Bema

Last updated August 22, 2024

A bema is an elevated platform used as an orator's podium. The term can refer to the raised area in a sanctuary. In Jewish synagogues, where it is used for Torah reading during services, the term used is bima or bimah.

Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greek bēma (βῆμα) means both 'platform' and 'step', being derived from bainein (βαίνειν, 'to go').^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] The original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas.

By metonymy, bema was also a place of judgement, being the extension of the raised seat of the judge, as described in the New Testament, in Matthew 27:19 and John 19:13, and further, as the seat of the Roman emperor, in Acts 25:10, and of God, in Romans 14:10, when speaking in judgment.

Judaism

Interior of the Amsterdam Synagogue: the bema (or tebah) is in the foreground, and the Hekhal (Ark) in the background. SPAmster.JPG — Interior of the Amsterdam Synagogue: the bema (or *tebáh*) is in the foreground, and the *Hekhál* (Ark) in the background.

Etymology

The post-Biblical Hebrew bima (בּימה), 'platform' or 'pulpit', is almost certainly derived from the Ancient Greek word for a raised platform, bema (βῆμα). A philological link to the Biblical Hebrew bama (בּמה), 'high place' has been suggested.

Alternative names

The bimah (Hebrew plural: bimot) in synagogues is also known as the almemar or almemor among some Ashkenazi Jews,^[6] from Arabic minbar "pulpit".^[7] Among Sephardic Jews, it is known as a tevah "box, case"^[1] or migdal-etz^[8] ('tower of wood').^[9]

Purpose

The importance of the bimah is to show that the reader is the most important at that moment in time, and to make it easier to hear their reader of the Torah.

Description and use

The bima became a standard fixture in synagogues, where the weekly Torah portion and haftara are read.

In antiquity, the bima was made of stone, but in modern times it is usually a rectangular wooden platform approached by steps.^[10]

As in the Temple, the synagogal bima is typically elevated by two or three steps. A raised bima will generally have a railing. This was a religious requirement for safety in bima more than ten handbreadths high, or between 83 and 127 centimetres (2.72 and 4.17 ft). A lower bimah (even one step) will typically have a railing as a practical measure to prevent someone from inadvertently stepping off.

In Orthodox Judaism, the bima is located in the center of the synagogue, separate from the Torah ark. In other branches of Judaism, the bima and the Ark are joined together.^{[ citation needed ]} Reform Judaism moved the bima close to or around the Torah ark.^[10]

At the celebration of Shavuot, when synagogues are decorated with flowers, many synagogues have special arches that they place over the bima and adorn with floral displays.

Christianity

The ceremonial use of a bema carried over from Judaism into early Christian church architecture. It was originally a raised platform with a lectern and seats for the clergy, from which lessons from the Scriptures were read and the sermon was delivered. In Western Christianity the bema developed over time into the chancel (or presbytery) and the pulpit.

In Byzantine, Armenian Rite, West Syriac and Alexandrian Rites of Eastern Christianity bema generally remains the name of the platform which composes the sanctuary; it consists of both the area behind the iconostasion and the platform in front of it from which the deacon leads the ektenias (litanies) together with the ambo from which the priest delivers the sermon and distributes Holy Communion. It may be approached by one or several steps. The bema is composed of the altar (the area behind the iconostasion), the soleas (the pathway in front of the iconostasion), and the ambo (the area in front of the Holy Doors which projects westward into the nave). Orthodox laity do not normally step up onto the bema except to receive Holy Communion.

Islam

In Islam, the minbar "pulpit" is a standard furnishing in every congregational mosque. The earliest record of a minbar dates back to between 628 and 631.

Related Research Articles

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References

1 2 Steinmetz, Sol (2005). Dictionary of Jewish Usage. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4387-4.
↑ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1940, s.v. βῆμα Archived 2018-09-04 at the Wayback Machine .
↑ Hjalmar Frisk. Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1960, s.v. βαίνω (p. 208).
↑ Pierre Chantraine. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Paris: Klincksieck, 2009 [1968], s.v. βαίνω (p. 157).
↑ Robert Beekes and Lucien van Beek. Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden: Brill, 2010, s.v. βαίνω (p. 192).
↑ almemar [ælˈmiːmɑː], Collins English Dictionary
↑ "Almemar in Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)". Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). Retrieved 2013-11-13.
↑ Joseph Gutmann (1983). Iconography of Religions: The Jewish sanctuary. Brill. p. 15. ISBN 90-04-06893-7.
↑ Wischnitzer, Rachel (1964). The architecture of the European synagogoue. Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 34.
1 2 Britannica Concise Encyclopædia: "bema"

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[Steinmetz-1] 1 2 Steinmetz, Sol (2005). Dictionary of Jewish Usage. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4387-4.

[2] Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1940, s.v. βῆμα Archived 2018-09-04 at the Wayback Machine .

[3] Hjalmar Frisk. Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1960, s.v. βαίνω (p. 208).

[4] Pierre Chantraine. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Paris: Klincksieck, 2009 [1968], s.v. βαίνω (p. 157).

[5] Robert Beekes and Lucien van Beek. Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden: Brill, 2010, s.v. βαίνω (p. 192).

[6] almemar [ælˈmiːmɑː], Collins English Dictionary

[7] "Almemar in Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)". Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). Retrieved 2013-11-13.

[8] Joseph Gutmann (1983). Iconography of Religions: The Jewish sanctuary. Brill. p. 15. ISBN 90-04-06893-7.

[9] Wischnitzer, Rachel (1964). The architecture of the European synagogoue. Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 34.

[BritC-10] 1 2 Britannica Concise Encyclopædia: "bema"

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