no longer: it was enlarged and beautified nearly at the same time as
Cæsarea, and called Julias. Thus was it called in the days of our Lord,
and so would the sacred historians have been accustomed to call it. But
if they knew nothing of this, what shall we say of their age? In other
respects they evince the most accurate knowledge of the circumstances of
the time. The solution is, that, though Philip had exalted it to the
rank of a city, to which he gave the name of Julias, yet, not long
afterward, this Julia, in whose honour the city received its name, was
banished from the country by her own father. The deeply wounded honour
of Augustus was even anxious that the world might forget that she was
his daughter. Tiberius, whose wife she had been, consigned the
unfortunate princess, after the death of Augustus, to the most abject
poverty, under which she sank without assistance. Thus adulation must
under two reigns have suppressed a name, from which otherwise the city
might have wished to derive benefit to itself; and for some time it was
called by its ancient name Bethsaida instead of Julias. At a later
period this name again came into circulation, and appears in the
catalogue of Jewish cities by Pliny. By such incidents, which are so
easily overlooked, and the knowledge of which is afterward lost, do
those who are really acquainted with an age disclose their authenticity.
“But it is strange,” some one will say, “that John reckons this
Bethsaida, or Julias, where he was born, in Galilee, John xii, 21.
Should he not know to what province his birthplace belonged?” Philip
only governed the eastern districts by the sea of Tiberias; but Galilee
was the portion of his brother Antipas. Bethsaida or Julias could
therefore not have been built by Philip, as the case is; or it did not
belong to Galilee, as John alleges. In fact, such an error were
sufficient to prove that this Gospel was not written by John. Julias,
however, was situated in Gaulonitis, which district was, for deep
political reasons, divided from Galilee; but the ordinary language of
the time asserted its own opinion, and still reckoned the Gaulonitish
province in Galilee. When, therefore, John does the same, he proves,
that the peculiarity of those days was not unknown to him; for he
expresses himself after the ordinary manner of the period. Thus Josephus
informs us of Judas the Gaulonite from Gamala, and also calls him in the
following chapters, the Galilean; and then in another work he applies
the same expression to him; from whence we may be convinced that the
custom of those days paid respect to a more ancient division of the
country, and bade defiance, in the present case, to the then existing
political geography. Is it possible that historians who, as it is
evident from such examples, discover throughout so nice a knowledge of
geographical arrangements and local and even temporary circumstances,
should have written at a time when the theatre of events was unknown to
them, when not only their native country was destroyed, but their nation
scattered, and the national existence of the Jews extinguished and
extirpated? On the contrary, all this is in proof that they wrote at the
very period which they profess, and it also proves the usual antiquity
assigned to the Gospels.
BETHSHAN, a city belonging to the half tribe of Manasseh, on the west of
Jordan, and not far from the river. It was a considerable city in the
time of Eusebius and St. Jerom, and was then, as it had been for several
ages before, called Scythopolis, or the city of the Scythians, from some
remarkable occurrence when the Scythians made an irruption into Syria.
It is said to be six hundred furlongs from Jerusalem, 2 Macc. xii, 29.
After the battle of Mount Gilboa, the Philistines took the body of Saul,
and hung it against the wall of Bethshan, 1 Sam. xxxi, 10. Bethshan is
now called Bysan, and is described by Burckhardt as situated on rising
ground on the west of the Ghor, or valley of Jordan.
BETHSHEMESH, a city of the tribe of Judah, belonging to the priests,
Joshua xxi, 16. The Philistines having sent back the ark of the Lord, it
was brought to Bethshemesh, 1 Sam. vi, 12, where some of the people out
of curiosity having looked into it, the Lord destroyed seventy of the
principal men belonging to the city, and fifty thousand of the common
people, verse 19. It is here to be observed that it was solemnly
enjoined, Num. iv, 20, that not only the common people but that even the
Levites themselves should not dare to look into the ark, upon pain of
death. “It is a fearful thing,” says Bishop Hall, “to use the holy
ordinances of God with an irreverent boldness; fear and trembling become
us in our access to the majesty of the Almighty.”
BETHUEL, the son of Nahor and Milcah. He was Abraham’s nephew, and
father to Laban and Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, Genesis xxii, 20, 23.
BETROTHMENT, a mutual promise or compact between two parties for a
future marriage. The word imports as much as giving one’s troth; that
is, true faith, or promise. Among the ancient Jews, the betrothing was
performed either by a writing, or by a piece of silver given to the
bride. After the marriage was contracted, the young people had the
liberty of seeing each other, which was not allowed them before. If,
after the betrothment, the bride should trespass against that fidelity
she owed to her bridegroom she was treated as an adulteress. See
MARRIAGE.
BEZER, or Bozra, or Bostra, a city beyond Jordan, given by Moses to
Reuben: this town was designed by Joshua to be a city of refuge; it was
given to the Levites of Gershom’s family, Deut. iv, 43. When Scripture
mentions Bezer, it adds, “in the wilderness,” because it lay in Arabia
Deserta, and the eastern part of Edom, encompassed with deserts.
Eusebius places Bozra twenty-four miles from Adraa, or Edrai. This city
is sometimes said to belong to Reuben, sometimes to Moab, and sometimes
again to Edom; because, as it was a frontier town to these three
provinces, it was occasionally in the hands of one party, and then was
taken by another. The bishops of Bostra subscribed the decrees of
several councils.
BIBLE, _the book_, by way of eminence so called, as containing the
sacred Scriptures, that is, the inspired writings of the Old and New
Testament; or the whole collection of those which are received among
Christians as of divine authority. The word Bible comes from the Greek
Βίϐλος, or Βιϐλίον, and is used to denote any book; but is emphatically
applied to the book of inspired Scripture, which is “the book” as being
superior in excellence to all other books. Βιβλίον again comes from
Βίϐλος, the Egyptian reed, from which the ancient paper was procured.
The word Bible seems to be used in the particular sense just given by
Chrysostom: “I therefore exhort all of you to procure to yourselves
Bibles, Βιϐλια. If you have nothing else, take care to have the New
Testament, particularly the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospels, for
your constant instructers.” And Jerome says, “that the Scriptures being
all written by one Spirit, are _one book_.” Augustine also informs us,
“that some called all the canonical Scriptures _one book_, on account of
their wonderful harmony and unity of design throughout.” It is not
improbable that this mode of speaking gradually introduced the general
use of the word Bible for the whole collection of the Scriptures, or the
books of the Old and New Testament. By the Jews the Bible, that is, the
Old Testament, is called _Mikra_, that is, “lecture, or reading.” By
Christians the Bible, comprehending the Old and New Testament, is
usually denominated “Scripture;” sometimes also the “Sacred Canon,”
which signifies the rule of faith and practice. These, and similar
appellations, are derived from the divine original and authority of the
Bible. As it contains an authentic and connected history of the divine
dispensations with regard to mankind; as it was given by divine
inspiration; as its chief subject is religion; and as the doctrines it
teaches, and the duties it inculcates, pertain to the conduct of men, as
rational, moral, and accountable beings, and conduce by a divine
constitution and promise, to their present and future happiness; the
Bible deserves to be held in the highest estimation, and amply justifies
the sentiments of veneration with which it has been regarded, and the
peculiar and honourable appellations by which it has been denominated.
2. The list of the books contained in the Bible constitutes what is
called the canon of Scripture. Those books that are contained in the
catalogue to which the name of canon has been appropriated, are called
canonical, by way of contradistinction from others called
deutero-canonical, apocryphal, pseudo-apocryphal, &c, which either are
not acknowledged as divine books, or are rejected as heretical and
spurious. (See _Apocrypha_.) The first canon or catalogue of the sacred
books was made by the Jews; but the original author of it is not
satisfactorily ascertained. It is certain, however, that the five books
of Moses, called the Pentateuch, were collected into one body within a
short time after his death; since Deuteronomy, which is, as it were, the
abridgment and recapitulation of the other four, was laid in the
tabernacle near the ark, according to the order which he gave to the
Levites, Deut. xxxi, 24. Hence the first canon of the sacred writings
consisted of the five books of Moses: for a farther account of which see
_Pentateuch_. It does not appear that any other books were added to
these, till the division of the ten tribes, as the Samaritans
acknowledged no others. However, after the time of Moses, several
prophets, and other writers divinely inspired, composed either the
history of their own times, or prophetical books and divine writings, or
psalms appropriated to the praise of God. But these books do not seem to
have been collected into one body, or comprised under one and the same
canon, before the Babylonish captivity. This was not done till after
their return from the captivity, about which time the Jews had a certain
number of books digested into a canon, which comprehended none of those
books that were written since the time of Nehemiah. The book of
Ecclesiasticus affords sufficient evidence that the canon of the sacred
books was completed when that tract was composed; for that author, in
chapter xlix, having mentioned among the famous men and sacred writers,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, adds the twelve minor prophets who follow
those three in the Jewish canon; and from this circumstance we may infer
that the prophecies of these twelve were already collected and digested
into one body. It is farther evident, that in the time of our Saviour
the canon of the Holy Scriptures was drawn up, since he cites the law of
Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, which are the three kinds of books
of which that canon is composed, and which he often styles, “the
Scriptures,” or, “the Holy Scripture,” Matt. xxi, 42; xxii, 29; xxvi,
54; John v, 39; and by him therefore the Jewish canon, as it existed in
his day, was fully authenticated, by whomsoever or at what time it had
been formed.
3. The person who compiled this canon is generally allowed to be Ezra.
According to the invariable tradition of Jews and Christians, the honour
is ascribed to him of having collected together and perfected a complete
edition of the Holy Scriptures. The original of the Pentateuch had been
carefully preserved in the side of the ark, and had been probably
introduced with the ark into the temple at Jerusalem. After having been
concealed in the dangerous days of the idolatrous kings of Judah, and
particularly in the impious reigns of Manasseh and Amon, it was found in
the days of Josiah, the succeeding prince, by Hilkiah the priest, in the
temple. Prideaux thinks, that during the preceding reigns the book of
the law was so destroyed and lost, that, beside this copy of it, there
was then no other to be obtained. To this purpose he adds, that the
surprise manifested by Hilkiah, on the discovery of it, and the grief
expressed by Josiah when he heard it read, plainly show that neither of
them had seen it before. On the other hand, Dr. Kennicott, with better
reason, supposes, that long before this time there were several copies
of the law in Israel, during the separation of the ten tribes, and that
there were some copies of it also among the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin, particularly in the hands of the prophets, priests, and
Levites; and that by the instruction and authority of these MSS, the
various services in the temple were regulated, during the reigns of the
good kings of Judah. He adds, that the surprise expressed by Josiah and
the people, at his reading the copy found by Hilkiah, may be accounted
for by adverting to the history of the preceding reigns, and by
recollecting how idolatrous a king Manasseh had been for fifty-five
years, and that he wanted neither power nor inclination to destroy the
copies of the law, if they had not been secreted by the servants of God.
The law, after being so long concealed, would be unknown almost to all
the Jews; and thus the solemn reading of it by Josiah would awaken his
own and the people’s earnest attention; more especially, as the copy
produced was probably the original written by Moses. From this time
copies of the law were extensively multiplied among the people; and
though, within a few years, the autograph, or original copy of the law,
was burnt with the city and temple by the Babylonians, yet many copies
of the law and the prophets, and of all the other sacred writings, were
circulated in the hands of private persons, who carried them with them
into their captivity. It is certain that Daniel had a copy of the Holy
Scriptures with him at Babylon; for he quotes the law, and mentions the
prophecies of Jeremiah, Dan. ix, 2, 11, 13. It appears also, from the
sixth chap. of Ezra, and from the ninth chap. of Nehemiah, that copies
of the law were dispersed among the people. The whole which Ezra did may
be comprised in the following particulars: He collected as many copies
of the sacred writings as he could find, and compared them together,
and, out of them all, formed one complete copy, adjusted the various
readings, and corrected the errors of transcribers. He likewise made
additions in several parts of the different books, which appeared to be
necessary for the illustration, correction, and completion of them. To
this class of additions we may refer the last chapter of Deuteronomy,
which, as it gives an account of the death and burial of Moses, and of
the succession of Joshua after him, could not have been written by Moses
himself. Under the same head have also been included some other
interpolations in the Bible, which create difficulties that can only be
solved by allowing them; as in Gen. xii, 6; xxii, 14; xxxvi, 3; Exodus
xvi, 35; Deut. ii, 12; iii, 11, 14; Prov. xxv, 1. The interpolations in
these passages are ascribed by Prideaux to Ezra; and others which were
afterward added, he attributes to Simon the Just. Ezra also changed the
old names of several places that were become obsolete, putting instead
of them the new names by which they were at that time called; instances
of which occur in Genesis xiv, 4, where Dan is substituted for Laish,
and in several places in Genesis, and also in Numbers, where Hebron is
put for Kirjath Arba, &c. He likewise wrote out the whole in the Chaldee
character, changing for it the old Hebrew character, which has since
that time been retained only by the Samaritans, and among whom it is
preserved even to this day. The canon of the whole Hebrew Bible seems,
says Kennicott, to have been closed by Malachi, the latest of the Jewish
prophets, about fifty years after Ezra had collected together all the
sacred books which had been composed before and during his time.
Prideaux supposes the canon was completed by Simon the Just, about one
hundred and fifty years after Malachi: but, as his opinion is founded
merely on a few proper names at the end of the two genealogies, 1 Chron.
iii, 19; Nehem. xii, 22, which few names might very easily be added by a
transcriber afterward, it is more probable, as Kennicott thinks, that
the canon was finished by the last of the prophets, about four hundred
years before Christ.
4. It is an inquiry of considerable importance, in its relation to the
subject of this article, what books were contained in the canon of the
Jews. The Old Testament, according to our Bibles, comprises thirty-nine
books, viz. the Pentateuch or five books of Moses, called Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the books of Joshua,
Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra,
Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of
Solomon, the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah with his Lamentations,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. But, among the
ancient Jews, they formed only twenty-two books, according to the
letters of their alphabet, which were twenty-two in number; reckoning
Judges and Ruth, Ezra and Nehemiah, Jeremiah and his Lamentations, and
the twelve minor prophets, (so called from the comparative brevity of
their compositions,) respectively as one book. Josephus says, “We have
not thousands of books, discordant, and contradicting each other: but we
have only _twenty-two_, which comprehend the history of all former ages,
and are justly regarded as divine. _Five_ of them proceed from Moses;
they include as well the _laws_, as an account of the creation of man,
extending to the time of his (Moses) death. This period comprehends
nearly three thousand years. From the death of Moses to that of
Artaxerxes, who was king of Persia after Xerxes, the _prophets_, who
succeeded Moses, committed to writing, in thirteen books, what was done
in their days. The remaining four books contain _hymns_ to God, (the
Psalms,) and instructions of life for man.” The threefold division of
the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, mentioned
by Josephus, was expressly recognised before his time by Jesus Christ,
as well as by the subsequent writers of the New Testament. We have
therefore sufficient evidence that the Old Testament existed at that
time; and if it be only allowed that Jesus Christ was a teacher of a
fearless and irreproachable character, it must be acknowledged that we
draw a fair conclusion, when we assert that the Scriptures were not
corrupted in his time: for, when he accused the Pharisees of making the
law of no effect by their traditions, and, when he enjoined his hearers
to search the Scriptures, he could not have failed to mention the
corruptions or forgeries of Scripture, if any had existed in that age.
About fifty years before the time of Christ were written the Targums of
Onkelos on the Pentateuch, and of Jonathan Ben-Uzziel on the Prophets;
(according to the Jewish classification of the books of the Old
Testament;) which are evidence of the genuineness of those books at that
time. We have, however, unquestionable testimony of the genuineness of
the Old Testament, in the _fact_ that its canon was fixed some centuries
before the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus the son of Sirach, author of the
book of Ecclesiasticus, makes evident references to the prophecies of
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and mentions these prophets by name: he
speaks also of the twelve minor prophets. It likewise appears from the
prologue to that book, that the law and the prophets, and other ancient
books, were extant at the same period. The book of Ecclesiasticus,
according to the best chronologers, was written in the Syro-Chaldaic
dialect A. M. 3772, that is, two hundred and thirty-two years before the
Christian æra, and was translated by the grandson of Jesus into Greek,
for the use of the Alexandrian Jews. The prologue was added by the
translator; but this circumstance does not diminish the evidence for the
antiquity of the Old Testament: for he informs us, that the law and the
prophets, and the other books of their fathers, were studied by his
grandfather; a sufficient proof that they were extant in his time. Fifty
years, indeed, before the age of the author of Ecclesiasticus, or two
hundred and eighty-two years before the Christian æra, the Greek version
of the Old Testament, usually called the Septuagint, was executed at
Alexandria, the books of which are the same as in our Bibles; whence it
is evident that we still have those identical books, which the most
ancient Jews attested to be genuine. The Christian fathers too, Origen,
Athanasius, Hilary, Gregory, Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Jerom, speaking
of the books that are allowed by the Jews as sacred and canonical, agree
in saying that they are the same in number with the letters in the
Hebrew alphabet, that is, twenty-two, and reckon particularly those
books which we have already mentioned. Nothing can be more satisfactory
and conclusive than all the parts of the evidence for the authenticity
and integrity of the canon of the Old Testament scriptures. The Jews, to
whom they were first committed, never varied respecting them; while they
were fully recognised by our Lord and his Apostles; and, consequently,
their authenticity is established by express revelation. And that we now
possess them as thus delivered and authenticated, we have the concurrent
testimony of the whole succession of the most distinguished early
Christian writers, as well as of the Jews to this day, who, in every
age, and in all countries, the most remote from one another, have
constantly been in the habit of reading them in their synagogues.
5. The five books of the law are divided into fifty-four sections, which
division is attributed to Ezra, and was intended for the use of their
synagogues, and for the better instruction of the people in the law of
God. For, one of these sections was read every Sabbath in their
synagogues. They ended the last section with the last words of
Deuteronomy on the Sabbath of the feast of the tabernacles, and then
began anew with the first section from the beginning of Genesis the next
Sabbath after, and so went round in this circle every year. The number
of these sections was fifty-four, because in their intercalated years (a
month being then added) there were fifty-four Sabbaths. On other years
they reduced them to the number of the Sabbaths which were in those
years, by joining two short ones several times into one. For they held
themselves obliged to have the whole law thus read over in their
synagogues every year. Till the time of the persecution of Antiochus
Epiphanes, they read only the law; but being then prohibited from
reading it any more, they substituted in the room of the fifty-four
sections of the law, fifty-four sections out of the prophets, the
reading of which they ever after continued. Thus, when the reading of
the law was restored by the Maccabees, the section which was read every
Sabbath out of the law served for their first lesson, and the section
out of the prophets for their second lesson; and this practice was
continued to the times of the Apostles, Acts xiii, 15, 27. These
sections were divided into verses, called by the Jews _pesukim_, and
they are marked out in the Hebrew Bible by two great points at the end
of them, called from hence, _soph-pasuk_, that is, the end of the verse.
This division, if not made by Ezra, is very ancient; for when the
Chaldee came into use in the room of the Hebrew language, after the
return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, the law was read to
the people first in the Hebrew language, and then rendered by an
interpreter into the Chaldee language; and this was done period by
period. The division of the Holy Scriptures into chapters is of a much
later date. The Psalms, indeed, appear to have been always divided as
they are at present, Acts xiii, 33; but as to the rest of the Bible, the
present division into chapters was unknown to the ancients.