Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Bema

Bema ({not transcribed}) , noun

[Greek {not transcribed} step, platform.]

1.
(Greek Antiquities) A platform from which speakers addressed an assembly. — Mitford
2.
(a) (Architecture) That part of an early Christian church which was reserved for the higher clergy; the inner or eastern part of the chancel.
(b)
(Architecture) Erroneously: A pulpit.