[1] So Clarendon Press, _Hebrew Lexicon_, p. 127, with LXX.
[2] Eccl. x. 1; Isaiah vii. 18.
[3] Baethgen, _Beitrage zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, p. 25,
cf. pp. 65, 261.
[4] Josh, xii. 7.
[5] Art. "Baalzebub," Black and Cheyne's _Ency. Bibl._
[6] With various spellings (e.g. Belzebul, and in XB, Beezebul), all
variants of Beelzebul. Cf. Deissmann, _Bible Studies_, 332.
[7] There is a variation of reading, which has been held to support
the view that the passage means that men reproached Jesus with His
supposed connexion with Beelzebul; cf. A.B. Bruce, _in loco_.
[8] And in the parallel passages, Matt. xii. 22-29; Luke xi. 14-22.
[9] Cf. John vii. 20, viii. 48, 52, x. 20.
[10] Swete, _in loco_.
[11] Jastrow, _Dict. of the Targumim._ &c., sub voce.
[12] Lidzbarski, _Handbuch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik_, i. pp.
240, 377.
BEER, a beverage obtained by a process of alcoholic fermentation mainly
from cereals (chiefly malted barley), hops and water. The history of
beer extends over several thousand years. According to Dr Bush, a beer
made from malt or red barley is mentioned in Egyptian writings as early
as the fourth dynasty. It was called [Hieroglyph] or _heqa_. Papyri of
the time of Seti I. (1300 B.C.) allude to a person inebriated from
over-indulgence in beer. In the second book (c. 77) of Herodotus (450
B.C.) we are told that the Egyptians, being without vines, made wine
from barley (cf. Aesch. _Suppl._ 954); but as the grape is mentioned so
frequently in Scripture and elsewhere as being most abundant there, and
no record exists of the vine being destroyed, we must conclude that the
historian was only partially acquainted with the productions of that
most fertile country. Pliny (_Natural History_, xxii. 82) informs us
that the Egyptians made wine from corn, and gives it the name of
_sythum_, which, in the Greek, means drink from barley. The Greeks
obtained their knowledge of the art of preparing beer from the
Egyptians. The writings of Archilochus, the Parian poet and satirist who
flourished about 650 B.C., contain evidence that the Greeks of his day
were acquainted with the process of brewing. There is, in fact, little
doubt that the discovery of beer and its use as an exhilarating beverage
were nearly as early as those of the grape itself, though both the
Greeks and the Romans despised it as a barbarian drink. Dioscorides
mentions two kinds of beer, namely [Greek: zythos] and [Greek: kourmi],
but he does not describe them sufficiently to enable us to distinguish
them. Sophocles and other Greek writers, again, styled it [Greek:
bryton]. In the time of Tacitus (1st century after Christ), according to
him, beer was the usual drink of the Germans, and there can be little
doubt that the method of malting barley was then known to them. Pliny
(_Nat. Hist._ xxii. 82) mentions the use of beer in Spain under the name
of _celia_ and _ceria_ and in Gaul under that of _cerevisia_; and
elsewhere (xiv. 29) he says:--"The natives who inhabit the west of
Europe have a liquid with which they intoxicate themselves, made from
corn and water. The manner of making this liquid is somewhat different
in Gaul, Spain and other countries, and it is called by different names,
but its nature and properties are everywhere the same. The people in
Spain in particular brew this liquid so well that it will keep good a
long time. So exquisite is the cunning of mankind in gratifying their
vicious appetites that they have thus invented a method to make water
itself produce intoxication."
The knowledge of the preparation of a fermented beverage from cereals in
early times was not confined to Europe. Thus, according to Dr H.H. Mann,
the Kaffir races of South Africa have made for ages--and still make--a
kind of beer from millet, and similarly the natives of Nubia, Abyssinia
and other parts of Africa prepare an intoxicating beverage, generally
called _bousa_, from a variety of cereal grains. The Russian _quass_,
made from barley and rye, the Chinese _samshu_, made from rice, and the
Japanese _sake_ (q.v.) are all of ancient origin. Roman historians
mention the fact that the Britons in the south of England at the time of
the Roman invasion brewed a species of ale from barley and wheat. The
Romans much improved the methods of brewing in vogue among the Britons,
and the Saxons--among whom ale had long been a common beverage--in their
turn profited much by the instruction given to the original inhabitants
of Great Britain by the Romans. We are informed by William of Malmesbury
that in the reign of Henry II. the English were greatly addicted to
drinking, and by that time the monasteries were already famous, both in
England and on the continent, for the excellence of their ales. The
waters of Burton-on-Trent began to be famous in the 13th century. The
secret of their being so especially adapted for brewing was first
discovered by some monks, who held land in the adjacent neighbourhood of
Wetmore. There is a document dated 1295 in which it is stated that
Matilda, daughter of Nicholas de Shoben, had re-leased to the abbot and
convent of Burton-on-Trent certain tenements within and without the
town; for which re-lease they granted her, daily for life, two white
loaves from the monastery, two gallons of conventual beer, and one
penny, besides seven gallons of beer for the men. The abbots of Burton
apparently made their own malt, for it was a common covenant in leases
of mills belonging to the abbey that the malt of the lords of the manor,
both spiritual and temporal, should be ground free of charge. Robert
Plot, in his _Natural History of Staffordshire_ (1686), refers to the
peculiar properties of the Burton waters, from which, he says, "by an
art well known in this country good ale is made, in the management of
which they have a knack of fining it in three days to that degree that
it shall not only be potable, but is clear and palatable as we could
desire any drink of this kind to be." In 1630 Burton beer began to be
known in London, being sold at "Ye Peacocke" in Gray's Inn Lane, and
according to the _Spectator_ was in great demand amongst the visitors in
Vauxhall. Until tea and coffee were introduced, beer and ale (see ALE)
were, practically speaking, the only popular beverages accessible to the
general body of consumers. Since the advent of tea, coffee, cocoa and
mineral waters, the character of British beers has undergone a gradual
modification, the strongly alcoholic, heavily hopped liquids consumed by
the previous generation slowly giving place to the lighter beverages in
vogue at the present time. The old "stock bitter" has given way to the
"light dinner ale," and "porter" (so called from the fact that it was
the popular drink amongst the market porters of the 18th century) has
been largely replaced by "mild ale." A certain quantity of strong
beer--such as heavy stouts and "stock" and "Scotch" ales--is still
brewed nowadays, but it is not an increasing one. The demand is almost
entirely for medium beers such as mild ale, light stout, and the better
class of "bitter" beers, and light beers such as the light "family
ales," "dinner ales" and lager.
The general run of beers contain from 3 to 6% of alcohol and 4 to 7% of
solids, the remainder being water and certain flavouring and
preservative matters derived from the malt, hops and other materials
employed in their manufacture. The solid, i.e. non-volatile, matter
contained in solution in beer consists mainly of maltose or malt sugar,
of several varieties of dextrin (see BREWING), of substances which stand
in an intermediate position between the sugars and the dextrins proper,
and of a number of bodies containing nitrogen, such as the
non-coagulable proteids, peptones, &c. In addition there is an
appreciable quantity of mineral matter, chiefly phosphates and potash.
Dietetically regarded, therefore, beer possesses considerable food
value, and, moreover, the nutritious matter in beer is present in a
readily assimilable form.
It is probable that the average adult member of the British working
classes consumes not less than two pints of beer daily. A reasonable
calculation places the total proteids and carbohydrates consumed by the
average worker at 140 and 400 grammes respectively. Taking the proteid
content of the average beer at 0.4% and the carbohydrate content at 4%,
a simple calculation shows that about 3% of the total proteid and 11% of
the total carbohydrate food of the average worker will be consumed in
the shape of beer.
The chemical composition of beers of different types will be gathered
from the following tables.