BELIEVERS (be-lev'erz), (Gr. rurrol, fiis-toy' Lat. fide/es).
A term applied to converts (Acts v :14 ; I Tim. iv :r2) ; in the early church baptized laymen, in distinction from the clergy on the one hand, and catechumens, who were preparing for baptism. They had special privileges, titles and honors, de nied the catechumen, being called "the illumi nated," "the initiated," "the perfect," "the favor ites of heaven." They only were allowed to par take of the Lord's Supper, join in all the prayers of the church, and listen to all discourses deliv ered in the church, the catechumens having been previously dismissed.
BELL (bel), fiah-am-one', something fir'" mets-il-law', struck, Exod. xxviii:33, 34; xxxix:25, 4 • .
mets-il-law', tinkling, Zech. xiv :2o).
1. The first bells known in history are those small golden bells which were attached to the lower part of the blue robe (the robe of the ephod) which formed part of the dress of the high priest in his sacerdotal ministrations (Exod. xxviii :33. 34; Comp. Ecclus. XIV I). They were there placed alternately with the pomegranate shaped knobs, one of these being between every two of the bells. The number of these bells is not mentioned in Scripture. but tradition states that there were sixty-six (Clem. Alex. Stromata, p. 563). We need not seek any other reason for this rather singular use of bells than that which is assigned: 'His sound shall be heard when he goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cotneth out, that he die not' (Exod.
xxviii:35), by which we may understand that the sound of the bells manifested that he was prop erly arrayed in the robes of ceremony which he was required to wear when he entered the pres ence-chamber of the Great King; and that as no minister can enter the presence of an earthly potentate abruptly and unannounced, so he (whom no human being could introduce) was to have his entrance harbingered by the sound of the bells he wore. This sound, heard outside, also notified to the people the time in which he was engaged in his sacred ministrations, and during which they remained in prayer (Luke i :9, to).
2. 'Bells of the Horses' are mentioned in Zech. xis' :20, which were probably such as were attached to the bridles or foreheads, or to belts around the necks of horses trained for war, that they might thereby be accustomed to noise and tumult, and not by their alarm expose the riders to danger in actual warfare. Hence a person who had not been tried or trained up to anything was by the Greeks called 4