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Apollyon (top) battling Christian in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

The Hebrew term Abaddon (Hebrew: אֲבַדּוֹן‎, 'Ǎḇaddōn), or its Greek equivalent Apollyon an intensive form of the word "destruction", appears as a place of destruction in the Hebrew Bible.

In a vision in the New Testament Book of Revelation, an angel called Abaddon is shown as the king of an army of locusts; his name is first transcribed in Greek as "whose name in Hebrew Abaddon" (Ἀβαδδὼν), and then translated as, "which in Greek means the Destroyer" (Apollyon, Ἀπολλύων). The Latin Vulgate, as well as the Douay Rheims Bible, has an additional note (not present in the Greek text), "in Latin Exterminans", exterminans being the Latin word for "destroyer".

Judaism [edit]

Etymology [edit]

According to the Brown Driver Briggs lexicon, the Hebrew abaddon (Hebrew: אבדון; avadon) is an intensive form of the Semitic root and verb stem abad (אָבַד) "perish" (transitive "destroy"), which occurs 184 times in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek Apollyon comes from 'apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) "to destroy"

Hebrew Bible [edit]

The term abaddon appears six times in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible; abaddon means destruction or "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is associated with Sheol.

• Job 26:6: the grave (Sheol) is naked before Him, and destruction (Abaddon) has no covering.
• Job 28:22: destruction (Abaddon) and death say...
• Job 31:12: it is a fire that consumes to destruction (Abaddon)...
• Psalm 88:11: Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave (Sheol) or thy faithfulness in destruction (Abaddon)?
• Proverbs 15:11: Hell (Sheol) and Destruction (Abaddon) are before the LORD, how much more than the hearts of the children of men?
• Proverbs 27:20: Hell (Sheol) and Destruction (Abaddon) are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. (KJV, 1611)

Second Temple era texts [edit]

The text of the Thanksgiving Hymns — which was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls — tells of "the Sheol of Abaddon" and of the "torrents of Belial [that] burst into Abaddon". The Biblical Antiquities (mis-attributed to Philo) mentions Abaddon as a place (sheol, hell), not as a spirit or demon or angel. Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna.^[1] By extension, it can mean an underworld abode of lost souls, or hell.

Rabbinical literature [edit]

In some legends, Abaddon is identified as a realm where the "damned" lie in fire and snow, one of the places in "Hell" that Moses visited.^[2]

Christianity [edit]

Etymology [edit]

The Greek term "the Destroyer" (Apollyon, Ἀπολλύων) is the active participle of apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) "to destroy".^[3] The term is not used as a name in classical Greek texts.^[4]

New Testament [edit]

The Christian scriptures contain the first known depiction of Abaddon as an individual entity instead of a place.

Revelation 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. KJV, 1611

In Revelation 9:1–11, Abaddon is described as a personified star who falls to Earth from heaven and is given the key to open the bottomless pit. Abaddon opens the pit, releasing a swarm of locusts.^[5]

Abaddon is also described in the same passage as "The Destroyer",^[6] the angel of the abyss,^[6] and as the king of a plague of locusts resembling horses with crowned human faces, women's hair, lions' teeth, wings, iron breast-plates, and a tail with a scorpion's stinger that torments for five months anyone who does not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^[7]

Christian tradition [edit]

In the 3rd century Acts of Thomas, Abaddon is the name of a demon, or the Devil himself.

Abaddon is given particularly important roles in two sources, a homily entitled "The Enthronement of Abbaton" by pseudo-Timothy of Alexandria, and the Apocalypse of Bartholomew.^[8] In the homily by Timothy, Abbaton was first named Muriel, and had been given the task by God of collecting the earth which would be used in the creation of Adam. Upon completion of this task, the angel was then named to be guardian. Everyone, including the angels, demons, and corporeal entities, felt fear of him. Abbaton engaged in prayer and ultimately obtained the promise that any men who venerated him during their lifetime stood the chance of being saved. Abbaton is also said to have a prominent role in the Last Judgement, as the one who will take the souls to the Valley of Josaphat.^[8] He is described in the Apocalypse of Bartholomew as being present in the Tomb of Jesus at the moment of his resurrection.^[9]

Protestant commentators [edit]

The symbolism of Revelation 9:11 leaves the exact identification of Abaddon open for interpretation. Matthew Henry (1708) believed Abaddon to be the antichrist,^[10] while the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (1871) and Henry H. Halley (1922) identified the angel as Satan.^[11][12][13]

The International Bible Students Association (precursor to the Jehovah's Witnesses) identified Abaddon as Satan in the 1917 seventh and final volume of Millennial Dawn.^[14] Jehovah's Witnesses now take the contrasting view, believing that Abaddon is another name of the resurrected and enthroned Jesus Christ.^[15][16]

See also [edit]

• Abaddon in popular culture

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

• Metzeger, Bruce M. (ed.); Michael D. Coogan (ed.) (1993). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504645-5. 

• Halley, Henry H.; James E. Ruark (ed.) (2000). Halley's Bible Handbook. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. ISBN 0-310-22479-9. 

• MacDonald, William; Art Farstad (ed.) (1995). Believer's Bible Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers. ISBN 0-8407-1972-8. 

External links [edit]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Abaddon.

• Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Abaddon
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Abaddon". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). "^{article name needed}". New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls.