Bastard

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

one born out of wedlock. A bastard among the Greeks was despised, and exposed to public scorn, on account of his spurious origin. In Persia the son of a concubine is never placed on a footing with the legitimate offspring; any attempt made by parental fondness to do so would be resented by the relations of the legitimate wife, and outrage the feelings of a whole tribe. The Jewish father bestowed as little attention on the education of his natural children as the Greek: he seems to have resigned them, in a great measure, to their own inclinations; he neither checked their passions, nor corrected their faults, nor stored their minds with useful knowledge. This is evidently implied in these words of the Apostle: "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons,"  Hebrews 12:7-8 . To restrain the licentious desires of the heart, Jehovah by an express law fixed a stigma upon the bastard, which was not to be removed till the tenth generation; and to show that the precept was on no account to be violated, or suffered to fall into disuse, it is emphatically repeated, "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord,"

 Deuteronomy 23:2 .

King James Dictionary

B'ASTARD, n. A natural child a child begotten and born out of wedlock an illegitimate or spurious child. By the and canon laws, a bastard becomes a legitimate child, by the intermarriage of the parents, at any future time. But by the laws of this country, as by those of England, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage.

Bastard eigne', or bastard elder, in law, is when a man has a bastard son, and afterward marries the mother, and has a legitimate son, called mulier puisne, or younger.

B'ASTARD, n. A kind of sweet wine. Not in use.

B'ASTARD, a. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony illegitimate.

2. Spurious not genuine false supposititious adulterate. In this sense, it is applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not genuine as a bastard hope, bastard honors.

In military affairs, bastard is applied to pieces of artillery which are of an unusual make or proportion, whether longer or shorter, as the double culverin extraordinary, half or quarter culverin extraordinary.

Bastard-Flower-fence, a plant, a species of Adenanthera.

Bastard-hemp, a plant, a species of Datisca, false hemp.

Bastard-Rocket, dyers-weed, or wild woad, a species of Reseda.

Bastard-Star of Bethlehem, a plant, a species of Albuca.

Bastard-Scarlet, a red color dyed with balemadder.

B'ASTARD, To make or determine to be a bastard.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) A large size of mold, in which sugar is drained.

(2): (n.) Of an unusual make or proportion; as, a bastard musket; a bastard culverin.

(3): (n.) Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; - applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so.

(4): (n.) A "natural" child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child; one born of an illicit union.

(5): (n.) An inferior quality of soft brown sugar, obtained from the sirups that / already had several boilings.

(6): (n.) Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.

(7): (n.) A sweet Spanish wine like muscadel in flavor.

(8): (n.) A writing paper of a particular size. See Paper.

(9): (a.) Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate. See Bastard, n., note.

(10): (v. t.) To bastardize.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Νόθος (Strong'S #3541 — Adjective — nothos — noth'-os )

denotes "an illegitimate child, one born out of lawful wedlock,"  Hebrews 12:8 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Bastard. Among those who were excluded from entering the congregation, even to the tenth generation, was the bastard.  Deuteronomy 23:2. The term is not, however, applied to any illegitimate offspring, born out of wedlock, but is restricted by the rabbins to the issue of any connection within the degrees prohibited by the law.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Leviticus 18:6-20 Leviticus 20:11-20 Deuteronomy 23:2 Deuteronomy 12:8 Zechariah 9:6

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Mamzer'   Deuteronomy 23:2 Zechariah 9:6 Judges 11:1-7 Hebrews 12:8

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(nothus, one born out of wedlock),

(i.) the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of the Hebrews מִמְזֵר ( Mamzer', Polluted ) , which occurs only in  Deuteronomy 23:2 and  Zechariah 9:6. But Michaelis (Mos. Recht, 2, § 139) reads the word with a different pointing, so as to make it a compound of two words, מום זר , meaning Stain, Defect of a Stranger; implying the stain that would be cast upon the nation by granting to such a stranger the citizen-right. Some understand by it the offspring of prostitutes; but they forget that prostitutes were expressly forbidden to be tolerated by the law of Moses ( Leviticus 19:29;  Deuteronomy 23:17). The most probable conjecture is that which applies the term to the offspring of heathen prostitutes in the neighborhood of Palestine, since no provision was made by Moses against their toleration (Potter, Archaeol. 1:354), and who were a sort of priestesses to the Syrian goddess Astarte (comp.  Numbers 25:1 sq.; Gesenius, Comment. Ub. Jesaias, 2:339;  Hosea 4:14;  1 Kings 14:24;  1 Kings 15:12;  1 Kings 22:47;  2 Kings 23:7; Herodot. 1:199). That there existed such bastard offspring among the Jews is proved by the history of Jephthah ( Judges 11:1-7), who on this account was expelled and deprived of his patrimony (Kitto). It seems ( Hebrews 12:8) that natural children ( Νόθοι ) among the Jews received little attention from the father. In the former of the above passages ( Deuteronomy 23:2), illegitimate offspring in the ordinary sense (Sept. Ἐκ Πορνῆς , Vulg. De Scorto Natus, and so the Oriental interpreters, as also the rabbins); but so severe a curse could hardly with justice rest upon such. and there is no countenance for such a view in the Jewish custom of concubinage. (See Concubine). In the latter passage ( Zechariah 9:6; Sept. Ἀλλογενής ) it is doubtless used in the sense Of Foreigner, predicting the conquest of Ashdod by the Jews in the time of the Maccabees, or perhaps more appropriately by subsequent heathen invaders.

(ii.) Persons of illegitimate birth are incapable, by the canon law, of receiving any of the minor orders without a dispensation from the bishop; nor can they, in the Latin Church, be admitted to holy orders, or to benefices with cure of souls, except by a dispensation from the pope. However, the taking of the monastic vows enables such a one to receive holy orders without dispensation; but persons so ordained cannot be advanced to any ecclesiastical dignity without dispensation. According to the laws of the Church of England, a bastard cannot be admitted to orders without a dispensation from the queen or archbishop; and if he take a benefice, he may be deprived of it till such dispensation be obtained. — Landon, Eccl. Dict. 2:81.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Bastard ( Deuteronomy 23:2, and  Zechariah 9:6). Some understand by this word the offspring of prostitutes, but they forget that prostitutes were expressly forbidden to be tolerated by the law of Moses ( Leviticus 19:29;  Deuteronomy 23:17). The most probable conjecture is that which applies the term to the offspring of heathen prostitutes in the neighborhood of Palestine; since no provision was made by Moses against their toleration, and who were a sort of priestesses to the Syrian goddess Astarte (comp.  Numbers 25:1, sq.;  Hosea 4:14;  1 Kings 14:24;  1 Kings 15:12;  1 Kings 22:47;  2 Kings 23:7).

That there existed such bastard offspring among the Jews, is proved by the history of Jephthah ( Judges 11:1-7), who on this account was expelled, and deprived of his patrimony.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bas´tard ( ממזר , mamzēr  ; νόθος , nóthos ): In  Deuteronomy 23:2 probably the offspring of an incestuous union, or of a marriage within the prohibited degrees of affinity (  Leviticus 18:6-20;  Leviticus 20:10-21 ). He and his descendants to the tenth generation are excluded from the assembly of the Lord. (See Driver, at the place). Zechariah ( Zechariah 9:6 ), after prophesying the overthrow of three Philistine cities, declares of the fourth: "And a bastard (the Revised Version, margin "a bastard race") shall dwell in Ashdod," meaning probably that a "mixed population" ( BDB ) of aliens shall invade and settle in the capital of the Philistines. In Heb ( Zechariah 12:8 ) in its proper sense of "born out of wedlock," and therefore not admitted to the privileges of paternal care and responsibility as a legitimate son.