the mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Jacob Behmen. This writer
was born in the year 1575, at Old Siedenburg, near Gorlitz, in Upper
Lusatia. He was a shoemaker by trade, and is described as having been
thoughtful and religious from his youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in
frequenting the public worship. At length, seriously considering within
himself that speech of our Saviour, “Your heavenly Father will give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him,” he was thereby awakened to desire
that promised Comforter; and, continuing in that earnestness, he was at
last, to use his own expression, “surrounded with a divine light for
seven days, and stood in the highest contemplation and kingdom of joys!”
After this, about the year 1600, he was again surrounded with a divine
light and replenished with the heavenly knowledge; insomuch as, going
abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward
light, he saw into their essences, uses, and properties, which were
discovered to him by their lineaments, figures, and signatures. In the
year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still farther
mysteries were revealed to him; but it was not till the year 1612 that
Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is
entitled, “Aurora,” which was seized by the senate of Gorlitz before it
was completed. His next production is called, “The Three Principles,” by
which he means the dark world, or hell; the light world, or heaven; and
the external, or visible world, which we inhabit. In this work he more
fully illustrates the subjects treated of in the former, and supplies
what is wanting in that work, showing, 1. How all things came from a
working will of the holy, triune, incomprehensible God, manifesting
himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through an outward,
perceptible, working, triune power of fire, light, and spirit, in the
kingdom of heaven. 2. How and what angels and men were in their
creation; that they are in and from God, his real offspring; that their
life begun in and from this divine fire, which is the Father of Light,
generating a birth of light in their souls; from both which proceeds the
Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love, in the triune creature, as it
does in the triune Creator. 3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen
from God, and their first state of a divine triune life in him; what
they are in their fallen state, and the difference between the fall of
angels and that of man. 4. How the earth, stars, and elements were
created in consequence of the fall of angels. 5. Whence there is good
and evil in all this temporal world; and what is meant by the curse that
dwells in it. 6. Of the kingdom of Christ, how it is set in opposition
to the kingdom of hell. 7. How man, through faith in Christ, is able to
overcome the kingdom of hell, and thereby obtain eternal salvation. 8.
How and why sin and misery shall only reign for a time, until God shall,
in a supernatural way, make fallen man rise to the glory of angels, and
this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting
union with that heaven from whence it fell.
The next year, Behmen produced his “Three-fold Life of Man,” according
to the three principles above mentioned. In this work he treats more
largely of the state of man in this world: that he has, 1. That immortal
spark of life, which is common to angels and devils. 2. That divine life
of the light and Spirit of God, which makes the essential difference
between an angel and a devil; and, 3. The life of this external and
visible world. The first and last are common to all men; but the second
only to a true Christian, or child of God. Behmen wrote several other
treatises; but these are the basis of all his other writings. His
conceptions are often clothed under allegorical symbols; and, in his
later works, he frequently adopted chemical and Latin phrases, which he
borrowed from conversation with learned men. But as to the matter
contained in his writings, he disclaims having borrowed it either from
men or books. He died in the year 1624; and his last words were, “Now I
go hence into paradise!” Behmen’s principles were adopted by Mr. Law,
who clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a style less obscure.
The essential obscurity of the subjects indeed he could not remedy. If
they were understood by the author himself, he is probably the only one
who ever made that attainment.
BEL, or BELUS, a name by which many Heathens, and particularly the
Babylonians, called their chief idol. But whether under this appellation
they worshipped Nimrod, their first Baal, or lord, or Pul, king of
Assyria, or some other monarch, or the sun, or all in one, is uncertain.
It is, however, probable, that Bel is the same as the Phenician Baal,
and that the worship of the same deity passed over to the Carthagenians,
who were a colony of Phenicians. Hence the names Hannibal, Asdrubal, &c,
compounded with Bel or Baal, according to the custom of the east, where
great men added the names of the gods to their own. Bel had a temple
erected to him in the city of Babylon, on the very uppermost range of
the famous tower of Babel, wherein were many statues of this pretended
deity; and one, among the rest, of massy gold, forty feet high. The
whole furniture of this magnificent temple was of the same metal, and
valued at eight hundred talents of gold. This temple, with its riches,
was in being till the time of Xerxes, who, returning from his
unfortunate expedition into Greece, demolished it, and carried off the
immense wealth which it contained. It was, probably, the statue of this
god which Nebuchadnezzar, being returned to Babylon after the end of the
Jewish war, set up and dedicated in the plain of Dura; the story of
which is related at large, Dan. iii. See BABEL.
BEL AND THE DRAGON, an apocryphal and uncanonical book. It was always
rejected by the Jewish church, and is extant neither in the Hebrew, nor
in the Chaldee languages; nor is there any proof that it ever was so,
although the council of Trent allowed it to be part of the canonical
book of Daniel, in which it stands in the Latin Vulgate. There are two
Greek texts of this fragment, that of the Septuagint, and that found in
Theodotion’s Greek version of Daniel. The Latin and Arabic versions are
from the text of Theodotion. Daniel probably, by detecting the mercenary
contrivances of the idolatrous priests of Babylon, and by opening the
eyes of the people to the follies of superstition, might furnish some
foundation for the story; but the whole is evidently charged with
fiction, though introduced with a pious intent. St. Jerom gives it no
better title than, “The fable of Bel and the Dragon.” Selden thinks that
this history ought rather to be considered as a poem or fiction, than a
true account: as to the dragon, he observes, that serpents, _dracones_,
made a part of the hidden mysteries of the Pagan religion, as appears
from Clemens Alexandrinus, Julius Firmicus, Justin Martyr, and others.
See SERPENT.
BELIAL. The phrase, “sons of Belial,” signifies _wicked, worthless men_.
It was given to the inhabitants of Gibeah, who abused the Levite’s wife,
Judges xix, 22; and to Hophni and Phineas, the wicked and profane sons
of Eli, 1 Samuel ii, 12. In later times the name Belial denoted the
devil: “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” 2 Cor. vi, 15; for as the
word literally imports “one who will do no one good,” the positive sense
of a doer of evil was applied to Satan, who is the author of evil, and,
eminently, “the Evil One.”
BELLS. Moses ordered that the lower part of the blue robe, which the
high priest wore in religious ceremonies, should be adorned with
pomegranates and bells, intermixed alternately, at equal distances. The
pomegranates were of wool, and in colour, blue purple, and crimson; the
bells were of gold. Moses adds, “And it shall be upon Aaron to minister;
and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before
the Lord, and when he cometh out; that he die not.” Some of the Hebrews
believe that these little bells are round; others, that they were such
as were commonly in use. The ancient kings of Persia are said to have
had the hem of their robes adorned like that of the Jewish high priest,
with pomegranates and golden bells. The Arabian ladies, who are about
the king’s person, have little gold bells fastened to their legs, their
neck, and elbows, which, when they dance, make a very agreeable harmony.
The Arabian women of rank, generally, wear on their legs large hollow
gold rings, containing small flints, that sound like little bells when
they walk; or they are large circles, with little rings hung all round,
which produce the same effect. These, when they walk, give notice that
the mistress of the house is passing, that so the servants of the family
may behave themselves respectfully, and strangers may retire, to avoid
seeing the person who advances. It was, in all probability, with some
such design of giving notice that the high priest was passing, that he
also wore little bells at the hem of his robe. Their sound intimated
also when he was about to enter the sanctuary, and served to keep up the
attention of the people. A reverential respect for the Divine Inhabitant
was also indicated. The palace of kings was not to be entered without
due notice, by striking some sonorous body, much less the sanctuary of
God; and the high priest did, by the sound of his bells at the bottom of
his robe, ask leave to enter. “And his sound shall be heard when he
goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out; that
he die not.”
Bells were a part of the martial furniture of horses employed in war.
The Jewish warrior adorned his charger with these ornaments; and the
prophet foretels that these in future times should be consecrated to the
service of God: “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the
horses, Holiness unto the Lord.” Chardin observes that something like
this is seen in several places of the east; in Persia, and in Turkey,
the reins of their bridles are of silk, of the thickness of a finger, on
which are wrought the name of God, or other inscriptions. A horse which
had not been trained was by the Greeks called, “one that had never heard
the noise of bells.”
BELLY is used in Scripture for gluttony, Titus i, 12; Philip iii, 16;
Rom. xvi, 18. For the heart, or the secrets of the mind, Prov. xx, 27,
30; xxii, 18. The “belly of hell” signifies the grave, or some imminent
danger, or deep distress, Jonah ii, 2; Ecclus. ii, 5.
BELSHAZZAR, the last king of Babylon, and, according to Hales and
others, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. v, 18. During the period
that the Jews were in captivity at Babylon, a variety of singular events
concurred to prove that the sins which brought desolation on their
country, and subjected them for a period of seventy years to the
Babylonish yoke, had not dissolved that covenant relation which, as the
God of Abraham, Jehovah had entered into with them; and that any act of
indignity perpetrated against an afflicted people, or any insult cast
upon the service of their temple, would be regarded as an affront to the
Majesty of heaven, and not suffered to pass with impunity, though the
perpetrators were the princes and potentates of the earth. Belshazzar
was a remarkable instance of this. He had an opportunity of seeing, in
the case of his ancestor, how hateful pride is, even in royalty itself;
how instantly God can blast the dignity of the brightest crown, and
reduce him that wears it to a level with the beasts of the field; and
consequently how much the prosperity of kings and the stability of their
thrones depend upon acknowledging that “the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” But all these
awful lessons were lost upon Belshazzar.
The only circumstances of his reign, recorded, are the visions of the
Prophet Daniel, in the first and third years, Dan. vii, 1; viii, 1; and
his sacrilegious feast and violent death, Dan. v, 1–30. Isaiah, who
represents the Babylonian dynasty as “the scourge of Palestine,” styles
Nebuchadnezzar “a serpent,” Evil Merodach “a cockatrice,” and Belshazzar
“a fiery flying serpent,” the worst of all, Isaiah xiv, 4–29. And
Xenophon confirms this prophetic character by two atrocious instances of
cruelty and barbarity, exercised by Belshazzar upon some of his chief
and most deserving nobles. He slew the only son of Gobryas, in a
transport of rage, because at a hunting match he hit with his spear a
bear, and afterward a lion, when the king had missed both; and in a fit
of jealousy, he brutally castrated Gadatus, because one of his
concubines had commended him as a handsome man. His last and most
heinous offence was the profanation of the sacred vessels belonging to
the temple of Jerusalem, which his wise grandfather, and even his
foolish father Evil Merodach, had respected. Having made a great feast
for a thousand of his lords, he ordered those vessels to be brought
during the banquet, that he, his princes, his wives, and his concubines,
might drink out of them, which they did; and to aggravate sacrilege by
apostasy and rebellion, and ingratitude against the Supreme Author of
all their enjoyments, “they praised the gods of gold, silver, brass,
iron, and stone, but the God in whose hand was their breath, and whose
were all their ways, they praised or glorified not.” For these
complicated crimes his doom was denounced in the midst of the
entertainment; a divine hand appeared, which wrote on the plaister of
the wall, opposite to the king, and full in his view, a mysterious
inscription. This tremendous apparition struck Belshazzar with the
greatest terror and agony: “his countenance was changed, and his
thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and
his knees smote against each other.” This is one of the liveliest and
finest amplifications of dismay to be found throughout the sacred
classics, and infinitely exceeds, both in accuracy and force, the most
admired of the Heathen; such as “_et corde et genibus tremit_,” of
Horace, and “_tarda trementi genua labant_,” of Virgil.
Unable himself to decypher the writing, Belshazzar cried aloud to bring
in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, promising that
whosoever should read the writing, and explain to him its meaning,
should be clothed with scarlet, have a chain of gold about his neck, and
be the third ruler in his kingdom. But the writing was too difficult for
the Magi; at which the king was still more greatly troubled. In this
crisis, and at the instance of the queen mother, the Prophet Daniel was
sent for, to whom honours were promised, on condition of his explaining
the writing. Daniel refused the honours held out to him; but having with
great faithfulness pointedly reproved the monarch for his ingratitude to
God who had conferred on him such dignity, and particularly for his
profanation of the vessels which were consecrated to his service, he
proceeded to the interpretation of the words which had been written, and
still stood visible on the wall. They were, _Mene, Tekel, Upharsin_.
“This is the interpretation of the thing, _Mene_, ‘God hath numbered thy
kingdom and finished it;’ _Tekel_, ‘thou art weighed in the balances and
art found wanting;’ _Peres_, ‘thy kingdom is divided, and given to the
Medes and Persians.’” In that very night, in the midst of their mirth
and revelling, the city was taken by surprise, Belshazzar himself put to
death, and the kingdom transferred to Darius the Mede. If the character
of the hand-writing was known to the Magi of Babylon, the meaning could
not be conjectured. Perhaps, however, the character was that of the
ancient Hebrew, or what we now call the Samaritan; and in that case it
would be familiar to Daniel, though rude and unintelligible to the
Chaldeans. But even if Daniel could read the words, the import of this
solemn graphic message to the proud and impious monarch could only have
been made known to the prophet by God. All the ideas the three words
convey, are _numbering_, _weighing_, and _dividing_. It was only for the
power which sent the omen to unfold, not in equivocal terms, like the
responses of Heathen oracles, but in explicit language, the decision of
the righteous Judge, the termination of his long suffering, and the
instant visitation of judgment. See BABYLON.
BELUS, a river of Palestine. On leaving Acre, and turning toward the
south-east, the traveller crosses the river Belus, near its mouth, where
the stream is shallow enough to be easily forded on horseback. This
river rises out of a lake, computed to be about six miles distant,
toward the south-east, called by the ancients _Palus Cendovia_. Of the
sand of this river, according to Pliny, glass was first made; and ships
from Italy continued to convey it to the glass houses of Venice and
Genoa, so late as the middle of the seventeenth century.
BENEDICTION, in a general sense, the act of blessing in the name of God,
or of giving praise to God, or returning thanks for his favours. Hence
benediction is the act of saying grace before or after meals. Neither
the ancient Jews, nor Christians, ever ate without a short prayer. The
Jews are obliged to rehearse a hundred benedictions every day; of which,
eighty are to be spoken in the morning. Rabbi Nehemiah Baruch, in 1688,
published a discourse on the manner wherein the sacerdotal benediction
is to be pronounced. In the synagogue of Ferrara, it is rather sung than
spoken. Among the ancient Jews, as well as Christians, benedictions were
attended with the imposition of hands; and Christians, in process of
time, added the sign of the cross, which was made with the same hand,
elevated or extended. Hence, in the Romish church, benediction was used
to denote the sign of the cross, made by a bishop or prelate, from an
idea that it conferred some grace on the people. The custom of receiving
benediction by bowing the head before the bishops, is very ancient; and
was so universal, that emperors themselves did not decline this mark of
submission. Under the name benediction the Hebrews also frequently
understood the presents which friends made to one another; in all
probability because they were generally attended with blessings and
prayers, both from those who gave and those who received them. The
solemn blessing pronounced by the Jewish high priest upon the people, is
recorded Num. vi, 22, &c: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord
make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord
lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” The great
Christian benediction is, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love
of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you
always.” See BLESSING.
BENHADAD, the son of Tibrimon, king of Syria, came to the assistance of
Asa, king of Judah, against Baasha, king of Israel, obliging the latter
to return home and succour his own country, and to abandon Ramah, which
he had undertaken to fortify, 1 Kings xv, 18. This Benhadad is thought
by some to have been the same person with Hadad the Edomite, who
rebelled against Solomon toward the end of that prince’s reign, 1 Kings
xi, 25.
2. BENHADAD, king of Syria, son of the preceding, made war upon Ahab,
king of Israel, but was defeated. In the following year, however, he
came with a most powerful army to Aphek, where Ahab again engaged him,
killed a hundred thousand of his men, and the remainder endeavouring to
take refuge in Aphek, the walls of the city fell upon them, and killed
twenty-seven thousand more. Thus completely defeated, Benhadad submitted
to beg his life of the king of Israel, who not only granted his request,
but gave him his liberty, and restored him to his crown upon certain
conditions, 1 Kings xx. Twelve years afterward, A. M. 3115, Benhadad
declared war against Jehoram, the son and successor of Ahab, 2 Kings vi,
8; but his designs were made known to Jehoram by the Prophet Elisha, and
they were accordingly frustrated. Suspecting some treachery in this
affair, Benhadad was informed that all his projects were revealed to his
enemy by Elisha, and getting intelligence that the latter was at Dothan,
he sent a detachment of his best troops to invest the city and apprehend
the prophet; but they were struck with blindness at Elisha’s prayer, so
that they were unable to distinguish him, when he was in the midst of
them and held a conversation with them. He then led them into the city
of Samaria, and having conducted them safely there, he prayed to God
again to open their eyes, and induced Jehoram to dismiss them without
violence. Generous as this conduct was, it produced no salutary effect
on the infatuated Benhadad; for about four years afterward, he laid
close siege to Samaria, and reduced the city to such distress that the
head of an ass, which the Israelites considered to be an unclean animal,
was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, about 2_l._ 9_s._ sterling; and
the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung, or rather three quarters of a
pint of chick pease, as Bochart understands the word, for five pieces of
silver. In fact, such was the pressure of the famine at this time in
Samaria, that mothers were constrained to eat their own children.
Jehoram, hearing of these calamities, attributed them to Elisha, and
sent orders to have him put to death; but before his messengers could
reach the prophet’s house, he came thither himself. Elisha predicted
that the next day, about the same hour, a measure of fine flour would be
sold at the gate of Samaria for a shekel, which, however incredible at
the moment, proved to be the case; for in the night, a general panic,
supernaturally induced, pervaded the Syrian camp; they imagined that
Jehoram had procured an army of Egyptians to come to his assistance,
and, abandoning their horses, tents, and provisions, they all took to
flight. Four lepers, whose disease did not permit them to live within
the city, and being ready to perish with hunger, ventured into the
Syrian camp; and finding it deserted, and at the same time abounding
with all sorts of provisions, communicated the information to Jehoram.
The king immediately rose, though in the middle of the night; but
reflecting that probably it was only a stratagem of Benhadad to draw his
people out of the town, he first sent parties to reconnoitre. They,
however, speedily returned, and informed him that the enemy was fled,
and that the roads were every where strewed with arms and garments,
which the Syrians had abandoned to facilitate their flight. As soon as
the news was confirmed, the Samaritans went out, pillaged the Syrian
camp, and brought in such quantities of provisions, that a measure of
fine flour was, at the time specified by Elisha, sold at the gate of
Samaria for a shekel, 2 Kings vii.
The following year, A. M. 3120, Benhadad fell sick, and sent Hazael, one
of his officers, with forty camels, loaded with valuable presents, to
the Prophet Elisha, to interrogate him, whether or not he should recover
of his indisposition. Elisha fixed his eyes steadfastly on Hazael, and
then burst into tears: “Go,” said he, “and tell Benhadad, Thou mayest
certainly recover; though the Lord hath showed me that he shall
assuredly die.” He at the same time apprised Hazael that he himself
would reign in Syria, and do infinite mischief to Israel. Hazael on this
returned and told Benhadad that his health should be restored. But on
the next day he took a thick cloth, which, having dipped in water, he
spread over the king’s face and stifled him. He then took possession of
the kingdom of Syria, according to the prediction of Elisha, 2 Kings
viii.
3. BENHADAD, the son of Hazael, mentioned in the preceding article,
succeeded his father as king of Syria, 2 Kings xiii, 24. During his
reign, Jehoash, king of Israel, recovered from him all that his father
Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz his predecessor. He defeated him in three
several engagements, and compelled him to surrender all the country
beyond Jordan, 2 Kings xiii, 25.
BENI KHAIBIR, sons of Keber, the descendants of the Rechabites, to whom
it was promised, Jer. xxxv, 19, “Thus saith the Lord, Jonadab, the son
of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.” They were
first brought into notice in modern times by Mr. Samuel Brett, who wrote
a narrative of the proceedings of the great council of the Jews in
Hungary, A. D. 1650. He says of the sect of the Rechabites, “that they
observe their old rules and customs, and neither sow, nor plant, nor
build houses; but live in tents, and often remove from one place to
another with their whole property and families.” They are also mentioned
in Neibuhr’s travels. Mr. Wolff, a converted Jew, gives the following
account in a late journal. He inquired of the rabbins at Jerusalem,
relative to these wandering Jews, and received the following
information: “Rabbi Mose Secot is quite certain that the Beni Khaibir
are descendants of the Rechabites; at this present moment they drink no
wine, and have neither vineyard, nor field, nor seed; but dwell, like
Arabs, in tents, and are wandering nomades. They receive and observe the
law of Moses by tradition, for they are not in possession of the written
law.” Mr. Wolff afterward himself visited this people, who have
remained, amidst all the changes of nations, a most remarkable monument
of the exact fulfilment of a minute, and apparently at first sight an
unimportant, prophecy. So true is it, that not one jot or tittle of the
word of God shall pass away! See RECHABITES.
BENJAMIN, the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel, who was born, A. M.
2272. Jacob, being on his journey from Mesopotamia, as he was proceeding
southward with Rachel in the company, Gen. xxxv, 16, 17, &c, the pains
of child-bearing came upon her, about a quarter of a league from
Bethlehem, and she died after the delivery of a son, whom, with her last
breath, she named Benoni, that is, “the son of my sorrow;” but soon
afterward Jacob changed his name, and called him Benjamin, that is, “the
son of my right hand.” See JOSEPH.
BEREA, a city of Macedonia, where St. Paul preached the Gospel with
great success, and where his hearers were careful to compare what they
heard with the scriptures of the Old Testament, Acts, xvii, 10; for
which they are commended, and held out to us as an example of subjecting
every doctrine to the sole test of the word of God.
BERNICE, the daughter of Agrippa, surnamed the Great, king of the Jews,
and sister to young Agrippa, also king of the Jews. This lady was first
betrothed to Mark, the son of Alexander Lysimachus, albarach of
Alexandria; afterward she married Herod, king of Chalcis, her own uncle
by the father’s side. After the death of Herod, which happened A. D. 48,
she was married to Polemon, king of Pontus, but did not long continue
with him. She returned to her brother Agrippa, and with him heard the
discourse which Paul delivered before Festus, Acts xxv.