic has thus to do with a man's originality--the contribution that he has made to the subject, the peculiar quality of this in its fitness to influence other minds which is effected by the "reaction of the whole personality," all his learning and emotional experience, on every part of his material--what in short we call style. This involves a judgment or comparison with all other works on the same subject as to its contribution of new matter and its readability.

11. Origin of New Forms: The chief problems of book science may be described in the words of biological science as (1) the origin of new forms, (2) survival. The question of the origin of a new literary work and its survival is so like that of the origin of a new species and its survival that it may be regarded less as analogy than as falling under the same laws of variations, multiplication, heredity and natural selection. The origin of variant forms of the same original through involuntary and voluntary changes has been traced above up to the point where editorial variants overwhelm the original and a new author's name takes the place of the old. After this step has been taken it is a new work, and at bottom the origin of all new works is much the same. The process is most clearly seen in treatises of some branch of science, say physics. A general treatise, say on Heat, is published, giving the state of knowledge on the subject at that time. Then monographs begin to be produced. The monograph may and generally does include, in bibliographical or historical outline, the substance of previous works, and in every event it implies the previous total. The point of the monograph itself is, however, not the summary of common knowledge but the contribution that it makes, or, in the language of natural science, the "useful variant" of the subject which it produces. After some accumulation of these monographs, or useful variants of previous treatises, some author gathers them together and unites them with previous treatises into a new general treatise or textbook, which is in effect the latest previous treatise with all variants developed in the meantime.

In either case a permanent new form has been produced--the old common knowledge with a difference, and the process goes on again: the new work is multiplied by publication into many like individuals; these like individuals develop each its variations; the variations in the same direction unite in some new accepted fact, idea or law, expressed in a monograph; common knowledge with this new variation forms a new general work which again is multiplied, and so on.

And what is true of scientific monographs is just as true in substance of literature, of oral tradition and of the whole history of ideas. It is the perpetual putting together of variations experienced two or more times by one individual or one or more times each by two or more individuals, with the common body of our ideas, and producing thus a new fixed form. Popular proverbs, for example, and all poetry, fiction and the like, come thus to sum up a long human experience.

And carrying the matter still farther back, what is true of the scientific book and of poetry and of folk-literature, is true also of the inward evolution of every thought, even those phrased for conversation or indeed for self-communion--it is the result of a series of variations and integrations. The workings of the scientist's mind in producing a contribution and the workings of the farmer's mind in evolving a shrewd maxim, are alike the result of a long series of these observations, variations and integrations. Repeated observations and the union of observations which vary in the same direction is the history of the thought process all the way along from the simplest perception of the infant, up through the ordinary thinking of the average man, to the most complex concept of the philosopher.

Through all the processes of inward thought and outward expression thus the same process of evolution in the production of a new form holds good: it is the synthesis of all works on a given subject (i.e. any more or less narrow field of reality), the multiplication of this synthetic work, the development of new variations in it and the reunion again of all these variations in a more comprehensive work.

12. Survival: When it comes to the matter of the survival of a new work when it has been produced, the problem is a double one: (1) the survival of the individual book, and (2) the survival of the work, i.e. any copy of the original whose text does not vary so far that it may not be recognized as the "same" work. The original book is in a man's mind and survives only so long as its author survives. In the same sense that the author dies, the individual book dies. No new book, therefore, survives its author. If, however, by survival is meant the existence of any copy, or copy of a copy of this original, containing much (but never quite) the same form of words, then the book survives in this world, in the same sense that the author survives, i.e. in its descendants; it is the difference between personal immortality and race immortality. At the same time, however, the survival of species depends on the individual. A work or a species is no metaphysical reality, but a sum total of individuals with, of course, their relations to one another.

On the average, the chance of long survival for any individual copy of a book is small. Every new book enters into a struggle for existence; wind and weather, wear and tear conspire to destroy it. On the whole they succeed sooner or later. Some books live longer than others, but however durable the material, and however carefully treated they may be, an autograph rarely lasts a thousand years. If survival depended on permanence of the individual, there would be no Bible and no classics.

The average chance of an individual book for long life depends (1) on the intrinsic durability of its material, or its ability to resist hostile environment, (2) on isolation.

The enemies to which books are exposed are various: wind, fire, moisture, mold, human negligence and vandalism, and human use. Some materials are naturally more durable than others. Stone and metal inscriptions survive better than wood or clay, vellum than papyrus or paper.

On the other hand, however, if isolated or protected from hostile environment, very fragile material may outlast more substantial. Papyrus has survived in the mounds of Egypt, and unbaked clay tablets in the mounds of Babylonia, while millions of stone and metal inscriptions written thousands of years later have already perished. Here the factor of isolation comes in. Fire and pillage, moth and rust and the bookworm destroy for the most part without respect of persons. It is only those books which are out of the way of destructive agencies which survive. An unbaked tablet which has survived 5,000 years under rubbish may crumble to dust in 5 years after it has been dug up and exposed to the air. This isolation may be accidental or "natural," as when tablets and papyri are preserved under ruins, but it may also be artificial and the result of human care. A third factor of survival is therefore the ability of a work to procure for itself human protection, or artificial isolation. In brief this ability is the "value" of a book to its owner. This value may lie in the material, artistic excellence, association or rarity. Any variation in the direction of value which may be expressed financially tends to preserve. In fire or shipwreck, these are the ones saved, in pillage the ones spared. They are the ones for whom fireproof buildings and special guardians are provided. An exception to this rule is when the material is more valuable for other than book purposes. In times of war the book engraved on gold or lead or paper may be melted down for coin or bullets or torn up for cartridges, while stone and vellum books are spared. The general law is, however, that value tends to preserve, and it has been remarked that all the oldest codices which have survived in free environment are sumptuous copies.

Literary value on the other hand is, on the whole, a factor of destruction for the individual rather than of survival. The better a book is the more it is read, and the more it is read, the faster it wears out. The worthless book on the top shelf outlasts all the rest. In cases of fire or shipwreck an owner will save books which cannot be replaced and the books most easily replaced are those with literary value. A man will sometimes save his favorite books, and does treat them often with a certain reverent care, which tends to preservation but, on the whole, literary value tends to destruction.

When it comes to the survival of the work or race survival, matters are reversed. Literary value is the prime factor. It is the ability of a book to get itself multiplied or re-copied which counts--the quality, whatever it may be, which tends to make a man wish to replace his copy when it is worn out, and to make many men wish to read the work.

This literary interest operates first to produce a large number of copies in order to meet the demand, each of which copies has its chance of survival. It operates also by inducing men to use the very best material, paper, ink, binding, etc., which results in giving each individual book a longer time to produce a new copy.

The modern newspaper published in a million copies is ephemeral, in the first place, because it is printed upon paper which cannot last, save in very favorable conditions of isolation, for more than forty or fifty years. In the second place, it is very rarely reprinted save for an occasional memorial copy. Books like the Bible or Virgil, Dante or Shakespeare, on the other hand, are reprinted in multitudes of editions and in many instances in the most permanent material that art can devise.

It often happens that a book is popular for a short time, but will not survive a changed environment. The newspaper is popular for a few hours, but the time environment changes and interest is gone. It sometimes happens that a book is very popular in one country and wholly fails to interest in another. Millions of copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben Hur were required to fill the demand of one generation where a few hundreds may suffice for the next.

All the time popular taste, which is only another name for average human experience, is judging a book. A book survives because it is popular--not necessarily because it is popular with the uneducated majority, but because it appeals continually to the average human experience of some considerable class, good or bad. Survival is, therefore, natural. Skilled critics help popular judgment, and select lists aid, but in the long run the test is simply of its correspondence with human experience; in short, it is because men "like" it that a book survives.

There is thus going on all the time a process of struggle and "natural selection" which in the end is a survival of the fittest in the true evolutionary sense, i.e. books survive because fitted to their environment of human experience or taste. There grows up, therefore, continually in every country a certain class of books which are counted classics. These are those which have survived their tests, and are being still further tested. Some have been tested from remote antiquity, and it is the books which survive the test of many periods of time, many kinds of geographical environment, and many varieties of intellectual environment, i.e. which appeal to many classes of readers, which are the true classics and which, on the other hand, show that they do correspond with the fundamental facts of human experience, simply because they have survived. In general it is the religious books which have survived in all nations, and the only books which have been tested in all lands and ages and appeal to Oriental and Western, ancient and modern alike, are those of the Christian Bible.

13. Book Collections: It has been noticed above that the process of forming a new work is the bringing together of all works on the same subject in order to unite all their variations in the new work. It is for this purpose that every student brings together the working library on his specialty; it is what the librarian does when he brings together all the books on a subject for the use of students. Every man who reads up on a subject is performing the same task for himself, and likewise every man who does general reading.

There are few libraries, however, which attempt to get together all the books on a subject. Most libraries are select libraries containing the best books on the subject: by this is meant all books which have anything new or in short have a useful variation. This is an artificial process of the critical human mind, but in humanity in general it is going on all the time as a natural process. Men are perpetually at work choosing their "five-foot shelves," the collections of the very "best of best books." The reason for this lies in the fact that the average human mind can read and hold only a limited number of books; an unconscious process is all the time going on tending to pick out the small number of books which on the whole contain the greatest amount of human experience to the average page. The mass of world's books, however enormous, is thus boiled down by a natural selection to a few books, which contain the essence of all the rest. The process tends to go on in every country and every language. The most universal example is the Bible, which represents a long process of natural selection through many periods of time and considerable variety of geographical influence. It unites the quintessence of Semitic ideas with the corresponding quintessence of Indo-European ideas, each embodied in a correspondingly perfect language--for language itself is in the last analysis the quintessence of the experience of any people in its likeness and unlikeness to other peoples. It is therefore by the mere fact o f "survival" and "natural selection" proved to be the "fittest" to survive, i.e. that which corresponds most nearly to universal human experience. Councils do not form the canon of Scripture: they simply set a seal upon a natural process. The Bible is thus the climax of evolution among books as man is among animals. It is as unique among books as man is unique among all living things.

See LIBRARIES.

14. Early History of Books in Bible Lands: The history of books begins at least with the history of writing. Some of the pictures on the cave walls of the neolithic age (Dechelette, Man: Archaeol., Prehist. (1908), 201-37) seem to have the essential characteristics of books and certainly the earliest clay tablets and inscriptions do. These seem to carry back with certainty to at least 4,200 years BC. By a thousand years later, tablet books and inscriptions were common and papyrus books seem to have been well begun. Another thousand years, or some time before Hammurabi, books of many sorts were numerous. At the time of Abraham, books were common all over Egypt, Babylonia, Palestine, and the eastern Mediterranean as far at least as Crete and Asia Minor. In the time of Moses, whenever that may have been, the alphabet had perhaps been invented, books were common among all priestly and official classes, not only in Babylonia, Assyria and Egypt, but at least in two or three scores of places in Palestine, north Syria and Cyprus. In the time of D avid not only was historical, official and religious literature common in Egypt and Assyria, but poetry and fiction had been a good deal developed in the countries round about Palestine; and very soon after, if not long before, as the Moabitic, Siloam, Zkr, Zenjirli, Baal-Lebanon, Gezer and Samaritan inscriptions show, Semitic writing was common all over Palestine and its neighborhood.

LITERATURE.

Articles by Dziatzko on "Buch" and "Bibliotheken," in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-encyclopedia d. class. Altertumsw., V, 5, and his Antikes Buchwesen, Leipzig, 1900, are mines of material, and the bibliographical reference thorough. The rapid developments in the history of most ancient books may be followed in Hortzschansky's admirable annual volume, Bibliographie des Bibliotheks und Buchwesens, Leipzig, 1904 ff. For a first orientation the little book of O, Wiese, Schrift und Buchwesen in alter u. neuer Zeit (3rd edition, Leipzig, 1910), or in English, the respective articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, are perhaps best. On the scientific side the best introductions are Vol I of Iwan Muller's Handb. d. klass. Altertumsw. and T. Birt's D. antike Buchwesen (Berlin, 1882). For Biblical aspects of the Book, the best of all, and very adequate indeed, is the long article of E. von Dobschutz on the "Bible in the Church" in the Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion, II, 579-615, and especially on ac count of the bibliographical apparatus at the end of each section. These little bibliographies give a complete apparatus on many of the above subjects. Paragraphs with bibliographies on others of above topics will be found in the W. Sanday article on "Bible," just preceding.

E. C. Richardson

Book of Abraham

Book of Abraham - See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE.

Book of Enoch

Book of Enoch - See ENOCH, BOOK OF.

Book of Jubilees

Book of Jubilees - See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE; APOCRYPHA.

Book of Life

Book of Life - (cepher chayyim; he biblos tes zoes, "book of life"): The phrase is derived from the custom of the ancients of keeping genealogical records (Nehemiah 7:5, 64; Nehemiah 12:22-23) and of enrolling citizens for various purposes (Jeremiah 22:30; Ezekiel 13:9). So, God is represented as having a record of all who are under His special care and guardianship. To be blotted out of the Book of Life is to be cut off from God's favor, to suffer an untimely death, as when Moses pleads that he be blotted out of God's book--that he might die, rather than that Israel should be destroyed (Exodus 32:32; Psalms 69:28). In the New Testament it is the record of the righteous who are to inherit eternal life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). In the apocalyptic writings there is the conception of a book or of books, that are in God's keeping, and upon which the final judgment is to be based (Daniel 7:10; 12:1; Revelation 20:12, 15; compare Book Jubilees 39:6; 19:9).

See APOCALYPSE; BLOT; BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE; JUDGMENT, LAST.

L. Kaiser

Book of Noah

Book of Noah - See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE.

Book of Remembrance

Book of Remembrance - re-mem'-brans (cepher zikkdron, "book of record"): Is related in meaning to the "Book of Life." It refers to a list of the righteous, recorded in a book that lies before God (Malachi 3:16; compare Daniel 7:10).

See BOOK OF LIFE.

Books of Adam

Books of Adam - See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE; ADAM, BOOKS OF.

Boot

Boot - boot (ce'on; the King James Version battle; the American Standard Revised Version "armor"; the American Revised Version, margin "boot"): The word ce'on, found only in Isaiah 9:5 (Hebrews 9:4), is probably a loanword from the Assyrian senu, meaning "shoe," "sandal." The root has the same meaning in Aramaic and Ethiopic. The passage should be translated "every boot of the booted warrior."

Booth

Booth - booth, booth: The Hebrew word cukkah (rendered in the King James Version "booth" or "booths," eleven times; "tabernacle" or "tabernacles," ten times; "pavilion" or "pavilions," five times; "cottage" once) means a hut made of wattled twigs or branches (Leviticus 23:42; Nehemiah 8:15). In countries where trees are abundant such wattled structures are common as temporary buildings as they can be constructed in a very short time. Cattle were probably housed in them (Genesis 33:17). Such hurriedly-made huts were use d by soldiers (2 Samuel 11:11; 1 Kings 20:12) and by harvesters--hence, the name feast of "booths" or "tabernacles" (see TABERNACLES,FEAST OF ). Job (27:18) uses booth (parallel moth's house) as a symbol of impermanence. Similar huts were erected in vineyards, etc., to protect them from robbers and beasts of prey. The isolated condition of Jerusalem in the time of the prophet Isaiah is compared to a "booth in a vineyard" (Isaiah 18:1-7).

T. Lewis

Booths, Feast of

Booths, Feast of - See FEASTS AND FASTS, I, 2.

Booty

Booty - boot'-i (baz and baz): "Booty" is the translation of baz or baz, usually rendered "prey" and "spoil" (Jeremiah 49:32); of malqoach, "prey," "booty" (Numbers 31:32, "the booty--the rest of the prey," the Revised Version (British and American) "the prey, over and above the booty," baz); of meshiccah, "spoil" (Habakkuk 2:7; Zephaniah 1:13; the Revised Version (British and American) "spoil"); of opheleia, "gain" (2 Maccabees 8:20). "Booty respects what is of personal service to the captor; spoils whatever serves to designate his triumph; prey includes whatever gratifies the appetite and is to be consumed" (Crabb, English Synonymes). Persons (for slaves, etc.) might be part of the booty.

Booz

Booz - bo'-oz (TR, Booz; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, Boes): the King James Version, Greek form of Boaz (thus, the Revised Version (British and American)) (Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:32).

Bor-ashan

Bor-ashan - bor-ash'-an: A correction of the Massoretic Text in the American Standard Revised Version in 1 Samuel 30:30 for the King James Version "Chor-ashan" and the English Revised Version "Cor-ashan." Probably the same as ASHAN (Joshua 15:42; 1 Chronicles 4:32; 6:59), which see.

Border; Borders

Border; Borders - bor'-der: Indicating in both singular and plural the outlines or territory of a country. In the sense of "limits," "boundaries" or "territory," it occurs as a translation of gebhul (and its feminine gebhulah, in Psalms 74:17) in numerous passages in Old Testament, especially in Josh. yerekhdh = "the flank," "the side," "the coast," hence, "the border" occurs in Genesis 49:13; qatseh = "an extremity" "brim," "brink," "edge" (Exodus 16:35; 19:12; Joshua 4:19); micgereth = something enclosing, i.e. "a margin" (Exodus 37:12, 14; 1 Kings 7:28 f,31 f,35 f the King James Version; 2 Kings 16:17 the King James Version); saphah or sepheth = "the lip" (as a natural boundary) hence, "a margin" "brim," "brink," "edge" (Exodus 28:26; 39:19 the King James Version); qets = "an extremity" "end" (2 Kings 19:23 the King James Version); totsa'ah = "exit," hence, "boundary" (1 Chronicles 5:16); tor = "a succession" "a string" "row," hence, "border" (Song of Solomon 1:11 the King James Version); yadh = "hand," used in a great variety of applications, both literally and figuratively, proximate and remote; but how it should be translated with "border" in 1 Chronicles 7:29 is not clear; better would be: "in the hands of the children of Manasseh." Three Greek words occur for the idea: kraspedon = "a margin," "fringe" (Matthew 23:5; Mark 6:56; Luke 8:44); horion = "a limit," "a boundary line" (Matthew 4:13); methorios = "contiguous" (neuter plural as noun, "frontier," "border" in Mark 7:24).

Frank E. Hirsch

Borderer

Borderer - bor'-der-er (parakeimenous): One who dwells on the borders or confines of a country. Only in 2 Maccabees 9:25, "The princes that are borderers and neighbors unto my kingdom."

Bore

Bore - bor: According to the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:20 through Exodus 23:33) a slave whom his master had purchased was to be released after six years. Should he choose to remain in his master's service a religious ceremony was necessary to ratify his decision. "Then his master shall bring him unto God" (better than "unto the judges" of the King James Version), "and shall bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl" (Exodus 21:6). It is highly improbable that "unto God" means "to a sanctuary"; for there was no special reason for performing this ceremony near the door of a sanctuary. On the other hand the entrance to a private house was a sacred spot. According to primitive thinking near the door dwelt the household gods whose function it was to guard the house and its occupants, e.g. against the entry of disease. It was natural that the ceremony of attaching the slave permanently to the master's household should be performed in the presence of the household gods. "The boring of the ear of slaves was a common practice in antiquity, possibly to symbolize the duty of obedience, as the ear was the organ of hearing" (Bennett). The Deuteronomist (Deuteronomy 15:17) rejects the religious aspect of the ceremony--probably as a relic of Canaanite religion--and looks upon it as a secular and symbolical operation. According to his view, the awl was thrust through the ear of the slave to the door. The slave in question was permanently attached to the household.

T. Lewis

Borith

Borith - bo'-rith: Mentioned in the genealogical table which traces the descent of Esdras (Ezra) from Aaron (2 Esdras 1:2). In 1 Esdras 8:2, his name appears as BOCCAS (which see), and in 1 Chronicles 6:5, 51; Ezra 7:4, BUKKI (which see).

Born

Born - See BORN.

Born Again

Born Again - See REGENERATION.

Borne

Borne - See BORN.

Borrowing

Borrowing - bor'-o-ing:

(1) In the Old Testament period loans were not of a commercial nature, i.e. they were not granted to enable a man to start or run a business. They were really a form of charity, and were made by the lender only to meet the pressure of poverty. To the borrower they were esteemed a form of misfortune (Deuteronomy 28:12 f), and by the lender a form of beneficence. Hence, the tone of the Mosaic legislation on the subject.

(2) Laying interest upon the poor of Israel was forbidden in all the codes (see Exodus 22:25 (JE); Deuteronomy 23:19; Leviticus 25:36 H), because it was looked upon as making unwarranted profit out of a brother's distress: "If thou lend money to any of my people with thee that is poor, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall ye lay upon him interest .... and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious."

(3) The Law, however, allowed interest to be taken of a foreigner, or non-Jew (Deuteronomy 23:20: "Unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon interest"; compare Deuteronomy 15:3); and even among Jews pledges were allowed under limitations, or taken against the law (Deuteronomy 24:10; compare Job 24:2-3 "There are that remove the landmarks .... they take the widow's ox for a pledge"). In Deuteronomy 15:1 ff there is a remarkable law providing a "release" by the creditor every "seven years," a "letting drop of loans" (see Driver in the place cited.). In Exodus 3:22, the King James Version "shall borrow" is rendered "shall ask" in the Revised Version (British and American).

George B. Eager

Boscath

Boscath - bos'-kath.

See BOZKATH.

Bosom

Bosom - booz'-um: In the ordinary signification of the anterior upper portion of the trunk of the body, choq or cheq, "inlet, "lap" (Exodus 4:6-7; Numbers 11:12; Deuteronomy 13:6; 54, 56; Ruth 4:16; Psalms 74:11; Isaiah 65:6-7; Lamentations 2:12). "A present in the bosom" (Proverbs 21:14): bribes carried ready for use in the fold of the robe. chetsen = "bosom" (with special reference to that portion of the body which is between the arms), occurs in Psalms 129:7; chobh = "a cherisher," hence, "the bosom" (Job 31:33); tsallachath = something advanced or deep, "a bowl"; figurative "the bosom" (Proverbs 19:24 the King James Version; Proverbs 26:15 the King James Version). The Greek employs kolpos (Luke 6:38; John 13:23). For Abraham's bosom, see separate article.

Figurative: In a figurative sense it denotes intimacy and unrestrained intercourse (Genesis 16:5; 2 Samuel 12:8); tender care and watchfulness (Isaiah 40:11); closest intimacy and most perfect knowledge (John 1:18); "into their bosom" (Psalms 79:12) indicates the bosom as the seat of thought and reflection.

F. E. Hirsch

Bosom, Abraham's

Bosom, Abraham's - See ABRAHAM'S BOSOM.

Bosor

Bosor - bo'-sor (Bosor):

(1) A city named among those taken by Judas Maccabeus "in the land of Gilead" (1 Maccabees 5:26, 36). From the towns named it is evident that this phrase is elastic, covering territory beyond what is usually called the land of Gilead. Possibly therefore Bosor may be identical with Bucr el-Chariri, in the Luchf, Southeast of el-Leja'.

(2) In 2 Peter 2:15 the King James Version, the Greek form of BEOR (which see).

Bosora

Bosora - bos'-o-ra (Bosora): One of the strong cities of Gilead taken by Judas Maccabeus (1 Maccabees 5:26, 28). It is identical with the Roman Bostra, the city whose extensive ruins lie on the Southeast border of the Hauran, on the old Roman road that runs between Der`ah and Calkhad. The modern name is Bosra eski-Sham. It cannot be identified with BOZRAH either (1) or (2), as it lies much too far north. It appears for the first time in history in the passage noted above. The ruins show it to have been a pla ce of great strength and importance. In the time of Herod the Great it was in the hands of the Nabateans. When Aulus Cornelius Palma conquered these regions, Bostra was made capital of the province under the name of Nova Trajana Bostra, in honor of the emperor Trajan. This was in 105 AD, from which year the Bostrian era was reckoned. It was taken by the Moslems under Khalid--"the sword of God." It resisted the attack of Baldwin III. Later it fell on evil days. Now, if it be true, as the proverb says, that "the prosperity of Bocra is the prosperity of the Chauran," the case of the latter is sad indeed.

W. Ewing

Boss

Boss - bos: Occurs only in the plural as a translation of gabh = "arch," or "protuberance," referring to the curved ornaments of a shield (Job 15:26), the central knob of the buckler.

Botany

Botany - bot'-a-ni.

1. General Characteristics of Palestinian Flora: On account of the great diversity in the climatic and topographical conditions Palestine is peculiarly rich in the variety of its flora--the best authority, Post, distinguishes 3,500 species. The land as a whole belongs to the botanical area known as the "Mediterranean region," a region characterized climatically by very dry, hot summers and fairly mild winters. Plants here grow in spring, rest in the hot, dry season and grow again in autumn; the long-continued, scorching sunlight and the absence of water for five or six months at a time, lead to the destruction of vast quantities of seeds and young plants imported by various natural means and by human agency. Among these xerophile or drought-resisting plants, some of the most characteristic features are a thick, leathery rind admitting of little transpiration, e.g. cactus, stonecrops, etc., and the presence of bulbs, rigid stalks, or fleshy leaves, of which the flora of Palestine abounds with examples. Equally characteristic are dry, much-branched spiny trees or shrubs with scanty foliage and small leaves, such as the acacias and the thorny burnet. In connection with this last, it may be mentioned that, next to the strong sunlight and drought, the great enemy of vegetation over a great part of the "Mediterranean region"--emphatically so in Palestine--is the goat. He is one of the most destructive of animals, and as he has for long ages been allowed to graze freely all over the hillsides, it is not wonderful that in many spots it is only plants like the thorny burnet with its powerful spines which have survived.

The common plants of Palestine will be referred to in order shortly, but among those especially characteristic of the whole region are the olive and the fig, the ilex oak and the bay laurel, the arbutus and the sumach.

2. Plants Introduced Since Bible Times: A number of trees and shrubs which have been imported into this region within comparatively recent times have become so acclimatized as to be today among the most noticeable plants. Prominent among these is the well-known opuntia or prickly pear, an introduction from the continent of America; so characteristic is this of modern Palestine scenery that it is a common feature in pictures by artists who have painted Scripture scenes in the Holy Land. The common variety, Opuntia ficus-Indica with its innumera ble sharp prickles makes impenetrable hedges round many of the village gardens, while the Opuntia cochinillifera, cultivated specially round Nablus and introduced from tropical America with the cochineal insect, is almost unarmed. The American aloe (Argave Americana)--quite a different plant be it noted from either the ALOES (which see) of the Bible or the well-known medicinal aloes--has established itself in many parts as a garden ornament and will doubtless in time become thoroughly indigenous. More important and more recent of introduction is the group of eucalypti or gum trees, of which some half-dozen varieties have been imported. As is well known, they all come from Australia, where they flourish in climatic conditions somewhat similar to those of the Mediterranean region. Seeds of eucalypti were first introduced into Europe in 1854, having been sent from Melbourne to Paris, and from that center they have found their way to all parts. The most common variety is the Eucalyptus globulus which is now to be found everywhere in the Mediterranean region. It was introduced into Palestine through the late Baron E. de Rothschild of Paris, and great plantations of it have been made specially in the neighborhood of the Jewish colonies. In the marshy plains between Sammarin and Caesarea over a million have been planted, and here, and also on the marshy shores of Lake Huleh, this tree has attained magnificent proportions. Many specimens will be found with trunks two or three feet in circumference and of a height of upward of 100 feet. This size is nothing for a eucalyptus, many of these trees attaining in their native habitat a height of 300, or even 400 ft., but time is required, and it may be that eventually many of the eucalypti of the Holy Land will also acquire giant proportions. That this group of trees has come to stay is evident. Not only in small forests such as those mentioned, but also in isolated groups all over the land they may be found. Their quick growth, fresh, evergreen foliage and their reputed health-giving properties account for their wide cultivation. Concerning this last it may be said that the virtues of the eucalyptus as a prophylactic against malaria have been much exaggerated. The most malignant cases of malaria may sometimes be found in houses shaded by eucalyptus boughs, and the Anopheles, or malarial-bearing mosquito, in such situations will be found swarming among its leaves. Probably the beneficial action of the eucalyptus is simply one of drying up marshy lands by absorbing great quantities of water into its deep-running roots.

Other trees which have been recently introduced but now flourish even better than the indigenous trees are the locust tree (Robinia pseudo-acacia), from America, the "Pride of India" (Melia Azedaracht) called in Arabic zinzilukt, a stranger from India, very extensively grown, the so-called "Spanish pepper tree" (Schinus molle), the Casuarina stricta from Australia, the very common ailanthus (A. glandulosus), a native of China, and many others. Of fruit trees the apricot, mulberry, orange, citron, lemon an d prickly pear have all been introduced into Syria within historic times; as have almost all the best varieties of the indigenous fruits.

3. Fertility and Climate in Modern and Ancient Palestine:

A question of great interest to Bible students is, How far has the fertility of the land altered in historic times? Two facts are important in answering this:

(1) The general features of the climate have been the same since the days of the patriarchs, probably since the dawn of history. We may gather this from the many Biblical references to the seasonal rain (Leviticus 26:4)--the "early" and the "latter" (e.g. Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24; Hosea 6:3); to the frequent droughts (e.g. 1 Kings 17:1-24; Amos 4:6-7); to the grateful mention of the "dew" (Deuteronomy 32:2; 2 Samuel 1:21; 17:12; Micah 5:7, etc.); to the repeated mention of the most characteristic products of modern Palestine--the olive and fig, the vine and almond, the oak and the terebinth. It is further confirmed by the presence everywhere of the ruins of ancient terraces on the hillsides and of the "broken cisterns" which are found at every site where once cultivation flourished.

(2) It is undeniable that the destruction of forest and thicket all over the land has been immense during the past fifty years. The increasing demands for fires by resident Europeans and the development of steam mills, the result of European enterprise, are largely responsible. The firewood brought to Jerusalem comes from ever-increasing distances, as the wood in the neighborhood is consumed, and the destruction has been increasingly ruthless. First the branches are cut, then the trunks are leveled, and finally the very roots are dug out of the soil. At a greater distance, as for example in the once extensive forests East of the Jordan, a terrible destruction is being wrought by the charcoal burners. Thousands of sacks of charcoal arrive in Jerusalem during the autumn months, chiefly in the care of Circassian settlers in the East Jordan lands; but a similar work is pursued by other charcoal burners in the northern parts of upper Galilee. All the tree trunks are soon destroyed and then the rising branches are cut as soon as they reach any size, so that miles of country which, within the memory of many now living, were forest are now either entirely treeless or covered with nothing but brushwood. This last consists of dwarf oak, carob, terebinth, arbutus, wild olive and hawthorn--all capable of development into noble trees. The process having been commenced by the hand of man is assisted by the goats who crop the tender leaves and shoots, and thus keep stunted many of the bushes. Older inhabitants can remember that between Bethlehem and Hebron, where today scarcely a twig is visible, there were trees and brushwood all the way, and in the 7th century the pilgrim Arculphus writes of a pine wood as existing South of Bethlehem. This destruction is common all over the land. The only trees which have any chance of surviving are those which from their near proximity to some sacred Wely or grave, or in some case from their own traditional sanctity, have been left uninjured from motives of superstition. Such " holy" trees occur all over the land, sometimes singly, at others in groves; they may be any species of tree. Commonly they are oaks, terebinths, carob, meis (nettle tree), sidr (zizyphus) or hawthorn.

Besides the willful destruction of trees for firewood or charcoal another agent has in places been in operation. It is a common thing for the fellahin to clear a large area for plowing by burning all the vegetation; such fires sometimes extend far beyond the area intended (compare Psalms 83:14). There is a large and almost entirely sterile district, chiefly of bare rock, between Cafed and Jebel Jermuk in Galilee which was swept a few years ago by a raging fire which eyewitnesses state blazed for a week. The destruction of all this vegetation has led to the washing away of almost all the soil, so that now great labor would be required to make this area productive. The removal of the natural vegetation produces sterility in two ways. Firstly, whereas the deep roots of trees and shrubs support the soil even on hillsides of considerable slope, and slowly but surely cause the disintegration of the underlying rocks, while their stems and branches by accumulating decaying leaves and twigs ever make more and richer soil, so the destruction of these plants leads to the washing away of the soil by the torrential winter's rain, until the bare rock--never on the hillslopes very far from the surface--is laid open to the sky. Secondly, the rainfall, which was once largely absorbed by this soil, now rapidly rushes off the denuded rocks and flows away to the valleys. The consequent result of this--combined with the destruction of many miles of the artificial soil-surfaces of terraces--is that a large proportion of the rainfall which once found its way slowly through the soil to the sources of the springs--never very deep in Palestine--now rapidly runs down the valley bottoms to the lower grounds. The whole mountain region thus suffers from drought. It is a common saying that "trees bring rain." Probably the truth is simply that vegetation modifies the climate almost entirely by retaining moisture in the soil, and in the surface air near the soil; by preventing rapid evaporation for the surface through the shade they afford, and by increasing the output of the springs in the way described above. Remove the vegetation, and the soil gradually leaves the hillsides and the rainfall is largely wasted. This is what has happened over large districts in the Holy Land, and the consequent diminution of some of the springs even within half a century has been scientifically noted.

While therefore, from the permanent climatic conditions, Palestine could never have been a land of verdure such, for example, as England, yet we know with certainty that its native vegetation has much diminished within the memory of many now living. But besides this, we have abundant historical evidence that at several periods it was much more productive. This is shown, for example, abundantly in the writings of Josephus, and, for later periods, in the accounts of many pilgrims. But indeed the mere fact that for many centuries Palestine had a population far greater than today is in itself a proof; for as things are, modern Palestine is not able to support a much greater population than at present. Great expenditure of capital and labor on the restoring of ancient terraces, the construction of dams and systems of irrigation and the planting of trees is one essential preparation for any considerable development of the land. For any of these things to be possible a radical change in the attitude of the Turkish gover nment is an essential preliminary.

With regard to Bible evidence it is clear from very many references in the historical books of the Old Testament that "forest" or "woodland" was very plentiful in those days. In a large proportion where the word ya`ar (translated "forest") occurs it is definitely associated with trees. (For references see FOREST.) Whether these references are always to tall trees or also to the brushwood such as is plentiful in parts of Galilee today, is immaterial, as the latter consists of the same elements as the former, only stunted through the interference of man. It would certainly appear probable that at the time of the arrival of the Hebrews there were considerable forests of trees--oaks, terebinths, pines, etc.--over a great part of the higher mountains. In Joshua 17:14-18 we have reference to Joshua's twice-repeated command to the people to cut down the "forest," as the inhabited areas were too narrow for them. In later ages, e.g. in New Testament times, the cultivation of the land must have been so thorough that, to the West of the Jordan especially, the area left for forest trees must necessarily have been much circumscribed; but the land then with its millions of olive trees and countless vineyards in the mountains and its great palm groves at Jericho and the coast, not to mention all kinds of imported fruit trees, must have presented a very different appearance from its present comparative barrenness. As a single example we may compare the glowing description by Josephus of the extraordinary fertility of Gennesaret with its present condition (Josephus,BJ ,III , x, 8). Two periods in history stand out preeminent in the history of Palestine as times of prosperity and fertility: that about and immediately succeeding the rise of Christianity and that of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem (see Conder, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 239-41: "The present culture of Palestine does not, perhaps, attain to a tenth of that which enriched the Latins in the 1st century of their rule"). In both these periods the land was highly cultivated and the population large, in the former more so than the latter. That the blight of the Ottoman Turks is largely responsible for the decay of agriculture and progressive deforestation in recent centuries is undoubted, but it is more than possible that at one if not at both these periods another factor was at work. It is difficult to believe that in the days when Palmyra was a vast city and Petra a great emporium, the home of a highly developed civilization, these sites were not better supplied by springs than at present; at those times great tracts of country East of the Jordan, now swallowed up by the desert, were sites of flourishing cities whose melancholy and lonely ruins are the wonder of all. No afforestation and no increased cultivation will account for the supplies of water which must have sustained such a development; and it is only reasonable to suppose, and there is much to support such a view, that there must have been then a rainfall somewhat greater or more prolonged than today. It must be remembered the increased rainfall of, say, only one inch per annum over a long series of years, or a sustained extension of the rainfall to two or three inches later in the season, or even a few degrees of greater cold producing heavy snow instead of rain, would, any of them, greatly improve the fertility of the soil and the output of the springs. All the evidence seems to confirm theory that there have been cycles of greater and of lesser rainfall extending over centuries, and that the periods we have mentioned, certainly the Roman period, coincided with one of the former cycles. At the present time there is some evidence that the rainfall has, on the whole, been increasing during the last 50 years and the cultivated area of the land, as contrasted with the natural "forest" land, is also slowly extending.

4. Plant Zones in the Holy Land: In dealing briefly with some of the more characteristic and remarkable of the plants of the Holy Land we must recognize at least four distinct plant zones: (1) The coast plains and the western mountains, with a distinctly "Mediterranean flora"; (2) The Jordan valley or Ghor, with a very peculiar semi-tropical flora in which a considerable number of African forms occur; (3) The steppe or desert zones, specially those East of the Jordan and to the south. The higher western slopes to the East of the Jordan also have a very similar flora; (4) The Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon above 4,000 ft. in which Alpine forms occur, and in the higher regions of which there is a flora entirely distinct from the three other zones. These divisions are necessarily somewhat artificial. Everywhere the western slopes are more fertile than the eastern, so that the land to the East of the water parting in western Palestine partakes more of the desert flora than that opposite to it on the east. Vegetation in all parts is more abundant on t he hill slopes with a northern aspect, as it gets more shade; this is particularly noticeable in the drier areas.

(1) The Coast-Plains and Western Mountains. (a) In the maritime plain there is a rich red alluvial soil with abundance of water deep under the surface. The annual mean temperature is 70 degrees F.; frost is extremely rare, and the atmosphere is distinctly humid, though the rainfall is less than in the higher hills. Citrons, oranges and lemons here flourish, palms grow in places on the coast, melons and pomegranates reach perfection. Vines have been extensively planted by Jewish colonists in the neighborhood of Jaffa. Cereals--wheat, barley and Egyptian maize (Sorghum annuum)--are extensively grown. The wild flora is similar to that of the mountains. The sycamore fig (Arabic jummeiz) flourishes around Jaffa--it is a tree which requires a warm climate; it was in Talmudic writings one of the distinctions between "lower" and "upper" Galilee that the sycamore fig flourished in the former and not in the latter. It is evident it was far more plentiful in olden times (see SYCAMORE). A closely allied tree, the mulberry, is common everywhere, though not really indigenous. Two varieties occur, the Morus nigra (Arabic tut-shami) a native of central Asia, cultivated for its delicious fruit, and the M. alba (Arabic tut beledi) a native of China introduced as food for silk worms. See SYCAMINE. Another tree which reaches perfection only in the warmer regions of the plain--and that too in the Jordan valley--is the tamarisk (Arabic athl) of which Post recognizes 9 species. It is characterized by its brittle feathery branches covered by minute scale-like leaves; a bedraggled, wind-torn tamarisk half buried in sea-sand is a characteristic sight all along the Syrian coast. Under favorable conditions some species attain considerable size.

See TAMARISK.

(b) In the higher mountain regions there is an average temperature of 62 degrees F. and extreme variations between a maximum of 100 degrees or 80 degrees in the shade in the summer and a few degrees of frost in the winter. Here the fig, vine and olive do admirably, their late fruiting corresponding with the "dew"--or clouds of fine mist--which settle over the mountains after sunset, particularly in the north. Apricots, mulberries, quince, apples and pears (chiefly from imported grafts), peaches and plums, almonds and walnuts do well in sheltered spots. Wheat and barley are grown on hill slopes or in valley bottoms all over the mountain region.

In the valleys where there is running water the oleander (Nerium oleander; Arabic difleh) abounds--a plant beautiful in foliage and flower but poisonous and not uncommonly imparting its poison to the water in which it grows. In similar situations occurs the Vitex (V. Agnus Castris), a variety of verbena whose lilac or purple flowers are, wherever they occur, a sure sign of the presence of water on or near the surface.

In similar situations flourishes the oriental plane (Platanus orientalis; Arabic dilb), a tree which often attains great size (see PLANE TREE), and also the alder (Alnus orientalis; Arabic naght), a tree of humbler growth. There are some 8 varieties of willow (Arabic sifsaf), a tree very common along the water courses (see WILLOW TREE). Poplars (Arabic chaur) are plentiful in places, especially near water. Three native varieties are known, but the cylindrical Lombardy poplar, an imported variety, is most widely cultivated (see POPLAR). The southern hackberry or nettle tree (Celtis australis; Arabic mais) a member of the Urticaceae closely allied to the elm, is an indigenous tree which is widely planted; it is not uncommonly seen beside Moslem shrines. It grows to a height of 20 to 30 ft., and yields a close-grained timber taking a high polish. The walnut (Juglans regia; Arabic jauz) is a valuable timber tree and grows to noble proportions. It flourishes around Damascus, being a water-loving tree: some of the most magnificent specimens occur at Sheba`, a village in the lower slopes of Hermon. The walnut is really an imported tree, its native home being Persia and the Himalayas, but it has been long naturalized.

The carob (Ceratonia siliqua; Arabic kharrub) is a handsome evergreen tree whose dense, dark glistening foliage renders it everywhere conspicuous. It is widely distributed, especially in the lower mountain regions. Its pods are the HUSKS (which see) of Luke 15:16. Oaks are among the most important and characteristic of all the trees and shrubs of Pal: the evergreen oak which forms, it is estimated, two-thirds of all the shrubby vegetation of Carmel and attains noble proportions at some of the Moslem shrines, the Valonica oak, plentiful on the hills East of Nazareth, and the ilex or holm oak, commonest near the coast, are among the more important. The recent destruction of timber in the Holy Land has especially fallen upon the oaks, which afford the best of all fuel; as their growth is very slow and there is no attempt to plant young trees this is most regrettable. (For fuller account see OAK.) Closely allied to the oak both in the Old Testament and with the modern inhabitant--though botanically very distinct--is the terebinth or turpentine tree (Pistacia terebinthus; Arabic butm), one of the finest trees in Palestine, although from a distance superficially like an oak, the foliage is very different. In many spots in Palestine where terebinths are for various reasons regarded as "sacred" they have obtained splendid proportions.

See TEREBINTH.

Pines, although they flourish on the coast and lower mountain slopes, are, together with cypresses, junipers and cedars, reserved to the discussion of the flora of the fourth division of the country--the Alpine regions.

The hawthorn (Crataegus; Arabic za`rur), of which there are 4 varieties, occurs as a shrub or small tree everywhere, its sweet-scented white or pink blossom being much in evidence in the spring.

Among the more important shrubs which make up the thickets over the limestone hills the following may be briefly enumerated:

The sumach (Rhus conaria), usually a shrub but occasionally a small tree, grows in considerable quantities in fertile spots in the mountains; from its fruit an acid drink is concocted and the fruit, bark and young leaves are used in tanning.

A plant closely allied to this, and also to the terebinth, is the lentesk (Pistacia lentiscus; Arabic serres), a common shrub in the lower mountain region, e.g. on Carmel, which yields mastich, a white gum, thought by many to be the BALM of the Old Testament (which see).

The bay laurel (Laurus nobilis; Arabic el ghar) occurs in clumps in many places. It is the Daphne of the Greeks and was sacred to Apollo. From its large, leathery, shining leaves were made the laurel crowns of victory in classical times. This, it may be mentioned in passing, is quite a distinct plant from our familiar "cherry laurel," which is allied to the cherry.

The butchers' broom (Ruscus aculeatus) is very plentiful. It is a plant peculiar in having its leaf petioles flattened out like a leaf (phillodia), so that the flower and berry appear to arise from the middle of the midrib of the leaf.

The myrtle (Myrtus communis; Arabic rihan or aas) is exceedingly common, especially in northern Palestine, and when it grows near water it attains a good size.

See MYRTLE.

A showy shrub, which sometimes attains to the dimensions of a tree 20 or 30 ft. high, is the arbutus (Arabic qoTlib) or strawberry tree. Two kinds occur, the less common Arbutus unedo or true "strawberry tree" which has a rough, warty fruit of a scarlet color, and Arbutus andrachne with a smooth, red bark, which when peeled off leaves a reddish inner surface. It has small orange-colored, non-edible berries. The red stems of this arbutus may be seen conspicuous in thickets all over the land, but very few are allowed to come to full growth.

Among some of the more showy shrubs we may mention the oleaster (Eleagnus hortensis; Arabic zaizafan) with its beautiful silvery leaves and white blossom (see OIL TREE).; the styrax (Styrax officinale; Arabic haz or `abhar), a shrub or small tree, with beautiful white flowers, somewhat resembling orange blossoms, the dried juice from whose bark is the officinal STORAX (which see); the Judas tree (Cercis siliquaestrum; Arabic zemzariq), a straggling shrub or tree with very showy pink flowers, and the caper (Capparis spinosa; Arabic el acaf), which is very common on old walls and about ruins (see CAPERBERRY). The beautiful rockrose or Cistus (Arabic ghibrah) is found on many shrubby hillsides, even on the bare mountain tops. The C. villosus has pink and the C. salviaefolus white blossoms, the petals being curiously crumpled. and falling off almost at once when the flower is picked. From the Cistus is obtained the gum called Ladanum (Arabic ladhanun; Hebrew loT) for which see MYRRH. Many of the hill tops near the watershed, which should be clothed by forests of oaks and pines, are now almost bare and support upon the dry and scanty soil nothing but low bushes of thorny burnet, mingled with wild thyme and mint, with, in places, small bushes of the Cistus. This thorny burner (Poterium Spinosum; Arabic ballan) is almost ubiquitous; its long thorns and tiny leaves enable it to survive the goats. It is of considerable economic importance, as from masses of this plant the fellahin fire almost all the limekilns in the land; and they use it extensively too for their ovens. It is a common sight in the late summer, after the harvest is gathered in, to see companies of peasants gathering this plant into clumps all over the hillsides, and conveying it on the women's heads in huge masses to the kilns. They pile around the kilns enormous heaps, enough to keep the furnace continually burning for several days. They may well be the "thorns under the pot" of Ecclesiastes 7:6.

See THORNS .

Of the myriad spring flowers which make such a brilliant annual display it is impossible here to write in any detail. Earliest after the rains appear the crocuses and the cyclamen, then the narcissi, anemones--scarlet, white and purple--the scarlet ranunculi, gladioli, irises, dwarf orchids, pink and yellow flax, mountain lilies, borage and bugloss, the primrose-colored Palestine scabious, and vast numbers of small Composites all appear in quick succession. When these fade many brilliant thistles continue to add some color to the otherwise dry roadsides, and last of all, in the late summer, numbers of tall stalks of squill, shot from the now leafless bulbs, remain scattered in groups over the dry and leafless ground as last survivors of the season's display. The varieties of flowers are enormous, but those mentioned are almost universally present.

Of cultivated vegetables-mention may be made of CUCUMBER (which see), lettuce, onions, GARLIC (which see), MELONS (which see), cauliflower and cabbage, potatoes (a fairly recent introduction), sweet potatoes, the egg plant (Melongena badinjan), artichokes (which also grow wild) and the bamieh (Hibiscus esculentus).

(2) The Jordan Valley. The flora of this region is of a very special kind, and has affinities to Africa. Several trees and shrubs are of great interest. Firstly, mention may be made of the group of true acacias. One variety, the 'anbar (Acacia Farnesiana), is by no means peculiar to the Ghor, but is used for making hedges in many parts of the land; its little yellow, fluffy, scented flowers are a great favorite with the natives; it is usually a shrub rather than a tree. The remaining acacias are desert inhabitants and in many places are the only trees. The seyyal, which includes A. tortilis and A. seyal, flourishes on the west shores of the Dead Sea, at `Ain Jidy and southward; from it is obtained the gum arabic of commerce; it probably yielded the wood known in the Old Testament as SHITTIM WOOD (which see).

The semitropical Ghor is the home of many other thorny trees. Extremely characteristic of the whole region are the jujube trees of which the nabk or sidr tree (Zizyphus spina-Christi), is the most common. It has rounded yellowish fruit; under favorable conditions it develops into a tall and handsome tree. Somewhat less common is the `ennabh (Z. vulgaris) which bears an edible fruit of the shape and size of an olive. A third kind, the dom (Z. lotus), is merely a shrub and has small pea-sized fruit. These various kinds of jujube trees are found in every part of the Jordan depression and of the valleys approaching it. Closely allied botanically to these thorny shrubs is the samur (Paliurus aculeatus) or "Christ thorn," widely used for the making of hedges (see BRIER). Another common shrub, or small tree, in the hotter parts of the Ghor near Jericho and the Dead Sea, is the zaqqum (Balanites AEgyptiaca) from whose oval berries the monks of Jericho extract a resinous substance which they term "Balm of Gilead."

The dibk (Cordia myxa), a giant borage, which grows to a tree of 7 or 8 ft. high is widely cultivated but grows in the Ghor spontaneously. The fruit, which is edible, is used principally for making bird lime.

A very striking tree near Jericho and the Dead Sea is the `oshr (Calotropis procera), a member of the Natural Order Asclepiadeae. It has large obovate leaves, cabbage-like in consistence--a great contrast to the small, dry, dull-colored leaves of most of its neighbors. The trunk has a cork-like bark and white, milky juice and the fruit consists of queer apple-like follicles which, though solid looking, are only inflated with air and contain but silk threads and seeds. These have been supposed to be the apples of Sodom of Josephus, which he describes as looking like tempting fruit but which on examination prove to contain but dust. A much more likely theory is that he refers to the equally common colocynth (Citrullus colocynthus).

See GOURD, WILD.

Another abundant herb is the Solanum coagulans (Arabic khadak), whose apple-like fruit has also received (without serious claim) the name of "apple of Sodom."

Then there are in the immediate neighborhood of the Dead Sea a whole group of salt-loving plants which grow in the saline marshes such, for example, as the samphire or glasswort (Salicornia fructosa and S. herbacea). The latter of these is called the kali plant, because it is burnt in order to obtain potash (el kali). Another group is included under the name of sea blite or sueda (Arabic suweid) of which there are several varieties.

Along the banks of the Jordan willows (Silex safsaf) and tamarisks (especially Tamarix Jordanis) abound.

At various parts of the Jordan valley, but particularly to the north of Lake Huleh, flourishes the papyrus reed (Cyperus papyrus), known in Arabic as babir, the source of the earliest paper.

Of cultivated plants, palms, as we know from history, grow here well, though their cultivation has been neglected; sterile wild palms still occur in some of the warmer valleys, especially to the East of the Dead Sea. Many dead palm-tree trunks lie scattered along the shores of the Dead Sea.

In situations well supplied with water, bananas flourish--they are cultivated both near Jericho and near the Lake of Galilee. Oranges, lemons and citrons also grow well. All kinds of ordinary vegetables are grown in various parts of this region. Wheat and barley yield an early and an abundant crop in irrigated regions on both sides of the Jordan; rice and Indian maize are cultivated in irrigated fields North of Lake Huleh, and cotton at several spots. With scientific irrigation this region might be one of the most productive upon earth.

(3) The Steppe or "Desert" Zones: The Steppe or "Desert" Zones are chiefly noticeable for the absence of trees and the stunted condition of the small shrubs and herbs which grow there. Thorny plants like Poterium, Astragalus (the most characteristic order) and Cousinea thistles flourish. With the early rains a rapid growth of dwarf flowers appears which dries up soon after the rainy season ends. Botanically the region stands somewhat distinct by the occurrence of Persian and Indian plant-forms. This region includes the great corn land of the Hauran and Nukra--some of the richest of their kind.

(4) The Flora of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon: The flora of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon consists, in the lower slopes, of similar plants to those mentioned under (1). The Conifera are specially characteristic of this northern region, the destruction of these trees in Palestine proper being in many parts complete. Of the indigenous cypress (Arabic Saru) we have one species, the Cypressus sempervirens, a handsomer tree than the cylindrical kind--a cultivated variety--planted so frequently in Turkish cemeteries (see CYPRESS). There are 6 varieties of juniper known, and one species of yew. Of pines the two important kinds are--the Aleppo pine (Pinus Halepensis), which grows with considerable rapidity and is widely planted, and the handsomer stone pine (Pinus pinia the true snobar of the Arabs), probably more truly the native tree (see PINE TREE). The most important and characteristic member of this order of trees is the cedar which still flourishes in a very few spots (see CEDAR). On the Lebanon occurs a single species of rhododendron (R. Ponticum) and one of heather (Erica verticillata). Above the height of 7,000 ft. trees and shrubs disappear and vegetation is chiefly represented by low, rounded, thorny bushes, chiefly varieties of Astragalus; by clumps of Acantholimon Lebanoticum; by small procumbent bushes of Cerasus prostata--a member of the cherry family--and the Coloneaster nummularia with scarlet berries. Even on the summit of Hermon it is astonishing how many tiny flowers are in bloom in the late summer after the snow has melted. The most curious feature of this region is the almost complete absence of Arctic forms such as are found in the Alps and even in the Himalayas.

LITERATURE.

Prof. Ellsworth Huntington, Palestine and Its Transformation; J. Glaisher (PEF); Meteorological Observations at Jerusalem; G. E. Post, M.D., Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai; Mrs. Hannah Zeller, Wild Flowers of the Holy Land; Augusta A. Temple, Flowers and Trees of Palestine; Tristram, The Fauna and Flora of Palestine (PEF Memoirs); also articles in recent Bible Dictionaries, particularly those by Dr. Post in HDB, and by Sir W. T. Thiselton Dyer, director of Kew Gardens, in EB.

E. W. G. Masterman

Botch

Botch - See BOIL.

Botrys

Botrys - bot'-ris (Botrus; modern Batrun): A town of Phoenicia on the coast some miles North of Gebal (Byblus) on the southern side of the bold promontory called in classic times Theoprosopon. It is said to have been founded by Ithobal (Ethbaal), king of Tyre, whose daughter married Ahab (Josephus, Ant, VIII, xiii, 2). The town is not mentioned in Scripture.

Bottle

Bottle - bot'-'-l (chemeth, no'-dh, nebhel, baqbuq, 'obh; askos): The most literal rendering of all the words for bottle in English Versions of the Bible is "skin," or "wine-skin," the Revised Version (British and American). The primitive bottle among eastern peoples was really a bag made from skins, tanned or untanned, of kid, goat, cow, camel or buffalo--in most cases drawn off of the animal entire, after the legs and head were cut off, and, when filled, grotesquely retaining the shape of the animal. The skins in common use today, as in ancient times no doubt, for holding water milk, butter and cheese, have the hair left on and are far from cleanly-looking. Those used for wine and oil are tanned by means of oak bark and seasoning in smoke, a process that gives a peculiar astringency of flavor to the wine kept in them, and gave rise to the parable of Jesus about putting new wine into old wine-skins (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37). The fact that the leather underwent distension once and only once under fermentation, and the further fact that the wine-skins became dried and liable to crack from the smoke and dry heat of the tents and houses, gave point to the parable: "No man putteth new wine into old wine-skins; else the wine will burst the skins, and the wine perisheth, and the skins: but they put new wine into fresh wine-skins." All such "bottles" today are liable to crack and become worthless.

Pliny Fisk used fresh goat-skins to carry water, but he says this gave the water a reddish color and an exceedingly loathsome taste. Harmer tells of carrying liquids in smoked skin-bottles, which when rent "were mended by putting in a new piece, or by gathering up the piece, or by inserting a flat bit of wood." Burckhardt says he saw Arabs keeping water for their horses on journeys in "large bags made of tanned camel-skin." They would sew the skins up well on four sides, but would leave two openings, one to admit the air, one to let out the water. Two such bags made a good load for a camel. Edwin Wilbur Rice says the leather or skin-bottles are of different sizes and kinds, usually made from the skin of the goat, rarely ever from that of the sheep, as it is not considered strong enough. But sometimes they are made from the skin of the camel, or the ox, which is then prepared by tanning. When leather bags are sewed up the joinings are smeared with grease, as the skin-bottles of all sorts are, as they grow older, lest the water, or other liquid, ooze through.

Such bottles, being more portable and less breakable than earthenware, were peculiarly well suited to the use of primitive and nomad peoples, as they are to the roving Bedouin of today. The mention of them, however, in such various accounts and connections as those for instance of the story of Hagar (Genesis 21:19), of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:4), and of David (1 Samuel 25:18) shows that they were in common use among ancient Orientals, pastoral and peasant alike. Tourists still find that they are admirably suited to travelers in waterless districts, or districts where the water is brackish and bad. One of the characteristic figures even in oriental centers like Damascus today is the waterman who sells from his dripping goat-skin water cooled with the snow of Hermon, flavored with lemon, rose, or licorice, temptingly offered up and down the streets by his clapping his brass cups and crying in the most pleading but pleasing tones, "Drink, drink, thirsty. one" (compare Isaiah 55:1). But, as Dr. Mackie, of Beirut, says, "While the bottle is thus highly prized, and the water thus kept in it is a grateful necessity, the luxury of the East belongs to the spring itself, to the draught from the fountain of living waters. Hence, the comparison Jesus made at Jacob's well (John 4:14), and the one blessed terminus of all, the Shepherd's leading (Revelation 7:17). See HDB , under the word

Of course in the settled life of the Orient water, milk, wine and other liquids are often kept in earthen jars or other receptacles. For such "bottles" see PITCHER; VESSEL. Glass bottles are not mentioned in the Bible; but those now found in tombs, for keeping perfume in, may have been known in Old Testament times.

Figurative: (1) For the clouds (Job 38:37). (2) For intoxication, through which, because of their headstrong continuance in sin, Israel shall be helpless to resist the enemy's attack (Jeremiah 13:12). (3) For sorrow: "Put thou my tears into thy bottle" (Psalms 56:8). "The Psalmist's sorrows were so many that they would need a great wine-skin to hold them all. There is no allusion to the little lachrymatories of fashionable and fanciful Romans: it is a robuster metaphor by far; such floods of tears had the Psalmist wept that a leathern bottle would scarce hold them" (Treasury of David, III, 39). "God treasures His servants' tears as if they were water or wine." Bernard says, "The tears of penitents are the wine of angels" (Dummelow's Comm., 351).

George B. Eager

Bottom

Bottom - bot'-um: Rendered by several Hebrew words: (1) sheresh, "root"; Chaldaic, shoresh (Job 36:30, "the bottom of the sea"). (2) qarqa', "soil," "pavement of tesserae" (Amos 9:3). (3) qetsebh, "cutting," "chop," "extremity" (Jonah 2:6, "the bottoms of the mountains"). (4) rephidhah, "railing," "couch" (Song of Solomon 3:10, "the bottom thereof of gold"). (5) cheq, "bosom," "lap" (Ezekiel 43:13-14, 17, the Revised Version, margin "hollow"). (6) metsullah, "to be dark," "shadowy place," from primitive root tsalal, "to tumble down," i.e. "settle"; hence, the idea of a valley ("the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom," Zechariah 1:8 the Revised Version, margin "shady place"). The prophet may have been wont to frequent the myrtle grove in the glen or bottoms, in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, for meditation and prayer (BTP, II, 283).

M. O. Evans

Bottomless, Pit

Bottomless, Pit - bot'-um-les, (to phrear tes abussou, "the pit of the abyss," Revelation 9:1-2 the King James Version): In the Revised Version (British and American), he abussos (always an adjective in classical authors = "bottomless") is uniformly rendered "the abyss" (which see) (Luke 8:31; Romans 10:7; Revelation 9:11; 11:7; 17:8; 1, 3).

Bough

Bough - bou.

See BRANCH.

Bought (1)

Bought (1) - bout (tawekh, "bisection," "middle"): The best part of a sling that contains the stone, "in the midst of the bought of a sling" (1 Samuel 25:29 King James Version, margin, the King James Version "out of the middle," the Revised Version (British and American) "from the hollow").