BEMA. - From the Greek βῆμα (βλῆμ = to go, to walk). The meaning of the term B. is very different, whether in ancient Greece or in Rome, in the Christian churches, and among the Manichaeans.

In ancient Greece, in fact, the word B. could mean: a) a linear measure for checking the length of roads (βῆματισταί); b) a raised step onto which orators and singers mounted (as seen on many Attic vases); c) a tribune for the judge (Mt. 27:17; Jn. 19:12; Sibyllina, VIII, 242); d) a simple platform of wood or stone in theaters or elsewhere. In Rome, by the word b. was meant the platform in the Roman Forum from which the praetors spoke to the people; hence the rostra too were called b. The curule chair for the tribune was placed upon a similar platform called the "tribunal."

In Christianity, among the Easterners, b. was the name both of the raised apse and of the elevated space enclosed by means of cancelli containing the altar; or else the dividing wall between the presbytery and the central nave, or also the pulpit.

In the West, b. was sometimes the name of the raised apse or of the front part of it, or of a platform for the speaker (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., X, 9), or of the bench for the presbyters (Hefele-Leclercq, I, 1023); or also of the pulpit for the reading (Sozomen, Hist. eccl., IX, 2: PG 67, 1600). Among the Manichaeans, b. was the name of the feast celebrated in honor of Mani, because the Manichaeans venerated an empty, veiled chair placed upon a raised tribunal (St. Augustine, Contra epistolam Manichaei: PL 42, 177).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: F. X. Kraus, s. v. in Real.-Enc. d. christl. Altert., I, pp. 43-46; R. Hultsch, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., III, pp. 264-65; U. E. Paoli, s. v. in Enc. Ital., VI, pp. 588-89; L. Eisenhofer, s. v. in LThK, II, col. 134.

Ludovico Voelkl

BEMA: V. MANICHEISMO.

@incollection{ec2_bema, author = {Voëlkl, Ludovico}, title = {Bema}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1206--1207}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/bema} }

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