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BEELZEBUB

abuses crept into the management of Bedlam, and in every century there were several commissions of investigation. Evelyn in his Diary, 21 April, 1656, notes that he saw several poor creatures in Bedlam in chains. In the next century it became the custom for the idle classes to \'isit Bedlam and observe the antics of the insane patients as a novel form of amusement. This was done even by the nobility and their friends. One penny was charged for ad- mission into the hospital, and there is a tradition that an annual income of four hundred pounds was thus realized. This would mean tliat nearly 100,000 persons visited the hospital in the course of a year. Hogarth's famous picture represents two fashionable ladies visiting the hospital as a show place, while his " Rake ", at the end of the "Progress", is being fet- tered by a keeper. After an investigation in 1S51, the liospital came under regular government inspection and has since been noted for its model care of the insane. It accommodates about three hundred, with over sixty attendants. Its convalescent home at Witley is an important feature. The management is so good that eacli 3ear more than one-half of the patients are returned as cured.

TuKE. Bethlehem Royal Hnspital in Biitish Journal of Men- ial Science. 1S7G; Burdette, British Hospitals and Charities Annual, li.03.

James J. Walsh.

Beelen, I.vn Theodor, exegete and Orientalist, b. at Amsterdam, 12 January, 1807; d. at Louvain, 31 March, 18S4. After a brilliant course of studies at Rome, cro^\Tied by the Doctorate of Theology, he was in 1836 appointed Professor of Sacred Scripture and Oriental languages in the recently reorganized Catholic University of Louvain. This position he held till 1876, when he resigned his place to his pupil. Prof. T. J. Lamy. He was the author of the following Biblical works, among which his commentarj' on the Epistle to the Romans is especially esteemed: " Dis- sertatio theologica qua sententiam . . . esse S. Scripturae muitiplieem interdiun sensum litteralem, nuUo fundamento satis firmo niti demonstrare con- atur" (Louvain, 1845); "Interpretatio ep. S. Pauli ad Philip." (ib., 1849; 2nd ed., ib., 1852. entitled: Commentarius in ep. S. Pauli ad Philip.); "Commen- tarius in Acta Apost.", mth Greek and Latin text (2 vols., ib., 1850-55; 2nd ed., without Greek and Latin texts, ib., 1864); "Commentarius in ep. S. Pauli ad Rom." (ib., 1854); "Grammatica graecitatis N. T." (ib., 1857); and in Dutch, "Rules for a new Translation of the N. T." (Louvain, 1858); a transla- tion of the N. T. made in accordance with these rules (3 vols., ib., 1859-69); "The Epistles and Gospels of the Ecclesiastical Year", with annotations (ib., 1870); translation of the Psalms, with annotations (2 vols., ib., 1877-78); translation of Proverbs and of Ecclesi- asticus (ib., 1879). He also published two works in the field of Oriental scholarship: " direst omathia rabbinica et chaldaica (3 vols., Louvain, 1841-43); and "Clementis Rom. epistolse binae de Virginitate, sj-riace" (ib., 1856), in which he defends the genuine- ness of these two letters. Beelen also deserves the credit of reviving Oriental studies in Belgium, and of introducing into that country Oriental printing by means of a complete font of Hebrew, SjTiac, Arabic, and Ethiopic type, which he purchased. In recognition of his merits as a scholar he was made domestic prelate of the pope, consultor of the Congre- gation of the Index, honorary canon of Liege, and Knight of the Order of Leopold.

HcRTER, Nomenclator. III. 1290; Rev in Vic, Diet, de la BlSle; The Tablet (.I-ondon, 1884), LXIII, 541.

F. Bechtel.

Beelphegor (nijja ^V3- ^^^Mn'^p), or Baalpeor, was the haal of Mt. Phogor, or Peor, a mountain of Moab. The exact idea of haal seems to be " the pos- sessor", the one who holds the real domination

(Lagrange, Rehgions S^mitiques, 83, 84); so Beel- phegor was the Moabite divinity who ruled over Phogor. Some identify him with Chamos (Chcmosh), the national god of Moab, but this is not at all certain, as many localities had their local deities, apparently distinct to the popular mind. To the haal was gener- ally ascribed the fertility of the soil and the increase of flocks; he was worshipped by offerings of the products he gave and often by unchaste practices done in his honour at his sanctuary. One of the great works of the prophets was to stamp out this immoral cult on the soil of Palestine.

Israel came in contact with Beelphegor at Settim, on the plains of Moab, their last station before enter- ing the land of Canaan. Here many men of Israel, as a sequel to their immoral intercourse with the women of Moab, took part in the sacrificial banquets in honour of Beelphegor, for which crimes they were punished by death (Num., xxv). It is commonly held, in view of the occurrences at Settim and of the general nature of baal-worship, that immoral rites were part of the worship of this god; while the text does not make this certain, the large number of per- sons involved and the fact that "the affair of Phogor" is ascribed to the instigation of the seer Balaam, seem to indicate that it had relation to the cult of Beelphegor (xxxi, 16). Marucchi believes the sur- vival of the cult till the middle of the second century is attested by an inscription dedicated by some soldiers from Arabia (?) to Jupiter Beellepharus, whom he identifies with Beelphegor. The proof is slight, nothing more than the resemblance in name. The terrible chastisement inflicted on Israel for the sin at Settim is mentioned several times in the Bible, and St. Paul (I Cor., x, 8) uses it to point a moral.

C.R.4Y, Comm. on Numbers (New York, 1903); Marucchi in Vie... Diet, de la Bible (Paris, 1894); Lagrange, Religions Semitiques (Paris, 1905), S3 sqq.: Smith, Religion of the Semites (London, 1894); Article Baal in Encyc. Bibliea and in Hast- ings, Diet, of the Bible.

John F. Fenlon. Beelzebub (ZMt bv^)t c Baalzeb-ub, (1) the Philistine god of Accaron (Ekron), scarcely 25 miles west of Jerusalem, whose oracle King Ochozias (Aha- ziah) attempted to consult in his last illness, IV (11) Kings, i, 2. It is only as an oracle that the god is known to us; no other mention of him occurs in the Old Testament. The name is commonly translated "the lord of the flies", and the god is supposed to be so called either because as a sun god he brings the flies, though the Ba'al was probably not a sun god, or more likely because he is invoked to drive away the flies from the sacrifice, like the Zeus Apo- muios, who drove them from Olympia, or the hero Mv-iagros in Arcadia. Hal^vy and Winckler inter- pret the name, according to the analogy of very many names eompoundeil with haal, as "the lord of Zebub", supposed to be a locality in Accaron; there is no proof, however, for the existence of such a locality, and besides Beelzebub is called the god of .Accaron. Cheyne thinks the original form of the name is Ba'al Zebul, "the lord of the mansion", or high house, which would refer to the god's temple or to the moimfain on which the gods dwelt, or rather, in his opinion, to both. But the textual evidence, as Lagrange objects, is entirely in favour of Zebnb. Chejme, admitting this, holds that the title "lord of the "high house", which would suggest to the writer of Kings a reference to Jehovah's temple or to His heavenly dwelling place, would be considered offen- sive, and would induce him, in contempt, to change it to Ba'al Zebub. the lord of fhes. The tradition of the true name, lingering on, accounts for its pres- ence in the Gospels (Zeboul). This conjecture, which has a certain plausibility, leaves unexplained why the contempt should lead to the particular form, Baal Zebub, a name without parallel in Semitic? rehgions. It seems more reasonable, then, to regard