Bible Dictionary
MAN
MAN
There are several Hebrew terms that are frequently translated as “man.”
(a) “Adam”, “man”, generic term for man, humanity (Gen. 1:26, 27).
(b) “Ish,” “man,” implying “strength and vigor” of mind and body (1 Sam. 4:2; 26:15); It also means “husband” in contrast to “wife” (Gen. 2:23; 3:6).
(c) “Enosh”, “subject to corruption, mortal”; it is not used of man until after the fall (Gen. 6:4; 12:20; Ps. 103:15).
(d) “Ben”, “son”, with words attached, such as “son of valor” or man, or brave man; “son of strength” or strong man or man (2 Kings 2:16, etc.).
(e) “Baal”, “master, lord” (Gen. 20:3).
(f) “Geber,” “mighty, warlike” (Ex. 10:11; 12:37).
There are passages where these different Hebrew terms are used in contrast. An example is Gen. 6:4: “The sons of God came to the daughters of men, and they bore them children.
These were the mighty men (“gibbor”) who from ancient times were men (c) of renown.” In Ps. 8:4: “What is man (c) that you remember him, and the son of man (a) that you visit him?” “God is not a man (b), that he should lie” (Num. 23:19).
Man was the summit of God’s creative work (see ADAM), and gave him dominion over the sphere in which he was placed. It is impossible for man to arise by evolution from any of the lower forms of life (see CREATION).
God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils, and man is thus responsible to Him as his creator. For this reason, he will be called to give an account of himself, personally, before Him, which does not happen with any of the animals. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).
They all descend from Adam and Eve. God, “from one blood has made the entire race of men, so that they may dwell on all the face of the earth; and he has predetermined for them the order of times, and the limits of his habitation; so that they may seek God” (Acts 17:26, 27).
Since the soul of man is immortal, it continues to exist after death. It is revealed in the Scriptures that his body will be resurrected, and that he will either spend eternity apart from God in punishment for his sins, or, by the grace of God, he will be in eternity with the Lord Jesus, in eternal joy, through the atoning work of the Cross.
The following main terms are used in the NT:
(a) “Anthropos”, man in the sense of “humanity”, without regard to sex: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4 ). In a few passages it is used in a more restricted sense in contrast to woman, as in Mt. 19:3 “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
(b) “Aner” man as distinguished from a woman: “The man is the head of the woman” (1 Cor. 11:3). Therefore, it is the commonly used term for “husband”: a woman’s man is her husband. “Joseph, husband of Mary” (Mt. 1:16, 19)
(A) The new man.
It is a descriptive expression of a moral condition or order of man that has become a reality in Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:21) and whose character is described in what is God’s creation in righteousness, holiness and truth.
In his death Christ destroyed the intermediate wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles, to create in Himself “one new man” of the two, reconciling both with God in his body through the Cross (cf. Eph. 2:14). -16), so that in this way the one who is the object of reconciliation does not stand before God as a Jew or a Gentile, but as a man belonging to an entirely new order.
“The new man” contrasts with the “old man,” which represents the corrupt state in which the children of the first man, Adam, find themselves. Since the believer has put off the “old man,” he has also put on the “new,” the believer’s own state, the new creation in Christ.
The new man created in this way is entirely new (“kainos”, Eph. 2:15). In Col. 3:10, Christians are regarded as having put off the old man with the deeds of it, which is replaced by the new man (“neos”), which is renewed (“anakainoumenon”) to full knowledge.
Hence Christ lives in the saints, and his moral characteristics are vitally developed in a body. Christ is everything (because the old man of all kinds is excluded), and he is in every believer.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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