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n. Judaism The platform from which services are conducted in a synagogue. Also called almemar.

n. Eastern Orthodox Church The area of a church in which the altar is located; the sanctuary.

n. A platform from which speakers addressed an assembly.

n. Raised area of worship in a synagogue upon which rests the Holy Ark containing Scrolls of Torah.

n. A platform from which speakers addressed an assembly.

n.

n. That part of an early Christian church which was reserved for the higher clergy; the inner or eastern part of the chancel.

n. Erroneously: A pulpit.

n. In Greek antiquity, a stage or kind of pulpit on which speakers stood when addressing an assembly.

n. In the Gr. Church, the sanctuary or chancel; the inclosed space surrounding the altar.

n. An architectural screen (iconostasis) with a curtain (amphithyra) at its doors, or, as was the case especially in early times, a curtain only, separates the bema from the body of the church. On either side of the bema are the para-bemata, called respectively the prothesis and the diaconicon. These regularly communicate with the bema, and in poor churches often have little more than an indication of separation from it. Rubrically they are often counted as part of the bema.

n. A step; a rough measure of length employed by the Greeks and Macedonians when stadia were paced off, and not merely estimated by shouting.

n. area around the altar of a church for the clergy and choir; often enclosed by a lattice or railing

"The word altar (sometimes spelled oltar) is used in the Old Slavonic and Russian languages to denote the entire space surrounding what we know as the altar, which is included behind the iconostasis, and is the equivalent of the Greek word bema."

area