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650 Bekorot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Belais

courses, of which one is recommended. The examination of the blemishes of the first-born animal had to be

done gratis

(iv. 5, 6),

but an exception

is

made

in favor of a professional veterinary surgeon, as Ila

(orAyla; inTosef., Bek. iv. 11, Amlah). In the same chapter another veterinary authority is named, Theodos, the physician (iv. 4). To take payment for giving a decision in religious matters was considered unlawful and it rendered the decision invalid (iv. 6). When unqualified persons caused loss through their decision, they had to compensate for the loss not so in the case of qualified persons (iv. 4). Transfer of property is generally reversed in the year of Jubilee; but what the firstborn obtains by his birthright remains his forever. Parallel cases are given in viii. 10. In the Tosefta the treatise Bekorot has likewise the fourth place, and is divided into seven chapters. Chap. i. corresponds to the first chapThe terof the Mishnah; chap. ii. toii.-iii. Tosefta. chap. iii. to iv.-v. chap. iv. to vi. chap. v. to vii. chap. vi. to viii. chap. vii. to ix. The Tosefta differs greatly from the Mishnah in the enumeration of the blemishes and in their names. The Palestine Talmud does not include Bekorot, but the Babylonian Gemara has, in





The Gemara.



addition to the full discussion of the laws mentioned in the Mishnah, the following interesting digressions:

Rabbi Johanan and Resh Lakish discuss the question whether those first-born of the cattle that were born in the wilderness had to be treated as animals sanctified to the Lord. R. Johanan answers in the affirmative his opponent in the neg;

ative (p. 45, et seq.). In the course of discussions on physiological conditions of pregnancy in animals, the story is told how Caesar challenged Rabbi Joshua, son of

Hananiah, to show his superior wisdom and skill in a discussion with the old men of Be-Athuna (Athens, or an Athenian school). He did so, and completely defeated his opponents (p. 86). Teaching, judging, giving evidence, etc., must be done gratis; and if a person can not find a teacher that would teach him gratis, he is recommended to act in accordance with Prov. xxiii. 23, " Buy truth " but as regards teaching others he is warned, "and do not sell " (p. 29a). Regulations as to the admission of new members to the Society of Haberim persons who undertake to observe strictly the laws concerning clean and unclean (p. 30b). In the Babylonian Talmud the treatise has the

—

third place in the Seder. Bibliography Mandelstamm, Horn: Talmudicm, i.; Rabbi Jos. b. Hananiah, Berlin Z. Frankel, Hodeoetica in Mischnam. etc, 1859; Nahmanides, Hillmt Belmrcit we-Hallah, Warsaw, 1863; Maimonides, For! ha-Hazakali, ix.;' Korbannt, xi.; Shv.ll) an 'Aruk, Yoreh De'dfi, 305-321. J. sr. M. F.



BEL.

See Ba'al.

BEL AND THE DRAGON



An Apocryphal

placed, in the Septuagint and Theodotion, among the additions to the Book of Daniel (see Apocrypha). It consists of two separate stories: one relating to Bel the other, to the Dragon. In tract,



650

the former, Daniel, by a clever device, exposes the trick by which the priests of Bel made it appear that the idol consumed the food and drink set before it. In the latter, Daniel slays the Dragon-god by putting into its mouth cakes made of pitch, fat, and hair, after eating which it bursts asunder. Daniel is thereupon cast into a den of lions, but remains unharmed by the beasts, and is fed by the prophet

Habakkuk, who is miraculously brought from Judea by an angel. The purpose of the stories is to ridicule idol-worship, and to extol the power of God, who preserves His faithful servants in all perils. The material is drawn from current ideas and legends. Bel was the for that purpose

central figure of the Babylonian idolatry (Isa. xlvi. 1 Jer. Ii. 44), and the

Origin.



Exile the type of heroic struggle. The myth of the contest between God and the Dragon (Tannin, Rahab, Leviathan) occurs throughout the old post-exilic literature (Gunkel, " Schopfung unci Chaos ") and the way in which Daniel destroys the Dragon is similar to that in which Marduk destroys

Tiamat (Delitzsch, "Das Babylonische Weltschopcompare Noldeke, " Geschichte des Artachsir i Papakan," 1879, p. 55). Marduk drives a storm-wind into the dragon and thus rends it asunder; and Marshall (in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible ") suggests that the " pitch " of the Greek (Aramean, KB'T) may have come from an original term for " storm-wind " (Aramean, X3J?T)How the prophet Habakkuk came to be introduced into the story is hardly possible to explain (see Habakkuk). The title to the Septuagint text reads: "From the prophecy of Habakkuk, the son of Jesus [Joshua], of the tribe of Levi." There was in existf ungsepos "



work ascribed to Habakkuk but nature nothing is known. Legends relating to Daniel circulated, doubtless, in a great variety of forms, and were constantly modified by scribes. From such legends there are independent selections in Daniel and Bel and the Dragon. The tone and contents of the latter work show that it was not' taken from Daniel. ence, probably, a

of



its

The Greek work exists in two recensions, (1) that of the Septuagint and (2) that of Theodotion, both of which are given, with various readings, in Swete's "Old Testament in Greek."

Greek and The two, though substantially idenAramaic tical, differ in a number of details. Texts.

Thus, in the Septuagint, besides the reference to a prophecy of Habakkuk, Daniel is called a priest, the son of Habal, and is introduced as a person previously unknown; while the name of the king of Babylon, whose friend he was, is not given. In Theodotion the king is Cyrus, who is said to be the successor of Astyages Daniel is not called a priest and nothing is said of a prophecy of Habakkuk. The style of the Septuagint is



simpler and more Hebraic; Theodotion is fuller, more dramatic, and more polished. It may be in part a revision of the Septuagint; but it appears also to follow other authorities, or to be based on a different version of the stories from that given in the Septuagint. The question arises whether the Greek recensions are derived from other written sources that is, whether the stories were originally com-