Bible Lexicons

βάτος (1) in the sense of ";bush"; is feminine in Luke 20:37, Acts 7:35, but masculine in Mark 12:26 in accordance with the LXX usage (Exodus 3:8 ff., Deuteronomy 33:16), which Thackeray (Gr. i. p. 145) describes as apparently ";vulgar and Hellenistic."; See, however, Moeris p. 99, who regards ἡ β . as ἑλληνικῶς , and ὁ β . as ἀττικῶς . The only passage we can cite, P Lond 121.460 (iii/A.D.) (= I. p. 99) θὲς ὑπὲρ βάτον , throws no light on the gender : since the context is a φίλτρον κάλλιστον , in which kind of literature ";meaning is no great matter,"; βάτον may as well be a Hebrew measure as a bramble-bush. H. A. A. Kennedy (Sources of NT Greek, p. 78) includes βάτος in a list of Biblical words for which Aristophanes is practically the only earlier authority. But we must remember Homer (Od. 24.230). Kaibel has two epitaphs from Italy of the imperial age : 546.6 οὐ βάτοι , οὐ τρίβολοι τὸν ἐμὸν τάφον ἀμφὶς ἔχουσιν , and 548.2 ἄνθεα πολλὰ γένοιτο νεοδμήτῳ ἐπὶ τύμβῳ , μὴ βάτος αὐχμηρή , μὴ κακὸν αἰγίπυρον .