The presence of Jews in Bithynia is indicated by Philo {Leg. ad Gaium, 36). In his second missionary journey, St. Paul, always drawn to the great centres of GnBco-Roman civilization, attempted with Silas to enter Bithynia (iirelpa^ov eis ttju Bidwiav iropev- d-qvai.), intending probablj' to evangelize Nicsea and Nicomedeia, but the Spirit of Jesus, who was lead- ing them on westward, did not permit them (Ac 16''). The province which so nearly became an apostolic mission-tield had not, however, to wait long for the gospel. 1 P 1' affords evidence of the early introduction and rapid progress of Christian- ity in the province of Bithynia. Details, however, are wanting.
' For Bithynia, like Cappadocia, we have no primitive Christian record : but it could hardly remain long unaffected bv the neighbourhood of Christian communities to the South-\Vest, the South, and probably the East ; even if no friend or disciple took up before long the purpose which St. Paul had been con- strained to abandon, when a Divine intimation drew him onward into Europe' (F. J. A. Hort, First Ep. o/ St. Peter: 1. l-II. 17, 1898, p. 17).
In A.D. 112 the younger Pliny was sent to govern the province of Bithynia, which had become dis- organized under senatorial administration. His correspondence with Trajan bears striking testi- mony to the expansion of the Christian religion, which seemed to him a superstitio prava immodica (Epp. X. 96, 97). Not only in the cities but in the rural villages the temples were almost deserted and the sacrificial ritual interrupted. While the letters describe a state of things which was true of the province as a whole, there are some indications that Amisos in the Far East was the first city on the Black Sea to which Christianity spread ( Kamsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, 1893, p. 224 f.).
Literature.— W. Smith, DGRG i. [1S56] 404 ; Carl Ritter, Kleinasien, i. [ISoS] 650 ff. ; E. G. Hardy, Plinii Epixtulce ad Trajanum, 1889; W. M. Ramsay, JJist. Geog. of Asia Minor, 1890 ; Conybeare-Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new
ed.,1877. James Strah AX.
BITTERNESS (irt/cpi'a). — ' Bitter ' means lit. 'biting' (A. S. hitan, 'to bite'), and 7ri\-p6y, 'sharp' (from the same root Rspunf/o, 'pike,' 'peak'), to TTiKpov, as that which has an acrid, pungent taste, is opposed to to jXvkv (Ja 3"). In LXX iriKpia is often used to translate t^xi, a bitter and poisonous plant, which is always used figuratively. Closes says that the man or woman, family or tribe, that turns from Jahweh will be 'a root that beareth gall and wormwood ' ( pii'a Slvoj (pvovaa iv xo^V '^^ai TTLKplq., Dt 29^®). There is an echo of this saying in He 12^5, where any member of the Church who introduces wrong 'doctrines or practices, and so leads others astray, becomes a 'root of bitterness springing up ' (p'l^a iriKpias avw <pvov<Ta) ; and there may be another echo of it in Ac 8^ (RYm), where Peter predicts that Simon ]Magus will ' become gall (or a gall root) of bitterness' (els x°^t)^ '^'■^pi-a.^ opQ ffe 6i>Ta) bj' his evil influence over others, if he remains as he now is. But xo^w -n-iKpLas may be a
genitive of apposition and the Apostle may mean that Simon is even now 'in Bitterkeit, Bosheit, Feindseligkeit, wie in Galle' (H. J. Holtzmann, Apostelgcuchichte^, 1901, ad loc). In Ro S^* bitter- ness of speech is joined with cursing, and in Ejih 4^' TTiKpla is an inward disposition (cf. ^rjXov iriKpov, Ja 3^-*) which all Christians are to put away in order that they may be 'kind one to another, tender-hearted.' James Steahan.
BLACK.— See Colours.
BLASPHEMY (;3Xatr0??/ita, vb. p\a(r<priixeiv, adj. and noun ^\dcr<pr]fios ; perhaps derived from ^Xdirreiv, 'to injure,' and (pvP^V, 'speech'). — In ordinary usage and in Eng. law this word denotes profane, irreverent speaking against God or sacred things ; but the Greek word has a wider sense, including all modes of reviling or calumniating either God or man. In 2 Ti 3^ the RV has ' railers ' instead of ' blasphemers ' ; in Ac 13^™ and 18'''" it gives 'rail' as an alternative, and in Rev 2^ 'revile.' ' As we be slanderously reported ' (^\aa(pT]iJ.oviJie6a, Ro 3*); 'why am I evil spoken of?' (ri j3\acr- <p-qfiovfiai ; 1 Co 10^"); 'to speak evil of no man' ifjLTjdeva '(i\aa(f>rifi€~iv. Tit 3") ; ' these . . . rail at dignities' (56^as ,3\aff(pT],uoi'aLv, Jude®; cf. 2 P 2^") are other examples of the use of the word with a human reference. The two meanings of ^Xacrcprjfiia are combined in Ac 6", where Stephen is accused of speaking blasphemous words {prifiara p\da-<pr]fjLa) against Moses and God (els 'Muaijv /cat rbv dedv).
According to the Levitical law the punishment for blaspheming the name of Jahweh was death by stoning (Lv 24^<'-i^) ; but as Roman subjects the Jews had not power to put any man to death. Though they attempted to observe the regular forms in their trial of Stephen for blasphemy, his death was not a judicial execution, but the illegal act of a solenm Sanhedrin changed by fanatical hatred into a murderous mob.
After Jesus had come to be acknowledged as the Messiali, the denial of His status and the insulting of His name were regarded by His followers as conscious or unconscious blasphemy. St. Paul recalls with shame and sorrow the time when, in this sense of the term, he not only was guilty of halntual blasphemy (t6 Trpbrepov ovra ^XdaepTj/uLov, 1 Ti 1'^), but strove to make others blaspheme {■nvd-yKa^ov §\a<x(p-r}fie'iv, Ac 26^^). The fortitude of tliose who resisted his efibrts made a profound impression on his mind, and probably did more than anytiiing else to pave the way for conversion. Like Pliny afterwards in Bithynia [Epp. x. 97), he doubtless found it was all but impossible to make men and Avomen speak evil of their so-called Messiali — 'maledicere Christum' — or submit to any other test that would have indicated disloj'alty to Him: 'quorum nihil cogi posse dicuntur, qui sunt re vera Christiani' [ib.]. When, on the other hand, St. Paul began to preach Jesus as His own Messiah, the blasphemies of his countrymen against that Name became his daily fare. The Jews of Pisidian Antioch ' contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul and blasphemed' (Ac 13^^) ; those of Corinth ' opi^osed themselves and blasphemed' (18®); and the historian might have multiplied instances without end.