Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/304

 fc I B

B I B

ItsDclly is broad'and prominent j its head fmall, and its nofe fharp. If feeds principally on the fpawn of other fifties, and is a very delicate and fine tailed fifli. Rondelet, de Pifc. See the article Ai.bula.

The bezoia is the fame with that fpecies of coregonius diftin- guifhed by having the upper jaw loiigeft and flat, and fourteen rays on the back-fin. It does not cflentially differ from the lavaretw. See Lavaretus. BI A, a name given by the Siamcfc to a fort of little white (hells brought from the Maldivee iflands, and ufed throughout moll part of the Eaft Indies for fmall money. Savar. Diet. Comm.

T. i. p. 3 3'j fay.

Thefe are otherwife called coris,

BI^UM, @i*ua, in rhetoric, denotes a kind of counter-argu- ment, whereby fomething alledged for the adverfary is retorted agairrft him, and made to conclude a different way ; for in- Jiiti interfi£to, non o:cidi ; nam ft id ejfet, in fugam 7tie conjecif- fem. You killed the perfon, becaufe you were found Handing by his body. Biautn, Rather I did not kill him becaufe I Was found ftanding by his body ; fince, in the other cafe, I Ihould have fled away. Heder. Schul. Lex. p. 549.
 * 1) ance, occidifli, quia adjlitifii interfeElo. — j&aiof, Immo quia ad-

Bi«um, in the Grecian laws, was an action brought againft thofe who ravifhed women, or ufed violence to any man's per- fon. Potter, Archjeol. 1. 1 . c. 24. p. 126. Suid. in voc.

Bijeum alfo denotes a kind of faline or fea-wine, ufed by the antient Greeks in various diforders. It was made of grapes gathered a little before ripe, and dried in the fun ; then prefled, the juice put up in cafks, and mixed with a large proportion of fea-water ; though DiofcOrides feems to defcribe it as made of grapes fteeped in fea-water, and then prefled. Gorr. Def. Med. p 75. in voc.

BIAFORA, in the cuftoms of the middle age, a form of cry, or alarm to arms ; on the hearing whereof, the inhabitants of towns or villages were to ifliie forth, and attend their prince. The word feems originally from Gafcony ; and the Italians even now, on a fudden infurrection of the people, commonly cry, Via-fora, by an ufual change of the letter B into V. Vid. Aquin. Lex. Milit. T. i. p. 128.

BIARCHUS, f&ofXj&'i an officer in the court of the emperors of Conftantinople, intruded with the care and inflection of the provifions of the foldiery. Aquin. Lex, Milit. T. 1. p. 128. Brif.dc Verb. Signif. p. 79. Side. Thef. T. 1. p. 685. Du Cange, GlofT Gra;c T. 1. p. 202. It. in GlofT. Lat. T. x. p 606. Fab. Thef. p. 35c. Schoettg, Lex. Ant. p. 218. The wore! is formed from fa®*, annona, victuals, and apx** chief or head.

The kiarchm was the fame with what the Latins zd\p'tsfec- tus annona. His function was called hiarchia ; by the Latins, prcsfeSlura rei diaries. He belonged to the fcholia agentium in rebus. See Agf.ntes.

BIARUM, in botany, a name by which the people of Egypt at this time call the root of the ntlufar, or J 'aba Mgyptia, grow- ing on the Nile. See Nilufar.

BIAS, or Biass, the tendency or propenfity of a thing towards one fide more than the other ; particularly the deviation of a body, or a plain, from its rectilinear courfe, or its level. Da- vil. p. 422. in voc. biais. See Inclination, Cyd. The word is French, biais, which fignifies the fame. Me- nage deduces this further from the Italian biaco ; and that again from the Latin obUquus. Menage, Orig. Franc, p. 98.

Bias of a loivl is a piece of lead put into one fide, to load and make it incline towards that fide.

BIBIO, the Wine-fly, in the hiftory of infects, a very fmall fly, found frequently among empty wine casks. It is produced from a fmall, oblong, red worm, very common in the fedi- ments of wine It is fomething furprizing to find the worms of this fly in the fediments of wine while yet in the hogfhead, into which there feem,T no accefs for any living creature. The antients, from this obfervation, have fuppofed this littly fly, tho* it has no trunk or other vifihle inftrument for boring, yet capable of piercing through the fides of a cask, though an inch thick.

BIBITORIUS mufculus, in anatomy, a name given by Molinet to one of the qnatuor reSti mufculi oculi ; the adduclor of au- thors. See Adductor.

It feems to draw the eye inwards, or towards the nofe ; and takes the denomination bibitorius from the Latin libere, to drink, by rcafon of its action in viewing the liquor in the glafs while a man drinks. Heifl. Com p. Anat. §. 316. p. 258. Yef- ling. Synt. Anat. c. 1 5. p. 237. Drake, Anthrop.T. 2. p. 323.

BIBLE (Cycl)— The word bible comes from the Greek g»jW, or j3i£?.;ov, ufed to denote any book; but, by way of eminence, applied to the book of fcripture. Bii&io* again comes from !&/&©•, the Egyptian rccd, from which the antient paper was procured. Vi'd. Fef. Etym. p. 70. SeeBiBLUS. The bible is known by various other appellations, as the facred bosh, the infpired w kings, holy writ, facred text, kc. By the Jews it is called mikra, that is, lecture, or reading; by the Chriftians ufozUy fcripture, q. d. •writing-, fometimes alfo the book of God, the canon, ride of faith, &c. See other deno- minations in Carpzov'. Introd. ad Libr. Bibb c. 1. §. 1. p. 2. Suic. Thef. Ecclef. T. 1. p. 687. voc. A0W. The lift of the books contained in the bible is called the canon of fcripture. See Cano n, Cycl.

The books of the bible are faid to be canonical, by way of con- tradiftindtion from others called dcutcro-canonical, apocryphal pfcuds-apocrypbai, &c Vid. Wolf. Bibl* Heb. T. 2. feet. 3* fubf. 2. §. 12 p. 210. See Canonical, Jiff. The hooks of the Old Testament appear to have been written originally in Hebrewyin the character now called the Samaritan ■ from which it was tranflated by Efdras, after the Babylonifh captivity, into the Chaldee character, which was then better underftood by the Jews than their own. By degrees, the Jews adopting Chaldee words and phrafes, altered their lan- guage, and made a kind of jargon or mixture of both, which was the vulgar Hebrew in our Saviour's time. By this means the antient, or bible Hebrew, became in great meafure forgot ■ and though the fcripture continued frill to be read in the fyna- gogues in this language, they were forced to explain it in Chaldee ; which feems to have given occafion to the Chaldee paraphrafles ftill extant. Du Fin, Diflert. Prelim. $. ? P- 57-

The prefent Samaritan and Jewlfh copies of the I'tble differ in many refpects, chiefly in the chronology of the patriarchs, where the Samaritan comes nearer to the feptuagint. Other variations may be refolved into the errors of tranferibers, inter- polations for explication's fake, and, perhaps, the defiVned cor- ruption of the Samaritan, to give countenance to the fe£t. Prideaux, Conned. P. 1. I. 5. p. 60 x.

The original language of the Old Teftament was doubtlefs the old Hebrew, at leaft the greater part ; for all the books do not appear to have been written in the fame. Some chapters of Efdras and Daniel are judged to have been compofed inChal- daic ; and other chapters of this latter writer, as alfo the apo- cryphal books of Maccabees, ofWifdom, &c. in Greek; To- bit and Ecclefiaftes either in Greek or Syriac. Du Pin. Dif- fers Prelim. §. 3. p. 6r. Calmet, Diet. Bibl. T. 1. p. 293. For the New Teftament, it was written in Greek, except St. Matthew, which feems to have been compofed in the later Hebrew, that is, the Syriac. Some will have St. Mark to have been written in Latin ; and the epiftle to the Hebrews in Hebrew. Calmet, lib. cit. p. 294.

A warm difpute has been on foot for many a"-es, whether the original character, in which the bible was firft penned by Mo- fes and the infpired writers, were the Samaritan, or the mo- dern Hebrew ? Among the antients, Origen, St. Jerom, and the antient rabbins ; and among the moderns Jof. Scaliger, Si- mon, Du Pin, Montfaucon, and others, contend for the for- mer : the modern rabbins, followed by Buxtorf, and fome others, for the latter. Vid. Montfauc. Pala;ogr. Grsec. J. 2. c. 1. p. 119, feq.

For the authors of the bible, the names of mofr of them are prefixed to the books fuppofed to be written by them ; as the pentateuch by Mofes, Jofhua by the general of that name, &c. though many objections have been made to divers of them. Aben Ezra, followed by Hobbs, Pereyra, Spinofa, and fome others, deny the five firft books to have been written by Mo- fes \ F. Simon b in particular afierts, that the books, as we now have them, are not the originals written by the infpired pen-men, but abridgments of them made in after-times by a kind of college or order of public actuaries or fcribes appointed for that end.— [ a Du Pin. Difl* Prelim, fur les Auteurs des Livrcs de 3a Bibl. §. j. prefixed to his Nouv. Bibl. des Aut. Ecclef. T. 1. p. 21, ftq. b Simon, Hift. Crit. du Vieux Teftam. 1. r. c. r. p. 3. It. c. 2. p. 17. It. c. 7. p. 50. re- futed by Du Pin, lib. cit. §. 1 . p. 28, feq.] In the time of Jofiah, through the impiety of the two pre- ceding reigns of Manafleh and Ammon, the book of the law was fo totally loft, that, befides a copy of it found by Hilkiah in the temple, none other appears to have been known ; at leaft, the furprize which Hilkiah fhewed at the finding it, and the grief which Jofiah expreffed at the hearing it read, fhew, that neither of them had ever feen it before. 2 King. c. 22. ver. 22. 2 Chron. c. 34,

Copies were now made and difperfed ; yet, within a few years after, the authentic copy, preferved in the temple, was burnt, with the temple, by the Babylonians It was reflored again after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity by Nebemiah, or rather by Ezra ; fome fay by divine infpiration, others, with more probability, by collecting the fragments and copies which were ftill remaining, comparing them together, and, out of them all, framing one compleat copy, where the readings were adjufted, and the feveral books ranged in their proper order. Prideaux, Connect. P. 1. 1. 5. p, 4.73 — fflj, Du Pin. Difl". Prelim. §. 3. p. 61. not.

Irenams c, Tertullian d , Clemens Alexandrinus % Bafil f , Au- guftin s, Jerom h, Chryfoftom ', and others, hold, that the bible Was totally loft and deftroyed during the captivity in Ba- bylon, and reftored by immediate revelation ; but the only foundation for this opinion feems to have been the fabulous relation in the apocryphal book of Efdras \ where it is alledged that God infpired Efdras for the new work by a draught of a miraculous liquor ; after taking of which he retired into a fc- litude, and, m the compafs of forty days, dif?or^ed every tittle of the bible juft as it had been before '. Scme^hink it more probable, that all the copies had not been deftroyed ; at leaft, Daniel appears to have had one in the Baby!onifh captivity ; for he feveral times quotes it, and makes mention of the pro- phecies