Ab

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

in the Hebrew chronology, the eleventh month of the civil year, and the fifth of the ecclesiastical year, which began with Nisan. This month answered to the moon of July, comprehending part of July and August, and contained thirty days.

The first day of this month is observed as a fast by the Jews, in memory of Aaron's death; and the ninth, in commemoration of the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, in the year before Christ 587. Josephus observes, that the burning of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar happened on the same day of the year on which it was afterward burned by Titus. The same day was remarkable for Adrian's edict, which prohibited the Jews to continue in Judea, or to look toward Jerusalem and lament its desolation. The eighteenth day is also kept as a fast, because the sacred lamp was extinguished on that night, in the reign of Ahaz. On the twenty-first, or, according to Scaliger, the twenty-second day, was a feast called Xylophoria, from their laying up the necessary wood in the temple: and on the twenty-fourth, a feast in commemoration of the abolishing of a law by the Asmoneans, or Maccabees, which had been introduced by the Sadducees, and which enacted, that both sons and daughters should alike inherit the estate of their parents.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

1. Father, found in many compound Hebrew proper names: as Abner, father of light; Absalom, father of peace.

2. The fifth month of the sacred, and the eleventh of the civil year among the Jews. It began, according to the latest authorities, with the new moon of August. It was a sad month in the Jewish calendar. On its first day, a fast was observed for the death of Aaron,  Numbers 33:38; and on its ninth, another was held in memory of the divine edicts which excluded so many that came out of Egypt from entering the promised land; and also, of the overthrow of the first and second temple. See Month .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ab. (Father).

1. An element in the composition of many proper names, of which Abba is a Chaldeaic form, having the sense of "endowed with," "possessed of."

2. See Month .

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) The fifth month of the Jewish year according to the ecclesiastical reckoning, the eleventh by the civil computation, coinciding nearly with August.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

AB . See Time.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See MONTHS.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(אָב, prob. i. q. "the season of Fruit, אָבַב מֵרָ to Be Fruitful, and apparently of Syriac origin, D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. s.v. comp. ABIB; Josephus, Ἀββά, Ant. 4, 4, 7), the Chaldee name of the fifth ecclesiastical and eleventh civil month of the Jewish year (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm.  Colossians 2:1-23); a name introduced after the Babylonian captivity, and not occurring in Scripture, in which this is designated simply as the Fifth month ( Numbers 33:38;  Jeremiah 1:3;  Zechariah 7:3, etc.). It corresponded with the Macedonian month Lous (Λῶος), beginning with the new moon of August, and always containing thirty days. The 1st day is memorable for the death of Aaron ( Numbers 33:38); the 9th is the date (Moses Cozenzis, in Wagenseil's Sota, p 736) of the exclusion from Canaan ( Numbers 14:30), and the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar ( Zechariah 7:5;  Zechariah 8:19; comp. Reland, Antiq. Sacr. 4:10; but the 7th day, according to  2 Kings 25:8, where the Syriac and Arabic read 9th; also the 10th, according to  Jeremiah 52:12, probably referring to the close of the conflagration, Buxtorf, Synog. Judenth. 35), and also by Titus (Josephus, War, 6:4, 5); the 15th was the festival of the Xylophoria, or bringing of wood into the Temple (Bodenschatz, Kirchlich, Verfassung Der Juden, 2:106; comp.  Nehemiah 10:34;  Nehemiah 13:31; on nine successive days, according to Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 331; on the 14th, according to Josephus, War, 2:17); the 18th is a fast in memory of the extinction of the western lamp of the Temple during the impious reign of Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 29:7). — Kitto, s.v. (See Month).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Ab, 1

Ab, (father) is found as the first member of several compound Hebrew proper names—such as Abner, father of light; Abiezer, father of help; etc.By a process which it is not difficult to conceive, the idea of a natural father became modified into that of author, cause, source (as when it is said, 'has the rain a father?'— Job 38:28). So that, in course of time, the original meaning was so far modified that the word was sometimes applied to a woman, as in Abigail, father of joy.

Ab, 2

Ab is the Chaldee name of that month which is the fifth of the ecclesiastical and eleventh of the civil year of the Jews. It commenced with the new moon of our August, and always had 30 days. This month is preeminent in the Jewish calendar as the period of the most signal national calamities. The 1st is memorable for the death of Aaron ( Numbers 33:38). The 9th is the date assigned to the following events:—the declaration that no one then adult, except Joshua and Caleb, should enter into the Promised Land ( Numbers 14:30); the destruction of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar (to these first two 'the fast of the fifth month,' in  Zechariah 7:5;  Zechariah 8:19, is supposed to refer); the destruction of the second Temple by Titus; the devastation of the city Bettar, and the slaughter of Ben Cozîbah (Bar Cocâb), and of several thousand Jews there; and the plowing up of the foundations of the Temple by Turnus Rufus—the two last of which happened in the time of Hadrian.

The 9th of the month is observed by the Jews as a fast, in commemoration of the destruction of the first Temple: the 15th is the day appointed for the festival of the wood-offering, in which the wood for the burnt-offering was stored up in the court of the Temple: to which Nehemiah alludes in  Nehemiah 10:34, and  Nehemiah 13:31. Lastly, the 18th is a fast in the memory of the western lamp going out in the Temple in the time of Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 29:7, where the extinction of the lamps is mentioned as a part of Ahaz's attempts to suppress the Temple service). For an inquiry into what is meant by the western or evening lamp, see the article Candlestick.