Balthazar

Question

On my list, we are reading Balzac's "The Alkahest", and I plugged the main character's name into Google, hoping to come up with an immediate biblical reference, but the first 20 hits seem to indicate this proper name has been appropriated, in modern usage, to refer to French restaurants and a style of cooking.
with brasserie being of a type, informal and hearty, according to MW online. find this association unexpected, and wonder if anyone knows if the name does in fact have any Judeo-Christian allusion?
Joanne

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]On my list, we are reading Balzac's "The Alkahest", and I plugged the main character's name into Google, hoping to ... I find this association unexpected, and wonder if anyone knows if the name does in fact have any Judeo-Christian allusion?[/nq]
Daniel 5

1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords,and drank wine before the thousand.

2 Belshazzar

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[nq:2]On my list, we are reading Balzac's "The Alkahest", and ... first 20 hits seem to indicate this proper name has[/nq]
[nq:1]been[/nq]
[nq:2]appropriated, in modern usage, to refer to French restaurants and astyle[/nq]
[nq:1]of[/nq]
[nq:2]cooking, re: http://www.balthazarny.com/home.html with brasserie being of a type, informal and hearty, according to MW online:[/nq]

[nq:2]ie+&x=11&y=23 I find this association unexpected, and wonder if anyone knows if thename does in fact have any Judeo-Christian allusion?[/nq]
[nq:1]Gaspar, Balthazar and Melchior are traditionally the names of the Magi.[/nq]
Balthazar is traditionally depicted as black, and his gift is myrrh, symbolic of Christ's death and burial.
There appears to be a famous French-style restaurant called "Balthazar" in New York, and as far as I can see all the early Google references relate to that establishment. A "Balthazar" is an over-size bottle of wine, the equivalent of 16 normal bottles (24 for a Melchior) - information from "Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany".
Alan Jones

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[nq:1]name[/nq]
[nq:2]Gaspar, Balthazar and Melchior are traditionally the names of the Magi.[/nq]
[nq:1]Balthazar is traditionally depicted as black, and his gift is myrrh, symbolic of Christ's death and burial. There appears to ... the equivalent of 16 normal bottles (24 for a Melchior) - information from "Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany". Alan Jones[/nq]
Thank you both.

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[nq:1]On my list, we are reading Balzac's "The Alkahest", and I plugged the main character's name into Google, hoping to ... I find this association unexpected, and wonder if anyone knows if the name does in fact have any Judeo-Christian allusion?[/nq]
Daniel 5

1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords,and drank wine before the thousand.

2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the goldenand silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of thetemple of the house of *** which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, ofbrass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote overagainst the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubledhim, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, andthe soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read thewriting, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance waschanged in him, and his lords were astonied.

10 Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords cameinto the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:

11 There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holygods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;
12 Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding,interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.

13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake andsaid unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?
14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee,and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in beforeme, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:

16 And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, anddissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.

17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be tothyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.
18 O thou king, the most high *** gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father akingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:

19 And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, andlanguages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, hewas deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
21 And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made likethe beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild *****: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high *** ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, thoughthou knewest all this;

23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they havebrought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the *** in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

24 Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing waswritten.

25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL,UPHARSIN.

26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; *** hath numbered thykingdom, and finished it.

27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, andput a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
31 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore andtwo years old.

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[nq:1]On my list, we are reading Balzac's "The Alkahest", and I plugged the main character's name into Google, hoping to ... and a style of cooking, re: http://www.balthazarny.com/home.html with brasserie being of a type, informal and hearty, according to MW online:[/nq]

[nq:1]ie+&x=11&y=23 I find this association unexpected, and wonder if anyone knows if the name does in fact have any Judeo-Christian allusion?[/nq]
No Balthazar in the Bible but, as Martin has posted, there is a Belshazar and Brewer's sees the two names as alternative forms. Belshazar is said to be Akkadian from Bel-sarra-uzur = "May Bel protect the King"
When Daniel enters the King's service he becomes Belteshazzar = "protect the life of the King"
Daniel 1:7
Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.

John Dean
Oxford

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[nq:1]I find this association unexpected, and wonder if anyone knows if the name does in fact have any Judeo-Christian allusion?[/nq]
Because the Jewish and Christian religions so
emphasize divinely-inspired Scripture, the name
is paradoxical. The Christian tradition is that Christ when very young was visited by three "wise men,"
named Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar. But the
Gospel stories do not even say how many there
were, let alone give their names: yet the names
have been continuously used for more than 1500 years.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

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As far back as I remember, the Magi (number unspecified, but traditionally three) came west to Judea. About 10 years ago, suddenly, the three were depicted as one of each major race. I asked, "When did that happen?" The answer was, "Always!" And I'm still wondering when the change occurred.
As evidence that it was not always so:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/e/wethree.htm
This site http://www.iac.es/galeria/mrk/Magi.html does claim it for the early church, but I still wonder.
Cece

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[nq:1]As far back as I remember, the Magi (number unspecified, but traditionally three) came west to Judea. About 10 years ... it was not always so: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/e/wethree.htm This site http://www.iac.es/galeria/mrk/Magi.html does claim it for the early church, but I still wonder.[/nq]
I think you're right to wonder. The "Catholic Encyclopedia" site www.newadvent.org/cathen/09527a.htm is informative and detailed on the earliest notions: between two and twelve Magi, for instance, rather than three, the number which seems to have become traditional simply because there are three gifts. The idea that they were regal is early, but not that they were actually kings. There are apparently three crowned skulls in the famous Cologne Cathedral reliquary, venerated as those of the Magi; they have been there since 1164, but were brought from Milan where they had been kept since the 4th century.
Another interesting site is
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns and Carols/Biographies/concerning the magi and their na.htm#Note1a. This gives a scholarly account of the various early sources, not always consistent with the traditional version(s).
The site http://www.textweek.com/art/magi.htm
links to dozens (hundreds?) of pictures depicting the Magi. I've examined thirty or so, from which it seems that the earliest pictures represent all three as similar in appearance.
The earliest "Black" magi I could find were by Mantegna (1463) and Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c.1480), and there are many other similar Flemish paintings in the following century or so but very few Italian ones. (Even earlier paintings do often have a magus turbaned but not racially different from his two companions.) The Italian painters mostly distinguish the three by age, not race: Caspar very old, Melchior in hearty middle age (sometimes in armour), Balthasar young, often a teenage boy. When racial differences start to appear, the age distinction remains.
The first clearly African magus is in a picture by an unknown Flemish artist c.1515, and the most interesting, perhaps, a Brazilian Indian in a gorgeous costume of feathers (Fernandes Vasco, 1501). Some painters perhaps imagine the oldest magus, Caspar, as Middle Eastern, with a long thin face and a prominent aquiline nose, but without noticeable skin colouring. In much later periods Burne-Jones (c.1890) painted a good example of the three Magi as distinctly of different races as well as different ages, while James Tissot (c.1890) shows all three as dark-skinned Arabs or perhaps Ethiopians, mounted on camels.

I can also say that their images for the Cribs in the two churches where I'm choirmaster are of three races (Black, Arab, "Caucasian") and ages, and these are not recent acquisitions - the older of the two is well-worn and, I would guess, at least eighty years old. (The Crib is set up for the Christmas Eve midnight mass, but we save the Magi figures until the Epiphany; there is never a time when Shepherds and Magi appear together at the manger.)
So I think the notion of making the Magi symbolically representative, whether by age or race, goes back rather further than ten years ago.

Alan Jones

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[nq:1]As far back as I remember, the Magi (number unspecified, but traditionally three) came west to Judea. About 10 years ... it was not always so: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/e/wethree.htm This site http://www.iac.es/galeria/mrk/Magi.html does claim it for the early church, but I still wonder.[/nq]
Go to any art archive site and look for an Adoration of the Magi. Chances are excellent one of them will be black.
http://tinyurl.com/3mbe6 is an example. Scroll down almost to the bottom for the relevant work. As for the "each major race" bit, I don't know what you mean by that. Which are the minor races? But in any case, so far as I know the other two magi are usually generic Caucasians. Were I to see an Adoration with, say, an east Asian magus I would suspect this of being a modern innovation.

Richard R. Hershberger

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Richard R. Hershberger typed thus:
[nq:2]As far back as I remember, the Magi (number unspecified, ... claim it for the early church, but I still wonder.[/nq]
[nq:1]Go to any art archive site and look for an Adoration of the Magi. Chances are excellent one of them ... I to see an Adoration with, say, an east Asian magus I would suspect this of being a modern innovation.[/nq]
I understood that the three Magi, as depicted, represented the three known continents - African, Asian and European.

David
==

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