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.

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.

BEROTHITE

See BEEROTHITE.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

BETH-ANOTH

(Beth-aʹnoth) [house of (the goddess) Anath, or, perhaps, house of answers].

One of the cities assigned to the tribe of Judah in the mountainous region of that tribe’s territory. (Josh. 15:59) It is presently identified with Khirbet Beit ʽAinun, about three miles (5 kilometers) N-NE of Hebron.

BETHANY

(Bethʹan·y) [perhaps, house of Ananiah, or, house of afflicted ones].

1. A village “about two miles” away from Jerusalem, the measurement used by the Gospel writer at that time being the Roman stade, with the “fifteen stades” mentioned by him equaling about 1.8 miles (2.8 kilometers). (John 11:18, NW, 1950 ed., ftn.) It lay on the E slope of the Mount of Olives on an ancient approach to Jerusalem from Jericho and the Jordan. (Mark 10:46; 11:1; Luke 19:29) Today the site is marked by the small village of el-ʽAzariyeh, an Arabic name meaning “the place of Lazarus.” Though the village is poor, olive, fig and almond trees add a measure of pleasantness to the surroundings.

If Capernaum was Jesus’ home in Galilee (Mark 2:1), Bethany might be called his ‘home in Judea.’ It was the “certain village” that Jesus visited during his later Judean ministry (approximately October to December, 32 C.E.), the location of the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, who became beloved friends of Jesus. (Luke 10:38) Here Jesus later performed the miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection (John 11:1, 38-44), and a tomb with a round stone to close it, similar to that indicated in the Bible account, is to be found at Bethany. (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, p. 67) Six days before Jesus’ final Passover (or on Nisan 8, of 33 C.E.), he came up from Jericho to Bethany, the news of his presence bringing a crowd of Jews out to the village to see him and the resurrected Lazarus. (John 12:1, 9) From then till the final day of his earthly life, Jesus spent the days in activity at Jerusalem, but at night he and his disciples would leave the big city to lodge in the unpretentious village of Bethany on the Mount of Olives, doubtless at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.—Mark 11:11; Matt. 21:17; Luke 21:37.

Evidently Jesus’ triumphal ride into Jerusalem (Nisan 9) was over the Mount of Olives along the path from Bethany. (Matt. 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-38) It was on the way from Bethany to Jerusalem on Nisan 10 that Jesus cursed the barren fig tree, which had completely withered by the time he and his disciples passed it the following day (Nisan 11). (Mark 11:12-14, 19, 20) Back in Bethany, the night of Nisan 12, Jesus enjoyed an evening meal in the home of Simon the leper, with Martha, Mary and Lazarus participating. This was the scene of Mary’s anointing him with costly oil, provoking Judas’ hypocritical objections and the rebuke administered to him by Jesus. Apparently, from Bethany Judas headed out to arrange Jesus’ betrayal.—Matt. 26:6-16; Mark 14:1-10; John 12:2-8.

Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, when the time came for him to part from his disciples, he led them, not to the temple that was now abandoned by God, but, rather, “out as far as Bethany” on the Mount of Olives, where his ascension began.—Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-12.

It is generally believed that the Benjamite city of Ananiah (Neh. 11:32) was the ancient site corresponding to the village of Bethany in Jesus’ day.

2. Bethany across the Jordan is mentioned but once (John 1:28) as the place where John was baptizing and, apparently, the place where John identified Jesus to his disciples as the “Lamb of God.” (John 1:35, 36) In the third century Origen substituted the name Bethabara for Bethany and the Authorized Version follows this rendering; however, the most reliable manuscripts read Bethany. The site of this Bethany beyond or E of the Jordan is uncertain. Some, favoring the traditional location for Jesus’ baptism, would place it across the Jordan opposite Jericho. However, the record at John 1:29, 35, 43; 2:1 seems to indicate a place no more than a day’s journey from Cana of Galilee; while that of John 10:40 and 11:3, 6, 17 may suggest that it lay about two days’ journey from the Bethany that was the home of Lazarus. Thus, a site somewhat S of the Sea of Galilee seems the most likely, but no positive identification is possible.