Volume 1

A dictionary of the Bible : dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology / edited by James Hastings ; with the co-operation of John A. Selbie.

Date:
1909-10
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A dictionary of the Bible : dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology / edited by James Hastings ; with the co-operation of John A. Selbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    35/898 page 9
    passage of the Rom. road W. of the to^vn. The region of Abilene is also noticed in a Gr. text found in 1873 at Burkush on Hermon, showing that the district included the Antilebanon and Hermon, N.W. of Damascus. There is a ceme- tery at Abila of Kom. rock-cut tombs on the left of the stream, which here forms a cascade. They are adorned with bas-relief busts, and there are several tombstones with Gr. texts, giving the names of Lucius, Archelaus, Phedistus, Antonia, and Philander. N. of the river and E. of the town are foundations of a small Rom. temple. Literature.—Reland, PaUistina, p. 527 ff.; Robinson, Later BR, PI). 479-484; Porter, Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 352 f. ; Schiirer, UJP I. ii. S35-339 ; Conder, Teiit-Work in Pal. p. 127 ; Furrer, Zeitschrift des deutsclien Paldstina-Vereins, viii. 40; SWP Special Papers ; Waddington, Inscrip. Grcc. et Lat. de la Syrie,s.v. 'Abila.' C. E. CONDER. ABILITY.—Both in OT and NT ability occurs in two senses, which must be distinguished. 1. It signifies material capacity, resources, wealth, as Ezr 2*^ 'They gave after their a. (Heb. 'acc. as his hand may reach') into the treasury'; Lv 27* ' According to the a. of him that vowed shall the priest value him.' Cf. LXX of Lv 2528-with Ac 1129 below ; and ' Out of my lean and low ability I'll lend you something.' —Shakespeare, T. N. ili. 4. This is the meaning also of Ac 11=^ 'Then the disciples, every man according to his a., deter- mined to send relief unto the brethren,' though the original is a verb, KaQm evTropeird tu, meaning ' acc. as each prospered.' 2. It signifies jtiirsonal capacity, strength of body or of mind. Thus Dn 1^ ' Such as had a. (ns) in them to stand in the king's palace'; Mt 25^5 ' He gave talents . . . to every man according to his several a. (ovvap.ts).^ So Wis 1319, Sir S^' AVm. In modern Eng. a. is almost confined to mental capacity, though one hears it locally used of physical strength. In the sense of wealth tlie latest example found is in Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. J. Hastings. ABIMAEL (jNsns;, perhaps ='father is God,' but the force of the D is uncertain) was one of the Joktanids or (S.) Arabians (see art. Joktan), Gn lO^^ (J), 1 Ch 122. Nothing further is known of this tribe, but it is markworthy that another name of the same peculiar formation, viz. nnyonN, has been found on the S. Arabian inscriptions; see D. H. Miiller in ZDMG 1883, p. 18. G. B. Gray. ABIMELECH (^^f?'5t^ 'Melecli [Malki or Molech] is father').—1, A king of Gerar mentioned in con- nexion with the history of Abraham, Gn 20^^^ 2 122-32 (i^otij E), and of Isaac, Gn 26^-- m (both J). With all their points of dill'erence, it ajipears im- possible to resist the conclusion that we have in J and E two variants of the same story. In both the patriarch resorts to the same method of defence to protect himself from the same danger (20^ 26''); in both A. is righteovisly indignant at the deceit practised upon him (20'-''- 26^) ; in both a treaty is entered into with A. 2Q-'^^-); in both Phicol (2122 262«) and Beersheba (21=*2 26^) are mentioned. In all probability J has preserved the earlier form of the tradition, acc. to which Isaac, and not Abraham, was the patriarch concerned. The parallel story in Gn 12'^'^-'' (where Pharaoh of Egypt takes the place of A. of Gerar) is also from a Jahwistic source, but scarcely from the same pen as 26^. If the title be adopted for the latter, we may designate the other J^, whether we accept or not of Kuenen's theory that he edited a Judma,n recension of J. Literature.—Comm. of Dillm. and Del. on Gen. II. cit.; Cornill. Einleit.^ bit; Wildeboer, Lit. d. A.T. 78, 138; Kautzsch u. Sooin, Genesis ; W. R. Smith, OTJC^ 416 ; Kiieneo, Uexateuch, 234, 252. 2. A king of Gath ace. to title of Ps 34'. Here A. is possibly a mistake for Achish (cf. 1 S 21^-), a better known Phil, name being substituted for a less familiar one, or it ma;j be that Abimelech is less a personal name than a title of Phil, kings like Egyp. Pharaoh (see Oxf. Hcb. Lex. s.v.). 3. This A. is generally reckoned one of the judges (so in Jg 10', but probably not by editor of 9 nor in 1 S 12). Acc. to Jg 8''' (R) he was a son of Gideon by a Sliechemite concubine. Upon his father's death he gained over ' his mother's brethren' in Shechem, and with the aid of a hired troop of ' vain and liglit fellows' murdered all his 70 brothers except the yoirngest, Jotliam, who con- trived to escape. A. then ascended the throne and assumed the kingly title (9''). Jotliam, leav- ing his place of concealment, spoke at Mt. Gerizim his well-known parable (vv.'^'), which was calcu- lated to sow dissension amongst the Sliechemites, who Avere partly of Can. and partly of Isr. blood. After three years both sections were weary of the rule of A., who seems to have taken up his residence elsewhere (w.^^-^''). Gaal, the leader of the Israelite faction (see, however, Moore on Jg 92^), made such lieadway in Shechem that Zebul, the governor, an adherent of A., was obliged to feign compliance with his designs. All the while, liowever, he was keeping A. secretly informed of the revolutionary movement, and sug- gesting methods of checking it (vv.^^^). At length A. advanced to attack tlie city, and Gaal was completely routed, and after his defeat expelled by Zebul (vv.^^^'). In a second day's fight A. captured Shechem and put to the sword all the inhabitants that fell into his hands. A number having taken refuge in the temple of El-berith, he burned the building over their heads (vv.^^^'*). Sometime afterwards A. met his death while besieging Tliebez. Being struck doAvn by a millstone which a Avoman flung from tlie wall, he ordered his armour-bearer to kill him in order to escape the disgrace of perishing by the hand of a woman (vv.^^''). The above is a reasonable and in general self- consistent narrative, but thei'e are not a few points of detail where the course of events is involved in considerable obscurity. Zebul upon any theory plays a double part, but it is not quite certain whether there was to tlie last a complete under- standing between him and A. Kittel thinks there was, and supposes that Z. was put to death by the Sliechemites after they discovered his treachery. Wellhausen, on the contrary, believes that he per- i.shed along with the Shechemites, A. having come to regard him as the real instigator of the revolt, and refu.sing to be propitiated by the ottering of Gaal as a scape-goat. It is further doubtful whether A. himself acted in the interests of the Can. or of the Isr., but at all events Wellhausen rightly remarks that ' the one permanent fruit of his activity was that Shechem was destroyed as a Can. city and rebuilt for Israel' (cf. 1 K 12'- ^s). The story of A. in Jg 9 is the natural sequel of the version of Gideon's hist, contained in 8*^ (note also how the sentiments of Jotham's parable agree with 822- =3, unless, indeed, these latter two verses are an 8th cent, interpolation). The narrative ia one of the oldest in OT, belonging to the same type as the narratives concerning the minor judges. _ It is free from Deuter. touches and turns of expression, and may in its present form date from the earliest yeais of the monarchy. Its purpose is to show how the murder of Gideon's sons was avenged on A. and the Shechemites, who were practically his accomplices (9, cf. vv. ^^-'^^). Budde attributes the preservation of the story to E, who, however.
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