bema

American  

[bee-muh] / ˈbi mə /

noun

plural

bemata, bemas

1. Eastern Church. the enclosed space surrounding the altar; the sanctuary or chancel.

2. (in a Christian basilica) an open space between the end of the nave arcade and the apse.

3. bimah.

4. a platform for public speaking.

---

bema British  

/ ˈbiːmə /

noun

1. the speaker's platform in the assembly in ancient Athens

2. Eastern Orthodox Church a raised area surrounding the altar in a church; the sanctuary

3. Judaism another word for almemar

---

Etymology

Origin of bema

1675–85; < Greek bêma step, platform, equivalent to bē- (verbid stem of baínein to step, go; see come) + -ma (noun suffix denoting result of action)

Example Sentences

Sometimes, however, it does not extend round the bema and apse but is confined to the central part of the church, as in the Myrelaion, S. Theodore, and the Pantepoptes.

From Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Their History and Architecture by Van Millingen, Alexander

The use of the name in ecclesiastical buildings is thus natural, for the altar stood in the place occupied by the bema in the apse of the basilica.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various

Communication between the chapels and the bema was maintained by passages opening in the ordinary fashion into the eastern bays.

From Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Their History and Architecture by Van Millingen, Alexander

The side aisles still communicated with the church and the lateral chapels with the bema.

From Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Their History and Architecture by Van Millingen, Alexander

Different from the man of unruffled brow who ruled from the bema was he who paced the state cabin of the Nausicaä a few nights after the evacuation.

From A Victor of Salamis by Davis, William Stearns