BATH QOL. - A supernatural voice manifesting a divine warning to man, according to the belief that spread in Judaism around the 2nd century B.C.
The Hebrew expression (literally "daughter of a voice") means an "echo," as the tosafists explain in Sanhedrin, 11: "One does not hear the voice that issues from heaven, but another voice derived from that one." In the Targumim, in the Talmudic and midrashic writings it indicates the fourth (after prophecy, the holy spirit, the oracle of Urim and Thummim) and lowest degree of divine revelation (Tosefta Sotah, XIII, 2; Sotah, 48b). A private oracle, the b. q., having made itself heard to pious and devout men between c. 450 B.C. and 220 A.D., was considered a weak surrogate of prophecy, which had ceased. With this "voice," God spoke only mediately, by means of angels or of Elijah. Therefore authority was denied it for settling legal controversies: it could not be opposed to the authority of the doctors of the Law (Berakhot, 52a; Hullin, 44a); whence R. Eliezer Hyrianos "the Great" was excommunicated, despite his "miracles" and a b. q. (Baba Metzia, 59).
The b. q. comes from the places where God dwells: from heaven (as to R. Hillel in Jericho, 20 B.C.; III Hebrew Enoch [ed. H. Odeberg, Cambridge 1928] 16:2), from the "holy of holies" in the Temple (John Hyrcanus, pontiff, 135-105 B.C., was assured of a victory: Sotah, 33a, and Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Jud., XIII, 10, 3-7), from Horeb or Sinai (Avot, VI, 2; Berakhot, 17b). In the 1st century such a charismatic phenomenon was held to be current. The long conflict between the schools of Shammai and of Hillel was decided by a b. q. in favor of the latter (Eruvin, 13b).
The task of the b. q. is to convey a divine message. Usually therefore it is a brief sentence; the longest known b. q. is perhaps that of Apoc. Baruch, 13:1 ff. This message consoles, admonishes, threatens, decides or predicts; it serves as an omen before undertaking an action (Megillah, 32a). The most coveted "voice" is the one that predicts for someone a share in celestial happiness and in the world to come (as in the martyrdom of R. Akiva: Berakhot, 61b).
The Peshitta of the New Testament (c. 400) translates with b. q. the "voice" (of God) in Acts 12:22 (běhót qólé), I Tim. 6:20; Heb. 3:15 (bat qólé). J. Buxtorf, G. Dalman, B. W. Bacon, P. Billerbeck link (without foundation) to the b. q. the "voice from heaven" to Jesus of Mt. 3:17 (Mk. 1:11; Lk. 3:22) and Mt. 17:5 (Mk. 9:7; Lk. 9:35) and Jn. 12:28, the "voice" to Paul and to Peter (Acts 9:4 [22:7]; 26:14]; 10:13, 15), and Apoc. 10:4-8; 18:4.
Moses Maimonides (Moreh Nevukhim, II, 42; ed. S. Munk, II, Paris 1861, p. 90) explains the b. q. rationalistically: "When a man has a strong impression he believes he hears a voice outside himself." One may compare the b. q. to the "voice" (φανή τις) that Socrates claimed to hear, in any case perplexed, in his conscience, defining it θεῖον τι καὶ δαιμόνιον (Plato, Apol., 31d; Euthyphr., 2 b).
Bibliography5 works
Heaven, in The American Journal of Theology, 9 (1903), pp. 431-473; H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Test. aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, Munich 1922, pp. 125-34; A. Cohen, Il Talmud, Italian trans., Bari 1935, p. 75 f.; E. Dabrowski, La Transfiguration de Jésus, Rome 1939, pp. 181-84.