Brethren Of The Lord – Broth

Brethren Of The Lord

In Matthew 12:46 ff; Mark 3:31 ff; Luke 8:19 ff, while Jesus was in the midst of an earnest argument with scribes and Pharisees, His mother and brothers sent a message evidently intended to end the discussion. In order to indicate that no ties of the flesh should interfere with the discharge of the duties of His Messianic office, He stretched His hands toward His disciples, and said: "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." In Matthew 13:54 ff; Mark 6:2 ff, while He was teaching in His own town, Nazareth, His neighbors, who, since they had watched His natural growth among them, could not comprehend the extraordinary claims that He was making, declare in an interrogative form, that they know all about the entire family, mother, brothers and sisters. They name the brothers. Bengel suggests that there is a tone of contempt in the omission of the names of the sisters, as though not worth mentioning. In John 2:12, they are said to have accompanied Jesus and His mother and disciples from the wedding at Cana. In John 7:3 ff, they are described as unbelieving, and ridiculing His claims with bitter sarcasm. This attitude of hostility has disappeared, when, at Jerusalem, after the resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:14), in the company of Mary and the Eleven, and the faithful group of women, they "continued steadfastly in prayer," awaiting the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Their subsequent participation in the missionary activity of the apostolic church appea rs in 1 Corinthians 9:5: "Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?" In Galatians 1:19, James, bishop of the church at Jerusalem, is designated "the Lord's brother," thus harmonizing with Matthew 13:55, where their names are recorded as James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. When, then, "Jude, .... brother of James" is mentioned (Jude 1:1), the immediate inference is that Jude is another brother of the Lord. In reading these passages, the natural inference is that these "brethren" were the sons of Joseph and Mary, born after Jesus, living with Mary and her daughters, in the home at Nazareth, accompanying the mother on her journeys, and called the "brethren" of the Lord in a sense similar to that in which Joseph was called His father. They were brethren because of their common relationship to Mary. This impression is strengthened by the fact that Jesus is called her prototokos, "first-born son" (Luke 2:7), as well as by the very decided implication of Matthew 1:25. Even though each particular, taken separately, might, with some difficulty, be explained otherwise, the force of the argument is cumulative. There are too many items to be explained away, in order to establish any other inference. This view is not the most ancient. It has been traced to Tertullian, and has been more fully developed by Belvidius, an obscure writer of the 4th century

Two other views have been advocated with much learning and earnestness. The earlier, which seems to have been prevalent in the first three centuries and is supported by Origen, Eusebius, Gregory of Nyssa and Ambrose, Epiphanius being its chief advocate, regards these "brethren" as the children of Joseph by a former marriage, and Mary as his second wife. Joseph disappears from sight when Jesus is twelve years old. We know nothing of him after the narrative of the child Jesus in the temple. That there is no allusion to him in the account of the family in Mark 6:3 indicates that Mary had been a widow long before she stood by the Cross without the support of any member of her immediate family. In the Apocryphal Gospels, the attempt is made to supply what the canonical Gospels omit. They report that Joseph was over eighty years of age at his second marriage, and the names of both sons and daughters by his first marriage are given. As Lightfoot (commentary on Galatians) has remarked, "they are pure fabrications." Theophylact even advanced theory that they were the children of Joseph by a levirate marriage, with the widow of his brother, Clopas. Others regard them as the nephews of Joseph whom, after the death of his brother Clopas, he had taken into his own home, and who thus became members of his family, and were accounted as though they were the children of Joseph and Mary. According to this view, Mary excepted, the whole family at Nazareth were no blood relatives of Jesus. It is a Docetic conception in the interest of the dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary. All its details, even that of the advanced age and decrepitude of Joseph, start from that premise. Another view, first propounded by Jerome when a very young man, in antagonizing Belvidius, but afterward qualified by its author, was followed by Augustine, the Roman Catholic writers generally, and carried over into Protestantism at the Reformation, and accepted, even though not urged, by Luther, Chemnitz, Bengel, etc., understands the word "brother" in the general sense of "kinsman," and interprets it here as equivalent to "cousin." According to this, these brethren were actually blood-relatives of Jesus, and not of Joseph. They were the children of Alpheus, otherwise known as Clopas (John 19:25), and the sister of Mary. This Mary, in Matthew 27:56, is described as "the mother of James and Joses," and in Mark 15:40, "the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome." This theory as completely developed points to the three names, James, Judas and Simon found both in the list of the apostles and of the "brethren," and argues that it would be a remarkable coincidence if they referred to different persons, and the two sisters, both named Mary, had found the very same names for their sons. The advocates of this theory argue also that the expression "James the less" shows that there were only two persons of the name James in the circle of those who were most closely connected with Jesus. They say, further, that, after the death of Joseph, Mary became an inmate of the home of her sister, and the families being combined, the presence and attendance of her nephews and nieces upon her can be explained without much difficulty, and the words of the people at Nazareth be understood. But this complicated theory labors under many difficulties. The identity of Clopas and Alpheus cannot be established, resting, as it does, upon obscure philological resemblances of the Aramaic form of the two names (see ALPHAEUS). The most that such argument affords is a mere possibility. Nor is the identity of "Mary the wife of Clopas" with the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, established beyond a doubt. John 19:25, upon which it rests, can with equal correctness be interpreted as teaching that four women stood by the cross, of whom "Mary of Clopas" was one, and His mother's sister was another. The decision depends upon the question as to whether "Mary" be in apposition to "sister." If the verse be read so as to present two pairs, it would not be a construction without precedent in the New Testament, and would avoid the difficulty of finding two sisters with the same name--a difficulty greater yet than that of thre e cousins with the same name. Nor is the identity of "James the less" with the son of Alpheus beyond a doubt. Any argument concerning the comparative "less," as above explained, fails when it is found that in the Greek there is no comparative, but only "James the little," the implication being probably that of his stature as considerably below the average, so as to occasion remark. Nor is the difficulty less when it is proposed to identify three of these brethren of Jesus with apostles of the same name. For the "brethren" and the apostles are repeatedly distinguished. In Matthew 12:49, while the former stood without, the latter are gathered around Jesus. In John 2:12, we read: "his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples." In Acts 1:13 the Eleven, including James the son of Alpheus, and Simon, and Judas of James, and then it is said that they were accompanied by "his brethren." But the crowning difficulty of this hypothesis of Jerome is the record of the unbelief of the brethren and of their derision of His claims in John 7:3–5.

On the other hand, the arguments against regarding them as sons of Mary and Joseph are not formidable. When it is urged that their attempts to interfere with Jesus indicate a superiority which, according to Jewish custom, is inconsistent with the position of younger brothers, it may be answered that those who pursue an unjustifiable course are not models of consistency. When an argument is sought from the fact that Jesus on the cross commended His mother to John, the implication is immediate that she had no sons of her own to whom to turn in her grief and desolation; the answer need not be restricted to the consideration that unknown domestic circumstances may explain the omission of her sons. A more patent explanation is that as they did not understand their brother, they could not understand their mother, whose whole life and interests were bound up in her firstborn. But, on the other hand, no one of the disciples understood Jesus and appreciated His work and treasured up His words as did John. A bond of fellowship had thus been established between John and Mary that was closer than her nearer blood relationship with her own sons, who, up to this time, had regarded the course of Jesus with disapproval, and had no sympathy with His mission. In the home of John she would find consolation for her loss, as the memories of the wonderful life of her son would be recalled, and she would converse with him who had rested on the bosom of Jesus and whom Jesus loved. Even with the conversion of these brethren within a few days into faithful confessors, before the view of Jesus, provision was made for her deeper spiritual communion with her risen and ascended Son through the testimony of Jesus which John treasured in his deeply contemplative spirit. There was much that was alike in the characters of Mary and John. This may have had its ground in relationship, as many regard Salome his mother, the sister of the mother of Jesus mentioned in John 19:25.

Underneath both the stepbrother (Epiphanian) and the cousin (Hieronymian) theories, which coincide in denying that Mary was the actual mother of these brethren, lies the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary. This theory which has as its watchword the stereotyped expression in liturgy and hymn, "Maria semper Virgo," although without any support from Holy Scripture, pervades theology and the worship of the ancient and the medieval churches. From the Greek and Roman churches it has passed into Protestantism in a modified form. Its plea is that it is repugnant to Christian feeling to think of the womb of Mary, in which the Word, made flesh, had dwelt in a peculiar way, as the habitation of other babes. In this idea there lies the further thought, most prominent in medieval theology, of a sinfulness of the act in itself whereby new human lives come into existence, and of the inclination implanted from the creation, upon which all family ties depend. 1 Timothy 4:3,1 Timothy 4:4; Hebrews 13:4 are sufficient answer. The taint of sin lies not in marriage, and the use of that which is included in its institution, and which God has blessed (compare Acts 10:15), but in its perversion and abuse. It is by an inconsistency that Protestants have conceded this much to theory of Rome, that celibacy is a holier estate than matrimony, and that virginity in marriage is better than marriage itself. The theory also is connected with the removal of Mary from the sphere of ordinary life and duties as too commonplace for one who i s to be surrounded with the halo of a demi-god, and to be idealized in order to be worshipped. The interpretation that they are the Lord's real brethren ennobles and glorifies family life in all its relations and duties, and sanctifies motherhood with all its cares and trials as holier than a selfish isolation from the world, in order to evade the annoyances and humiliations inseparable from fidelity to our callings. Not only Mary, but Jesus with her, knew what it was to grieve over a house divided concerning religion (Matthew 10:35 ff). But that this unbelief and indifference gave way before the clearer light of the resurrection of Jesus is shown by the presence of these brethren in the company of the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14). The reference to His post-resurrection appearance to James (1 Corinthians 15:7) is probably connected with this change in their attitude. 1 Corinthians 9:5 shows that at least two of these brothers were active as missionaries, undoubtedly within the Holy Land, and to Jews, according to the agreeme nt into which James entered in Galatians 2:1–21, and his well-known attitude on questions pertaining to the Gentiles. Zahn regards James as an ascetic and celibate not included in 1 Corinthians 9:5, which is limited then to Jude and Simon. Their marriage indicates "the absence in the Holy Family of that pseudo-asceticism which has so much confused the tradition concerning them" (Alford).

See also JAMES; JUDE.

For fuller discussions, see the extensive arguments of Eadie and Lightfoot, in their commentaries on Gal, the former in favor of the Helvidian, and the latter, with his exhaustive scholarship, of the Epiphanian views; also, on the side of the former, Mayor, The Epistle of James; Alford, Greek Test.; Farrar, Early Days of Christianity; Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament.

H. E. Jacobs

Bribery

brib'-er-i (shochadh, "a gift," in a corrupt sense, "a bribe"): The Hebrew law condemns everything that would tend to impair the impartial administration of justice, particularly the giving and receiving of gifts or bribes, in order to pervert judgment (Exodus 23:8). Allusions are frequent to the prevailing corruption of oriental judges and rulers. "And fire shall consume the tents of bribery" (Job 15:34; 1 Samuel 8:3; Psalms 26:10; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 33:15; Ezekiel 22:12). Samuel speaks of a "ransom" in the sense of a bribe: "Of whose hand have I taken a ransom (kopher, "covering," the King James Version "bribe") to blind mine eyes therewith?" (1 Samuel 12:3; Amos 5:12; compare Amos 2:6).

See CRIMES; JUSTICE; PUNISHMENTS.

L. Kaiser

Brick

(lebhenah): The ancient Egyptian word appears in the modern Egyptian Arabic toob. In Syria the sun-baked bricks are commonly called libn or lebin, from the same Semitic root as the Hebrew word.

Bricks are mentioned only a few times in the Bible. The story of how the Children of Israel, while in bondage in Egypt, had their task of brick-making made more irksome by being required to collect their own straw is one of the most familiar of Bible narratives (Exodus 1:14; Exodus 5:7,Exodus 5:10–19).

Modern excavations at Pithom in Egypt (Exodus 1:11) show that most of the bricks of which that store-city was built were made of mud and straw baked in the sun. These ruins are chosen as an example from among the many ancient brick structures because they probably represent the work of the very Hebrew slaves who complained so bitterly of their royal taskmaster. In some of the upper courses rushes had been substituted for straw, and still other bricks had no fibrous material. These variations could be explained by a scarcity of straw at that time, since, when there was a shortage in the crops, all the straw (Arabic, tibn) was needed for feeding the animals. It may be that when the order came for the workmen to provide their own straw they found it impossible to gather sufficient and still furnish the required number of bricks (Exodus 5:8). However, the quality of clay of which some of the bricks were made was such that no straw was needed.

Brickmaking in early Egyptian history was a government monopoly. The fact that the government pressed into service her Asiatic captives, among whom were the Children of Israel, made it impossible for independent makers to compete. The early bricks usually bore the government, stamp or the stamp of some temple authorized to use the captives for brick manufacture. The methods employed by the ancient Egyptians differ in no respect from the modern procedure in that country. The Nile mud is thoroughly slipped or mixed and then rendered more cohesive by the addition of chopped straw or stubble. The pasty mass is next worked into a mould made in the shape of a box without a bottom. If the sides of the mould have been dusted with dry earth it will easily slip off and the brick is allowed to dry in the sun until it becomes so hard that the blow of a hammer is often necessary to break it.

When the children of Israel emigrated to their new country they found the same methods of brickmaking employed by the inhabitants, methods which are still in vogue throughout the greater part of Palestine and Syria. In the interior of the country, especially where the building stone is scarce or of poor quality, the houses are made of sun-baked brick (libn). Frequently the west and south walls, which are exposed most to the winter storms, are made of hewn stone and the rest of the structure of bricks. When the brick-laying is finished the house is plastered inside and outside with the same material of which the bricks are made and finally whitewashed or painted with grey- or yellow-colored earth. The outer coating of plaster must be renewed from year to year. In some of the villages of northern Syria the brick houses are dome-shaped, looking much like beehives. In the defiant assertion of Isaiah 9:10 the superiority of hewn stone over bricks implied a greater difference in cost and stability than exists between a frame house and a stone house in western lands today.

In the buildings of ancient Babylonia burnt bricks were used. These have been found by modern excavators, which confirms the description of Genesis 11:3. Burnt bricks were rarely used in Egypt before the Roman period and in Palestine their use for building purposes was unknown. Specimens of partially burnt, glazed bricks have been found in Babylonia and recently in one of the Hittite mounds of northern Syria. These were probably used for decorative purposes only. If burnt bricks had been generally used in Palestine, races of them would have been found with the pottery which is so abundant in the ruins (see POTTERY).

The fact that unburnt bricks were so commonly used explains how the sites of such cities as ancient Jericho could have become lost for so many centuries. When the houses and walls fell they formed a heap of earth not distinguishable from the surrounding soil. The wood rotted and the iron rusted away, leaving for the excavator a few bronze and stone implements and the fragments of pottery which are so precious as a means of identification. The "tels" or mounds of Palestine and Syria often represent the ruins of several such cities one above the other.

LITERATURE.

H. A. Harper, The Bible and Modern Discoveries; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians; Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt; Hilprecht, Recent Research in Bible Lands.

James A. Patch

Brick-Kiln

brik'-kil, -kiln (malben): The Hebrew word is better translated by "brickmould." In Syria the brickmould is still called milben. In Jeremiah 43:9 the American Standard Revised Version rendering is "brickwork" and the American Revised Version, margin "pavement." 2 Samuel 12:31 becomes much clearer if the American Revised Version, margin is incorporated. Being put to work at the brickmould was considered the task of those taken as slaves. The ancestors of the new taskmasters had themselves been put to similar toil.

Bride

brid.

See MARRIAGE.

Bride-Chamber

brid'-cham-ber (numphon): The room in which the marriage ceremonies were held (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34; compare Matthew 22:10).

See CHAMBER; MARRIAGE.

Bride-Chamber, Sons (Children) Of The

(hoi huioi tou numphonos): These were friends or companions of the bridegroom and were usually very numerous (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34). Any wedding guest might be included in the expression, or anyone who took part in the bridal procession and remained for the wedding-feast (see MARRIAGE). In the above passages "the sons of the bride-chamber" are the disciples of Christ.

Bridegroom; Bridegroom, Friend Of

brid'-groom;

See MARRIAGE.

Bridge

brij (gephura, 2 Macc 12:13 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) GEPHYRUN): Does not occur in the canonical Scriptures, unless it be indirectly in the proper name Geshur (geshur, 2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 13:37; 2 Samuel 15:8; 1 Chronicles 2:23, and others). The so-called Jacob's bridge is said to mark the site where Jacob crossed the upper Jordan on his return from Paddan-aram, but, of course, does not date from the time of the patriarch. There are traces of ancient bridges across the Jordan in the vicinity of the Lake of Gennesaret, over the Arnon and over other rivers which enter the Jordan from the east; but none of them seem to date farther back than the Roman period. Nahum 2:6, in which the Chaldaic paraphrase renders "bridges," evidently refers to dikes or weirs. Judas Maccabeus is said to have planted a bridge in order to besiege the town of Casphor (2 Macc 12:13). Josephus (Ant., V, i, 3) tells us that the Jordan, before the passage of the Israelites, had never been bridged, evidently implying that in his own time bridges had been constructed over it, which was the case, under the Romans. The bridge connecting the temple with the upper part of the city of which Josephus speaks (War, VI, vi, 2; Ant, XV, xi, 5) probably was a viaduct.

Frank E. Hirsch

Bridle

bri'-d'-l.

See BIT AND BRIDLE.

Brier

bri'-er.

See THORNS.

Brigandine

brig'-an-den.

See ARMS (Defensive, 5); COAT OF MAIL.

Brightness

brit'-nes: Used by the King James Version in Hebrews 1:3 for "effulgence of his glory," as in the Revised Version (British and American) and the American Standard Revised Version. The Greek apaugasma may mean either "reflection" or "radiation." Patristic usage favors the latter; compare The Wisdom of Solomon 7:26; also the Nicene Creed: "Light of Light," i.e. the Son not only manifests the Father, but is of the same substance. "What emanates from light, must have the nature of light" (Delitzsch).

Brim

qatseh or qetseh = "an extremity" (in a variety of applications and idioms), "border," "edge," "side," "shore" (Joshua 3:15 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "brink"); also saphah or sepheth = "edge," "lip" (1 Kings 7:23,1 Kings 7:24,1 Kings 7:26; 2 Chronicles 4:2,2 Chronicles 4:5). In John 2:7, the adverb ano, is used to emphasize the verb egemisan = "to fill," thus giving the idea of "filling to the top."

Brimstone

brim'-ston, brim'-stun (gophrith; to theion): The word translated "brimstone" probably referred originally to the pitch of trees, like the cypress. By analogy it has been rendered "brimstone" because of the inflammability of both substances. Sulphur existed in Palestine in early times and was known by most of the ancient nations as a combustible substance. In the vicinity of the Dead Sea, even at the present time, deposits of sulphur are being formed. Blanckenhorn (ZDPV, 1896) believes that this formation is due to the action of bituminous matter upon gypsum, as these two substances are found associated with each other in this district. Travelers going from Jericho to the Dead Sea may pick up lumps of sulphur, which are usually encrusted with crystals of gypsum. Deuteronomy 29:23 well describes the present aspect of this region. That the inhabitants of the land had experienced the terrors of burning sulphur is very probable. Once one of these deposits took fire it would melt and run in burning streams down the ravines spreading everywhere suffocating fumes such as come from the ordinary brimstone match. No more realistic figure could be chosen to depict terrible suffering and destruction. It is not at all unlikely that during some of the disastrous earthquakes which took place in this part of the world, the hot lava sent forth ignited not only the sulphur, but also the bitumen, and added to the horrors of the earthquake the destruction caused by burning pitch and brimstone.

The figurative use of the word brimstone to denote punishment and destruction is illustrated by such passages as Deuteronomy 29:23; Job 18:15; Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 30:33; Ezekiel 38:22; Luke 17:29; Revelation 9:17.

James A. Patch

Bring

dasha' = "to sprout," "spring" (Genesis 1:11 the King James Version); sharats = "to wriggle," "swarm" (Genesis 1:20 Genesis 9:7; Exodus 8:3); yaladh = "to bear," "beget" (Genesis 3:16; 2 Kings 19:3; Job 15:35; Job 39:1,Job 39:2; "what a day may bring forth," Proverbs 27:1; "before the decree bring forth," Zechariah 2:2); `anan = "to cloud over," "to darken" (Genesis 9:14); shalach = "to send on," "to escort" (Genesis 18:16); shubh = "to turn back," "bring" (again, back, home again), "fetch," "establish" (Genesis 24:5,Genesis 24:6,Genesis 24:8; Job 10:9; Psalms 68:22; "bring him back to see," Ecclesiastes 3:22; Zechariah 10:6,Zechariah 10:10); naghash = "present," "adduce" (an argument) (1 Samuel 13:9; 1 Samuel 15:32; 1 Samuel 23:9; 1 Samuel 30:7; "bring forth your strong reasons," Isaiah 41:21,Isaiah 41:22); `asah = "to do," "cause to be," "accomplish" (Psalms 37:5); `alah = "to carry up," "exalt," "restore" (Genesis 46:4; Exodus 3:8,Exodus 3:17; Exodus 33:12; Psalms 71:20; Hosea 12:13); nagha` = "to touch," "lay hand upon," "reach to" (Leviticus 5:7); kabhadh, or kabhedh = "to be heavy" (causative "to make weighty"), "to be glorious" (Proverbs 4:8); kana` = "to bend the knee," hence "humiliate," "bring" (down, into subjection, under), "subdue" (Deuteronomy 9:3; Isaiah 25:5); zakhar = "to mark," "call to, put (put in) remembrance" (Psalms 38:1–22 title; Psalms 70:1–5 title); yabhal = "to flow," "bring" (especially with pomp) (Psalms 60:9; Psalms 68:29; Psalms 76:11; Zechariah 3:10); chul, or chil = "to writhe in pain," "to be in travail" (Isaiah 66:8); tsa`adh = "to step regularly," "march," "hurl" (Job 18:14); halakh = "to walk," "get" (Hosea 2:14); gadhal = "bring up," "increase" (Hosea 9:12).

The New Testament employs telesphoreo = "to bring to maturity," "to ripen" (Luke 8:14); hupomimnesko = "to bring to mind," "suggest," "bring to remembrance" (John 14:26); douloo = "to enslave" (Acts 7:6); suntrophos = "brought up with" (Acts 13:1 the Revised Version (British and American), "the foster-brother of"): diasozo = "to save," "to care," "rescue" (Acts 23:24); atheteo = "to set aside" "cast off," "bring to naught" (1 Corinthians 1:19); katargeo = "to abolish," "destroy," "do away," "put away," "make void" (1 Corinthians 1:28); propempo = "to send forward," "bring forward" (1 Corinthians 16:6 the King James Version; Titus 3:13 the King James Version; 3 John 1:6 the King James Version); ektrepho = "to rear up to maturity," "to cherish," "nourish" (Ephesians 6:4 the King James Version).

Frank E. Hirsch

Brink

brink: saphah, or sepheth = "the lip," "margin," "bank," "edge" (Genesis 41:3; Exodus 2:3; Exodus 7:15); qatseh, or qetseh = "an extremity," "border," "brim" (Joshua 3:8,Joshua 3:15; Isaiah 19:7; Daniel 12:5).

See BRIM.

Broad

brod (rochabh, "width"; rechobh, "a broadway," "street," "court"; eurchoros, "spacious"): Occurs frequently as a term of dimension (Exodus 27:1; 1 Kings 6:6; Ezekiel 40:6,Ezekiel 40:43 the Revised Version (British and American), "handbreadth long") and as indicative of strength (Nehemiah 3:8; Jeremiah 51:58). The centers of communal life are called the "broad places," often rendered "streets" (Jeremiah 5:1; Song of Songs 3:2; Nahum 2:4). A court before the temple: "the broad place on the east" (the King James Version "the east street," 2 Chronicles 29:4); "broad plates" (Numbers 16:38,Numbers 16:39, the Revised Version (British and American) "beaten").

Figurative: Relief from distress: "Yea, he would have allured thee out of (Hebrew "the mouth of") distress into a broad place" (Job 36:16); the liberty of obedience or liberty within the law (Psalms 119:96, "broad," "roomy," "at liberty"); the all-sufficiency of God for His people (Isaiah 33:21). Jerusalem could not boast of a river or navy--Yahweh's presence with and within her would more than supply these deficiencies; the road to destruction: "Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction" (Matthew 7:13); the ostentatious piety of the Pharisees: "They make broad (platuno, "widen") their phylacteries" (Matthew 23:5).

See CITY; GATE.

L. Kaiser

Broad Place

See CITY.

Broidered

broid'-erd:

(1) riqmah, "variegation of color" (Ezekiel 16:10,Ezekiel 16:13,Ezekiel 16:18; Ezekiel 26:16; Ezekiel 27:7,Ezekiel 27:16,Ezekiel 27:24);

(2) tashbets, "checkered stuff" (as reticulated). The high priest's garments consisted of "a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat (Exodus 28:4 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "a coat of checker work"), a miter, and a girdle";

(3) plegma, "twined or plaited work" (1 Timothy 2:9 the King James Version).

See BRAIDED; EMBROIDERY.

Broken

bro'-k'-n: Occurs both as past participle of the verb translated "to break" and as an adjective, the former use will be dealt with here only so far as verbs occur which are thus translated but do not present the non-participial forms. Such are: meroach = "bruised," "emasculated" (Leviticus 21:20); chathath = "to frustrate," hence, "to break down" either by violence or by confusion and fear (1 Samuel 2:10; Jeremiah 48:20,Jeremiah 48:39); dakhah = "to collapse" (Psalms 44:19; Psalms 51:8); ratsats = "to crack in pieces" "crush" (Ecclesiastes 12:6); kathath = "to bruise or violently strike," "break in pieces" (Isaiah 30:14); Jeremiah 2:16 should evidently be rendered: "have grazed on the crown of thy head," instead of the King James Version "have broken," etc., for ra`ah = "to tend a flock," "pasture," "graze," but gives no hint of the meaning "to break"; `alah = "to arise," "depart" (Jeremiah 37:11); sunthlao = "to dash together," "shatter" (Matthew 21:44); exorusso = "to dig through," "to extract," "remove" (Mark 2:4).

See BREAK.

Frank E. Hirsch

Brokenfooted

bro'-k'-n-foot-ed (shebher reghel): In Leviticus 21:19, one of the blemishes which prevented a man of priestly descent from the execution of the priestly office.

Brokenhanded

bro'-k'-n-hand-ed (shebher yadh): In Leviticus 21:19 one of the blemishes which prevented a man of priestly descent from the execution of the priestly office.

Brokenhearted

bro'-k'-n-har-ted (shabhar lebh; suntetrimmenoi ten kardian; Psalms 69:20,Psalms 69:21; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18 the King James Version; "of a broken heart," Psalms 34:18; "broken in heart," Psalms 147:3): People who feel their spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness, and who long for the help and salvation of God. Such people are in the right condition to be met and blessed by God. Compare "of contrite spirit" (Psalms 31:18; Isaiah 66:2).

Brooch

broch (chach): Used in plural by the Revised Version (British and American) (the King James Version "bracelets") for a class of "jewels of gold" brought as offerings by both men and women of Israel (Exodus 35:22). "Brooches," as Mackie says, is unoriental. The Hebrew word means most likely nose-rings.

See BRACELET; RING.

Brook

brook (nachal, 'aphiq, ye'or, mikhal; cheimarrhos): In Palestine there are few large streams. Of the smaller ones many flow only during the winter, or after a heavy rain. The commonest Hebrew word for brook is nachal, which is also used for river and for valley, and it is not always clear whether the valley or the stream in the valley is meant (Numbers 13:23; Deuteronomy 2:13; 2 Samuel 15:23). The Arabic wady, which is sometimes referred to in this connection, is not an exact parallel, for while it may be used of a dry valley or of a valley containing a stream, it means the valley and not the stream. 'Aphiq and ye'or are translated both "brook" and "river," ye'or being generally used of the Nile (Exodus 1:22, etc.), though in Daniel 12:5–7, of the Tigris. Cheirnarrhos, "winter-flowing," is applied in John 18:1 to the Kidron. Many of the streams of Palestine which are commonly called rivers would in other countries be called brooks, but in such a dry country any perennial stream assumes a peculiar importance.

Alfred Ely Day

Brook Of Egypt, The

(nachal = "a flowing stream," "a valley"; best translated by the oriental word wady, which means, as the Hebrew word does, both a stream and its valley).

1. Name:

The Brook of Egypt is mentioned six times in the Old Testament (Numbers 34:5; Joshua 15:4,Joshua 15:47; 1 Kings 8:65; Isaiah 27:12); once, Genesis 15:18, by another word, nahar. The Brook of Egypt was not an Egyptian stream at all, but a little desert stream near the borderland of Egypt a wady of the desert, and, perhaps, the dividing line between Canaan and Egypt. It is usually identified with the Wady el 'Arish of modern geography.

2. Description:

The Brook of Egypt comes down from the plateau et Tih in the Sinai peninsula and falls into the Mediterranean Sea at latitude 31 5 North, longitude 33 42 East. Its source is at the foot of the central mountain group of the peninsula. The upper portion of the wady is some 400 ft. above the sea. Its course, with one sharp bend to the West in the upper part, runs nearly due North along the western slope of the plateau. Its whole course of 140 miles lies through the desert. These streams in the Sinai peninsula are usually dry water-courses, which at times become raging rivers, but are very seldom babbling "brooks." The floods are apt to come with little or no warning when cloudbursts occur in the mountain region drained.

3. Archaeology:

The use of the Hebrew word nachal for this wady points to a curious and most interesting and important piece of archaeological evidence on the critical question of the origin of the Pentateuch. In the Pentateuch, the streams of Egypt are designated by an Egyptian word (ye'or) which belongs to Egypt, as the word bayou does to the lower Mississippi valley, while every other stream mentioned, not except this desert stream, "the Brook of Egypt," is designated by one or other of two Hebrew words, na chal and nahar. Each of these words occurs 13 times in the Pentateuch, but never of the streams of Egypt. The use of nahar in Exodus 7:19 in the account of the plagues is not really an exception for the word is then used generically in contrast with ye'or to distinguish between the "flowing streams," neharoth, and the sluggish irrigation branches of the Nile, ye'orim, "canals" (compare CANALS) (Isaiah 19:6; Isaiah 33:21), while ye'or occurs 30 times but never of any other than the streams of Egypt. There is thus a most exa ct discrimination in the use of these various words, a discrimination which is found alike in the Priestly Code (P), Jahwist (Jahwist), and Elohim (E) of the documentary theory, and also where the editor is supposed to have altered the documents. Such discrimination is scarcely credible on the hypothesis that the Pentateuch is by more than one author, in later than Mosaic times, or that it is by any author without Egyptian training. The documentary theory which requires these instances of the use of these various words for "river" to have been recorded by several different authors or redactors, in different ages and all several centuries after the Exodus, far away from Egypt and opportunities for accurate knowledge of its language, seems utterly incompatible with such discriminating use of these words. And even if the elimination of all mistakes be attributed to one person, a final editor, the difficulty is scarcely lessened. For as no purpose is served by this discriminating use of words, it is evidently a natural phenomenon. In every instance of the use of ye'or, one or other of the usual Hebrew words, nachal or nahar would have served the purpose of the author, just as any foreign religious writer might with propriety speak of the "streams of Louisiana," though a Louisianian would certainly call them "bayous." How does the author come to use ye'or even where his native Hebrew words might have been used appropriately? Why never, where its appropriateness is even doubtful, not even saying ye'or for nachal of the "Brook of Egypt"? It is not art, but experience, in the use of a language which gives such skill as to attend to so small a thing in so extensive use without a single mistake. The only time and place at which such experience in the use of Egyptian words is to be expected in Israel is among the people of the Exodus not long subsequent to that event.

M. G. Kyle

Broom

broom: Occurs in 1 Kings 19:4 m ("broomtree"); Job 30:4, and Psalms 120:4 m as the translation of the Hebrew rothem, where the King James Version employed "juniper" which is retained in the Revised Version (British and American) text in 1 Kings 19:4 and Job 30:4. Juniper is certainly incorrect and broom is not a particularly happy rendering. The rothem was doubtless the shrub called by the Arabs ratam, a shrub which casts so little shadow that it would be used for shade only when there was no other refuge from the desert sun, and would be eaten only in case of the direst necessity, but which could be burned and used for the making of charcoal.

See JUNIPER.

David Foster Estes

Broth

broth (maraq): Equivalent to our "soup." When Gideon (Judges 6:19) made ready a kid, "the flesh he put in a basket," but, it is added, "he put the broth in a pot"; and he is told by the angel to "pour out the broth" (Judges 6:20). Isaiah 65:4 makes Yahweh speak of rebellious Israel as "a people that provoke me to my face continually sacrificing in gardens," and adds in description "that eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels" (maraq, paraq).

See FOOD.