BITHIAH (n.-ns 'daughter,' i.e. worshipper, 'of J"). — The daughter of a Pharaoh, who became the wife of Mercd, a descendant of Jmlah (1 Ch 4"). Whether Pharaoh is to be taken here aa the Eprp. royal title or as a Ileb. proper name, it is difficult to determine. The name li. may indicate one who had become a convert to the worship of J', which would favour the first sujiposition (but LXX 15 reads I'tXid). If the other wife of Mered is distinguished as 'the Jewess,' KV (AV .lehudijah), this would still further strengthen the supposition. Bnt the text of 1 Ch 4"- " ai>i>car» to be defective, and does not alVord ground for more than conjec- ture. (See Kittel, ad Ivc. in Ilaupt.)
K. M. Boyd.
BITHRON (l\-u?3ri), 2 S 2», ' the gorge," probably not a proper name, — a ravine leailirig to Mahanaini.
C. K. CoNDKR.
BITHYNIA (BcfluWo), a country in the north of Asia Minor, bonlering on the Piopontis (Sea of
Marmora), the Bosphorus, and the Eu-xine (Black Sea), was bequeathed to the Romans in B.C. 74 by the last king, Nicomedes iii. The coast of Pontua was united with it in a single province by Pompey in B.C. 65, and the joint province was administered according to the principles embodied in a lex Pom- fieiii. But the two parts of the province always retained a certain distinction from one another ; the official name was regularly double {Bitki/nia et Pontits) ; there were two high priests, the Bitliyni- arch and the Pontarch (like Asiarch, Galatarch, Lykiarch, etc.); and hence Pontus and B. are men- tioned separately in 1 P 1'. Bithj-nia adjoined Asia, and hence, when Paul and Silas were prevented from preaching in Asia (Ac 16"), they naturally proceeded towards B., but, coming near the frontier, were not permitted to enter it ; and they kept on towards the \V. through Mysia till they came out at Troas. B. was a senatorial province, governed like Achaia (which see) ; but Pliny governed it on a special mission from the emperor, 111-3, and wrote the reports to Trajan which give so much information about the province and tlie Christians in it. B. was a rich, fertile, peaceful, and highly civilised pro\'ince. Jews in B. are mentioned by I'hilo. Legatio ad Gaium, § 36 (Mang. ii. 587) ; but they are not noticed in the list given in Ac 2"". It is remarkable that Byzantium (Constantinople), alon" with, doubtless, the peninsiila at the end of whit-h it was situated, was included in the province of Bitkynia et Pontns, as we learn from Pliny, ad Traj. ]ip. 43, 44. Two great roads traversed B., one connecting Nikomedia and Nictea (the two chief cities) with Dorylaion and Phrygia in general, the other connecting them with Ancyra direct — a road which in later times became important as the route of European pilgrims by land to Jeru- salem.
LiTBRATCRB. — Marquafdt, RomUeht Staatevenraltungt L pp. :M1^-3S7; Uardy in Pret. to his ed. of Pliny, KpM. ad Trajan ; Ainsworth in Jottrn. Jio^. Geogr. Soe vol. ix. ; Hamilton, Rvncarches in At. Min. ; Uitter, Kleinasi^n {Erdkumie mn .\nen, vols. XX. xxi.), i. pp. 650-768; liamsay, Hist. Geoijr. ot As. Min. pp. l"i»-2Il, 240 II. ; Th. Kcinach, jVuiniam. lii-s A'owde liith. Pliny's report on the IJithynian Christians is treated in all Karly Church histories and in the works on the position o( the Church in the empire by Neumann, Hardv, etc.
W. M. Ramsay.
BITTER, BITTERNESS In the literal sense of
b. to the taste, the word occurs in such passages as Pr 27' (of food, opposed to sweet). Ex 15-^, Ja 3" Rev 8" (of water), and Is 24» (of strong drink). See also article Bitter Herbs. In most of the passages, however, where the words above given are used in Scripture, it is in a figurative or tropical sense. The examples that follow do not claim to be exhaustive.
i. We may note, in the first place, the use of 'bitter' in an objective sense, of cruei, biting words (cf. TTiKpol 'Kbyoi), Ps. 64'; of the keenne.ss of the misery wliich results from forsaking God, Jer 2'" ; from a life of sin in general, Jer 4'", and of iin])urity in particular, Pr 5*. It is ap])lied to the misery of servitude, Ex I" ; and to the misfortunes due to bereavement, Ru 1", Am 8'".
ii. In a more subjective 8en.se, bitter and bitter- ness describe such emotions as symiiatliy in bereavement, Ru 1", and misfortune, kzk 27" ; the jioignant .sorrow of childlessness, 1 S 1'", and )icni- tence, Mt 26"; the keenness of disappointment, Gn 27^" : and the general feeling of misery and wretchedness, Job 3* ; emotions often relieved by a corresponding ' b. cry,' Gn 27", Est 4' etc., and by the shedding of ' bitter tears' (cf. Homer's friKpin oaKpvoy), M t '26'° and often.
Under this head may be clas.sed the ca-ses where ' bitter ' in the original refers rather to fierceiie-ss of disposition, as in 2 S 17' (' as a bear robbed of her whelps'), allied with a readiness to take oU'ence,
304
BITTER HERBS
BITUMEN
Hab 1' ('the Chaldseans, that bitter and hasty nation '), Jg 18". Cf. Eph 4"', Ro 3".
lii. Anotuer set of fig. applications belongs rather to the sphere of ethics than to that of psychology. Thus Isaiah characterizes those who would suDvert the fundamental distinction of right and WTong as putting ' b. for sweet, and sweet for b.' (5»). So also Dt 22'", where the reference is to the moral poison exhaled by the corrupt nations of Canaan. The same idea of moral depravity is somewhat differently ex- pressed in Dt 29^' <"', from which (see LXX render- ing) are derived the expressions 'gall of bitterness,' Ac 8", and ' root of bitterness,' He 12".