Blindness is a term often used in Scripture to denote ignorance or a want of discernment in divine things, as well as the being destitute of natural sight (Isa. vi, 10 ; xlii, 18, 19 ; Matt, xv, 14). " Blindnesc of heart" is the want of understanding arising from the influ- ence of vicious passions, while "hardness of heart" is stubborness of will and absence of moral feeling (-cJ- pwene, Mark iii, 5 ; Rom. xi, 25 ; Eph. iv, 18).
Blindfold (/rfnov«\i>7r7-(d, to cover about, sc. the eyes). This treatment which our Saviour received from his persecutors originated from a sport which was common among children in ancient times, in which it was the practice first to blindfold, then to strike, then to ask who gave the blow, and not to let the person go until he had named the one who had struck him. It was used in reproach of our blessed Lord, as a prophtt or divine teacher, and to expose him to ridicule (Luke xxii, 64).
Blomfield, Charles James, bishop of London, was born in 1786 at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, where his father was a schoolmaster. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1808 us third wrangler. The first published fruit of his phi- lological studies was an edition of the Prometheus of ./Eschylus, which appeared in 1810. This was follow ed by the Seven against Thebes, 1812, the /'< mans, the Ckoephorce, and the Agamemnon. A valuable edition of Cattimachus was published under his supervision in 1824. In 1812 he edited, in connection with Kennel, the Mum Cantabrigienses, and with Monk the Posthu- mous Tracts of Porson, a work which he followed, two years later, by editing alone the Adversaria Porsoni. But, besides these, he is known to have written numer- ous critical papers on Greek literature, some of them of a rather trenchant character, in the quarterly re- views and classical journals, and he compiled in 1828 a Greek grammar for schools. His first preferment was to the living of Warrington, 1810, and in the same year he received that of Dunton in Essex. In 1819 he became chaplain to Ilowley, bishop of London, and very soon after became rector of St. Botolph, Bishops- gate, London, and archdeacon of Colchester. In 1824 lie was raised to the bench as bishop of Chester, and in 1828 he succeeded Dr. Ilowley as bishop of L< n- don, in which see he remained until his death in 1856. During his incumbency there were built in his dio- cese a number of churches beyond all comparison greater than in the presidency of any other bishop since the Reformation; and one of his latest public acts was an earnest appeal, seconded by a large 6ub-
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pcription, to raise funds tr> construct as many churches as the < lensus Report showed to be needed to meet the wants of the metropolis. His theological writings arc Fhh Lectures on John's Gospel (Lona. 1823, 12mo) :— Tm be /.< dun s on the A c/s (Lond. 1828, 8vo, which edi- tion includes also the Lectures on John): — Sermons at 8t. Jiiitn/ji h's, ( Lond. 1829, 8vo): — Sermonsonthe Church j (Lond. 1842, 8vo); besides various occasional sermons, ] charges, pamphlets, etc. See Biber, Bishop Biomfield \ and his Times (Lond. 1857) ; Memoir of Bp. Blomfield, by his Sun (Lond. 1862); Christ. Remembrancer, xliv, 386; English Cyclopaedia, 6. v.
Blondel, David, one of the most learned theolo- | gians of a learned age, was born at Chalons-sur-Marne in 1591, and became a minister among the French I Protestants in 1614. In 1619 he published his Modeste declaration de la sincerite et virile des eglises reformees (8vo). In 1631 he was nominated professor at Saumur. The synod of Charenton in 1645 fixed him at Paris with a pension of 1000 livres, in order that he might have means and leisure to write for the Protestant cause. In 1G50 he was invited to Amsterdam to suc- ceed Vossius in the chair of history, and there he caught a cold in' the eyes, which deprived him of sight for the rest of his da}-s. He died April 6, 1655. His | writings, both polemical and historical, are still of I great value to Protestantism. Among them are, 1. Familier icbiircissement, etc. ; a treatise on the debated question about the existence of "Pope Joan," which | he decides in the negative (Amsterdam, 1647, 1649, 8vo) : — 2. Pseudo-Isidorus et Turrianus rapulantcs ; to i prove the falsity of the decretals attributed to the an- j cient popes (Geneva, 1628, 4to) : — 3. Apologia pro sen- < but in Hitruiiymi de episctpis et preslyteris ; an able de- j fence of Presbyterianism (Amsterdam, 1646): — 4. De j la primaute dans VEglise (1641); against Cardinal Du- perron, perhaps the greatest of his works : — 5. A Trea- tise of the .Sibyls, translated (Lond. fol. 1661). A full list is given by Niceron, viii, 48; see also Haag, La France Protestante, ii, 306.
Blood (p\ dam ; alua : both occasionally used, by Hebraism, in the plural with a sing, sense), the red fluid circulating in the veins of men and animals. The term is employed in Scripture in a variety of senses.
1. As Food. — To blood is ascribed in Scripture the mysterious sacredness which belongs to life, and God reserved it to Himself when allowing man the domin- ion over and the use of the lower animals for food, etc. (See Thomson, Land and Boole, i, 136.) In Gen. ix, 4, where the use of animal food is allowed, it is first absolutely forbidden to eat "flesh with its soul, its blood;" which expression, were it otherwise obscure, is explained by the mode in which the same terms arc employed in Dent, xii, 23. In the Mosaic law the prohibition is repeated with frequency and emphasis, although it is generally introduced in connection with sacrifices, as in Lev. iii, 7 ; vii, 26 (in both which places blood is coupled in the prohibition with the fat of the victims); xvii, 10-14; xix, 2: Dent, xii, 16-23; xv, 23. In cases where the prohibition is introduced in connection with the lawful and unlawful articles of diet, the reason which is generally assigned in the t '■•' is thai "the blood is the soul," and it is ordered that it lie poured on the ground like water. But where it i- introduced in reference to the portions of the vic- tim which were to be offered to the Lord, then the addition to the former reason, insists that "the blood e ipiates U the soul" | Lev. xvii, 11, 12). This strict injunction not only applied to the Israel- ites, bul i \en to the strangers residing among them. I he penalty assigned to it- transgression was the be- ing "cut off fri m the people," by which the punish- ment of d tatfa appears to be intended (com].. Ileb. x, 28), although it is difficult to asci rtain whether it was inflicted by the sword or by stoning. It is observed by Michaelis (Atot. Recht. iv, 45) that the blood of