Abd-ul-Mesih Abel-Cheramim

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

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Josephus ("Ant." i. 2, 1) calls Abel " a lover of ters in Damascus during the Maronite massacre perpetrated by the Druses and Mussulmans. Fuad righteousness, excellent in virtue, and a believer in Pasha dismissed these charges, and completely reha- God's omnipresence; Cain altogether wicked, greedy, and wholly intent upon 'getting ' [?3p]." bilitated the Jews in public opinion. Besides the improvement in the general condition According to the Ethiopic Book of Adam and of the Jews, this monarch's appreciation of his Jew- Eve (ii. 1-15) and the Syrian Cave of Treasures, ish subjects is signalized by the appointment of Dr. both works of half-Jewish, half-pagan (Egyptian) Spitzer, a Jew, as his private physician, and the character (see Gelzer, "Julius Africanus," ii. 272 et allowance, in 1856, of a monthly pension to the fam- seq.), the body of Abel the Just, after many days ily of Carmona. This family, descended from the of mourning, was placed in the Cave of Treasures. celebrated Chelibi Behar, who had been assassina- Before this cave, Adam and Eve and their descendted and whose fortune had been confiscated under ants offered their prayers; and " by the blood of the preceding government, had, through the inter- Abel the Just" Seth and his descendants adjured vention of the Board of Deputies of British Jews of their children not to mingle with the seed of the London, obtained a firman to that effect. Several unrighteous. Jews were decorated during Abd-ul-Mejid's reign. It is, therefore, an awful curse hurled against B I B L I O G R A P H Y : Franco, Histoire des Israelites de VEmpire the Pharisees when Jesus is represented as saying: Ottoman, pp. 143-101. "Upon you may all the righteous blood shed upon A. D. the earth come, from the blood of the righteous A B D - U L - M E S I H . See ASIIER BEN LEVI. Abel [compare Epistle to the Hebrews, xi. 4, and ABEDNEGO (Aramaic, Abed Nego; 133 12]}, I John, iii. 12] unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Dan. i. 7, ii. 49, iii. Viet seq.; once N1J.3 V. - 29): TheBerechiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary name given to Azariah, one of Daniel's three com- and the altar" (Matt, xxiii. 85). From Josephus panions at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The ("B. J." iv. 5, 4) it appears that this murder took name is evidently a corruption of Abed Nebo place thirty-four years after the death of Jesus. (133 13JJ), " Servant of [the Babylonian god] Nebo," a Abel, according to Midrash, protested against name found (written in both the cuneiform and the Cain's denial of a divine judgment and of a future Aramaic characters) in an inscription of the seventh retribution, and declared for the existence of a divine century B.C. (Rawlinson, "Inscriptions of Western judgment and a judge, a future world with reward Asia," iii. 46, col. i. 81 et seq.), and in certain early for the righteous and punishment for the wicked. Syriac documents (see Payne-Smith, " Thesaurus "). " With thefirstproduce of thefieldthe Lord blessed It is probable that the substitution of Nego (so also all the saints from Abel until now," says Issachar all the old versions) for Nebo was intentional, the (Test. Patriarchs, p. 5). According to Pirke de-R. purpose being to disfigure, or to get rid of, the name Eliezer (chap, xxi.), Abel's dog watched by his of the heathen deity (see Kohler in " Zeitschrift fur corpse to keep off the beasts of prey; and while Adam Assyriologie," iv. 49). Similarly, the name Barnabas and Eve were sitting there, weeping and mourning, a appears to be a slightly disguised form of Barnebo raven came and buried a bird in the sand. Thereupon Adam said, " Let us do the same "; and lie dug (133 13), " Son of Nebo " (see BARNABAS). . T. up the earth and buried his son. ABEL 63,-]) .Biblical Data : The younger Regarding the mourning over Abel, compare the brother of Cain and the second son of Adam and Eve. Book of Jubilees, iv. 7, with the strange interpreHe was the first shepherd, while Cain was a tiller of tation of Abel as "Mourning " (as if the name were the soil. The writer of Gen. iv. tells us that when written ~>2H). Compare Philo, " De Migratione Abthe brothers came as a matter of course to present raham," xiii., and Josephus, "Ant." i. 2, 1. K. their offerings to God, the sacrifice of Abelthe first- God's favorable attitude toward Abel's sacrifice lings of hisflockwaspreferred to that of Cain, who (Gen. iv. 4) is shown in the fact that it was congave of the fruits of the earth. The acceptance of sumed by fire from heaven. This is a haggadic idea Abel's offering aroused the jealousy of Cain, who, to Theodotion, accepted by the Christians, in spite of the warnings of God, wreaked his ven- known and found in the works of many Church Fathers, geance upon the favorite by murdering him. such as Cyril of Alexandria, Jerome, Ephraem Syrus, J. F. McC. and Aphraates. In midrashic literature, however, In Hellenistic and Rabbinical Literature : it is found only in later works (Midrash Zutta, p. 35, Abel was regarded as thefirstinnocent victim of the ed. Buber, Berlin, 1899). power of evil, represented by Cain; thefirstmartyrWoman was at the bottom of the strife between saint, with the title the Just. In Enoch, xxii. 7 the the first brothers. Each of the sons of Adam had soul of Abel is the chief of the martyr-souls in Sheol, a twin-sister whom he was to marry. As Abel's crying to God for vengeance until the seed of Cain twin-sister was the more beautiful, Cain wished to shall be destroyed from the earth. In the vision have her for his wife, and sought to get rid of Abel of the bulls and lambs (Enoch, lxxxv. 3-6) Abel, (Pirke R. Eliezer, xxi.; Gen. R. xxii. 7, according to whose death is deeply mourned by Eve, is the red Ginzberg's emendation; Epiphanius, "De Hceresi," bull pursued by Cain, the black bull. In the Testa xl. 5, "Schatzhohlo,"ed. Bezold, p. 34; compare, too, ment of Abraham (recension A, chap, xiii., and re- "The Book of the Bee," ed. Budge, pp. 26, 27). cension B, chap, xi.) Abel is described as the judge Abel, stronger than Cain, overcame him in a of the souls: struggle between them, but mercifully spared his "an awful man sitting upon the throne to judge all creatures, life. Cain, however, took Abel unawares and, overand examining the righteous and the sinners. He being the powering him, killed him with a stone (Gen. R. xxii. first to die as martyr, God brought him hither [to the place 18)some say with a cane, or even that he choked of judgment in the nether world] to give judgment, while Enoch, the heavenly scribe, stands at his side writing down thehim with his fingers (compare Ginzbcrg, cited besin and the righteousness of each. For God said: I shall not pp. 229, 230, 298, 299). judge you, but each man shall be judged by man. Being de- low, scendants of the first man, they shall be judged by his son until The place where Abel was killed remained desothe great and glorious appearance of the Lord, when they will late forever, never producing vegetation (Midrash be judged by the twelve tribes [judges] of Israel [compare Canticles, ed. Shechter; "Jew. Quart. Rev.," 1894-95, Matt. xix. 28], and then the last judgment by the Lord Himselfvii. 160. Jerome, "Commentary on Ezekiel," xxvii. shall be perfect and unchangeable."

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Abd-ul-Meslh Abel-Cheramim

18, supported by Jewish tradition, held it to be Da- seems to be quite probable (Stade's "Zeitschrift," mascus (Heb. PB>D"|: DT blood; pg> drink). Ac- 1884, p. 250). The story is intended to set forth: cording to another version, the earth refused to take First, the superiority of the pastoral 'over the agriup.-Abel's blood (Apocalypsis Mosis, xl.). cultural occupation. This prejudice naturally inSince man had no knowledge of burial, Abel's hered in the nomadic life. The fact confirms the corpse remained unburied for some time. At God's antiquity of the original story. Secondly, it emcommand, two turtle-doves flew down; one died; phasizes the peculiar value of the choicest animal the other dug a hollow place and moved the dead sacrifices as developed later in the ritual system. one into it. Thereupon Adam and Eve did likewise Thirdly, it shows how deep-seated was the jealousy to Abel's body (Tan., Bereshit, 10; Pirke R. Eliezer, and rivalry between people of different occupations, xxi., see also Gen.JR. I.e.; compare "Denkschrift d. who in ancient times formed separate communities Wiener Akademie," xx. 52, and Ginzborg, I.e. 295). and were continually at war. Fourthly, there also lurks in the story a consciousness that certain people B I B L I O G R A P H Y : Ginzberg, in Monatssehrift, 1899, 226-230, are more pleasing to God than others, and that the 294-298. difference is, in part at least, connected with modes L. G. In Mohammedan Legend : The story of Cain of worship and sacrifice. Neither Abel nor Cain is and Abel is thus told in the Koran (sura v. 30 et referred to in later Old Testament books. The New J. F. McC. seq.): "Recite to them the story of the two sons of Testament has several references. Adam: Truly, when they offered an offering and it ABEL (" Meadow "): Prefixed to six names of was accepted from one of them, and was not accognate with the Assyrian abalu (to be full, cepted from the other, that one [Cain] said, T will places, fruitful), and its probable derivatives ablutuin (fulsurely kill thee.' He [Abel] said, 'God only accepts ness) and ublu (vermin); Delitzsch, "Assyrisches from those who fear.. If thou dost stretch forth to J. D. P. me thine hand to kill me, I will not stretch forth I-Iandw." p. 7. mine hand to kill thee; verily, I fear God, the Lord ABEL-BETH-MAACHAH (R. V., Maacah): of the worlds; verily, I wish that thou may est draw A place-name occurring six times in the Old Tesupon thee my sin and thy sin, and be of the fellows tament. The question whether Abel was one place of the fire; for that is the reward of the unjust.' and Beth-maachah another, or whether Abel-bethBut his soul allowed him to slay his brother, and he maachah must be regarded as a single locality, is slew him, aud in the morning lie was of those who open to doubt. The name occurs in various forms: perish. And God sent a crow to scratch in the (II Sam. xx. 15, A. V.) " in Abel of Beth-maachah "; earth and show him how he might hide his brother's (I Kings, xv. 20, A. V.) " Abel-beth-maachah." In shame; he said, 'Alas for me! Am I too helpless ll Sam. xx. 14, however, we find (A. V.) "to Abel to become like this crow and hide my brother's and to Beth-maachah," with which should be comshame ? ' And in the morning he was of those that pared the Greek versions in II Sam. xx. 14 and II did repent" (compare Pirke R. El. xxi). Kings, xv. 29. Owing to this apparent separation No further mention is made of Abel; and the of the two names, it is possible that Abel and Bethabsence of his name here causes the commentator maachah may have been different places, especially Baidawi and the historian Tabari to say that the as the name Abel occurs alone, undoubtedly used for two mentioned here were not sons of Adam, but the same town, in II Sam. xx. 18 (A. Y: and R. V., " children of Adam " or merely descendants. The " Abel"). These slight discrepancies are perhaps Arabic historians (Ya'kubi, Tabari, Ibn al-Athir, to be explained by the supposition that Abel was etc.) call Abel "Habil"; and, following Jewish tra- the chief, possibly the only, town of Maachah or dition, they say that to each one of the brothers a Beth-maachah, a small Syrian state. It is imporsister or sisters were born. Adam wished that each tant to note that the parallel passage to I Kings, xv. should marry the sister of the other; but Cain's sis- 20that is, II Chron. xvi. 4gives the place-name as ter was the handsomer of the two and had been ABEL-MALM, " Abel of the waters " (so also both verborn in paradise; while Abel and his sister had been sions) , which would agree well with the modern begotten outside of the garden. Adam suggested Christian village Abil, or Abil-el-Kamh ("of the that the question should be settled by each one wheat"owing to the fertile soil). This settlebringing an offering. Abel brought of the best of ment is situated in a well-watered district on the his flock, but Cain of the worst of the products of chief highway between BANIAS and the coast, on a the ground. Fire fell from heaven, and consumed lofty hill near the NAIIR-BAREIGHIT. This place is only the offering of Abel. The sister of Abel is probably identical with (A)-bi-il, mentioned in a called Kelimia; that of Cain, Lubda (compare Le- mutilated passage in the inscriptions of Tiglathbuda and Kelimat in the Syriac " Schatzhohlo," ed. pileser III., among other cities conquered by that Bezold, trans., p. 8; and in the "Book of the Bee," king (II Kings, xv. 29). J. D. P. ed. Budge, trans., p. 25; in the Ethiopic Midrash the The confusion of the ancient name Abel, meaning names are AklemiaandLubuwa; see Malan, "Book "Meadow," with the Abel of later date, meaning of Adam and Eve," pp. 93, 104). According to an- "Mourning," gave rise to the legend recorded in another tradition, Adam's height shrank consider- the Book of Enoch, xiii. Enoch sat down at the ably through grief at the death of Abel. water of Dan to the south of Mount Hermon, and there read the petition of the fallen angels until he B I B L I O G R A P H Y : Weil.Bihlische Lcgenden der Musulmilnncr, p. 30; Gri'mbaum, Neuc BeitrCtge zur Semitischen Sagenfell asleep. " And when I awoke I came to them kunde, pp. 67 et seq. aud saw them sitting together weeping at AbelG. maim [Ethiopic, "Ublesjael"], which is between Critical View : The Biblical account of Abel Lebanon and Sorion [Ethiopic, "Seneser"]." K. comes from one writer (J) only, and is so brief and ABEL-CHERAMIM (so in R. V.; but " plain of fragmentary that much is left to speculation when we try to get the original form of the story. The the vineyards " in A. V.): Mentioned only in Judges, xi. 33 (a Deuteronomistic document), as the place name itself can not bo satisfactorily explained, as it is only clear that the narrative comes from a where Jephthah paused in his pursuit and slaughter very old tradition. The Assyrian word for son is of the Ammonites. According to Eusebius and Jehablu, and the derivation from a Babylonian source rome ("Onomastica Sacra," ed. Lagarde, 2d ed., I4