Bacchus
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
(n.) The god of wine, son of Jupiter and Semele.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
BACCHUS

bak'-us Dionusos; later Bakchos, the Feast of Bacchus; Dionusia: The god of wine. His worship had extended over the whole Greek and Roman world centuries before the Christian era, and had degenerated into an orgy of drunkenness and unnamable immoralities, possibly under the influence of oriental Baal worship, such as the Hebrew prophets condemned. It has been surmised that Dionysus was originally not a Greek, but an oriental deity. His worship had been introduced into Egypt, perhaps by the Ptolemies, and Ptolemy Philopator (222-204 B.C.) had branded the Jews there with his emblem, the sign of the ivy. When Antiochus Epiphanes made his assault upon Jerusalem in the year 168 B.C., he determined to extirpate the worship of Yahweh, which he recognized as the strength of the Jewish resistance, and to replace it by Greek religion. All worship of Yahweh and the observance of Jewish rites, such as the Sabbath and circumcision, were prohibited. Heathen worship was set up all over Judea, and in the temple at Jerusalem on the altar of burnt offering an altar to Jupiter was erected, "the abomination that maketh desolate" (Daniel 11:31), and a swine was sacrificed upon it (see ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION). The immoral practices associated with heathen worship in those days established themselves in the temple. When this feast of Bacchus (Dionysus) with all its revelry came round, the Jews were compelled to go in procession in honor of Bacchus (Dionysus), wearing wreaths of ivy, the emblem of the god (2 Maccabees 6:7). Some years later, when the worship of Yahweh had been restored, Nicanor the general of Demetrius I, in conducting the war against Judas Maceabacus, threatened the priests that, unless they delivered Judas up as a prisoner, "he would raze the temple of God even with the ground, break down the altar, and erect there a temple unto Bacchus (Dionysus) for all to see" (2 Maccabees 14:33).

See DIONYSIA.

LITERATURE.

Cheyne, article "Bacchus," EB; Kent, History of the Jewish People, I, 328-29; Josephus, Ant, XII, v, 4.

T. Rees

DIONYSUS, (BACCHUS)

di-o-ni'-sus (Dionusos): The youngest of the Greek gods. In Homer he is not associated with the vine. In later Greek legend he is represented as coming from India, as traversing Asia in a triumphal march, accompanied by woodland beings, with pointed ears, snub noses and goat-tails. These creatures were called satyrs. The vine was cultivated among European-Aryans first in Thrace, and here Dionysus is said to have established his worship first in Europe. Then the cult of Dionysus passed down through the Balkan peninsula to Thebes; and in the localized form of the myth the deity was born here-son of Zeus and Semele. "Offspring of Zeus on high.......... Thou that carest for all Who on Bacchus in Italy call And in Deo's sheltered plain Of Eleusis lord dost reign, Whither worshippers repair! O Bacchus that dwellest in Thebes, On whose broad and fertile glebes Fierce warriors from the dragon's teeth rose, Where Ismenus softly flows, The city that Semele bare!" -Sophocles, Antigone. Among all the Greek deities none appealed more vividly to the imagination than Dionysus. Greek tragedy is a form of worship, the ritual cult of the god of wine, who makes the initiate wise and the ungodly mad. Dionysus speaks most strongly to the sense and to the spirit at the same time. There is nothing monotonous in the Dionysiac legend; it is replete with both joy and sorrow-in some aspects it is a "passion" in others a triumph. All the passion plays of the world (even the Oberammergau Schauspiel) are in the ancient spirit. One Dionysus after another has been substituted, but from the first there has been a desire on the part of the devotee to realize his god vividly with thrilling nearness, to partake of his joys and sorrows and triumphs in his manifold adventures. In the early myths Dionysus was one of the lesser gods; he is mentioned only twice in the Iliad and twice in the Odyssey; but he is always represented as being more nearly akin to man than the great august deities of Olympus.

He is a man-god, or god-man. To the inhabitants of the vine-clad slopes of Attica, to which his cult had been brought from Phrygia through Thracian Boeotia, he was particularly dear. At their vintage feasts last year's cask of wine was opened; and when the new year brought life again to the vines, the bountiful god was greeted with songs of joyful praise. The burial of the wine in the dark tomb of the jars through the winter, and the opening of these jars at the spring festival symbolized the great awakening of man himself, the resurrection of the god's worshippers to a fuller and more joyous life. The vine was not the only manifestation of the god-oil and wheat were also his; he was the god of ecstasy, the giver of physical joy and excitement, the god of life, the god of certain laws of Nature, germination and extinction, the external coming into being and the dying away of all things that are, fructification in its widest aspect whether in the bursting of the seed-grain that lies intreasured in the earth, or in the generation of living creatures. Hence, the prominence given to the phallus in the solemn processions in honor of the god.

Nicanor (2 Maccabees 14:33) and Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Maccabees 6:7) thought that the cult of Dionysus would not be objectionable to the Jews. Ptolemy Philopator branded the Jews with an ivy-leaf (3 Maccabees 2:29), which was sacred to Dionysus. See also BACCHUS.

J. E. Harry

Greek
2358. thriambeuo -- to triumph
... Word Origin from thriambos (a festal hymn to Bacchus) Definition to triumph NASB
Word Usage leads...in triumph (1), triumphed over (1). cause to triumph over. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/2358.htm - 7k

1354. Dionusios -- Dionysius, an Athenian
... Dionysius. From Dionusos (Bacchus); reveller; Dionysius, an Athenian -- Dionysius.
(dionusios) -- 1 Occurrence. 1353, 1354. Dionusios. 1355 . Strong's Numbers
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1354.htm - 6k

Library

Father Liber --Bacchus.
... XII."Father Liber"Bacchus. Ye yourselves say that Father Liber was assuredly
twice begotten. First of all he was born in India ...
/.../commodianus/the instructions of commodianus/xii father liberbacchus.htm

The Devil, Since He Emulates the Truth, Has Invented Fables About ...
... Chapter LXIX."The devil, since he emulates the truth, has invented fables
about Bacchus, Hercules, and ??sculapius. "Be well assured ...
/.../chapter lxix the devil since he.htm

Of ??sculapius, Apollo, Mars, Castor and Pollux, and of Mercurius ...
... Addressed to His Brother Pentadius. Chap. VIII."Of ??sculapius, Apollo,
Mars, Castor and Pollux, and of Mercurius and Bacchus. ...
/.../lactantius/the divine institutes/chap viii of aesculapius apollo mars.htm

Of the Life and Actions of ??sculapius, Apollo, Neptune, Mars ...
... gods. Chap. X."Of the life and actions of ??sculapius, apollo, neptune,
mars, castor and pollux, mercury and bacchus. What other ...
/.../lactantius/the divine institutes/chap x of the life and.htm

Fabulous Heathen Genealogies.
... But Satyrus, also giving a history of the Alexandrine families, beginning from
Philopator, who was also named Ptolemy, gives out that Bacchus was his progenitor ...
/.../theophilus/theophilus to autolycus/chapter vii fabulous heathen genealogies.htm

Let These Dealers in Crowns Then Recognize in the Meantime the ...
... Priapus also the same author assigns fillets; and to Ariadne a garland of gold and
of Indian gems, the gift of Vulcan, afterwards of Bacchus, and subsequently ...
/.../tertullian/the chaplet or de corona/chapter vii let these dealers.htm

Let us Pass on Now to Theatrical Exhibitions, which we have ...
... But Venus and Bacchus are close allies. These two evil spirits are in sworn confederacy
with each other, as the patrons of drunkenness and lust. ...
/.../tertullian/the shows or de spectaculis/chapter x let us pass.htm

Here Leave Vulcan Unnoticed, to Avoid Prolixity; whom You all ...
... when you maintain that Bacchus, Apollo, the Sun, are one deity, increased in number
by the use of three names, is not the number of the gods lessened, and ...
/.../the seven books of arnobius against the heathen/33 we here leave vulcan.htm

As There Are, Then, Generally Two Laws Presented to Us...
... Neither shall we, like the Ethiopians who inhabit the parts about Meroe, worship,
as is their pleasure, Jupiter and Bacchus only; nor shall we at all reverence ...
/.../origen/origen against celsus/chapter xxxvii as there are.htm

I Wish, However, to Show How Celsus Asserts Without any Good ...
... For he declares that "those Ethiopians who inhabit Meroe know only of two gods,
Jupiter and Bacchus, and worship these alone; and that the Arabians also know ...
/.../origen/origen against celsus/chapter xxxviii i wish however.htm

Thesaurus
Bacchus
... Semele. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. BACCHUS. bak'-us Dionusos; later
Bakchos, the Feast of Bacchus; Dionusia: The god of wine. His ...
/b/bacchus.htm - 12k

Dionysus
... DIONYSUS, (BACCHUS). ... Thou that carest for all Who on Bacchus in Italy call And in
Deo's sheltered plain Of Eleusis lord dost reign, Whither worshippers repair! ...
/d/dionysus.htm - 9k

Dionysia
... di-o-nish'-ia (Dionusia, "festivals of Dionysus" (Bacchus)): The rural (vintage)
Dionysia were celebrated in the month of Poseideon (19th day), which is ...
/d/dionysia.htm - 10k

Orgies (4 Occurrences)
... ceremonies in honor of some pagan deity; especially, the ceremonies observed by
the Greeks and Romans in the worship of Dionysus, or Bacchus, which were ...
/o/orgies.htm - 8k

Ivy
... On the day of the king's birth every month they were brought by bitter constraint
to eat of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus (Dionysus) was kept ...
/i/ivy.htm - 7k

Forehead (23 Occurrences)
... In 3 Maccabees 2:29 we read that Ptolemy IV Philopator branded some Jews with the
sign of an ivy leaf, marking them as devotees of Bacchus-Dionysos. ...
/f/forehead.htm - 19k

Bacchurus

/b/bacchurus.htm - 6k

Bacenor

/b/bacenor.htm - 6k

Bush (14 Occurrences)
... 4. (n.) A shrub or branch, properly, a branch of ivy (as sacred to Bacchus), hung
out at vintners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and ...
/b/bush.htm - 19k

Resources
Is Jesus a copy of Dionysus? | GotQuestions.org

Is being drunk in the Spirit a biblical experience? | GotQuestions.org

Bacchus: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.com

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