Bochart, Samuel, one of the most eminent schol- ars of the Protestant Church, was born at Rouen in 1599, and was nephew on his mother's side to the cel- ebrated Pierre Dumoulin. He studied at Sedan and Leyden, and his talent and proficiency showed itself very early. In September, 1628, he held disputations with Veron, the Jesuit, before a large audience of learned and noble men. Soon after appeared Ids Geo- graphia Sacra (1646), which obtained for him such a high reputation that Queen Christina of Sweden wrote to him to invite him to come to Stockholm, and, when there, loaded him with distinctions. It is of little value, in the present state of science. On his return to Caen (1653) he married, and had one daughter, who was attacked with a slow disorder; this affected Bo- chart so fearfully that he died suddenly on the 16th of
May, 1667. He was a man of almost unrivalled eru- dition, acquainted with Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic. When old, he endeavored to acquire a knowl- edge of the Ethiopian tongue under Ludolf. His other most important work is Hierozoican, s/iv Iliatoria aui- malium S. Scriptures, of which a modern edition was printed at Leipsic 1793-1796, in 3 vols. 4to, with notes by Rosenmuller, 3 vols. 4to. His complete works have been edited at Leyden by Johannes Leusden and Pc- trus de Yillemandy, under the title Opera omnia, hoc est, Fhalcg, Chanaan, et Hierczoicon, quibus aceesstrunt Dissertationes Varies, etc. Pramittitur Vita Aintiu-it: it Stephana Merino scripta, editio quarta (1712, 3 vols, fob). See "Life and Writings of Bochart" in Essays on Biblical Literature (N. Y., 1829); Haag, La France Protestante, ii, 318.
Boch'eru (Heb. Bokeru' ', 1^23, the Jirsl-born is he; Sept. translates 7rpw7-('ro/>-or avrov), one of the six sons of Azel, a descendant of King Saul (1 Chron. viii, 38 ; ix, 44). B.C. much post 1037. See Becher.
Bo'chim (Heb. Bolim', CC2, weepers, in the first occurrence with the art., d"C2il, hah-Bolim, where the Sept. translates 6 KXavStfiwv, in the other passages KXav^um-eg or KXavSrfidiv), the name given to a place (apparently the site of an altar) where an ''angel of the Lord" reproved the assembled Israelites for their disobedience in making leagues with the inhabitants of the land, and for their remissness in taking posses- sion of their heritage. This caused a bitter weeping among the people, from which the place took its name (Judg. ii, 1, 5). " Angel" is here usually taken in the ordinary sense of "messenger," and he is supposed to have been a prophet, which is strengthened by his 1 e- ing said to have come from Gilgal ; for it was not usual to say that an angel came from another place, and Gilgal (q. v.) was a noted station and resort of holy men. Most of the Jewish commentators regard this personage as Phinehas, who was at that time the high-priest. There are many, however, who deny that an}' man or created angel is here meant, and af- firm that no other than the Great Angel of the Cov- enant is to be understood — the same who appeared to Moses in the bush, and to Joshua as the captain of Jehovah's host. This notion is grounded on the fact that "the angel," without using the usual formula of delegation, "Thus saith the Lord," says at once, "/ made you to go up out of Egypt," etc. As the Gilgal near the Jordan is doubtless meant, and as the place in question lay on higher ground (" came up"), proba- bly near Shiloh, where the tabernacle then was, we may conjecturally locate Bochim at the head of one of the valleys running up between them, possibly at the present ruins of Khurh l ./< radeh, a little south-east of Seilun (Van de Yeldc, Map).
Bodenstein. See Caklostadt.
Body (represented by numerous Ilcb. terms ; Gr. au>fia), the animal frame of man as distinguished from his spiritual nature. Body is represented as opposed to shadow or figure (Col. ii, 17). The ceremonies of the law arc figures and shadows realized in Christ and the Christian religion. "The body of sin" (Bom. vi, 6), called also "the body of this death" (Rom. vii, 24), is to lie understood of the system and habit of sin be- fore conversion, and which is afterward viewed as a loathsome burden. The apostle speaks of a spiritual body in opposition to the animal (1 Cor. xv, 44). The term also indicates a society ; the Church with its dif- ferent members (1 Cor. xii, 20-27).
Boeheim. See Boheim.
Boehler, Peter, an eminent Moravian minister, was born Dec. 31, 1712, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and was educated at Jena. On the 16th of 1 >ecember, 1737, Boehler received ordination as a minister from the hands of Count Zinzendorf, with whose benedictions
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and instructions ho was dispatched, via London, on a mission to the negro population of Carolina and Geor- gia. On reaching London lie met John Wesley, and ran an intimacy which had great results in fixing Wesley's religious experience. See Wesley. Boehler's mission was not very successful in Georgia; and the colonists, under his direction, removed to Penn- sylvania about 1740. At the forks of the Delaware he was joined by Count Zinzcndorf, Bishop Nitzschmann, David Nitzschmann, and his daughter Anna, who were engaged in the visitation of the North American churches, and whom he accompanied in their perilous enterprise. In the toils and privations peculiar to the earli sst missionary settlements among the savages of North America, Boehler took his full share. His most peaceful labors were those in Iiethlehcm, where he labored as pastor with great diligence and success. Returning to England, he received ordination as a bishop. He had already been recognised as one of the superintendents of the North American congrega- tions, and at the time of his death he was a director of the Brethren's "Unity" — offices of no ordinary trust and responsibility. His episcopal visitations were ex- tensive, including the oversight of the Brethren's con- gregations in England, Ireland, and Wales. He also attended, officially, several foreign synods, and took part in their important deliberations. The archives of several settlements contain affectionate mention of the holy influence by which his public ministrations and pastoral counsels were attended. The March and April of the year in which he died were spent in the visitation of the settlement at Fulneck. A stone in the Moravian cemetery at Chelsea bears the following inscription: " Petrus Boehler, a Bishop of the Unitas Fratrum, departed April 27th, 1775, in the sixty-third year of his age." — Wesleyan Magazine, Aug. 1854; Stevens, History of Methodism, i, 100 ; Wesley, Works, iii, 61, 62, etc. ; Moravian (newspaper), Nov. and Dec. 18G1 ;' Stevens, Hist, of M. E. Church, i, 34.