Betll- (Heb. Beytk, the "construct form" of Fl*1?, ba'yith, according to Fiirst, from 1^2, to lodge in the night; according to Gesenius, from il52, to build, as So/iug, domus, from ci/no), the name of the second let- ter of the Hebrew alphabet, corresponding to our B, which was derived from it. As an appellative, it is the most general word for a house or habitation. Strict- ly speaking, it has the force of a settled stable dwell- ing, as in Gen. xxxiii, 17, where the building of a "house" marks the termination of a stage of Jacob's wanderings (comp. also 2 Sam. vii, 2, 6, and many ether places) ; but it is also employed for a dwelling of any kind, even for a tent, as in Gen. xxiv, 02, wdiere it must refer to the tent of Laban ; also Judg. xviii, 31; 1 Sam. i, 7, to the tent of the tabernacle, and 2 Kings xxiii, 7, where it expresses the textib materials (A. V. "hangings") for the tents of Astarte. From this general force the transition was natural to a house in the sense of a family, as Psa. cvii, 41, " families," or a pedigree, as Ezraii, 5!). In 2 Sam. xiii, 7, 1 Kings xiii, 7, and ether places, it has the sense of "house," i. e. "to the house." Beth also has some collateral and almost technical meanings, similar to those which we apply to the wTord "house," as in Exod. xxv, 27, for the "places" or sockets into which the bars for carrying the table were " housed ;" and others. Like JEdes in Latin and Doni in German, Beth has the special meaning of a temple or house of worship, in which sense it is applied not only to the tabernacle (see above) or temple of Jehovah (1 Kings iii, 2 ; vi, 1, etc.), but to those of false gods — Uagon (Judg. xvi, 27 ; 1 Sam. v, 2), Rimmon (2 Kings v, 18), Baal (2 Kings x, 21), Nisroch (2 Kings xix, 37), and other gods (Judg. ix, 27). "Bajith" (q. v.) in Isa. xv, 2 is really hab- Bajith = "the Temple" — meaning some well-known idol fane in Moab. Beth is more frequently employed as the first clement of the names of places than cither Kirjath, Hazer, Beer, Ain, or airy other word. See those following. In some instances it seems to be in- terchangeable (by euphemism) for Baal (q. v.). In all such compounds as Beth-el, etc., the latter part of the word must be considered, according to our Occidental languages, to depend on the former in the relation of tlte genitive; so that Bethel can only mean "house of God." The notion of house is, of course, capable of a wide application, and is used to mean temple, hab- itation, place, according to the sense of the word with which it is combined. In some instances the Auth. Vers, has translated it as an appellative ; see Beth- eked; Betii-hag-gan; Beth-eden. — Smith, s. v.
Bethab'ara (B>;9a/3nn«, quasi WIS tVB, house cf the ford or ferry-), a place beyond Jordan Qrc&pav tov 'lop.), in which, according to the Received Text of the N. T., John was baptizing (John i, 28), appar- ently- at the time that he baptized Christ (comp. ver. 29, 39, 35). If this reading be the correct one, Beth-
abara may be identical with Beth-barah (q. v.), the ancient ford of Jordan, of winch the men of Ephraim took possession after Gideon's defeat of the Midianites (Judg. vii, 24) ; or possibly with Beth-NIMKAH (q. v.), on the east of the river, nearly opposite Jericho. But the oldest MSS. (A, B) and the Vulgate have not " Bethabara," but Bethany (BrfSavia), a reading which Origen states (Opp. ii, 13(1, ed. Huet) to have obtained in almost all the copies of his time (cryicW Trdi'ra ra avriypcupa), though altered by him in his edition of the Gospel on topographical grounds (see Kuinul, in loc). In favor of Bethabara are (a) the extreme improba- bility of so familiar a name as Bethany being changed by copyists into one so unfamiliar as Bethabara, while the reverse— the change from an unfamiliar to a famil- iar name — is of frequent occurrence, (b) The fact
i that Origen, while admitting that the majority of MSS. were in favor of Bethany, decided, notwithstanding,
; for Bethabara. (c) That Bethabara was still known in the daA's of Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasiicon, B?]Saafia(>a, Bethbaara, which is expressly stated to
j have been the scene of John's baptism), and greatly resorted to by persons desirous of baptism. Still the
I fact remains that the most ancient MSS. have "Beth-
I any," and that name has been accordingly restored to the text by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and other modern
j editors. The locality must, therefore, be sought by this name on the east shore of the Jordan. — ■ Smith, s. v. See Bethany.
Beth-anab (q. d. 23"T:'12, house offys) is proba- bly the correct name of a village mentioned by Euse- bius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. 'Avwfi, Anob) under
I the form MtToaiwdic or Betkoannaba, as lying four Ro- man miles east of Diospolis (Lydda), while Jerome (ibJ) speaks of still another name, Bethannaba, as belonging
j to a village eight miles in the same direction. Van dc Velde {Memoir, p. 293) ingeniously reconciles these statements by assigning the first locality as that of the modern Annabeh, and the second as Beit-Nuba, which lie respectively at the required distances south-east of Ludd. Comp. Anae.