Bacchus (Hastings' Dictionary)
See Dionysus. BACENOR (Ba/ti5»aip, 2 Mac 12'), a Jewish otUcer, apparently a captain of horse, in the army of Judas Maccaba'us which went to attack Gorgias, the commandant of Idomeea (or Jamnia, 1 Mac 6", Jos. Ant. XU. viii. 6). BACKBITE To bite behind the back. Pa 15» only, ' He that b'"" not with his tongue' ('jj^, RV ' slandereth '). Backbiter, Ro 1" only (KardXaXos) ; cf. (in Rushw. Hist. Coll. 1659, i.
492) 'Diogenes being asked what beast bit sorest, answered, Of wilde beasts, the Back-biter; of tame, the Flatterer.' Backbiting is found as an adj. Pr 25-'* 'The north wind bringeth forth rain : so doth a b. tongue an angry countenance ' ("ini; ]ia^ ' a tongue of secrecy '), Sir 28'^-'»; and as a suljst.. Wis 1", 2 Co 12« (xaraXaMa, tl'' in 1 P 2' 'evil speakings'). J. Hastings. BACKSIDE is used in AV as tr. of three words : —1. irx 'ahar, Ex 3' ' he led the flock to tlie b.
of the desert ' ; RV ' back ' ; but the Heb. is a prep. here, ' behind the desert' (cf. 11' ' the maidservant tliat is behind the mill '), that is, to the pasture- lands on the other side of the desert from the Midianite encampments. 2. Tni< Vi/i^r, Ex 2(i'^ ' the b. of the tabernacle,' RV ' back ' ; the Heb. is a subst. in the plu., ' hinder parts,' as in 33-' ' thou shall see my back parts,' 1 K 7-* ( =2 Ch 4'') ' hinder parts,' Ezlc 8'" ' backs.' 3.
tTtcBev, Rev 5' ' a book written witliin and on the b.' ; RV ' back ' : but the back of a book is not tlie same as the re- verse side of a roll. St. John was struck, not only with the fact that the roll was sealed, but also with the amount of writing it contained. Like Ezekiel's (2'") ' roll of a book . . written within and witliout,' it had writing on both sides, which was as unusual with an ancient roll as w ith modern printer's manuscript. J. Hastings.
This topic also has an entry in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Both articles offer independent scholarly perspectives.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Bacchus
Bacchus bak'-us Dionusos; later Bakchos, the Feast of Bacchus; Dionusia: The god of wine. His worship had extended over the whole Greek and Roman world centuries before the Christian era, and had degenerated into an orgy of drunkenness and unnamable immoralities, possibly under the influence of oriental Baal worship, such as the Hebrew prophets condemned. It has been surmised that Dionysus was originally not a Greek, but an oriental deity. His worship had been introduced into Egypt, perhaps by the Ptolemies, and Ptolemy Philopator (222-204 BC) had branded the Jews there with his emblem, the sign of the ivy. When Antiochus Epiphanes made his assault upon Jerusalem in the year 168 BC, he determined to extirpate the worship of Yahweh, which he recognized as the strength of the Jewish resistance, and to replace it by Greek religion. All worship of Yahweh and the observance of Jewish rites, such as the Sabbath and circumcision, were prohibited. Heathen worship was set up all over Judea, and in the temple at Jerusalem on the altar of burnt offering an altar to Jupiter was erected, "the abo…
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia