Babylo'nian (Heb. Ben-Babel', bia-^, son of ! Babel or Babylon, Ezek. xxiii, 15, 17,T23- Chald. ! Bablay, "£na, Ezra iv, 9 ; Gr. Baj3v\mnoc, Bel 3), j an inhabitant of Babylon or Babylonia.
Babylo'nian Captivity. See Captivity. ( Babylo'nish Garment C'Ji^ ^1?'iJK, adde'reth Sh'nar'; Sept. ipi\>} ttoikiXii, Vulg. pallium coccineuni), a Babylonish mantle [see Attire], i. e. a large robe \ variegated with the figures of men and animals intcr- 1 woven in rich colors (comp. Pliny, Hist. Nat. viii, 48), I such as were fabricated at Babylon (q. v.) ; hence a valuable piece of clothing in general (Josh, vii, 21). ; Sec Emeroidery.
; Ba'ca, Valley of (Heb. E'mclc hab-Baha', p~V | ^:an, vale of [the'] weeping; Sept. koi\«c tov kXou- Buuii'OQ, Vulg. Vallis lacrymaruni), a valley apparently somewhere in Palestine, through which the "exiled Psalmist sees in vision the pilgrims passing in their march toward the sanctuary of Jehovah at Zion (Psa. lxxxiv, 6). The passage seems to contain a play, in the manner of Hebrew poetry, on the name of the trees (D^Nra, beha'im' ; see Mulberry) from which the valley probably derived its name, and the " tears" (^za, held') shed by the pilgrims in their joy at their approach to Zion. These tears are conceived to be so abundant as to turn the dry valley in which the bafot- trees delighted (so Lengerke, Ktnaan, p. 135) into a I spring}' or marshy place ("£""?). That a real locality j was in the mind of the Psalmist is most probable, from the use of the definite article before the name (Gesen. Tins. p. 205). A valley of the same name (Bekad) still exists in the Sinaitic district (Burckhardt, p. 619) ; but this, as well as the valley near Mecca (Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 339), is entirely out of the region demanded by the context. Some regard this as a valley (el- Behaa) or plain in which Baalbek is situated. But this spot is far from possessing the dreariness and drought on which the point of the Psalmist's allusion depends. The rendering of the Targum is Gehenna, i. e. the Ge-Hinnom or ravine below Mount Zion. This i locality agrees well with the mention of bahrim-trecs in 2 Sam. v, £3. To the majority of interpreters, how- ever, it docs not appear necessary to understand that there is any reference to a valley actually called by this name. The Psalmist in exile, or at least at a I distance from Jerusalem, is speaking of the privileges and happiness of those who are permitted to make the usual pilgrimages to that city in order to worship Je- hovah in the Temple : " They knew the ways that lead thither; yea, though they must pass through rough and dreary paths, even a vale of tears; yet such are their hope and joy of heart, that all this is to them as a well-watered country, a land crowned with bless- ings of the early rain." Dr. Robinson (Add. to t'al- mct's Diet.) concludes that something like this is the sense of the passage ; and it seems, on the whole, the most intelligible and forcible explanation of the pas- i sage to suppose that the sacred writer thus poetical- ! ly describes some one of the many desolate valleys I which the stated worshippers at Jerusalem were obliged
BACCALAUREUS
G07
BACCHUS
to traverse in their yearly visits to the solemn festi- vals.— Smith, s. v. ; Kitto, s. v.
Baccalaureus (i. e. Bachelor), one who takes a first decree in divinity, arts, medicine, or civil law. This degree was first introduced in the thirteenth cen- tury by Pope Gregory IX. L'henanus maintains that the title is taken from the Bandits placed in the hand of the new graduate. The usual derivation is that given by Alciatus, viz. lacca laurea, a laurel berry; "but the Spanish bachillir, which means at once « babbler and a master of arts, taken in conjunction with the Portuguese bacharel and baclllo, a shoot or twig of the vine (from the Latin bacillus or bacvlum, a stick or shoot), and the French bachelette, a damsel, seem to point to its original and generic meaning, which prob- ably was a, person shooting or protruding from one stage of hk career Into another more advanced. AYith this general signification, all the special meanings of the word given by Ducange (Glossarium, s. v.) eeem to have some analogy. 1. It was used, he says, to indi- cate a person who cultivated certain portions of church lands called baccalarla — which he supposed to have been a corruption of vassele.ria — a feu belonging to an inferior vassal, or to one who had not attained to a full feudal recognition. 2. It indicated ecclesiastics of a lower dignity than the other members of a religious brotherhood, i. e. monks who were still in the first stage of monkhood. 3. It was used hy later writers to indicate persons in the first or probationary stage of knighthood ; i. e. not esquires simply, but knights who, from poverty and the insufficient number of their retainers, from their possessing, perhaps, only the bac- calaria above referred to, or from nonage, had not yet raised their banners in the field (leve banniere). 4. It was adopted to indicate the first grade or step in the career of university life. As an academical title, it was first introduced by Pope Gregory IX in the thir- teenth century into the University of Paris to denote a candidate who had undergone his first academical trials, and was authorized to give lectures, but was not yet admitted to the rank of an independent master or doctor. At a later period it was introduced into the other faculties as the lowest academical honor, and adopted by the other universities of Europe." In the Middle Ages two kinds of bachelors were recognized in theological studies, viz. Baccalaurei cursores and Baccalaurei formati. The former were those who, after six years of study, were admitted to perform their courses. There were two courses, one in explain- ing the Bible for three years, and the other in explain- ing for one year the Master of the Sentences ; conse- quently, those who performed the biblical course were called Baccalaurei biblici ; the others, Baccalaurei scn- tentiaril; while those who had finished both courses were known as Baccalaurei formati. — Chambers, En- cyclopedia., s. v. ; Herzog, Iieal-Encyldopadle , Suppl. i, 424 ; Hilscher, de nomine Baccalaurei (Lips. 17H3) ; Gottsched, de dlgnltate Bacc. Llpsiensls (Lips. 1739); Landon, Eccles. Dictionary, s. v. See Degrees ; Uni- versities.