Abijam

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Abijam ( A-Bî'Jam ), Father Of The Sea, I.E., A Maritime Person.  1 Kings 15:1;  1 Kings 15:7-8. See Abijah (2).

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Abi'a, Abi'ah, Abi'jah or Abi'jam. See Abia, Abiah, Abijah .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Abijah

Holman Bible Dictionary

Abijah

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See ABIJAH No. 1.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a - bı̄´jam ( אביּם , 'ăbhı̄yām , "father of sea," or, "father of west"). The name given in Kings ( 1 Kings 14:31;  1 Kings 15:1 ,  1 Kings 15:7 ,  1 Kings 15:8 ) to the son of Rehoboam who succeeded him as king of Judah. See Abijah .

The name has puzzled scholars. Some have proposed, by adding one letter, to change it into "father of his people." Others have observed that the Greek rendering in Kings is , Abeioú ̌ . Either the Hebrew copy used by the Greek translator read 'ăbhı̄yāhū , Abijah, or else the translator substituted the form of the name which was to him more familiar. A few existing copies of the Hebrew have the reading Abijah, and  Matthew 1:7 presupposes that as the Old Testament reading. So they infer that Abijam in Ki is an erroneous reading for Abijah. This seems at present to be the prevailing view, and it is plausible. It would be more convincing, however, if the name occurred but once in the passage in Kings, instead of occurring five times. It is improbable that a scribe would repeat the same error five times within a few sentences, while a translator, if he changed the name once, would of course change it the other four times.

Exploration has revealed the fact that the whole region near the eastern end of the Mediterranean was known as "the west." "Father of the west" is not an inapt name for Rehoboam to give to the boy who, he expects, will inherit the kingdom of Solomon and David. The effect of the secession of the ten tribes was to make that name a burlesque, and one does not wonder that it was superseded by Abijah, "My father is Yahweh."

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Abiyam', אֲבַיָּם , Father Of The Sea, i. q. Seaman; Sept. Ἀβία v. r. Ἀβιού , Vulg. Abiamn), the name always given in the book of Kings ( 1 Kings 14:31;  1 Kings 15:1;  1 Kings 15:7-8) to the king of Judah ( 1 Kings 14:1, refers to another person), elsewhere ( 1 Chronicles 3:10;  2 Chronicles 13:1-22) called ABIJAH (See Abijah) (q.v.). Lightfoot (Harm. O.T. in loc.) thinks that the writer in Chronicles, not describing his reign as wicked, admits the sacred JAH into his name; but which the book of Kings, charging him with following the evil ways of his father, changes into JAM. This may be fanciful; but such changes of name were not unusual (comp. (See Bethaven); (See Sychar) ).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Abi´jam [ABIJAH, 1]