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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

among the Hebrews,

"

in Palestine

sing the

in any case wild tiees abounded the phrase " the land flowing with milk (Ex. iii. 8) vouches for this fact. In Gen.



and honey " xliii. 11, and also in Ezek. xxvii. 17, honey is named as an article of export; and in other passages of the Old Testament the abundance of wild honey is often spoken of (Deut. xxxii. 13; Judges xiv. 8; I Sam. xiv. 25 et seq. Ps. lxxxi. 17 [A. V. 16] Prov. xxv. 16; Matt. iii. 4). In Hebrew cookery, honey plays an important part (see Honey). The Bee is also often mentioned and a swarm of wild bees is compared to a hostile army (Deut. i. 44; Isa. vii. 18





Ps. cxviii. 2). The small, unpretentious of the Bee, that yet gives such sweet produce, praised in Ecclus. (Sirach) xi. 3; compare the sen-

et seq.



work is

tence added in the Septuagint to Prov. vi. 8, where much the same is said of the Bee as the Hebrew text says of the ant. Prom the word " Bee " is derived the popular name " Deborah " (Bee). To-day apiculture is carried on to a considerable extent in Palestine, and not only is Palestinian honey exported in large quantities to Europe and America, but even the bees of Palestine are sent to other countries. The beehives consist of hollow cylinders, made of earth mixed with chopped straw, about 39 inches long and ten inches wide. The beehives in ancient times could hardly have been more primitive.

Bibliography

Tristram, Natural History of the Animals of the Bible, pp. 32-33.



333-326; Hart, j.

jr.

Bible, pp. I.

Be.

El

"

Bediljah

Beelzebub For other instances of disguisee Bosheth.

in its place.

name "Baal,"

JK.

J-

G. B. L.

BEELZEBUB

or

BEELZEBUL



Name

of a

demon mentioned in the New Testament as chief of the demons (Matt. xii. 24-27; Mark iii. 22; Luke xi. 15-18). When the Pharisees heard (of the cures performed by Jesus), they said: "This man doth not cast out demons but by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons"; whereupon Jesus answered: "If Satan easts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how

Ihen shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. On another occasion Jesus said to his disciples: "If they have called the master of the house [that is, himself] Beelzebub, how much more (shall they so call) them of his household " [that is, the disciples] (Matt. x. 25). The name "Beelzebub," written also "Beelzebul," which occurs nowhere else in Jewish literature, is a variant form of "Baal Zebub," the god of Ekron, whose oracle King Ahaziah consulted during his illness, provoking thereby the wrath of (II Kings i. 2-16); the name is commonly explained after the Septuagint and Josephus, "Ant." ix. 2, § 1, as the " Lord of Plies " (see Baal-zebtjb). Plagues being often ascribed to the influence of flies (Ex. xxiii. 28; Eccl. x. 1; Pliny, "Historia Naturalis," x. 28, 75 Pausanias, " Description of Greece," v. 14, 1; Aelian, "Natura Animalium," v. 17, xi. 8; Usener, "Gotternamen," p. 260), the god who dispelled flies (Apollo Apomyios) probably retained his popularity long after he had ceased to be an object In fact, the fly was regarded by the of worship. Jews in particular as more or less impure and demonic. "The evil spirit ["yezer ha-ra'"] lies like a fly at the doors of the human heart," says Rab, with

God



BEELEN, THEODORE JOHANN:

Profes-

sor of Oriental languages at the Catholic University of Louvaiu, Belgium; born at Amsterdam at the

beginning of the nineteenth century. He devoted himself early to the study of Hebrew literature, especially rabbinical, and acquired much learning in Beelen is the author of a work, dithis subject. vided into three parts, entitled " Abne Hefez [Precious Stones] Chrestomathia Rabbinica et Caldaica cum Notis Grammaticis, Historicis.Theologicis, Glossario et Lexico Abbreviaturarum, qua? in Hebr. Script. Passim Occurent," Louvain, 1841. The first part, which is the most important the other two being a mere supplement to it is divided into ten chapters with the following headings: (1) Acute et Sapienter Dicta (3) Ta(2) Sententiae et Proverbial ,

—

—





(4) Epistola? Pamiliares (5) Selecta Historiacarum (6) Grammatici et Lexicographi (7) Scripture Interpretes; (8) Philosophi et Theologi; The author drew only (9) Talmudica; (10) Poeta. to a slight extent from Plautavitius' " Florilegium

bulae et Parabola?









Rabbinicum" and from Buxtorf— the greater part being taken from Jewish sources, such as Sefer 'Olam, Sifra, Mekilta, etc.

Toledot ha-Kabalah, Seder In the poetical part the author made use of Abraham ibn Ezra, Moses ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Le vi, Gabirol, etc. Steinii. 540; schneider. B{blingrapMsehes Handbueh idem, Cat. Bodl. 19. Judaiea, p. Fiirst, Bibliotheca col. 783

Bibliography: I/iteraturhlatt des Orients,



T

I.

.

BEELIADA

A

Br.

son of David (I Chron. xiv. 7), who in II Sam. v. 16 and I Chron. iii. 8 is called " Eliada. " This is due to an intentional change by the scribe, to whom the name "Baal" was hateful, and who therefore substituted

("Baal knows"):

reference to "the flies of death" in Eccl. x. 1 (Ber. "A fly, being 61ffl and Targ. Yer. to the passage). an impure thing, was never seen in the slaughterhouse of the Temple " (Abot v. 8), nor did one cross

the table of Elisha which fact, according to Rab, gave proof to the Shunammite woman that he was " a holy man " (II Kings iv. 9 Ber. 104). The devil in German folk-lore also appears in the shape of a



fly

(Simrock, "Deutsche

My thologie, "

1874, pp. 95,

479).

Urschrif t, " p. 53) thinks that Baal Zebub, god of the hated Philistines, became the representative of the heathen power and consequently the arch-enemy, the foe par excellence,

Geiger

("

in his capacity as

" and therefore the name " Baal debaba " (" debaba to Hebrew corresponding form Aramaic the being "Zebub") acquired the meaning of "hostility," the verb D2T with the sense of "hostile action "being derived from it. But neither this opinion nor a similar one expressed by Doderlein and Storr, and revived in Riehm's "Realworterbuch," seems accept-

able, as "Beel debaba" is the ordinary Aramean word (Brockelmann, "Lex Syria?. ") for "calumniator." What renders the name still more problematic is the form "Beelzebul," which the older manuscripts present, and which has given rise to a number of

other conjectures,

among them

the following:

(1)