To use unreal words, to be constantly dealing with the greatest things, and yet to be too shallow or flippant to realize their majesty, was, in the Apostolic Age, and ever since has been, the peculiar snare and peril of religious speakers, and gives point to the taunt of Carlyle : ' When a man takes to tongue-work, it is all over with him.' The Carthusian student who went to a teacher and got
the text ' I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue,' found that enough for a lifetime. On the whole subject Newman's lines (' Flowers without Fruit,' in Verses on Various Occasions) are an apt and instructive commentary :
' Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control That o'er thee swell and throng.'
LrrERATURE. — In addition to the works cited above, see A. "Why le, Bunyan Characters, i. [Edinburgh, 1S95J 180; J. Kelman.rAc Road,\.[do. 1911] 180 ; Joseph L.utler, Sermons, ed. Gladstone, Oxford, 1896, no. 4. W. M. GRANT.
BABYLON.— See Apocalypse and Peter, First
Epistle of.
BACKBITING.— See Evil-speaking.
BALAAM. — The somewhat prominent place that Balaam holds in the Apostolic Age may be appraised by the three references to him in the NT (2 P 215, jude ", and Rev 2") ; by the legends which grew round his name in Hellenistic and Haggadic literature, and later in Muhammadanism ; and perhaps by the apparent popularity of the dis- cussion of the ' Blessings of Balaam ' bj' Hippolytus. Balaam has become the representative of false teachers and sorcerers, and we may suspect a play on his name in Rev 2^* (perhaps = ' lord of the people'), in order to brand certain Gnostic teachers as making gain for themselves out of the simple folk by the use of magic and by the teaching of a gnosis which tended to laxity of practice. (It is not improbable that in the Nicodemus of Jn 3 is enshrined a counter-play of words — the Jewish party also, it is hinted, had a false and carnal doctrine of their own.) Balaam becomes in legend a counsellor of Pharaoh ; he and his two sons Jannes and Jambres [q.v.) were compelled to flee from Egypt to Ethiopia, where Balaam reigned as king till conquered by Moses. On this he and his sons returned to Egypt and became the master- magicians who opposed Moses. Finally, Phinehas attacked Balaam, who by his magic flew into the air, but was killed by Phinehas in the power of the Holy Name. See N'icolaitans ; also JE ii. 468 f.
W. F. Cobb.
BALAK. — Balak is named in Rev 2^^ along with Balaam. Like Balaam {q.v.), Balak is to be re- garded here as a typical figure. The former teaches doctrine which is false in itself, corrupt in its motive, and immoral in its fruits ; while Balak is, as in the OT, the heathen power which thrusts Balaam's sorceries on the faithful. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that, if Balaam is the teacher of Gnosticism, Balak is the Roman power which has adopted syncretism and seeks to compel the Christians to adopt its M-ays also, and so makes them fall into the corruptions attendant on pagan worship. W, F. Cobb.
BAND {cnretpa, always 'cohort' in RVm). — As a province of the second rank, governed by pro- curators, Judaea was not garrisoned by legionaries, who were Roman citizens, but by auxiliaries, who were levied from subject races. Each cohort, vary- ing from 500 to 1000 infantry, usually strengthened by an ala of cavalry, was named after the Greek city from which it was recruited — ' cohors Sebas- tenorum, Ascalonitarum,' etc. The Jews them- selves were exempted from military service. Various data supplied by Josephus (see the refer- ences in Schiirer, HJP I. ii. 51 f.) indicate that the Judjean forces were originally the troops of Herod the Great, which were taken over by the Romans after the deposition of Archelaus in A.D. 6. At ordinary times Jerusalem was garrisoned by one cohort— called by Josephus a Tdy/xa (BJ V. v. 8) — which was stationed at the tower of Antonia, on
128
BAPTISM
BAPTISM
the north side of the Temple, under the com- mand of a cliiliarch (Ac 2pi). Part of this cohort — 200 iufantrj', 70 horsemen, and 200 de^toXd^oi, an obscure term translated ' spearmen ' (see Schiirer, op. cit. 56) — formed St. Paul's protecting convoy when he was transmitted by Claudius Lysias to the governor Felix in Csesarea.
James Strahan.
BAPTISM.— 1. Christian baptism in the NT.— It will be convenient at the beginning of this article to collect the narratives of and allusions to Chris- tian baptism in the NT. The command of our Lord to make disciples of all the nations by bap- tism (Mt 28"* ; see below, 4 and 8) was faithfully carried out by the first disciples. Actual bap- tisms are recorded in Ac 2'®- ^ (the 3000 converts), 3i2£. 16 (Samaritans, men and women, and Simon), 836. 33 (the Ethiopian eunuch), Qis 22i« (Saul), lO^^'- (Cornelius and his friends), 16" (Lydia and her household), 16^ (the Philippian jailer 'and all his'), 18* (Crispus and his house, and many Cor- inthians), 19^ (about twelve Ephesians), 1 Co 1^^ ^® (Crispus, Gains, and the household of Stephanas).
In addition to these narratives there are many allusions to Cliristian baptism in the NT — Ro 6*'-, Col 2^'^ baptized into Christ Jesus, into His death, buried with Him in baptism : a common thought in early times — e.g. Apost. Const, ii. 7 and often in that work (see A. J. Maclean, Ancient Church Orders, 123). — 1 Co 6^^, sanctification and justification connected with the washing of bap- tism ; three aorists, referring to a definite event : ' ye washed away (dTreXoi/rracr^e, middle) [your sins] ... in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God ' ; of. Ac 22'* (above) : ' arise and be baptized ' {^airrlffai, * seek baptism ') and wash away [airoKouffai) thy sins.' — 1 Co 12'*, [Jews and Gentiles] all baptized in one Spirit into one body.— Gal 2i^, baptized into Christ, put on Christ. — Epii 4*, 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism.' — Eph 5^®, Christ sanctified the Church, having cleansed it by the washing (Xovrpifi) of water with the word. The 'word' is said by Robinson (Com. in loc.) to be the 'solemn invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus'; Westcott (in loc.) adds: 'accompanied by the confession of the Christian faith, cf. Ro lO*'; Chase (JT^^i! viii. 165) inter- prets it of the word or fiat of Christ, and compares Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. iii. 5). — Tit 3^, ' by the washing of regeneration (5td 'KovrpoD ■TraXiyyevetrias) and renewing of the Holy Ghost ' ; see below, 8. — He 6-* ■*, the first principles are repentance, faith, teaching of baptisms (^airri.(TixO>v) and of laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment ; Christians were once enlightened (^wrw^^vras) and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par- takers of the Holy Ghost ; hence the name ' illumi- nation ' (^wTto-/Li6s) and ' illuminated ' for ' baptism ' and 'the baptized' in Justin (Apol. i. 61, 65) and elsewhere. Westcott interprets the ' teaching [5t6ax^s, but B reads -7)v, which is adopted in RVm and by WH] of baptisms ' as instruction about the dillerence between Christian baptism and other lustral rites. Chase (Confirmation in Apostol. Age, p. 44 f.) denies this, and interprets the phrase of the baptism of different neophytes, ' tile Cliristian rite in its concrete application to individual believers ' : the ' heavenly gift ' is one part of the illumination or baptism, i.e. tiie gift of the Son, of Eternal life, oi sonship (Chase) ; the partaking of the Holy Ghost is the other part. In any case the iirldeaLs xe'pw" must refer to the laying on of hands wliich followed immersion (see below, 6), thougii Westcott would extend it to benedictions, ordinations, etc., as well. — He 10--'-, 'our body washed with pure water' (our sacra- mental bathing contrasted with the symbolic bathings of the Jews [Westcott]), 'let us hold fast