BEMA. — From the Greek δῆμα (δῆma = to go, to walk). The meaning of the term B. varies greatly, both in ancient Greece and Rome, in Christian churches and among the Manicheans.
In ancient Greece, the word B. could mean: a) a linear measure to verify the length of roads (δῆma = roads); b) an elevated step on which orators and singers stood (as seen in many ancient vases); c) a tribunal for the judge (Mt. 27, 17; Jn. 19, 12; Sibylline Oracles, VIII, 242); d) a simple wooden or stone elevation in theaters or elsewhere. In Rome, the word B. referred to the elevation in the Roman Forum from which the praetors addressed the people; hence the rostra were also called B. The curule chair for the tribune was placed on a similar elevation called a "tribunal."
In Christianity, among the Easterners, B. designated both the elevated apse and the enclosed, gated space containing the altar; or the dividing wall between the presbytery and the nave, or even the pulpit.
In the West, B. sometimes referred to the elevated apse or the front part thereof, or an elevation for the orator (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., X, 9), or the bench for the presbyters (Hefele-Leclercq, I, 1023), or even the pulpit for readings (Sozomen, Hist. eccl., IX, 2: PG 67, 1600). Among the Manicheans, B. denoted the festival celebrated in honor of Mani, because they venerated an empty, veiled chair placed on an elevated tribunal (St. Augustine, Contra epistolam Manichaei: PL 42, 177).