Baker, Charles, a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, was born in Scituate, R. I., April 7, 1798. In 1821 he was received into the New England Conference on probation, and subsequently labored for thirty-six consecutive years chiefly in Maine and Massachusetts. After eight years of superannuation, he died, in triumph, at Somerville, Mass., August 16, 1864.— Minutes of Conferences, 1865, p. 61.
Baker, Daniel, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in Midway, Ga., Aug. 17, 1791, and studied at Hampden Sidney College, and at Princeton, where he graduated A.B. in 1815. He studied theology with Mr. Hill, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Win- chester, Va., and was ordained pastor of the church in Harrisburg, Va., March 5, 1818. Finding himself called to a missionary career, he resigned his charge in 1821 ; and from 1822 to 1828 was pastor in Wash- ington, D. C. Here John Quincy Adams was one of his hearers, and several acts of great kindness on the part of that eminent man are recorded in his life. Here he wrote A Scriptural View of Baptism, afterward expanded into a work with the quaint, title, Bap/ism in a Nutshell. In 1830, his great success as a revivalist having been noised abroad, he began to travel among the churches, and the remainder of his life was chiefly spent in this way. His travels extended through- out the Southern States, and even to Texas, -where he finally settled. Here, among other labors, he founded Austin College, of which he was the first president. He died at Austin, Dec. 10, 1857. — ^[emoirs of Daniel Baker, by his Son (Philadelphia, 1859, 12mo).
Bakers, one of the scurrilous names given by the heathen to the early Christians. In Minucius Felix (Octavius, c. 14), the heathen interlocutor calls the Christians Planting prosapim homines et pistores, "men of the race of Plautus, bakers." Jerome says that Plau- tus was so poor that, in a time of famine, he was com- pelled to hire himself out to a baker to grind in his mill (Chron. an. 1. Olymp. 145). Such sort of men Csecilius says the Christians were in the dialogue above cited from Minucius. — Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. i, ch. ii, § 12. Baking. See Bake.
Ba'laam (Heb. Bilam' ', 35^3; Sept. and N. T. and Philo, Ba\aa/.i, Josephus, Bd\a/.ioc). The name is derived by Vitringa from 3^3 and D3>, q. d. lord of the people ; but by Simonis from "bs and 3", de- struction of the people — an allusion to his supposed su- pernatural powers; Gesenius derives it from 33, not, and C", in the sense of foreigner ; Fiirst does not de- cide which etymology to prefer. His father's name, Beor, comes likewise from a root which means to con- sume or devour. It is deserving of notice that Pela (q. v.), the first king of the Edomites, was also the son of a Beor (Gen. xxxvi, 32). In 2 Peter ii, 15, Balaam is called the son of Bosor, which Gesenius attributes to an early corruption of the text; but Lightfoot con- siders it to be a Chaldaism, and infers from the apos- tle's use of it that he was then resident at Babylon {Works, vii, 80 ; Sermon on the way of Balaam). See Bileam. In the other passage of the New Testa-
ment (Rev. ii, 14, 15), the sect of the Nicolaitans is described as following the doctrine or teaching of Balaam ; and it appears not improbable that this name is employed symbolically, as Nicolaus (NucoXaof, peo- ple-conquering) is equivalent in meaning to Balaam.
The first mention of this remarkable person is in Numbers xxii, 5, where we are informed that Balak " sent messengers unto Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the chil- dren of his people." B.C. 1619. He belonged to the Midianites, and perhaps, as the prophet of his people, possessed the same authority that Moses did among the Israelites. At any rate, he is mentioned in con- junction with the five kings of Midian, apparently as a person of the same rank (Num. xxxi, 8 ; cf. xxxi, 16). He seems to have lived at Pethor, which is said at Deut. xxiii, 4, to have been a city of Mesopotamia (D"nrO DnX). He himself speaks of being " brought from Aram out of the mountains of the East" (Num. xxiii, 7). The reading, therefore, "pHS 1.53, instead of "IB2 153) which at Num. xxii, 5, is found in some MSS., and is adopted by the Samaritan, Syriac, and Vulgate, versions, need not be preferred, as the Am- monites do not appear to have ever extended so far as the Euphrates, which is probably the river alluded to in this place. If the received reading be correct, it intimates that Pethor was situated in Balaam's native country, and that he was not a mere sojourner in Mes- opotamia, as the Jewish patriarchs were in Canaan. In Josh, xiii, 22, Balaam is termed "the Soothsayer, " B31p, a word which, with its cognates, is used almost without exception in an unfavorable sense. Josephus calls him an eminent diviner (^c'ivtiq uqkjtoq, Ant. iv, G, 2) ; and what is to be understood by this appella- tion may be perhaps best learned from the following description by Philo: "There was a man at that time celebrated for divination who lived in Mesopotamia, and was an adept in all the forms of the divining art ; but in no branch was he more admired than in augury ; to manj' persons and on many occasions he gave great and astounding proofs of his skill. For to some he foretold storms in the height of summer; to others drought and heat in the depth of winter ; to some scarcity succeeding a fruitful year, and then again abundance after scarcitj' ; to others the overflowing and the drying up of rivers ; and the remedies of pes- tilential diseases, and a vast multitude of other things, each of which he acquired great fame for predicting" (Vita Moysis, § 48). Origen speaks of Balaam as fa- mous for his skill in magic, and the use of noxious in- cantations, but denies that he had any power to bless, for which he gives the following reason : " For magic, like dcemons, is unable to bless" (In Num. Horn. xiii). Balak's language, "I wot he whom thou blessest is blessed" (Num. xxii, 6), he considers as only designed to flatter Balaam, and render him compliant with his wishes. (See Berr, La prophetie de Balaam, Par. 1832.)