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BeroeaAid to Bible Understanding
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Paul doubtless passed through or near Beroea on his third missionary journey, which brought him again into Macedonia. Among his companions at that time was a Christian from Beroea, Sopater.—Acts 20:1-4.
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BerothahAid to Bible Understanding
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BEROTHAH
(Be·roʹthah) [wells]; BEROTHAI (Beroʹthai) [my wells].
In Ezekiel’s vision concerning the territorial inheritance of Israel Berothah is listed as on the northern boundary in the area between Hamath and Damascus. (Ezek. 47:16) It appears to be the same as Berothai of 2 Samuel 8:8, a city belonging to Hadadezer king of Zobah, from which David carried away “copper in very great quantity.” In the parallel record at 1 Chronicles 18:8 the name Cun appears in its place. Berothah (or Berothai) is generally identified with modern Bereitan, about seven miles (11 kilometers) S of Baalbek in the valley known as the Beqa, lying between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains.—See CUN.
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BerothiteAid to Bible Understanding
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BEROTHITE
See BEEROTHITE.
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BerylAid to Bible Understanding
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BERYL
A translucent or opaque mineral composed of a silicate of aluminum and beryllium. It is harder than quartz and is usually yellow-green, but sometimes green, yellow, blue, white, pale red or colorless. Dark-green beryl is classed as emerald, the blue-green is aquamarine and the rose variety is called morganite. Beryl is found normally in granitic rocks in the form of six-sided crystals. Individual beryl crystals weighing over twenty-five tons have been discovered.
Beryl was a very popular gemstone in ancient times. The Greeks made fine intaglios from it and the Romans worked the natural crystals into ear pendants. Beryl is mentioned once in the Scriptures, it being the eighth foundation of the wall of New Jerusalem.—Rev. 21:2, 19, 20.
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BesaiAid to Bible Understanding
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BESAI
(Beʹsai) [perhaps, downtrodden].
Forefather of certain Nethinim who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, 537 B.C.E.—Ezra 2:1, 2, 43, 49; Neh. 7:6, 7, 46, 52.
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BesodeiahAid to Bible Understanding
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BESODEIAH
(Bes·o·deiʹah) [in the secret council of Jah].
Father of the Meshullam who helped repair “the Gate of the Old City” under Nehemiah’s direction.—Neh. 3:6.
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Besor, Torrent Valley ofAid to Bible Understanding
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BESOR, TORRENT VALLEY OF
(Beʹsor) [perhaps, cold water].
A torrent valley mentioned only in connection with David’s pursuit of the raiding Amalekites who had captured and burned the city of Ziklag. (1 Sam. 30:1, 10, 21) It is evident that the raiders then headed south toward their home territory in the Negeb, but their precise direction of movement is not stated. Hence, the torrent valley of Besor, the point at which two hundred of David’s army stopped due to exhaustion, cannot be identified with any certainty. Generally, however, it is considered likely to be connected with the Wadi Ghazzeh, a large wadi to the SW of Ziklag that empties into the Mediterranean below Gaza, or else with Wadi esh Sheriʽa, one of its tributaries.
David’s action, following his victory over the Amalekites, in sharing the spoils with those of his warriors who had remained in the valley guarding the baggage, evidently followed the principle stated earlier by Jehovah at Numbers 31:27, after the Israelite victory over Midian. David, thereafter, kept this practice “set as a regulation and a judicial decision for Israel.”—1 Sam. 30:21-25.
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BestialityAid to Bible Understanding
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BESTIALITY
Unnatural sexual intercourse of a man or a woman with an animal. The Mosaic law emphatically condemned this perverted practice, sentencing the guilty person and the beast to death. “Where a man gives his seminal emission to a beast, he should be put to death without fail, and they should kill the beast. And where a woman approaches any beast to have a connection with it, you must kill the woman and the beast.”—Lev. 20:15, 16; 18:23; Ex. 22:19; Deut. 27:21.
This prohibition, together with the rest of God’s laws governing sex relations, lifted the Israelites to a much higher moral level than their neighbors. In Egypt, bestiality constituted a part of idolatrous animal worship; historians attest to the cohabitation of women with goats, for example. Similar practices were also prevalent among the Canaanites (Lev. 18:23-30), and reportedly in Rome.
Despite its depravity, bestiality is not the same as adultery or fornication, and hence does not constitute Scriptural grounds for divorce. (Matt. 19:9) However, anyone indulging in such filthy practice is morally unclean, and, if a member of the Christian congregation were to indulge in such a practice, that one would be subject to disfellowshiping.—Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5.
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BeʹtaAid to Bible Understanding
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BEʹTA
[Β, β].
The second letter in the Greek alphabet. A labial consonant that corresponds closely to the English “b.”
Beʹta is derived from the Hebrew behth. When it has an accent (βʹ) it means two or second, with a subscript (ιβ), 2,000.—See ALPHABET.
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BetahAid to Bible Understanding
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BETAH
(Beʹtah) [trust, security].
A town mentioned along with Berothai in connection with David’s defeat of Hadadezer, king of Zobah. (2 Sam. 8:8) The site is unknown, although the Aramaean kingdom of Zobah is considered to have been to the N of Damascus. In a parallel account of David’s victory, 1 Chronicles 18:8 refers to “Tibhath,” and some lexicographers consider Tibhath to be the more correct rendering. The Syriac version reads “Tebah” instead of Betah at 2 Samuel 8:8. It is to be noted that simply by an inversion of the first two Hebrew consonants Betah becomes Tebah. Since Betah (or Tibhath) was an Aramaean city, some scholars relate it with Tebah, the son of Nahor.—Gen. 22:24; see TEBAH; TIBHATH.
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BetenAid to Bible Understanding
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BETEN
(Beʹten) [belly, or, perhaps, basin].
A city named only at Joshua 19:25; one of the boundary towns of Asher. Its location is not certain, since the sites of several of the other towns mentioned in the list are unknown. However, it is generally identified with Khirbet Abtun, about eleven miles (18 kilometers) S of Acco and eight miles (13 kilometers) SE of Haifa, in the southern end of the Plain of Acco.
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BethabaraAid to Bible Understanding
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BETHABARA
(Beth·abʹa·ra) [house of the ford].
This name appears in the Authorized Version rendering of John 1:28 in place of Bethany. Some ancient manuscripts read thus, but it appears that the responsibility for this name rests primarily with Origen (c. 250 C.E.), who favored it over Bethany because this latter place was unknown to him as a site E of the Jordan. The oldest and most reliable manuscripts support the use of the name Bethany in this text. As for the Bethabara of Origen’s day, though known in his time, its identification has since also become uncertain. Most geographers recommend a site E of the Jordan opposite Jericho, while some suggest a ford called ʽAbarah some twelve miles (19 kilometers) S of the Sea of Galilee and a short distance NE of Beth-shean.—See BETHANY No. 2.
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Beth-anathAid to Bible Understanding
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BETH-ANATH
(Beth-aʹnath) [house of (the goddess) Anath].
One of the fortified cities assigned to the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. 19:38, 39), but from which they did not drive out the Canaanite inhabitants, reducing them instead to forced labor. (Judg. 1:33) It is tentatively identified with el-Baʽneh, about twelve miles (19 kilometers) E of Acco on the edge of a fertile valley running between upper and lower Galilee. The town is mentioned in the lists of various Egyptian rulers of the “New Kingdom” period.
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