Beam

Beam - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Occurs in the Authorized Version as the rendering of various Hebrew words. In 1 Sam. 17:7, it means a weaver's frame or principal beam; in Hab. 2:11, a crossbeam or girder; 2 Kings 6:2, 5, a cross-piece or rafter of a house; 1 Kings 7:6, an architectural ornament as a projecting step or moulding; Ezek. 41:25, a thick plank. In the New Testament the word occurs only in Matt. 7:3, 4, 5, and Luke 6:41, 42, where it means (Gr. dokos) a large piece of wood used for building purposes, as contrasted with "mote" (Gr. karphos), a small piece or mere splinter. "Mote" and "beam" became proverbial for little and great faults.

Beam - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

BEAM, n. [We see by the Gothic, that the word belongs to Class Bg. It properly signifies the stock or stem of a tree; that is, the fixed, firm part.]

1. The largest, or a principal piece in a building, that lies across the walls, and serves to support the principal rafters.

2. Any large piece of timber, long in proportion to its thickness, and squared, or hewed for use.

3. The part of a balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended; sometimes used for the whole apparatus for weighing.

4. The part on the head of a stag, which bears the antlers, royals and tops.

5. The pole of a carriage, which runs between the horses.

6. A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving; and this name is given also to the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled,as it is wove.

7. The straight part or shank of an anchor.

8. In ships, a great main cross timber, which holds the sides of a ship from falling together. The beams support the decks and orlops. The main beam is next the mainmast.

9. The main piece of a plow, in which the plow-tails are fixed, and by which it is drawn.

10. Beam compass, an instrument consisting of a square wooden or brass beam, having sliding sockets, that carry steel or pencil points; used for describing large circles, and in large projections for drawing the furniture on wall-dials.

On the beam, in navigation, signified any distance from the ship, on a line with the beams, or at right angles with the keel.

Before the beam, is an arch of the horizon between a line that crosses the ship at right angles, or the line of the beam, and that point of the compass which she steers.

Beam ends. A vessel is said to be on her beam ends, when she inclines so much on one side that her beams approach a vertical position.

Beam-feathers, in falconry, the long feathers of a hawk's wing.

bem: The word is used to translate various Old Testament terms:

(1) gebh (1Ki 6:9), tsela`, "a rib" (1Ki 7:3), qurah (2Ch 3:7; 34:11; So 1:17), all refer to constructional beams used in buildings for roofing and upper floors, main beams being carried on pillars generally of wood. The last term is used in 2Ki 6:2,5 ("as one was felling a beam") of trees which were being cut into logs. A related form is qarah (used of the Creator, Ps 104:3; of building, Ne 2:8; 3:3,6). Yet another term, kaphim, is used in Hab 2:11: "The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it"--a protest against sin made by inanimate things. The Douay version, in translating, "the timber that is between the joints of the building," suggests the use of bond timbers in buildings, similar to that used at one time in English brickwork. It probably refers to its use in mud brick buildings, although bond timbers might also be used in badly built stone walls. The Arabs of the present day use steel joints to strengthen angles of buildings.

(2) Beam, in weaving, represents two words, 'eregh (Jud 16:14, the beam of a loom to which Samson's hair was fastened; used in Job 7:6 of a weaver's shuttle), and manor (1Sa 17:7; 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 11:23; 20:5), of a spear-staff.

(3) In the New Testament Jesus uses the word dokos, "a rafter," in bidding the censorious person first cast the "beam" out of his own eye before attempting to remove the "mote" from another's eye (Mt 7:3; Lu 6:41,42).

See ARCHITECTURE; HOUSE.

Arch. C. Dickie