Bible Dictionary
DEATH
DEATH
In the ordinary sense: cessation of life. It did not enter into the will of God, who created man in his image, and who made him a “living soul.” In paradise, the tree of life would have allowed him to live eternally (Gen. 1:27; 2:7; 3:22).
Death has been the wages of disobedience to divine command (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Death is physical, since our body returns to dust (Gen. 3:19); It is also, and above all, spiritual.
Since his fall, Adam and Eve were cast out of God’s presence and deprived of his fellowship (Gen. 3:22-24). Since then, sinners are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).
The prodigal son, separated from his father’s home, is spiritually dead (Lk. 15:24). This is the reason why the sinner needs the regeneration of the soul and the resurrection of the body.
Jesus insists on the need for every man to be born again (John 3:3-8); He explains that the passage from spiritual death to eternal life is carried out by the action of the Holy Spirit and is received by faith (Jn. 5:24; 6:63).
This resurrection of our inner being is produced by the miracle of the baptism of the Spirit (Col. 2:12-13). He who consents to lose his life and be resurrected with Christ is fully alive with Him (Rom. 6:4, 8, 13).
(a) After physical death: (A) It is a horrible thing for the wicked to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31) and appear before judgment (Heb. 9:27) without any preparation (Lk. 12: 16-21).
The sinner may seem unpunished for a long time (Ps. 73:3-20), but his final fate shows that “the Lord will laugh at him because he sees his day coming” (Ps. 37:13). He who has not accepted God’s forgiveness will die in his sins (cf. Jn. 8:24).
Jesus teaches, in the story of the wicked rich man, that, from the very moment of death, the wicked is in a place of torment, in full possession of his conscience and memory, separated by an impassable abyss from the place of happiness. eternal, unable to help, and held totally responsible for the warnings of the Scriptures and/or natural Revelation and the testimony of his own conscience (Lk. 16:19-31; Rom. 1:18-21 ff.) . (See SHEL, HADES.)
(B) For the believer there is no spiritual death (separation from God). He has received eternal life,
having passed, by faith, from death to life (John 5:24). Jesus affirmed: «I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in me, even though he is dead, he will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will not die forever” (John 11:25-26; cf. John 8:51; 10:28).
From the very moment of his death, the beggar Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom (Lk. 16:22, 25). Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” For him to leave to be with Christ is much better (Phil. 1:21-23).
It is for this reason that “we would rather be absent from the body, and present to the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:2-9). A more complete victory over death cannot be imagined, pending the glorious resurrection of the body (see RESURRECTION).
Thus, the Spirit can solemnly affirm: “Blessed are the dead from now on who die in the Lord” (Rev. 14:13).
(b) The second death. In contrast to the joyful certainty of the believer, recapitulated above, is an expectation of judgment, and of boiling fire, which is to devour the adversaries.
The action of natural conscience instills fear and anguishing uncertainty in the unconverted. Shakespeare expressed it masterfully in his Hamlet soliloquy, in which he considers the possibility of suicide; «Die: sleep; no more; and with sleep, to say that we put an end to the burdens and misfortunes, to the thousands of natural setbacks to which the flesh is heir, this is an end to be eagerly desired.
Die: sleep; sleep: perhaps dream; Ah, there is the difficult point!; for in this dream of death what dreams can come when we have thrown off this mortal garment? This should restrain us: there is the respect that makes us bear the calamity of such a life, for who would endure the scourges and scorns of time, the evils of the oppressor, the arrogance of the proud, the pain for despised love, the slowness of justice, the insolence of the potentates, and the disdain that provokes the patient merit of the humble, when he himself can, with a naked dagger, achieve rest? Who would carry heavy burdens, groaning and sweating under a weary life, but for the fact of the fear of something after death, the unexplored country from whose docks no traveler returns, and which makes us prefer those evils that we now have, than flying to others about whom we know nothing? Thus, conscience makes cowards of all of us, and thus the beginning of a resolution is stopped by the pale cloak of reflection” (Act III, Scene 1).
Thus, the “horrendous expectation of judgment, and the burning of fire that will devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:27) refers to the second death, that which awaits the unrepentant after the final judgment.
This second death is in the Scriptures a synonym for hell. Twice in Revelation it is stated that the lake of fire is the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:8). In this lake of fire the unrepentant, raised again to life in their bodies, but without admission to glory, will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 14:10-11; 20:10).
That is why it is about “suffering harm from the second death” (Rev. 2:11). The fact remains that the grace of the Lord does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather his salvation. Thus, Scripture insists on numerous occasions: “I do not desire the death of him who dies… repent, and you will live” (Ex. 18:23, 31-32).
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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