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610 Bdellium Beard do,

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baze and Johann Cohen were charged with the

strict

enforcement of this regulation.

Bibliography:

J. Bauer, Les Juifs de la PrincipauU cVOrangc, in Beime Etmlcs Juives, xxxii. 239, 348.

G.

J.

BDELLIUM

(nS-n "bedolah"): A precious stone mentioned in Gen. ii. 12 by the side of gold and the " shoham " stone as one of the chief products of Havilah. Since manna is compared in appearance to Bdellium (Num. xi. 7), it may he concluded that the latter was generally known among the Hebrews, and was considered very precious. The meaning of the word is not quite certain. The Septuagint translates it in Genesis with avdpatj (anthrax), in Numbers with KpharaWoc (crystal), thus interpreting it as a precious stone. Similarly, Reland and others regard it as crystal. Bochart (" Hierozoicon, sive de Animalibus Scripturoe Sacra," ii. 674-683), who places Havilah on the Arabian coast, interprets " bedolah " as equivalent to "pearl," following Saadia, Kimhi, and others (compare Lagarde, " Orieutalia, " iii. 44). Most plausible seems the statement of Josephus (" Ant. " iii. 1, § 6), who identifies manna with Bdellium (pdiKktov). Dioscorides ("De Materia Medica," i. 80) describes this Bdellium as " the tear of an Arabian tree. "

It is therefore a resinous substance according

to Pliny

("Historia Naturalis," xii. 35), transparent, fragrant, resembling wax, greasy to the touch, and of a bitter taste. Pliny furthermore says that the tree on which it is found is about as large as an olive-tree, with leaves like the holm-oak and fruit like the wild fig that it grows in Bactria where the best Bdellium is found Arabia, India, Media, and BabyThis description is not sufficiently clear to lonia. enable one to classify the tree but most probably it belongs to the Balsamodendron. Bibliography See the various commentaries (Delitzsch, Dillmann, Gunkel, Strack, etc.) to Gen. ii. 12; Dawson, Medical Science in Bible Lands, p. 115; Tristram, in Expository

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Times, iY. 259. J. JR.

I.

BE ABIDAN

NA?EUFE

Be.

BE NAZREFE

(|T3X U) and

Supposed names S'nVJ U) of two places where, according to the Talmud, disputations between Jews and non-Jews were held. The location of these places is as much a matter of dispute as the words themselves were they really names of places or merely distorted designations for certain non-Jewish institutions ? The data given in the Babylonian Talmud are as follows (the passages are not found in the Palestinian Talmud) At the time of Hadrian, Jewish scholars were required to come to Be Abidan, or to give an excuse for their absence ('Ab. Zarahl~i; Shab. 152a). It is furthermore mentioned that Abba Arika visited neither Be Abidan nor Be Nazrefe, while his friend and colleague, Samuel, freely visited the former place, avoiding only the latter (Shab. 116a). The "books of Be Abidan" (JT3K "<21 1 ~I3D) are also mentioned (Shab. I.e.) in a way which shows clearly that they are similar to the 'HDD, mentioned elsewhere in the Talmud, being the sacred Scriptures of the Judwo-Christians. In view of the fact that one place could not have served as the seat of disputation both for the Palestinians and, a century later, for the Babylonians, the following dilemma arises: Either the expressions or

(iQIVJ,

1



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DTO

610

" Be Abidan " and " Be Nazrefe " are merely general names for places where Jews and non-Jews met to

discuss religious topics, or the Talmud designated thereby things that were related but not identical,

and transferred Babylonian conditions to Palestinian soil. Jastrow takes " Be Abidan " to be a scornful appellation for toyil '3 ("a place of gathering"), Joel and Low for ^JVSK 13 ("house of the Ebion("house of the ites ") and " Be Nazrefe " for ^"l¥J Nazarenes "); the two expressions being used for the gathering-places of the Jewish Christians. This and similar explanations are controverted by the fact that Abba Arika and Samuel lived in Babylonia at a time when the Christians were utterly without influence; while the passages which mention the disputations at Be Abidan presuppose not Christian, but pagan opponents. Decisive against this supposition is the passage in 'Erubin 80a and 'Ab. Zarah 48a, which recounts that the heathen priests brewed beer from the fruit of a number of trees to supply the demand on the feast-days at Be Nazrefe and it is evident that this assertion of the Babylonian amoraim must refer to conditions in their own country. It may therefore be assumed with certainty that

U



Be Abidan and Be Nazrefe were two in the first half of the third

—

century

places, which,

— they are

not

mentioned in later times were considered in Babylonia to be the intellectual centers, where Jews and Persians disputed on religious subjects. They must have been so important that the Talmud applied the general name " Be Abidan " to those localities where disputations between Jews and non-Jews occurred, in the same way that the " Academies " of Berlin or Vienna are spoken of, without reflecting that " Academia " was the garden of Academe in Athens, where Plato taught. It may be mentioned that an astrologer of the name of Abidas, the Greek equivalent of Abidan (Epiphanius, "Uteres." i. 56, ed. Migne, i. 990) disputed about the year 200 with Christians in Persia hence " Be Abidan " may mean, linguistically and actually, the place where Abidas or his follow" Be Nazrefe " may be referred to ers had a school.

the name of the place Zerifin, which was known to the Arabian geographers, or to Assyrian "nazraptu " (crucible),

Be Nazrefe being a

place where crucibles

were made. Bibliography

Anonymous, in Literaturhlatt des Orients, vi. Delitzsch, in Zcitschrift fllrdic Gcmmmtc Luther ische vii. 75-79 ; Joel, Blicke in die licligionsgeschichte, ii. 91, 92 ; Funk, Die Haygadischcn Element 6. . . (Vienna, 1891), note B, who combines " Be Abidan " with " Be Abdin " (house of the servants), as the monks used to cal] themselves "servants of God"; Jastrow, Diet. s.v. p'JK and ''Dnxj Kohut, Aruch Completum, ii. 45-47 ; the Persian " Abdan " means only a busy place, which does not apply here ; Levy, Neuhebr. WOrterbuch, s.v.; Low, in Ha-Shahar, i., No. 9, pp. 57-59, and in He-Haluz, ii. 100, 101 ; Rapoport, 'Ereh Millin; idem, in Ha-Shaliar, i.e., No. 10, pp. 111-113 ; Wiesner, Scholien zum Balntlnnischen Talmud, ii. 230, 231 (his identiflcation of "Nazrefe" with " Nicephorium " is as impossible as that of " Be Abidan " with "Bezabde." The Greek is 3-5





Thenlogie,

"K"

never J.

x,

nor could " z " be omitted from " Bezabde ").

SE.

BAB

L. G.

BE house ") A name (31 13 = which, in the Talmud, has various meanings and occurs in a variety of combinations. Its immediate signification, however, is "academy of a tannaite or amora " (compare 'Er. 73a), for which the Jerusalem Talmud substitutes the fuller form " Bet Rab" teacher's