Christ bema seat judgment5/2/2024 This was a religious requirement for safety in bimah more than 10 handbreadths high, or between 83 and 127 centimetres (2.72 and 4.17 ft). A raised bimah will typically have a railing. The synagogue bimah is typically elevated by two or three steps, as was the bimah in the Temple. In antiquity the bimah was made of stone, but in modern times it is usually a rectangular wooden platform approached by steps. The bimah became a standard fixture in synagogues from which the weekly Torah portion ( parashah) and the haftarah are read. The importance of the bimah is to show that the reader is the most important at that moment in time, and to make it easier to hear their reader of the Torah. Among Sephardic Jews it is known as a tevah (literally 'box, case' in Hebrew) or migdal-etz ('tower of wood'). The bimah (Hebrew plural: bimot) in synagogues is also known as the almemar or almemor among some Ashkenazis (from the Arabic, al- minbar, meaning 'platform' ). A philological link to the Biblical Hebrew bama ( בּמה), 'high place' has been suggested. The post-Biblical Hebrew bima ( בּימה), 'platform' or 'pulpit', is almost certainly derived from the Ancient Greek word for a raised platform, bema ( βῆμα). Bema of Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India Etymology Interior of the Amsterdam Synagogue: the bema (or tebáh) is in the foreground, and the Hekhál ( Ark) in the background. ( December 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas.īy metonymy, bema was also a place of judgement, being the extension of the raised seat of the judge, as described in the New Testament, in Matthew 27:19 and John 19:13, and further, as the seat of the Roman emperor, in Acts 25:10, and of God, in Romans 14:10, when speaking in judgment. The original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. The Ancient Greek bēma ( βῆμα) means both 'platform' and 'step', being derived from bainein ( βαίνειν, 'to go'). In Jewish synagogues, where it is used for Torah reading during services, the term used is bima or bimah.Īncient Greece The remains of the bema, or speaker's platform, at the Pnyx in Athens The term can refer to the raised area in a sanctuary. For other uses, see Bema (disambiguation).Ī bema was an elevated platform used as an orator's podium in ancient Athens.
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