Β
Βαάλ [so accented also by Pape (Eigenn. s. v.), Kuenen and Cobet (Ro. as below); but L T (yet the name of the month, 1 K. vi. 5 (38), Βαάλ) Tr WH etc. Βάαλ; so Etym. Magn. 194, 19; Suid. 1746 a. etc. Dind. in Steph. Thesaur. s. v. Βάαλ or Βαάλ], ὁ, ἡ, an indecl. noun (Hebr. בַּעַל, Chald. בֵּל contr. fr. בְּעֵל), lord: Ro. xi. 4. This was the name of the supreme heavenly divinity worshipped by the Shemitic nations (the Phœnicians, Canaanites, Babylonians, Assyrians), often also by the Israelites themselves, and represented by the Sun: τῇ Βαάλ, Ro. xi. 4. Cf. Win. RWB. [and BB.DD.] s. v. and J. G. Müller in Herzog i. p. 637 sqq.; Merx in Schenkel 1. 322 sqq.; Schlottmann in Riehm p. 126 sq. Since in this form the supreme power of nature generating all things, and consequently a male deity, was worshipped, with which the female deity Astarte was associated, it is hard to explain why the Sept. in some places say ὁ Βαάλ (Num. xxii. 41; Judg. ii. 13; 1 K. xvi. 31; xix. 18, etc.), in others ἡ Βαάλ (Hos. ii. 8; 1 S. vii. 4, etc. [yet see Dillmann, as below, p. 617]). Among the various conjectures on this subject the easiest is this: that the Sept. called the deity ἡ Βαάλ in derision, as weak and impotent, just as the Arabs call idols goddesses and the Rabbins אֱלֹהוֺת; so Gesenius in Rosenmüller’s Repert. i. p. 139 and Tholuck on Ro. l. c.; [yet cf. Dillman, as below, p. 602; for other opinions and reff. see Meyer ad loc.; cf. W. §. 27, 6 Ν. 1. But Prof. Dillmann shows (in the Monatsbericht d. Akad. zu Berlin, 16 Juni 1881, p. 601 sqq.), that the Jews (just as they abstained from pronouncing the word Jehovah) avoided uttering the abhorred name of Baal (Ex. xxiii. 13). As a substitute in Aramaic they read טעות, דחלה or פתכרא, and in Greek αἰσχύνη (cf. 1 K. xviii. 19, 25). This substitute in Grk. was suggested by the use of the fem. article. Hence we find in the Sept. ἡ Β. everywhere in the prophetic bks. Jer., Zeph., Hos., etc., while in the Pentateuch it does not prevail, nor even in Judges, Sam., Kings, (exc. 1 S. vii. 4; 2 K. xxi. 3). It disappears, too, (when the worship of Baal had died out) in later versions of Aq., Sym., etc. The apostle’s use in Ro. l. c. accords with the sacred custom; cf. the substitution of the Hebr. בּשֶׁת in Ish-bosheth, Mephi-bosheth, etc. 2 S. ii. 8, 10; iv. 4 with 1 Chr. viii. 33, 34, also 2 S. xi. 21 with Judg. vi. 32; etc.]*
Βαβυλών, -vos, ἡ, (Iebr. בָּבֶל fr. בָלַל to confound, acc.
to Gen. xi. 9; cf. Aeschyl. Pers. 52 Βαβυλὼν δ᾽ ἡ πολύ????xpvoos πάμμικτον ὄχλον πέμπει σύρδην. But more correctly, as it seems, fr. בָּאב בֵּל the gate i. 6. the court or
city of Belus [Assyr. Bab-II the Gate of God; (perh. of
Tl, the supreme God); cf. Schrader, Keilinschr. u. d.
Alt. Test. 2te Aufl. p. 157 sq.; Oppert in the Zeitsch. ἃ.
Deutsch. Morg. Gesellschaft, viii. p. £95]), Babylon,
formerly a very celebrated and large city, the residence
of the Babylonian kings, situated on both banks of the
Euphrates. Cyrus had formerly captured it, but Darius
Ilystaspis threw down its gates and walls, and Xerxes
destroyed [?] the temple of Belus. At length the city
was reduced almost to a solitude, the population having been drawn off by the neighboring Seleucia, built
on the Tigris by Seleucus Nicanor. [Cf. Prof. Rawlinson in B. D.s.v. and his Herodotus, vol. i. Essays vi.
and viii., vol. ii. Essay iv.] The name is used in the
1. of the city itself: Acts vii. 43; 1 Pet.
v. 13 (where some have understood Babylon, a small
town in Egypt, to be referred to; but in opposition cf.
Mayerhoff, Vinl. in die petrin. Schriften, p. 126 sqq.;
[cf. 3 fin. below]). ὠ 2. of the territory, Babylonia:
Mt. i. 11 sq. 17} [often so in Grk. writ. 8. alle-
gorically, of Rome as the most corrupt seat of idolatry
and the enemy of Christianity: Rev. xiv. 8 [here Rec.**
Βαβουλών]; xvi. 19; xvii. 5; xviii. 2, 10, 21, (in the
opinion of some 1 Pet. v. 13 εἶκον [cf. 1 fin. above]).*
βαθέως, adv., deeply: ὄρθρου βαθέως sc. ὄντος (cf. Bnhdy.
p. 338), deep in the morning, at early dawn, Lk. xxiv. 1
L T Tr WH; 80 Meyer ad loc. But βαθέως here is more
correctly taken as the Attic form of the gen. fr. βαθύς,
q. v.; cf. B. 26 (23); [Lob. Phryn. p. 3477.*
βαθμός, -οὔ, 6, (fr. obsol. βάω i. q. βαίνω, like σταθμός
[fr. ἔστην μι), threshold, step; of a grade of dignity and
wholesome influence in the church, [R. V. standing], 1
Tim. iii. 13 [cf. Ellic. ad k (Used by [Sept. 1S. v.
5; 2K. xx. 9; also Sir. vi. 36]; Strabo, [Plut.], Leian.,
Appian, Artemid., [al.]; οἵ. Lob. ad Phryn. p. 324.)*
βάθος, -εος (-ovs), τό, (connected with the obsol. verb
βάζω, βάω [but cf. Curtins § 635; Wanitek p. 195]; cf.
βαθύς, βάσσων, and ὁ βυθός, ὁ βυσσός; Germ. Boden),
depth, height, —[acc. as measured down or up]; 1.
. δ: Mk. iv. 5; Ro. 89 (opp. to ὕψωμα); is 18 (opp. to ὕψος); of ‘the dee; ep" sea (the ‘high |seas’), Lk. v. 4. 2. metaph.: ἡ κατὰ βάθους πτωχεία
αὐτῶν, deep, extreme, poverty, 2 Co. viii. 2; τὰ βάθη τοῦ
θεοῦ the deep things of God, things hidden and above
iny, esp. the divine counsels, 1 Co. ii. 10 (
24 Rec.; καρδίας ἀνθρώπου. Judith v
14; [τὰ B. τῆς θείας γνώσεως, Clem. Rom. 1 Cor. 40, 1 (cf.
Lghtft. ad loc.)]); inexhaustible abundance, immense
amount, πλούτου, Ro. xi. 33 (so alxo Soph. Aj. 130; βαθὺς
mAouros, Ael. v. h. 3, 18; κακῶν, [Aeschyl. Pers. 465,
712]; Eur. Hel. 303; Sept. Prov. xviii. 3).*
Βαθύνω: [impf. ἐβάθυνον; (βαθύς); to make deep: Lk.
