Blood And Water – Bolster

Blood And Water

(haima kai hudor): The remarkable passage (John 19:34) from which this expression is taken refers to the piercing of the Savior's side by the soldier. The evangelist notes here what he, as an eyewitness of the crucifixion, had seen as a surprising fact. Whereon this surprise was founded cannot now be more than guessed at. Nor is it necessary here to discuss the reason or reasons why the apostle mentions the fact at all in his report, whether merely for historical accuracy and completeness, or as a possible proof of the actual death of Christ, which at an early date became a subject of doubt among certain Christian sects, or whether by it he wished to refer to the mystical relation of baptismal cleansing ("water") and the atonement ("blood") as signified thereby. Let it suffice to state that a reference often made to 1 John 5:6,1 John 5:8 is here quite out of place. This passage, though used by certain Fathers of the church as a proof of the last-named doctrine, does not indeed refer to this wonderful incident of the crucifixion story. The argument of 1 John 5:8 concerns the Messiahship of Jesus, which is proved by a threefold witness, for He is the one whom at the baptism of John ("water") God attested as the Messiah by the heavenly voice, "This is my beloved Son," who at the crucifixion ("blood") had the testimony that the Father had accepted His atoning sacrifice, and whose promise of sending the Comforter fulfilled on Pentecost ("spirit") presented us with the final proof of the completed Messianic task. The same expression in 1 John 5:6 refers probably to the same argument with the implied meaning that Jesus came not only by the merely ceremonial water of baptism, but also by the more important, because vivifying, blood of atonement.

The physiological aspect of this incident of the crucifixion has been first discussed by Gruner (Commentatio de morte Jesu Christi vera, Halle, 1805), who has shown that the blood released by the spear-thrust of the soldier must have been extravasated before the opening of the side took place, for only so could it have been poured forth in the described manner. While a number of commentators have opposed this view as a fanciful explanation, and have preferred to give the statement of the evangelist a symbolical meaning in the sense of the doctrines of baptism and eucharist (so Baur, Strauss, Reuss and others), some modern physiologists are convinced that in this passage a wonderful phenomenon is reported to us, which, inexplicable to the sacred historian, contains for us an almost certain clue to the real cause of the Savior's death. Dr. Stroud (On the Physiological Cause of the Death of Christ, London, 1847) basing his remarks on numerous postmortems, pronounced the opinion that here we had a proof of the death of Christ being due not to the effects of crucifixion but to "laceration or rupture of the heart" as a consequence of supreme mental agony and sorrow. It is well attested that usually the suffering on the cross was very prolonged. It often lasted two or three days, when death would supervene from exhaustion. There were no physical reasons why Christ should not have lived very much longer on the cross than He did. On the other hand, death caused by laceration of the heart in consequence of great mental suffering would be almost instantaneous. In such a case the phrase "of a broken heart," becomes literally true. The life blood flowing through the aperture or laceration into the pericardium or caul of the heart, being extravasated, soon coagulates into the red clot (blood) and the limpid serum (water). This accumulation in the heart-sac was released by the spear-thrust of the soldier (which here takes providentially the place of a postmorten without which it would have been impossible to determine the real cause of death), and from the gaping wound there flow the two component parts of blood distinctly visible.

Several distinguished physicians have accepted Dr. Stroud's argument, and some have strengthened it by the observation of additional symptoms. We may mention Dr. James Begbie, fellow and late president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Sir J. Y. Simpson, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and others (see Dr. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth, Appendix I). The latter refers to the loud cry, mentioned by the Synoptists (Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46), which preceded the actual death of Jesus, as a symptom characteristic of cases of "broken heart." He adds that Dr. Walshe, professor of medicine in University College, London, one of the greatest authorities on the diseases of the heart, says that a "piercing shriek" is always uttered in such cases immediately before the end.

While we may never reach a state of absolute certainty on this subject, there is no valid reason to deny the probability of this view of the death of Christ. It certainly gives a more solemn insight into Christ's spiritual anguish, "the travail of his soul" on our behalf, which weighed upon Him so heavily that long before the usual term of bodily and therefore endurable suffering of crucified persons Christ's loving heart broke, achieving the great atoning sacrifice for all mankind.

H. L. E. Luering

Blood, Avenger Of

See AVENGER.

Blood, Issue Of

ish'-u.

See BLOODY FLUX.

Blood-Revenge

blud-re-venj':

See AVENGER.

Bloodguiltiness

blud-gilt'-i-nes: Found in the King James Version only in Psalms 51:14. The Revised Version (British and American) adds Exodus 22:2,Exodus 22:3; 1 Samuel 25:26,1 Samuel 25:33. Ezekiel 18:13 seems to indicate that the phrase does not necessarily signify bloodshed, but any grievous sin which, if it remains, will block God's favor to His land and people (compare Deuteronomy 21:8; Isaiah 1:15). Psalms 51:1–19 is to be interpreted in this light.

Bloodshedding

blud'-shed-ing (haimatekchusia, Hebrews 9:22): In this passage the indispensability of expiating sacrifice is positively set forth.

Bloodthirsty

blud'-thurs-ti ('anshe damim, "men of blood"): This occurs in the King James Version only in Proverbs 29:10; in the Revised Version (British and American), Psalms 5:6; Psalms 55:23; Psalms 59:2; Psalms 139:19.

See BLOODY.

Bloody

blud'-i (dam = "blood" of man or an animal; and where the King James translators have rendered with the adjective "bloody," the Hebrew employs the noun in the construct case, "of blood"): "A bridegroom of blood" (Exodus 4:25,Exodus 4:26, the King James Version bloody husband). Zipporah, not being an Israelite, probably objected to the circumcision of infants, if not to the rite altogether; apprehending, however, that her husband's life was imperiled possibly through some grievous sickness (Exodus 4:24) because of their disobedience in this particular, she performed the ceremony herself upon her son, saying, "A bridegroom of blood art thou to me."

In the Revised Version (British and American) the expression (the King James Version "bloody") is variously rendered, "man of blood" (2 Samuel 16:7,2 Samuel 16:8); "men of blood" (Psalms 26:9); "bloodthirsty" (Psalms 5:6; Psalms 59:2; Psalms 139:19). In 2 Samuel 21:1, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house," might be rendered "Upon Saul and his house rests bloodshed."

Ezekiel calls Jerusalem "the bloody city" (Ezekiel 22:2; Ezekiel 24:6; compare Ezekiel 7:23), referring to those unjustly put to death by the wicked rulers of Jerusalem. Nineveh also is called "the bloody city" (Nahum 3:1). The capital here virtually stands for the kingdom, and history bears witness to the enormous cruelties perpetrated by the Assyrian rulers. It is siege on siege, pools of blood everywhere, the flaying of men alive, "great baskets stuffed with the salted heads of their foes." For two hundred years it is th e story of brute force and ruthless cruelty. "The prey departeth not." And now every cruelty which they have visited upon others is to be turned upon themselves (Nahum 3:19).

M. O. Evans

Bloody Flux

fluks (puretos kai dusenteria, literally "fever and dysentery"): The disease by which the father of Publius was afflicted in Malta (Acts 28:8). the Revised Version (British and American) calls it "dysentery"; a common and dangerous disease which in Malta is often fatal to soldiers of the garrison even at the present day (Aitken, Pract. of Medicine, II, 841). It is also prevalent in Palestine at certain seasons, and in Egypt its mortality was formerly about 36 percent. Its older name was due to the d ischarge of blood from the intestine. Sometimes portions of the bowel become gangrenous and slough, the condition described as affecting Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:19). There seems to have been an epidemic of the disease at the time of his seizure (2 Chronicles 21:14,2 Chronicles 21:15), and in the case of the king it left behind it a chronic ulcerated condition, ending in gangrene. Somewhat similar conditions of chronic intestinal ulceration following epidemic dysentery I have seen in persons who had suffered from this disease in India.

Alex. Macalister

Bloody Sweat

(swet hosei thromboi haimatos): Described in Luke 22:44 as a physical accompaniment of our Lord's agony at Gethsemane (on the passage, which is absent in some manuscripts, see Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek). Many old writers take this to mean that the perspiration dropped in the same manner as clots of blood drop from a wound, regarding the Greek word prefixed as expressing merely a comparison as in Matthew 28:3, where leukon hos chion means "white as snow." Cases of actual exudation of blood are described in several of the medieval accounts of stigmatization, and Lefebvre describes the occurrence of something similar in his account of Louise Lateau in 1870. For references to these cases see the article "Stigmatization" in Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition), XXII, 550. It is perhaps in favor of the older interpretation that the word used by Aeschylus for drops of blood is stagon (Agam. 1122) and by Euripides stalagmos, not thromboi. None of the instances given by Tissot (Traite des nerfs, 279), or Schenck (Observ. med., III, 45:5), can be said to be unimpeachable; but as the agony of our Lord was unexampled in human experience, it is conceivable that it may have been attended with physical conditions of a unique nature.

Alex. Macalister

Bloom; Blossom

bloom, blos'-um.

See FLOWERS.

Blot

blot (mum, contracted from me'um, "spot"): Occurs in the sense of scorn (Proverbs 9:7). In Job 31:7 (the King James Version) it is used figuratively of a moral defect; the Revised Version (British and American) has "spot." Blot out (machah, "to wipe out," exaleipho, "to smear out"), to obliterate or destroy: "That a tribe be not blotted out" (the King James Version "destroyed," Judges 21:17). To blot men out of God's book is to cut them off by an untimely death (Exodus 32:32).

Figuratively: "To blot out sin" is to forgive sin fully (Psalms 51:1,Psalms 51:9; Acts 3:19; Colossians 2:14). Not to blot out sin is to reserve for punishment (Nehemiah 4:5). The names of those who inherit eternal life are not blotted out of the "book of life" (Revelation 3:5).

See BOOK OF LIFE; BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE; FORGIVENESS.

L. Kaiser

Blow

blo (nashaph): Used with reference to the wind (Exodus 15:10; Psalms 78:26; Psalms 147:18; pneo, "to breathe," Luke 12:55; John 3:8; Revelation 7:1); taqa`, with reference to trumpet sound (Numbers 10:3–10; Numbers 31:6 the King James Version; Judges 7:18,Revelation 7:3; 1 Kings 1:34; 1 Chronicles 15:24; Psalms 81:3; Ezekiel 33:3,Ezekiel 33:6; Hosea 5:8; Joel 2:1,Joel 2:15); puach, with reference to the strong expulsion of the breath (Ezekiel 21:31; Ezekiel 22:20,Ezekiel 22:21; Haggai 1:9; Isaiah 40:7; Isaiah 54:16; Job 20:26); nashaph, with reference to a forcible slap or stroke with hand or an instrument (Psalms 39:10; Isaiah 40:24; Jeremiah 14:17 the King James Version).

Frank E. Hirsch

Blue

bloo.

See COLORS.

Boanerges

bo-a-nur'-jez (Boanerges; bene reghesh, "sons of thunder"): The surname bestowed by Jesus upon James and John, the sons of Zebedee, when they were ordained to the apostleship (Mark 3:17). See JAMES. It has also been regarded as an equivalent of the "Heavenly Twins," the Sons of Zeus or Thunder. According to this interpretation, the name Boanerges would represent the Dioscuri in some form or other of their varied presentation in the cults of the Mediterranean (compare Professor J. Rendel Harris in The Expositor, series vii, III, 146).

C. M. Kerr

Boar

bor (chazir): In lamenting the troubled state of the Jewish nation the Psalmist (Psalms 80:13) says: "The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, and the wild beasts of the field feed on it," with evident reference to Israel's enemies, the Assyrians, etc. The wild boar is abundant in certain parts of Palestine and Syria, especially in the thickets which border the lakes and rivers, as about the Chuleh, the sea of Galilee, the Jordan, and in the deltas of streams flowing into the Dead Sea, as Ghaur-us-Cafiyeh. Several fountains in Lebanon bear the name, `Ain-ul-Chazir, though chazir is not an Arabic word, khanzir being the Arabic for "swine."

See SWINE.

Alfred Ely Day

Board

bord (qeresh, "a slab or plank," "deck of a ship," "bench," "board"): This word is found in Exodus 26:16–21; Exodus 36:21 ff; its plural occurs in Exodus 26:15,Exodus 26:17–29; Exodus 35:11; Exodus 36:20–34; Exodus 39:33; Exodus 40:18; Numbers 3:36; Numbers 4:31. This word also is used in translation of luach (Exodus 27:8; Exodus 38:7; Song of Songs 8:9; Ezekiel 27:5 the King James Version) = "a tablet" (of stone, wood or metal), "board," "plate," "table"; also of tsla` = "rib," hence, a "side," "timber," "plank" (1 Kings 6:15 f). In 1 Kings 6:9, sedherah = "a rank," "a row," hence, "a range" or "board" is used. In the New Testament we find the expression "on board" in Acts 27:44 the King James Version, in translation of epi sanisin = "planks."

Frank E. Hirsch

Boast

bost (halal, "to praise"; kauchaomai, "to vaunt oneself," used both in a good and a bad sense): To praise God: "In God have we made our boast all the day long" (Psalms 44:8); to praise oneself, to vaunt (Psalms 10:3). In the New Testament the Revised Version (British and American) frequently translates "glory," where the King James Version has "boast," in a good sense (2 Corinthians 7:14). In the sense of self-righteousness (Ephesians 2:9; Romans 2:17,Romans 2:23). Boaster (alazon, "a braggart") occurs in the King James Version (Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2); the Revised Version (British and American) has "boastful."

Boat

bot.

See SHIPS AND BOATS.

Boaz

bo'-az (bo`az; Booz; "quickness" (?) Ruth 2:1–4:22; 1 Chronicles 2:11,1 Chronicles 2:12; Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:32):

(1) A resident of Bethlehem and kinsman of Elimelech, Naomi's husband. In Ruth 2:1 he is described as a gibbor chayil, a phrase which can mean either "a mighty man of valor" or else "a man of position and wealth." The latter is probably the sense in which the phrase is applied to Boaz (compare 1 Samuel 9:1). He had fields outside the town, and to them Ru went to glean. Boaz noticed her and extended special kindness and protection to her, bidding her remain with his female workers, and charging the men not to illtreat her, and also giving her of the reapers' food at mealtime. Boaz awoke one night and found Ru lying at his feet. He praised her virtue, and promised to take charge of her if her dead husband's next-of-kin failed to do so. He laid her case before the next-of-kin, and finally redeemed the family property himself and bought as well the right to take Ru in marriage. The son of Boaz and Ru was Obed, father of Jesse, and grandfather of David. 1 Chronicles 2:11,1 Chronicles 2:12 makes Boaz a descendant of Hezron, and so probably a chief of the Hezronite clan in Bethlehem. Jewish tradition identifies Boaz with Ibzan (Judges 12:8–10).

Boaz "is set before us as a model of piety, generosity and chastity" (H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, 398). He found virtue and rewarded it. HPM, sections 501-8, gives a picture of the life of "a well-to-do landed proprietor of central Palestine," much of which could aptly be taken as a description of Boaz.

(2) The name of one of the two bronze pillars erected in front of Solomon's temple, the other being Jachin (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:17).

See JACHIN AND BOAZ; TEMPLE.

David Francis Roberts

Boccas

bok'-as (Bokkas): A priest in the line of Ezra (1 Esdras 8:2) called Bukki in Ezra 7:4 and Borith in 2 Esdras 1:2.

Bocheru

bo'-ke-roo (bokheru): A son of Azrikam, Saul's descendant (1 Chronicles 8:38 = 1 Chronicles 9:34). For the ending ("-u"), compare the forms gashmu (Nehemiah 6:1,Nehemiah 6:6) and melikhu (Nehemiah 12:14 the King James Version and the Revised Version, margin).

Bochim

bo'-kim (ha-bokhim): A place on the mountain West of Gilgal said to have been so named (literally "the weepers") because Israel wept there at the remonstrance of the angel (Judges 2:1,Revelation 1:5). No name resembling this has been discovered. Given on the occasion mentioned, it may not have endured. Many, following Septuagint, identify it with Bethel.

Body

bod'-i:

I. PHILOLOGICAL:

Generally speaking, the Old Testament language employs no fixed term for the human body as an entire organism in exact opposition to "soul" or "spirit." Various terms were employed, each of which denotes only one part or element of the physical nature, such as "trunk," "bones," "belly," "bowels," "reins," "flesh," these parts being used, by synecdoche, for the whole: etsem = "bone," or "skeleton," hence, "body," is found in Exodus 24:10 the King James Version; Lamentations 4:7; nephesh = "living organism" (Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6,Numbers 6:7,Numbers 6:11; Numbers 19:11,Numbers 19:13,Numbers 19:16; Haggai 2:13); nebhelah = "a flabby thing," "carcass" (Deuteronomy 21:23; Isaiah 26:19; Jeremiah 26:23; Jeremiah 36:30); beTen = "womb" (Deuteronomy 28:4,Deuteronomy 28:11,Deuteronomy 28:18,Deuteronomy 28:53; Deuteronomy 30:9; Job 19:17 the King James Version; Psalms 132:11; Micah 6:7); yarekh = "thigh," "generative parts," "body" (Judges 8:30); gewiyah = "a body, whether alive or dead" (1 Samuel 31:10,1 Samuel 31:12; 2 Kings 8:5 the King James Version; Daniel 10:6); me`im, "body" (Song of Songs 5:14); guphah = "corpse" (1 Chronicles 10:12); gewah = "the back," i.e. (by extension) "person" (Job 20:25); she'er = "flesh, as living or for food," "body" (Ezekiel 10:12); geshem = "a hard shower of rain" hence, "a body" (Daniel 4:33; Daniel 5:21; Daniel 7:11); nidhneh = "a sheath," hence, the receptacle of the soul, "body" (Daniel 7:15).

The Greek word which is used almost exclusively for "body" in the New Testament is soma, Latin corpus (Matthew 5:29,Matthew 5:30; Matthew 6:22,Matthew 6:23,Matthew 6:25; Matthew 26:26; John 2:21; Acts 9:40; 1 Corinthians 15:35,1 Corinthians 15:37,1 Corinthians 15:38,1 Corinthians 15:44; Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 2:16; Ephesians 4:4,Ephesians 4:12,Ephesians 4:16; Ephesians 5:23,Ephesians 5:30). chros, signifying primarily the "surface" or "skin," occurs in Acts 19:12. A compound word with soma, as its base, sussomos = "a member of the same body," occurs in Ephesians 3:6. From the above, it appears that the New Testament places the body as a whole into opposition to the spirit or the invisible nature. Paul, of course, employs the term also to designate the sublimated substance with which we are to be clothed after the resurrection when he speaks of the "spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:44).

Frank E. Hirsch

II. GENERAL:

1. In the Old Testament:

soma, Latin corpus: The term "body" is not found in the Hebrew of the Old Testament in the sense in which it occurs in the Greek "The Hebrew word for `body' is gewiyah, which is sometimes used for the `living' body (Ezekiel 1:11), `bodies of the cherubim' (Genesis 47:18; Nehemiah 9:37), but usually for the dead body or carcass. Properly speaking the Hebrew has no term for `body.' The Hebrew term around which questions relating to the body must gather is flesh" (Davidson, Old Testament Theology, 188). Various terms are used in the Old Testament to indicate certain elements or component parts of the body, such as "flesh," "bones," "bowels," "belly," etc., some of which have received a new meaning in the New Testament. Thus the Old Testament "belly" (Hebrew beTen, Greek koilia), "Our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth" (Psalms 44:25 the King James Version)--as the seat of carnal appetite--has its counterpart in the New Testament: "They serve .... their own belly" (Romans 16:18). So also the word translated "bowels" (meim, rachamim) in the sense of compassion, as in Jeremiah 31:20, King James Version: "Therefore my bowels are troubled for him," is found in more than one place in the New Testament. Thus in Philippians 1:8 the King James Version, "I long after you all in the bowels (splagchna) of Christ," and again, "if there be any bowels (splagchna) and mercies" (Philippians 2:1 the King James Version).

2. In the New Testament:

"Body" in the New Testament is largely used in a figurative sense, either as indicating the "whole man" (Romans 6:12; Hebrews 10:5), or as that which is morally corrupt--"the body of this death" (Romans 6:6; Romans 7:24). Hence, the expression, "buffet my body" (1 Corinthians 9:27, hupopiazo, a word adopted from the prize-ring, palaestra), the body being considered as the lurking-place and instrument of evil. (Compare Romans 8:13 the King James Version "Mortify the deeds of the body.")

3. Other Meanings:

Between these two the various other meanings seem to range. On the one hand we find the church called "the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13), with diversity of gifts, enjoying the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." On the other we read of a spiritual, incorruptible body, a resurrection-body as opposed to the natural body, which is doomed to corruption in death (1 Corinthians 15:44). Not only do we find these meanings in the word itself, but also in some of its combinations. On the one hand we read in Ephesians 3:6 of the Gentiles as "partakers of the promise in Christ" as "fellow- heirs," and "of the same body" (sussoma) in corporate union with all who put their trust in the Redeemer of mankind; on the other, we read of mere "bodily (somatic) exercises," which are not profitable. (1 Timothy 4:8)--where "body" evidently is contrasted with "spirit." And again, we read of the Holy Ghost descending in "bodily" (somatic) shape upon the "Son of God" (Luke 3:22), in whom dwelt the "fullness of the Godhead bodily" (somatically) (Colossians 2:9). So, too, the "body" is called a temple of the Holy Ghost: "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

4. The Body and Sin:

From all this it is apparent that the body in itself is not necessarily evil, a doctrine which is taught in Greek philosophy, but nowhere in the Old Testament and New Testament. The rigid and harsh dualism met with in Plato is absent from Paul's writings, and is utterly foreign to the whole of Scripture. Here we are distinctly taught, on the one hand, that the body is subordinated to the soul, but on the other, with equal clearness, that the human body has a dignity, originally conferred upon it by the Creator, who shaped it out of earth, and glorified it by the incarnation of Christ, the sinless One, though born of a woman. Julius Muller has well said: "Paul denies the presence of evil in Christ, who was partaker of our fleshly nature (Galatians 4:4), and he recognizes it in spirits who are not partakers thereof (Ephesians 6:12 the King James Version, `spiritual wickedness in high places'). Is it not therefore in the highest degree probable that according to him evil does not necessarily pertain to man's sensuous nature, and that sarx (say body) denotes something different from this?" (The Christian Doctrine of Sin, I, 321, English edition). He further shows that the derivation of sin from sense is utterly irreconcilable with the central principle of the apostle's doctrine as to the perfect holiness of the Redeemer, and that "the doctrine of the future resurrection--even taking into account the distinction between the soma psuchikon and the soma pneumatikon (1 Corinthians 15:44)--is clearly at variance with the doctrine that sin springs from the corporal nature as its source" (318).

5. The First Sin:

The very first sin was spiritual in its origin--an act of rebellion against God--the will of the creature in opposition to the will of the Creator (Genesis 3:1–24). It was conceived in doubt--"Hath God said?"; it was born in desire--"The tree was good for food"; it was stimulated by a rebellious hankering after equality with God: "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil"; it was introduced from without, from the spiritual world, through the agency of a mysterious, supernatural being, employing "a beast of the field more subtle than any which Yahweh God had made." That the serpent in the Old Testament is not identified with Satan, and that the clearest utterance in pre-Christian times on the subject is to be found in the Book of The Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 ("by the envy of the devil death entered into the world"), may be true. That the narrative of the Fall is figurative or symbolical may also be granted. But the whole tendency of the early narrative is to connect the first human sin with a superhuman being, employing an agent known to man, and making that agent its representative in the "subtlety" of the great temptation as a prelude to the mighty fall. The New Testament is clear on this point (John 8:44; John 16:11; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 12:9). Great historic truths are imbedded in that narrative, whatever we may think of the form which that narrative has assumed. There can be no doubt that the oldest and truest traditions of the human race are to be found there. It is not denied that sin has desecrated the temple of the liv ing God, which is the body. That body indeed has become defiled and polluted by sin. Paul recognizes "an abnormal development of the sensuous in fallen man, and regards sin as having in a special manner entrenched itself in the body, which becomes liable to death on this very account (Romans 6:23; Romans 7:24)" (Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I, 761). But we may safely say that theory which connects sin with the physical body, and gives it a purely sensuous origin, is alien to the whole spirit and letter of revelation.

J. I. Marais

III. FIGURATIVE:

In the New Testament (soma, "the body" both of men and animals) the word has a rich figurative and spiritual use:

(1) the temporary home of the soul (2 Corinthians 5:6);

(2) "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19);

(3) "temple" (John 2:21);

(4) "the old man," the flesh as the servant of sin or the sphere in which moral evil comes to outward expression (Romans 6:6; Romans 7:7; compare Paul's use of sarx, "flesh");

(5) the "church" as Christ's body, the organism through which He manifests His life and in which H is spirit dwells (Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:24);

(6) the spiritual "unity" of believers, one redeemed society or organism (Ephesians 2:16; a corpus mysticum, Ephesians 4:4);

(7) "substance" (spiritual reality or life in Christ) versus "shadow" (Colossians 2:17);

(8) the ascended and glorified body of Jesus (Philippians 3:21);

(9) the resurrection or "spiritual" (v. natural) body of the redeemed in heaven (1 Corinthians 15:44);

(10) the whole personality, e.g. the spiritual presence, power and sacrificial work of Christ, the mystical meaning of "the body and the blood" symbolized in the bread and cup of the sacrament (1 Corinthians 11:27).

The term body is exceptionally rich in connection with the selfgiving, sacrificial, atoning work of Christ. It was the outward sphere or manifestation of His suffering. Through the physical He revealed the extent of His redeeming and sacrificial love. He "bare our sins in his body upon the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), thus forever displacing all the ceaseless and costly sacrifices of the old dispensation (Hebrews 9:24–28). Special terms, "body of his flesh" (Colossians 1:22); "body of sin" (Romans 6:6); "body of this death" (Romans 7:24); "body of his glory" (Philippians 3:21).

ptoma, used only of fallen, i.e. dead bodies (Revelation 11:8,Revelation 11:9).

Dwight M. Pratt

Body Of Death

deth (soma tou thanatou): These words are found in Paul's impassioned argument on the reign of the law, which dooms man to continuous disappointment and convinces him of the terrible power of indwelling sin. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24 the King James Version). It is the "picture of the still unredeemed man in his relation to the law" (Meyer). The translation, "this body of death," though grammatically possible, is logically impermissible. The picture here before the mind of the apostle is not physical but ethical. Death points to the dominion of sin, to the reign of the law, as revealed in his physical life, from which he is delivered only through regeneration, by faith in Christ. It points to the "I must" and to the "I cannot." It is therefore the bondage under the law of sin, the body as the seat of this conscious and bitter struggle, that the figure points at. And yet the ethical may have a physical background. There may be a distant reference here to the dreadful punishment of the ancients of chaining the living body to a corpse, that the constant corruption of death might extinguish the life of the victim of this exquisite torture.

Henry E. Dosker

Body Of Heaven

The King James Version translates the Hebrew idiom, etsem ha-shamayim, by "the body of heaven" (Exodus 24:10). A more correct rendering is given in the Revised Version (British and American), "the very heaven," taking the word `etsem in its idiomatic use as an intensive, which is derived from its literal meaning, "bone," as "strength," "substance," and then as "self" (compare Job 21:23); the substance of the blue, unclouded sky, hence, the clear sky itself.

Body, Spiritual

spir'-it-u-al: Paul describes the body after the resurrection as a spiritual body (soma psuchikon) and contrasts it with the natural (psychical body, soma pneumatikon, 1 Corinthians 15:44). Our present natural body has for its life-principle the soul (psuche) but the resurrection body is adapted and subordinated to the spirit (pneuma). See PSYCHOLOGY. The apostle does not argue for a literal and material identity of that future body with the present one, but thinks of it as the counterpart of the present animal organism so conditioned as to be adapted to a state of existence which lies wholly within the sphere of the spirit. Against his Corinthian readers he argues that the resurrection cannot be succeeded by a state of non-existence, nor is he willing to admit a mere etherealized state. There must be a body, but between it and our present body there is a similar difference to that between the first and second Adam. The present body and the first Adam were alike dominated by the soul (psuche); but as the second Adam became a life-giving spirit, so will the resurrection body be a spiritual one. Christ became a life-giving spirit through the resurrection (Meyer on 1 Corinthians 15:45); and since we are to bear His image (1 Corinthians 15:49), it becomes evident that Christ's resurrection-body is the nearest possible approach to a sensible representation of the spiritual body. For this Paul argues more directly when he affirms that our resurrection-body shall be transformed according to the body of His glory (Philippians 3:21; compare 1 John 3:2). The body of Christ after the resurrection was conformed in many respects to the body of His earthly life, yet with some marked differences. He ate (Luke 24:42,Luke 24:43); He breathed (John 20:22); possessed flesh and bones (Luke 24:39), and could be apprehended by the bodily senses (Luke 24:40; John 20:27). His body possessed characteristics which differentiated it entirely from the popular fancy of ghosts or apparitions (Luke 24:36–43). Yet His body was superior to the usual barriers which restrict human movements. Barred doors and distances did not impede His going (John 20:19–26; Luke 24:31–36). The context shows that the purpose of His eating was to convince the disciples that it was really He (Luke 24:41–43), and not to sustain life which His body was probably capable of maintaining in other ways. John speaks of His appearances after His resurrection as "manifestations" (John 21:1–21). A change in His person and appearance had certainly taken place, for those who knew Him best did not at once recognize Him (Luke 24:16; John 20:14). It is evident therefore that the post-resurrection-body of Jesus was one that had the power of materializing itself to natural senses, or withdrawing itself at will. It was this same body which was taken into the heavens at the ascension, and which remains in heaven (Acts 1:11; Acts 3:21). There is no hint that it underwent any change in its removal from earth. Hence, the spiritual body of which Paul speaks is not to be unlike the body which Jesus possessed after His resurrection. There is to be an absence of the desires and passions which belong naturally to the present bodily existence (Matthew 22:30; Luke 20:35,Luke 20:36).

William Charles Morro

Body-Guard

bod'-i-gard: The expression occurs in Apocrypha (1 Esdras 3:4), "the body-guard that kept the king's person."

Bohan

bo'-han (bohan, "thumb," "stumpy"): A son of Reuben according to Joshua 15:6; Joshua 18:17. No mention is made of Bohan in the genealogies of Reuben. "The stone of Bohan" ('ebhen bohan) was a boundary mark on the Northeast frontier of Judah, separating it from Benjamin. Site unidentified.

Boil (1)

(noun) (shechin; helkos): A localized inflamed swelling. The Hebrew word is derived from a root probably meaning "to burn," and is used as a generic term for the sores in the sixth plague of Egypt (Exodus 9:9–11); for a sore which might be confounded with leprosy (Leviticus 13:18–23); for Job's malady (Job 2:7) and Hezekiah's disease (2 Kings 20:1; Isaiah 38:21). Our English word is derived from the verb "to beal," i.e. to suppurate, now obsolete except as a dialect word in Scotland and Ireland. Wyclif uses the name f or Lazarus' sores (Luke 16:20), "houndis lickeden his bylis." The Egyptian word schn is the name of an abscess, and occurs in the reduplicated form chnchnt in Papyr. Ebers, CV. The plague of boils in Egypt came without warning immediately after the insect plagues of kinnim (sandflies) and that of `arobh or flies, and followed the epizootic murrain, which is suggestive in the light of the transmission of toxic germs by insects. It has been supposed by some to be elephantiasis, as Pliny says that this di sease was peculiar to Egypt (xxvi.5). A stronger case has been made out for its identity with confluent smallpox; but as it is not described as being a fatal disease, it may more probably have been an aggravated form of the ordinary gregarious furuncles or boils, due to the microbe streptococcus pyogenes.

Job's body is said to have been covered with itchy, irritating sores which made his face unrecognizable, Job 2:12, caused continual burning pain (Job 3:24; Job 6:4), and which were infested with maggots (Job 7:5) and exhaled a nauseous fetor (Job 19:17). His sleep was destroyed and his nervous system enfeebled (Job 3:26) so that he required assistance to move, as he sat in the ashes (Job 2:8). Various diagnoses have been made of his malady, but it is most probable that it was a form of the disease known as "oriental sore," or "Bagdad boil," called in Algeria "Biskra batton," in which the intensely itchy sores are often multiple, affecting the face, hands, and other exposed parts. The cases which I have seen have been very intractable and disfiguring.

Hezekiah's boil was apparently more localized, and the indefinite description would accord with that of a carbuncle. It seems to have rendered him unclean (Isaiah 38:22), though the reference may be to the practice referred to in Leviticus 13:18 f. The "botch" of Egypt (Deuteronomy 28:27,Deuteronomy 28:35 the King James Version) is translation of the same word, as is "boil" in the Revised Version (British and American). Botch is an old English name for boil and occurs in Piers Plowman, and the adjective "botchy" is used in Troilus and Cressida (II, 1, 6). The word is cognate to the old French boche or poche, a form of our later word "pock." The sores of Lazarus (Luke 16:20) were probably old varicose ulcers, such as are as common on the legs of the old and poor in the East as they are in the West.

Alex. Macalister

Boil (2)

(verb) (bashal, rathach): "Boil" is the translation of bashal, "to bubble up," "to boil," "to be cooked," Piel, "to cause to boil," "to cook" (Leviticus 8:31; 1 Kings 19:21; 2 Kings 6:29; Ezekiel 46:20,Ezekiel 46:24 bis); of rathach, "to be hot," "to boil," "to be made to boil," "to be greatly moved" under strong emotion (the bowels), Hiphil "to cause to boil" (Job 30:27 the King James Version "My bowels boiled, and rested not," the English Revised Version "My bowels boil." the American Standard Revised Version "My heart is troubled"; Job 41:31, "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot"; Ezekiel 24:5, "make it boil well"); of ba`ah, "to bubble" or "well up" (Isaiah 64:2 (1, in Hebrew) "The fire causeth the waters to boil"); in King James Version, margin of Psalms 45:1 ("My heart is inditing a good matter") we have Hebrew "boileth" or "bubbleth up" (rachash, "to boil" or "bubble up," the Revised Version (British and American) text, "My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter").

"Boiling-places," occurs in Ezekiel 46:23 as the translation of mebhashsheloth, "hearths," "boiling-places." The American Standard Revised Version has "boiling-houses" for "places of them that boil" (Ezekiel 46:24), "boil well" for "consume" (Ezekiel 24:10). the American Standard Revised Version has "boiling over" for "unstable" (Genesis 49:4; the English Revised Version, margin "bubbling over").

W. L. Walker

Boldness

bold'-nes (parresia, "confidence," "fearlessness," "freedom of speech"): This was one of the results of discipleship (Acts 4:13,Acts 4:29,Acts 4:31; Ephesians 3:12; Philippians 1:20; 1 Timothy 3:13; 1 John 4:17). It was a necessary qualification for the work assigned them. They were not only subject to violent persecutions, but also were the constant subject of ridicule and contempt. Paul uses the word in the sense of plainness in 2 Corinthians 3:12. In Hebrews 10:19; 1 John 2:28; 1 John 4:17, it has the sense of freeness resulting from confidence. In Philemon 1:8, the reference is to the authority which Paul claims in this case.

Jacob W. Kapp

Bolled

bold (gibh`ol, "the calyx of flowers"): Hence, "in bloom," and so rendered, in the Revised Version (British and American), of flowering flax (Exodus 9:31).

Bolster

bol'-ster: Found in the King James Version only in 1 Samuel 19:13,1 Samuel 19:16, "Behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goat's hair at the head thereof" (the King James Version "for his bolster"), and 1 Samuel 26:7,1 Samuel 26:11,1 Samuel 26:12,1 Samuel 26:16, "Saul lay sleeping .... with his spear stuck in the ground at his head." "Bolster" in these passages in the King James Version was used to translate a Hebrew word whose true significance is "the place of the head," or "the head-place." It will be noted that it has disappeared from the Revised Version (British and American), which rightly has throughout "head," instead of "bolster."

See CUSHION.