Difference between revisions of "Abaddon"

<p> The Hebrew in &nbsp;Job 31:12 and &nbsp;Proverbs 27:20, "destruction," or the place of destruction, sheol (Hebrew); Ηades (Greek). The rabbis use Abaddon, from &nbsp;Psalms 88:12 ''("Shall [[Thy]] [[Lovingkindness]] Be [[Declared]] In Destruction?")'' (abaddon ) as the second of the seven names for the region of the dead. In &nbsp;Revelation 9:11 personified as the destroyer, Greek, apolluon , "the angel of the bottomless pit," Satan is meant; for he is described in &nbsp;Revelation 9:1 as "a star fallen from heaven unto earth, to whom was given the key of the bottomless pit"; and &nbsp;Revelation 12:8-9,12: "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, for the devil is come down." Also &nbsp;Isaiah 14:12; &nbsp;Luke 10:18. As king of the locusts, that had power to torment not kill (&nbsp;Revelation 9:3-11), Satan is permitted to afflict but not to touch life; so in the case of Job (Job 1-2). "He walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (&nbsp;1 Peter 5:8). "A murderer from the beginning" (&nbsp;John 8:44), who abode not in the truth. </p> <p> Elliott identifies the locusts with the Muslims; their turbans being the "crowns" ''(But How Are These "Like Gold"?)'' ; they come from the [[Euphrates]] River; their cavalry were countless; their "breast-plates of fire" being their rich-colored attire; the fire and smoke out of the horses' mouths being the Turkish artillery; their standard "horse tails"; the period, an hour, day, month, and year, 396 years 118 days between Thogrul [[Beg]] going forth Jan. 18, 1057 A.D., and the fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453 A.D.; or else 391 years and 1 month, as others say, from 1281 A.D., the date of the Turks' first conquest of Christians, and 1672 A.D., their last conquest. The serpent-like stinging tails correspond to [[Mohammedanism]] supplanting [[Christianity]] in large parts of Asia, Africa, and even Europe. </p> <p> But the hosts meant seem infernal rather than human, though constrained to work out God's will (&nbsp;Revelation 12:1-2). The Greek article once only before all the periods requires rather the translation "for (i.e. "against") THE hour and day and month and year," namely, appointed by God. Not only the year, but also the month, day, and hour, are all definitively foreordained. The article "the" would have been omitted, if a total of periods had been meant. The giving of both the Hebrew and the Greek name implies that he is the destroyer of both Hebrew and [[Gentiles]] alike. Just as, in beautiful contrast, the Spirit of adoption enables both Jew and [[Gentile]] believers to call God, in both their respective tongues, Αbba (Hebrew in marked alliteration with Αbaddon Father (Greek, pater ). Jesus who unites both in Himself (&nbsp;Galatians 3:28; &nbsp;Ephesians 2:14) sets us the example: &nbsp;Mark 14:36; &nbsp;Galatians 4:6. Jesus unites Hebrew and Gentiles in a common salvation; Satan combines both in a common "destruction." ((See [[Abba]] .) </p>

<p> '''Abaddon,''' or [[Apollyon]] (''A-Bâd'Dŏn'' or ''A-Pŏl'Yŏn'' ). The former name is Hebrew and the latter Greek, and both signify ''The Destroyer.'' &nbsp;Job 31:12; &nbsp;Revelation 9:11. He is the same as the "angel of the abyss," that is, the angel of death, or the destroying angel. &nbsp;Psalms 78:49. Abaddon frequently occurs in the Hebrew, and is translated "destruction," meaning often the world of the dead. &nbsp;Job 26:6; &nbsp;Job 28:22; &nbsp;Psalms 88:11; &nbsp;Proverbs 15:11. </p>

<p> '''''a''''' -'''''bad´on''''' ( אכדון <i> ''''''ăbhaddōn''''' </i> , "ruin," "perdition," "destruction"): Though "destruction" is commonly used in translating <i> ''''''abhaddōn''''' </i> , the stem idea is intransitive rather than passive - the idea of perishing, going to ruin, being in a ruined state, rather than that of being ruined, being destroyed. </p> <p> The word occurs six times in the Old Testament, always as a place name in the sense in which Sheol is a place name. It denotes, in certain aspects, the world of the dead as constructed in the Hebrew imagination. It is a common mistake to understand such expressions in a too mechanical way. Like ourselves, the men of the earlier ages had to use picture language when they spoke of the conditions that existed after death, however their picturing of the matter may have differed from ours. In three instances Abaddon is parallel with Sheol (&nbsp;Job 26:6; &nbsp;Proverbs 15:11; &nbsp;Proverbs 27:20 ). In one instance it is parallel with death, in one with the grave and in the remaining instance the parallel phrase is "root out all mine increase" (&nbsp;Job 28:22; &nbsp;Psalm 88:11; &nbsp;Job 31:12 ). In this last passage the place idea comes nearer to vanishing in an abstract conception than in the other passages. </p> <p> Abaddon belongs to the realm of the mysterious. Only God understands it (&nbsp;Job 26:6; &nbsp;Proverbs 15:11 ). It is the world of the dead in its utterly dismal, destructive, dreadful aspect, not in those more cheerful aspects in which activities are conceived of as in progress there. In Abaddon there are no declarations of God's lovingkindness (&nbsp;Psalm 88:11 ). </p> <p> In a slight degree the Old Testament presentations personalize Abaddon. It is a synonym for insatiableness (&nbsp;Proverbs 27:20 ). It has possibilities of information mediate between those of "all living" and those of God (&nbsp;Job 28:22 ). </p> <p> In the New Testament the word occurs once (&nbsp;Revelation 9:11 ), the personalization becoming sharp. Abaddon is here not the world of the dead, but the angel who reigns over it. The Greek equivalent of his name is given as Apollyon. Under this name Bunyan presents him in the <i> Pilgrim's Progress </i> , and [[Christendom]] has doubtless been more interested in this presentation of the matter than in any other. </p> <p> In some treatments Abaddon is connected with the evil spirit [[Asmodeus]] of [[Tobit]] (e.g. 3:8), and with the destroyer mentioned in The Wisdom of [[Solomon]] (18:25; compare 22), and through these with a large body of rabbinical folklore; but these efforts are simply groundless. See Apollyon . </p>

<p> (Ἀβαδδών, for Heb. אֲבִדּון, ''Destruction,'' i.e. the destroyer, as it is immediately explained by Ἀπολλύων, APOLLYON (See Apollyon) ), the name ascribed to the ruling spirit of Tartarus, or the angel of death, described (&nbsp;Revelation 9:11) as the king, and chief of the [[Apocalyptic]] locusts under the fifth trumpet, and as the angel of the abyss or "bottomless pit" (see Critica Biblica, 2, 445). In the Bible, the word abaddon means destruction (&nbsp;Job 31:12), or the place of destruction, i.e. the subterranean world, Hades, the region of the dead (&nbsp;Job 26:6; &nbsp;Job 28:22; &nbsp;Proverbs 15:11). It is, in fact, the second of the seven names which the Rabbins apply to that region; and they deduce it particularly from &nbsp;Psalms 88:11, "Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in (abaddon) destruction?" (See Hades). Hence they have made Abaddon the nethermost of the two regions into which they divided the under world. But that in &nbsp;Revelation 9:11 Abaddon is the angel, and not the abyss, is perfectly evident in the Greek. There is a general connection with the destroyer (q.v.) alluded to in &nbsp;1 Chronicles 21:15; but the explanation, quoted by Bengel, that the name is given in Hebrew and Greek, to show that the locusts would be destructive alike to Jew and Gentile, is far-fetched and unnecessary. The popular interpretation of the Apocalypse, which finds in the symbols of that prophecy the details of national history in later ages, has usually regarded Abaddon as a symbol of Mohammed dealing destruction at the head of the Saracenic hordes (Elliott's Horae Apocalypticae, 1:410). It may well be doubted, however, whether this symbol is any thing more than a new and vivid figure of the same moral convulsions elsewhere typified in various ways in the Revelation, namely, those that attended the breaking down of [[Judaism]] and paganism, and the general establishment of Christianity (see Stuart's Comment. in loc.). (See [[Book Of Revelation]]). The etymology of Asmodaeus, the king of the daemons in [[Jewish]] mythology, seems to point to a connection with Apollyon in his character as "the destroyer," or the destroying angel. Compare &nbsp;Sirach 18:22; &nbsp;Sirach 18:25. (See [[Asmodeeus]]). </p>