Beriites. — See under 1 above.
W. H. Bennett.
BERITES (D-!3) occurs only in the account of Joab's i>ursiiit of the rebel Sheba, in the obscure and doubtful i)assage 2 S 20"-" 'Joab . . . went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Bethiiiaacah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him. And they came and besieged hiui in Abel,' etc. (RV). The MT apparently intends to state that Joab came to the district of the Berites, possibly de- scendants of Beri, and that all the tribes cf Israel gathered together, etc. According, however, to Driver, Text of Samuel, 264, the MT yields no intelligible sense if ' all the Berites ' is coupled to what precedes ; went after (v-j-x i(i3;i) must mean to go into a place after any one. He understands that Sheba went through all the tribes of Israel to
BERXICE
BESOR
275
Abel, and the Berites — or rather Bichrites (see iielow) — followed him into Abel as allies. Both Driver and Budde (Sam. in Haunt's Sacred Books of OT) follow Klostermann in reading ci:3 Bichrites, for 0"!J Berites, after tlie LXX iv Xapptl. Sbeba is styled 'ben Bikhri.' Many others read DP"; choice young men, after Vul|j. I'irt electi.
W. H. BEiNnett. BERNICE or BERENICE (Bepi-iKJ)).— See Herod.
BER(EA.— Tvo places bearing this name fall to be noticed, along with a third which appears as Berea. 1. Beroea(B^poio or B^p/joio), a Macedonian city, which was the scene of brief but fruitful mis- sionary work by St. Paul, after Jewish hostility had Jriven him away from Thes.salonica (Ac IT'"'"). It was situated in the district called Emathia (Ptol. iii. 12), at the eastern base of Mount Bermius (Strabo, vii. 26), about 30 miles S. of Fella, and 50 S.W. of Thessalonica. It was an old town, who.se natural advantages in a well- watered and fertile district gave to it considerable population and importance, which it still retains under the name of Verria or Kara Feria (see the interesting description in Leake, NG iii. 290-292). The Jewish residents in St. Paul's time were not only numerous enough to have a synagogue, like those in Thes.salonica, but are commended as nobler in disposition (firyeWffT-epoi) than they, in respect of their readiness to reeei\e the word preached, and dailj' to examine what thi'V heard by the light of their own Scrijitures ; so that many Jews believed, as well as not a few women of Greek nationality and 'honourable estate' (fuoxw^""''). When Jewi.sh zealots from Thessalonica came thither and stirred op fresh troubles, the newly-converted 'brethren' at once sent St. Paul out of"^ the city ' to go as far t^ to ' (fwt, rather than iis= ' as it were ') the sea, by which he went on to Athens, leaving Silas and Timotheus behind at Beruea. Sopater, another of St. Paul's associates, is designated as a Ber<can (Ac 20'). Tradition made Onesimus first bishop of the Church (Const. Ap. vii. 46).
2. In 2 .Mac 13* Bera'a appears as the place at which Antiochus Eupator caused Menelaus, the former high priest, to be put to death. ThisBenea was the well-known Syrian town now called Haleb or Aleppo ; it lay between Hierapolis and Antioch, almut one and a half day's journey from either ; it wa-s named by Seleucus Nikator after the Mace- donian city ; it became in the Middle Ages the capital of a Saracenic power, resuming its earlier name of Haleb ; and though it has sulfered much during the present centurj^ from earthquake, plague, and cholera, it remains an imposing and important city of about 100,000 inhabitants.
3. At 1 Mac 9* Berea (Hep^a) is mentioned as a place to which Bacchides, after 'encamping against Jerusalem,' removed, while Juilas lay en- camped at Ela.sa prior to the battle in wliich the latter fell. It is now generally identified with Beeroth (Jos 9") or Beroth ( 1 Es 5"), the modem Bireh, situated about ten miles north of Jerus., on the main ruad to N.iblfts and the north. Por description of ruined church there, see SWP vol.
iii. p. 88 f. William P. Dickson.
BEROTH.— See Beeroth.
BEROTHAH (-mW:), Kzk 47"; Bcrothal (tS-q), 2 S K", but in 1 Ch 18', Cun (sec Kittol, ad loc.).— A Syrian city. The first cited passage seems to show that Ilcirflt is not intended, since the town lay between Hamatli and Damascus. The name probably signifies ' fir trees,' and is thought to survive in WAdi/ Brissa, on the eastern slope of Lebanon, near Ivadesb on the Orontes.
C. R. CONDER.
BEROTHITE Cni;), 1 Ch 11»; Beerothite {'n'^Vf], 2 S 4^ >• »• ' 23".— An inhabitant of Beeroth-
BERYL.— See Stones, Precious.
BERZELUS.— See Zorzelleus.
BESAI Cbs).— 'Children of B.,' Nethinim who returned with Zerub. (Ezr 2", Neh 7"; = Basthai, 1 Es 5^').
BESIDE, BESIDES.— These two forms seem tn have been used in 1611 (and earlier) inditl'erently ; cf. Mk 3-' ' He is beside himself,' 2 Co 5'" ' whether we be besides (so 1611) ourselves,' and Ac '26^* 'Paul, thou art beside thyself ; again, as to Ac 20'*, Tindale, who introduces this tr°, has ' besides,' Cranmer ' beside,' the Geneva ' besides,' AV ' beside.' Modern edd. of AV give ' beside ' 12.j times, ' besides ' only 8 times, but in ed. of 161 1 the relative proportion was closer.