93° BET 
or the fink-hcufe, or drain, becaufe the waters which came 
front the temple, and the place where the victims were 
wafhed, flowed thither. From the.Greek word y.ol 
being tiled by Jofephus to denote the baths at Jericho, 
Mr. Macknight, in his Harmony of the Gofpel, con¬ 
cludes that their opinion feems to be without foundation, 
who affirm, that this pool ferved for wafliing the fheep de- 
figned for facrifice before they were driven into the tem¬ 
ple, and for vvalhing the entrails of the heads facrificed 
there : befides, lie thinks it inconfiftent witli the (ituation 
of Bethelda near the Jheep-gate (or market, as our Englifli 
tranflators have rendered the Greek em tv vrfoSflitoi y.oJWu- 
SriOfix-, though fome copies have it, Er t'/i, &'c.) in the 
louth-eaft wall of the city; or, according to the compilers 
of the Univerf.il Hiftory, in that which was on the north- 
eaft, a great way from the temple. However this may 
be, we are told ( John v. 2, 3, &c.) that in the porticoes 
of this bath, at the time of a certain feaft (which is ge¬ 
nerally luppoled to have been the paffover), there lay a 
multitude of lame, blind, halt, and withered, waiting for 
the moving of the water : for an angel went down at a 
certain feafon into the pool, and troubled the U'ater; that 
is, moved it in a fenlible manner. Whofoever then firft, 
after the troubling of the water, ftepped into it, was made 
whole of whatever difeafe he had. Grotius thinks, that 
the angel is faid to have descended, not becaufe he was 
£ver feen to do fo, but becaufe the Jews were perfuaded 
that God brought fuch things to pafs by the miniftration 
of angels ; fo that from that violent motion of the water, 
and the cure following it, the prefence of an angel was 
with reafon fuppofed. Dr. Hammond imagines, that the 
waters became medicinal by being impregnated with a 
healing warmth from the blood and entrails of the facri¬ 
ficed beads that w'ere wafhed there ; and that the,ayfsA^, 
angel, or mcjfinger, in the text, is not to be underflood of 
thofe celeftial beings that are ufually diflinguifhed by that 
name, but only of a common meflenger, viz. an officer or 
fervant of the pried, who at a proper feafon was fent by 
him to ftir the pool. 
To BETHI'NK, v. a. I bethought-, 1 have bethought ; 
[from think.'] To recal to reflection; to bring back to 
conflderation, or recollection. It is generally ufed with the 
reciprocal pronoun, and o/'before the fubject of thought. 
I have bethought me of another fault. Shakefpeare. 
BETH'LEHEM, [QfiSn'D Heb. i. e. thehoufe of bread.] 
A town of Palefline, famous for the birth of our Saviour. 
It was once a flourifhing city, but is now only a poor vil¬ 
lage; It is fituated about five miles fouth eaft from Jeru¬ 
falem, on an eminence, and is under the dominion of the 
Turks ; though the Chriftian religion is tolerated, and 
here are about one hundred Latin Chriflians, who have a 
vicar dependent on the great convent of Jerufalem. The 
church was built by St. Helena, in the form of a crofs, and 
is very large. Both Tides of the nave are fupperted by 
two rows of marble pillars, each made of one piece, and 
eleven in a row, infomuch that they make as it were five 
naves. On the wall over the pillars is a very beautiful 
Mofaic work, on a gold ground. The walls were for¬ 
merly overlaid with fine marble, but the Turks have ta¬ 
ken it to adorn their mofques. Clofe to the church is the 
inonaflery of the Francifcans ; which is large, but indiffe¬ 
rently built. Through this there is a paflage to a fquare 
cave, where they fay the Innocents were buried. Here 
are likewife the tombs of St. Jerom, St. Paula, Eufto- 
chium, and Eufebius of Cremona. Beyond thefe there is 
a grot or-cell, which they fay was the lodging-place of 
St. Jerom when he tranflated the bible. Another entrance 
leads to a chapel, twelve feet wide, and forty long, whole 
floor i? paved, and (ides lined with white marble, and the 
roof is adorned with Mofaic work. At the end of this 
there is an altar, with a picture of the nativity, and under 
it a vault, the middle of which is a flar made with ftones 
cf various colours, to mark the place where our Saviour 
was born ; and near this is the manger where they fay he 
BET 
was laid; it is hewn out of a rock, and is now cafed with 
white marble. " 
Bethlehem, a town of North America, in the fiate of 
Pennfylvania, ftrft fettled by German Moravians, in the 
year 1741, fituated on a branch of the river Delaware, 
(failed Lehigh : the manners and drefs of the people, who 
are a mixture of Germans and Englifli, are Ample, and pe¬ 
culiar to themfelves ; divine fervice is performed both in 
Englifli and in German: 53 miles north of Philadelphia. 
Bethlehem, f. an hofpita! for lunatics. See Bedlam. 
BETH'LEHEMITE, J. a lunatic; an inhabitant of a 
madhoufe. See Bedlamite. 
Bethlehemites, or Bethlemites, a fort of monks 
introduced into F.ngland in 1257, habited like the Domi¬ 
nicans, except that, on their breafl, they wore a flar with 
five rays, in memory of the flar or comet which appeared 
over Bethlehem at the nativity of our Saviour. They 
were celled at Cambridge, and had only one houfe in Eng¬ 
land. There is alfo an order of Bethlehemites flill fub- 
lifling in Peru, who have convents at Lima; one called of 
the Incurables, the other of our Lady of mount Carmel. 
Thefe Bethlehemites came originally from the city of 
Guatimala in Mexico, where they were inftituted by the 
venerable Peter Jofeph of Betaneur, for the fervice of the 
poor. Innocent XI. in 1687, approved the militate. 
They have already nine convents in Peru. 
BETHO'RON, anciently a town of Samaria; Upper 
and Nether, and both in the tribe of Ephraim, built by 
Sliera grand-daughter of Ephraim, 1 Chron. viii. 24. 
both which were reflored by Solomon, after falling to 
decay, 1 Kings ix. 17. Their diflance was almotrthe 
whole breadth of the tribe of Ephraim, the Upper being 
in the north, the Nether in the fouth, of that tribe. We 
know more of the Nether than of the Upper ; it was fitu- 
ate on a mountain, and therefore Jofephus and Jerome 
mention going up or afeending ; and it flood on the pub¬ 
lic road to Lidda and Caefarea, diftant one hundred ftadia, 
or twelve miles, from Jerufalem. 
BETHOUGHT', particip. from bethink ; which fee. 
BETH-PE'OR, a town of the Reubenites, on the other 
fide Jordan, at mount Fogor, over againft Jericho, fix 
miles above Livias. It had a temple facred to the idol 
Baal-Peor, called Beel-Phegor, by the Vulgate, inter¬ 
preted Priapus by Jerome. 
BETFI'PHAGE, a place at the weft defeent or declivity 
of mount Olivet, Matthew xxi. 1. From which it may 
be gathered, that the whole of that declivity, with a part 
of the valley, and the extreme fkirts of the city, went un¬ 
der the common name of Bethphage. 
To BETHRAL', v, a. To enflave ; to conquer; to 
bring into fubjeCtion. 
BETH'SAN, or Bethsean, anciently a town of Sa¬ 
maria, in the half tribe of ManafTeh, on the borders of 
Galilee, about half a league from Jordan, on this fide, 
having half of its territory in the Peraca : it was after¬ 
wards called Scythopolis : it was diftant from Tiberias, on 
the lake Gennefareth, 120 ftadia, or fifteen miles, to the 
fouth ; and from Jerufalem, to the north, 600 ftadia, or 7$ 
miles. As to the origin of the appellation Scythopolis, 
there fcarcely appears any thing in hiftory that has a rela¬ 
tion to it, but the irruption of the Scythians in the time of 
the Medes, when they over-ran all Afia. It is called 
Bcefon by-Stephanus. 
To BETHUMP', v. a. To beat; to lay blows upon : 
a ludicrous word. 
BBTHU'NE (Maximilian de), duke of Sully, grand 
mafter of the artillery, and marfhal of France, fovereign 
prince of Enrichemont and Bois-Bell, marquis of Rofny, 
and one of the ableft and raoft upright minifters France 
ever had, was defeended from an illuftrious houfe, and 
was born in 1560. He entered very young into the fer¬ 
vice of Henry of Bourbon, then king of Navarre, after¬ 
wards Henry IV. of France, who was feven years his el¬ 
der. They were both bred in the reformed religion; and 
Sully continued in the profellion of it till his death; though 
from 
