Vox In The Box

Dear All-Knowing Vox, Why is the Bema called the Bema and what does it mean? SIGNED,"IT'S GREER TO ME!"

AtDsfcj-tmouth, where acronyms rule, students believing that th e Bema is short for "BigEmpty Meeting Area" are. w rong. The word "bema" comes from the ancient Greek. A "bema" is a cut-rock platform used for public speaking. Afistotle describes such a spot, saying, "For 60 years Pericles had ceased to thunder from the bema." Early Christian and Orthodox churches adopted the word to describe the area of the church that housed the altar, while the Hebrew language used "bema" to denote a pulpit. The bema also appears in synagogues, and from it the Pentateuch and 1 orah are read. When Dartmouth's Bema was built in 1882 the intention waS to model the space after the Pnyx—the spot where the assembly met in ancient Athens.

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