King James Bible Dictionary

In the Old Testament the rendering of the Hebrew word mamzer', which means "polluted." In Deuteronomy 23:2, it occurs in the ordinary sense of illegitimate offspring. In Zechariah 9:6, the word is used in the sense of foreigner. From the history of Jephthah we learn that there were bastard offspring among the Jews (Judges 11:1-7). In Hebrews 12:8, the word (Gr. nothoi) is used in its ordinary sense, and denotes those who do not share the privileges of God's children.

Excluded from the congregation
Deuteronomy 23:2

Instances of:

Ishmael
Genesis 16:3; Genesis 16:15; Galatians 4:22

Moab and Ammon
Genesis 19:36-37

Jephthah
Judges 11:1

David's child by Bath-Sheba
2 Samuel 11:2-5

Figurative
Zech 9:6; Hebrews 12:8

Among those who were excluded from entering the congregation, even to the tenth generation, was the bastard. (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.

B'ASTARD, noun A natural child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate or spurious child. By the civil 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, noun A kind of sweet wine. [Not in use.]

B'ASTARD, adjective 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, verb transitive To make or determine to be a bastard

B'ASTARDISM, noun The state of a bastard.

B'ASTARDIZE, verb transitive To make or prove to be a bastard; to convict of being a bastard; to declare legally, or decide a person to be illegitimate.

The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten, in lawful wedlock.

2. To beget a bastard.

B'ASTARDLY, adverb In the manner of a bastard; spuriously.

B'ASTARDS, an appellation given to a faction or troop of bandits, who ravaged Guienne in France in the 14th century; supposed to have been headed by the illegitimate sons of noblemen, who were excluded from the rights of inheritance.

B'ASTARDY, noun A state of being a bastard, or begotten and born out of lawful wedlock, which condition disables the person from inheriting an estate.