was talking, Jesus said: “All these things will come upon this generation.” (Matt. 23:36) Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled in a major scale on Jerusalem and Judea in 70-73 C.E.

If, indeed, the name Barachiah was inserted by a “corrector” at Matthew 23:35, based on the traction that Isaiah and Jeremiah were martyred later, as some believe is the case, this would betray an unfamiliarity of such a “corrector” with the order of the Hebrew canon, and it does not seem to be the likely solution.

Another suggestion, based on the old age of Jehoiada, is that Jehoiada may have been the grandfather, not the father, of Zechariah and that the name of the father (Barachiah) was preserved in the genealogies of the priests. But this is not generally given wide acceptance.

BARAK

(Baʹrak) [lightning-flash].

Son of Abinoam of Kedesh in the territory of Naphtali. During an early period in the time of the judges the Israelites fell away from true worship and so for twenty years God permitted them to be oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan. They cried out to Jehovah for relief and it was then that Barak became their God-appointed leader. (Judg. 4:1-3) Whereas the Israelites’ Canaanite oppressors were heavily armed, “a shield could not be seen, nor a lance, among forty thousand in Israel.” (Judg. 5:8) However, in Barak’s day, Jehovah gave Israel victory over their foes, a triumph that was not forgotten. (Ps. 83:9) The two accounts of these matters in Judges (chapter four, and in the exultant song of Deborah and Barak in chapter five) complement each other and paint a vivid picture of what occurred at that time.

The prophetess Deborah, who was then judging Israel, spurs Barak to take the initiative in freeing his people. Barak consents, but on the condition that Deborah accompany him. She agrees, though telling Barak that Jehovah will sell Sisera, chief of Jabin’s forces, into the hand of a woman.—Judg. 4:4-9.

Barak recruits ten thousand men from Naphtali, Zebulun and other tribes of Israel (Judg. 5:9-18) and ascends Mount Tabor. Hearing of this, Sisera and his forces, equipped with nine hundred chariots having iron scythes, advance toward the Israelites along the dry riverbed in the torrent valley of Kishon (the area generally known as the Plain of Esdraelon, also being near Megiddo). With Barak in the lead, the Israelite army, being only lightly equipped, courageously descends from Mount Tabor, ready for the fray with the fully armored Canaanites. However, the Kishon became an overwhelming torrent, immobilizing the enemy chariots. Indeed, “from heaven did the stars fight, from their orbits they fought against Sisera. The torrent of Kishon washed them away.” Barak and his men press their advantage, and the account states: “All the camp of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not as much as one remained.”—Judg. 5:20-22; 4:10-16.

Sisera himself, having abandoned his chariot and his beleaguered army, flees and finds refuge in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite who is at peace with Jabin. Jael extends hospitality to Sisera, but while he sleeps, she kills him by driving a tent pin through his temples and into the earth. When Barak comes along, Jael invites him into the tent, where he sees that Jehovah’s word has come true; Sisera has actually been sold into the hand of a woman. (Judg. 4:17-22; 5:24-27) Thereafter, the hand of the victorious Israelites “went on getting harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin.” Consequently, that area of Israel “had no further disturbance for forty years.”—Judg. 4:23, 24; 5:31.

Barak may be the “Bedan” of 1 Samuel 12:11 (if LXX and the Syriac Peshitta Version are followed). Barak is also cited as a faithful example among those “who through faith defeated kingdoms in conflict, . . . became valiant in war, routed the armies of foreigners.”—Heb. 11:32-34; see BEDAN No. 1.

BARBARIAN

(Bar·barʹi·an) (Gr., barʹba·ros).

The repetition of “bar bar” conveyed the idea of stammering, babble, or unintelligible speech; hence the term “barbarian” was originally applied by the Greeks to a foreigner, particularly one speaking a different tongue. At that time it did not indicate lack of civilization, refinement or good manners, nor convey any feeling of hostile contempt. “Barbarian” simply distinguished especially non-Greeks from Greeks, much the same as “Gentile” divides off non-Jews from Jews. These non-Greeks did not object or feel insulted because they were called barbarians. Some Jewish writers, including Josephus, recognized themselves as being designated by the term; Romans called themselves barbarians until they adopted Greek culture. It is in this not unfavorable light, then, that Paul in writing to the Romans used an all-inclusive expression: “Both to Greeks and to Barbarians.”—Rom. 1:14.

The principal factor separating Greeks from the “barbarian” world was their language; hence the term had special reference to those who did not speak Greek, as, for example, the inhabitants of Malta who spoke an unrelated tongue. In this instance the New World Translation gives meaning to barʹba·roi by rendering it “foreign-speaking people.” (Acts 28:1, 2, 4) Writing on the gift of tongues, Paul twice calls one speaking in an unintelligible tongue barʹba·ros (“foreigner”). (1 Cor. 14:11; see also Colossians 3:11.) Similarly the Septuagint uses barʹba·ros at Psalm 113:1 (114:1 in Hebrew and English versions) and Ezekiel 21:31.

Because the Greeks felt their language and culture superior to all others, and because of indignities suffered at the hand of their enemies, “barbarian” gradually assumed its common disparaging connotation.

BAR-HUMITE

(Bar-huʹmite).

A variant reading of Baharumite; a resident of the village of Bahurim.—Compare 2 Samuel 23:31 and 1 Chronicles 11:33; see BAHURIM; BAHARUMITE.

BARIAH

(Ba·riʹah) [fugitive].

Distant descendant of David through Solomon and Zerubbabel.—1 Chron. 3:1, 10, 19, 22.

BAR-JESUS

(Bar-Jeʹsus) [son of Jesus].

A certain Jew of Paphos on the island of Cyprus in the first century C.E., who was “a sorcerer, a false prophet.” (Acts 13:6) He assumed the professional name or title “Elymas,” a Greek form of an Arabic word meaning “magi; sorcerer.”—See ELYMAS.

This was an appropriate name for Bar-Jesus to take since it appears he held the influential position as court magician and adviser to Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul at Paphos. As a “priest” of the divination cult, Bar-Jesus was naturally against Christianity, and, wanting to protect his own lucrative position, he was adamant in his opposition to the preaching of Paul and Barnabas. So, when Sergius Paulus “earnestly sought to hear the word of God,” Elymas “began opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.”—Acts 13:7, 8.

Thereupon, Paul looked this Satanic sorcerer in the eye and, “filled with holy spirit,” responded: “O man full of every sort of fraud and every sort of villainy, you son of the Devil, you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah? Well, then, look! Jehovah’s hand is upon you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sunlight for a period of time.” Instantly Bar-Jesus was struck with blindness. The proconsul, upon witnessing this first recorded miracle of Paul, “was astounded at the teaching of Jehovah,” and he immediately accepted the message and “became a believer.”—Acts 13:9-12.