W. C. Allex. BAR-JONA(H).-See Peter.
BARLEY. — In the Gospels, barley is mentioned only in the account given by St. Jolin (6'"''') of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand witli live barley loaves and two fishes. The word occurs twice (vv.'- '•'), and in both cases rei)resents tlie adjectival form Kpldifos in the original. The noun Koiffri (in ordinai-y Gr. usage almost invarialilv in theplur. Kptffal), which is employed in the LX^^ tu rencfer the Heb. n-jiv, occurs only once in NT illw 0"). Barley was one of the niost important uf Biblical food • products. According to the elder
Pliny (i/iVxviii. 72), it was the most ancient nutri- I nient of mankind. It certainly dates back to a very remote antiquity. It was cultivated by the Canaanites prior to the time of the Hebrew con- quest (Dt 8*), and by the ancient Egyptians, as appears from Ex 9^' and from the representations on the oldest Egyptian monuments. Among the Jews it was used for making bread (Ezk 4"), and it seems to have been the principal food of the poorer classes (Ru 2" 3'=, 1 K 4=^, Jn 6'). This is confirmed by Jg 7", where a cake of barley -bread is the symlx)l of an army of peasants, and is also in accordance with modern \isage. Thus Dr. Thomson says : ' Barley bread is only eaten by the poor and the unfortuncitc. Nothing is more common than for these people, at this day, to com- plain that their oppressors liave left them nothing but barley bread to eat'(Z,an(/ and Book [1878ed.], p. 449). He also mentions that the Bedawin often ridicule their enemies by calling them ' eaters of barley bread' (I.e.). Barley was also grown as a forage crop. Its employment as provender for horses is mentioned in 1 K 4^, antl the chopped straw from the threshing-floor was likewise used as fodder. This practice continues to the present day, oats and hay being unknown.
In Palestine the normal time for sowing barley is about the beginning of October : Avhen the winter is exceptionally cold and wet, sowing takes place early in February. In the Jordan Valley, the harvest begins in April, but it varies according to the elevation of the diflerent re^'ions. At the highest altitudes the crop is not ripe tiU July or even August. Hugh Duncan.
BARN.— The same word (dTroSiiic))) is rendered ' barn ' in Mt 6-« 13'», Lk 12i8- ^, and 'garner' in Mt 3'-, Lk 3". In Grjeco-Roman times, buildings above giound were probably in use. Kadaipia, ' to pull down ' (Lk 12'*) could apply only to such. But from ancient times until now Palestinian farmers have stored their grain in cistern-like pits. These are dug in dry places, often out of the solid rock, carefully ceiiiented to keep out damp, with a circular opening at the top, through which a man may pass. When the mouth is plastered over and made air-tight, the corn will keep sound for several years. For securitj' in a lawless country, the ' barn ' is sometimes under the floor of the inmost part of the house, that of the women (cf. 2 S 4"). To escape the tax-gatherer, again, it is frequently made in a secluded spot, and so skilfully turfed over that discovery is almost impossible (cf. Jer 41'). Pits found near ruined sites, in districts that have lain desolate for ages, prove the antiquity of this method. Natural caves in the limestone rock, improved by art, with heavy stone doors blocking the entrance, have also served as ' barns,' and may be seen in use at Gadara to-day. AV. Ewing.
BARTHOLOMEW (BapSoXoAioiot) appears as an apostle in all four lists of the Twelve (Mt W, Mk 3'*, Lk 6'^, Ac 1"), always in the second of the three groups of four. In the Gospels he comes next after Philip (who in all four lists heads the second quaternion), and is followed by Matthew and Thomas : in Acts the order is ' Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew.' The name, as the first syllable indicates, is a patronymic, and it is commonly interpreted 'son of Tafmai.' In the LXX Talniiii has many variants (OoV, QoXnei, QaKafjtei, 6o\o,u(i, tioXuaiX-q/j.) : and in Josephus {Atit. XX. i. 1) wf have a bandit chief named eoXo/xaios. It is often assumed that ' Talmai ' re- presents ' Ptolemy,' and that Bartholomew means ■ sun of Ptolemy ' ; but the O is against this. Edersheim {Messiah, i. p. .521) makes it mean ' son of Telamyon.' Bartholomew may be either
BARTIMiEUS
BASKET
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a genuine patronymic used in addition to a proper name, like Simon Bar-jona ; or it may have be- come an independent proper name, like Barnabas. If the apostle Bartholomew had no other name, we know nothing about him from Scripture, and the later traditions about him are very untrustworthy (Lipsius, Apokryphcn ApostelgeschichUn undApos- tellegenden, iii. pp. 54-108). These traditions begin with Eusebius (HE v. x. 3), and ascribe to him widely different fields of missionary labour, with different apostles as his companions, and different forms of martyrdom. He is often made to be one of the Seventy.*
But both by the early Church and by most modern writers Bartholomew is commonly identi- fied with Nathanael. To treat this as almost cer- tain (Schaff-Herzog) is to go beyond the evidence ; to call it 'the merest conjecture' {Enci/c. Bibl.) is to err in the opposite direction.