Volume 1

The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day / prepared ... under the direction of ... Cyrus Adler [and others] Isidore Singer ... managing editor.

Date:
1901-1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day / prepared ... under the direction of ... Cyrus Adler [and others] Isidore Singer ... managing editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/752 (page 48)
    Abel-Cheramim THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA 48 ters ill Ditiiuiscus during the Maronite massacre perpetrated by the Druses and iMussulmans. Fuad Pasha dismissed these charges, and completely reha- bilitated the Jews in public opinion. Besides the improvement in the general condition of the Jews, this monarch’s ajipreciation of his Jew- ish subjects is signalized by the appointment of Dr. S|iitzer, a Jew. as his private physician, and the allowance, in 1856, of a monthly pension to the fam- ily of Carmona. This famil}-, descended from the celeluated Chelibi Behar, who had been assassina- ted and whose fortune had been confi.scated under the preceding government, had, through the inter- vention of the Board of Deputies of British Jews of London, obtained a firman to that effect. Several Jews were decorated during Abd-ul-Mejid’s reign. Bibliography: Franco, Hintuire clcs IumHites ffc VEmpire Uttoman, pp. 143-161. A. D. ABD-UL-MESIH. See Ashek ben Levi. ABEDHEGO (Aramaic, Abed Nego; IJJ naj?, Dan. i. 7, ii. 49, iii. 12 etseq. -, once XUJ ]!• 2^)- ^he name given to Azariah, one of Daniel’s three com- panions at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The name is evidently a corruption of Abed Nebo (133 33y), “ Servant of [the Babylonian god] Nebo,” a name found (written in both the cuneiform and the Aramaic characters) in an inscription of the seventh century B.c. (Rawlinson, “Inscriptions of Western Asia,” iii. 46, col. i. 81 etseq.), and in certain earl}' Syriac documents (see Payne-Smith, “Thesaurus ”). It is probable that the substitution of Nego (so also all the old versions) for Nebo was intentional, the purpose being to disfigure, or to get rid of, the name of the heathen deity (see Kohler in “Zcitschrift flir Assyriologie, ” iv. 49). Similarly, the name Barnabas appears to be a slightly disguised form of Barnebo (13J 13), “Sou of Nebo” (see Baknabas), C. C. T. ABEL (^3n).—Biblical Data : The younger brother of Cain and the second sou of Adam and Eve. He was the first shepherd, while Cain was a tiller of the soil. The writer of Gen. iv. tells us that when the brothers came as a matter of course to present their offerings to God, the sacrifice of Abel—the first- lings of his flock—was preferred to that of Cain, who gave of the fruits of the earth. The acceptance of Abel’s offering aroused the jealousy of Cain, who, in spite of the warnings of God, wreaked his ven- geance upon the favorite by murdering him. J. F. McC. In Hellenistic and Rabbinical Literature : Abel was regarded as the first innocent victim of the power of evil, represented by Cain: the first martyr- saint, with the litle the Just. In Enoch, xxii. 7 the soul of Abel is the chief of the martyr-souls in Sheol. crying to God for vengeance until the seed of Cain shall be destroyed from the earth. In the vision of the bulls and lambs (Enoch, Ixxxv. 3-6) Abel, whose death is deeply mourned by Eve, is the red bull pursued by Cain, the black bull. In the Testa- ment of Abraham (recension A, chap, xiii., and re- cension B, chap, xi.) Abel is described as the judge of the souls: “ an awful man sittinir upon the throne to iudire all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners. He lieing the first to die as mart.vr, God brought him hither [to the place of judgment in the nether world] to give judgment, while F.noch, the heavenly scribe, stands at his side writing down the sin and the righteousness of each. For God said; I shall not judge you, but each man shall be judged by man. Being de- scendants of the first man, they shall be judged by his son until the great and glorious appearance of the Lord, when they will be judged by the twelve tribes [judges] of Israel [compare Matt. xix. 28], and then the last judgment by the Lord Himself Josephus (“Ant.” i. 2, § 1) calls Abel “ a lover of righteousness, excellent in virtue, and a believer in God’s omnipresence; Cain altogether wicked, greedy, and wholl}' intent upon ‘getting ’ [533p].” According to the Ethiopic Book of Adam and Eve (ii. 1-15) and the Syrian Cave of Treasures, both works of half-Jewisii, half-pagan (Egyptian) character (see Gelzer, “Julius Africanus,” ii. 272 et seq.), the body of Abel the .Just, after many days of mourning, was placed in the Cave of Treasures. Before tliis cave, Adam and Eve and their descend- ants offered their prayers; and “by the blood of Abel the Just” Seth and his descendants adjured their children not to mingle with the seed of the unrighteous. It is, therefore, an awful curse liurled against the Pharisees when Jesus is represented as saying: “Upon you may all the righteous blood shed upon the earth come, from the blood of the righteous Abel [compare Ejiistle to the Hebrews, xi. 4, and I .John, iii. 12] unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar” (Matt, xxiii. 35). From Josephus (“B. .1.” iv. 5, § 4) it appears that this murder took place thirty-four years after the death of Jesus. Abel, according to Midrash, jtrotested against Cain’s denial of a divine judgment and of a future retribution, and declared for the existence of a divine judgment and a judge, a future world with reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked. “ With the first produce of the field the Lord blessed all the saints from Abel until now,” says Issachar (Test. Patriarchs, p. 5). According to Pirke de-R. Eliezer (chap, xxi.), Abel’s dog watched by his corpse to keep off the beasts of prey; and while Adam and Eve were sitting there, weeping and mourning, a raven came and buried a bird in the sand. There- upon Adam said, “ Let us do the same ”; and he dug up the earth and huried his son. Regarding the mourning over Abel, compare the Book of Jubilees, iv. 7, with the strange interpre- tation of Abel as “ Mourning ” (as if the name were written Compare Philo, “ De Migratione Ab- rahami,” xiii., and Josephus, “Ant.” i. 2, § 1. K, God’s favorable attitude toward Abel’s sacrifice (Gen. iv. 4) is showui in the fact that it was con- sumed by fire from heaven. This is a haggadic idea known to Theodotion, accepted by the Christians, and found in the works of many Church Fathers, such as Cyril of Ale.xandria, Jerome, Ephraem Syrus. and A])hraates. In midrashic literature, however, it is found only in later works (Midrash Zutta, p. 35. ed. Buber, Berlin, 1899). Woman was at the bottom of the strife between the first brothers. Each of the sons of Adam had a twin-sister whom he was to marry. As Abel's twin-sister was the more beautiful, Cain wished to have her for his wife, and sought to get rid of Abel (Pirke R. Eliezer, xxi.; Gen. R. xxii. 7, according to Ginzberg’s emendation; Epiphanius, “De Haeresi,” xl. 5, “Schatzholde,” cd. Bezold p. 34; compare, too. “The Book of the Bee,” ed. Budge, pp. 26, 27). Abel, stronger than Cain, overcame him in a struggle between them, but mercifully spared his life. Cain, however, took Abel unawares and, over- powering him, killed him with a stone (Gen. R. xxii. 18)—some say with a cane, or even that he choked him with his fingers (compare Ginzberg, cited be- low, pp. 229, 230, 298, 299). The jilace where Abel was killed remained de.so- late forever, never producing vegetation (Midrash Canticles, ed. Shechter; “Jew.Quart. Rev.,” 1894-95.