ciently famous to be observed and recorded by the Greeks. Having thus traced many of these Eastern products to the works of almost contemporary authors, he was led to conclude that many of them must be the same as those mentioned in the Bible, especially as there is often considerable resemblance between their Arabic and Hebrew names Essay, p. 138).

Although, like Hasselquist, Alpinus, Forskal, and others, the author studied these subjects in Eastern countries, yet he differs from them all in the circumstances under which he pursued his inquiries. His investigations were carried on while he was resident in the remotest of the Eastern nations known in early times, who were probably among the first civilized, and who are still not only acquainted with the various drugs and their names, but possess an ancient literature, in which many of these very substances are named and arranged. Having obtained the drugs, heard their names applied by the natives, read their descriptions, and traced them to their plants, he formed many of his opinions from independent sources. It may therefore be considered a strong confirmation of the correctness of his results when they agree with those of previous inquirers; when they differ, it must be ascribed to the peculiar process by which they have been obtained.-J. F. R.

[Cucumis melo.]

ABBA CABB, EN) is the Hebrew word IN, father, under a form peculiar to the Chaldee idiom. The Aramaic dialects do not possess the definite article in the form in which it is found in Hebrew. They compensate for it by adding a syllable to the end of the simple noun, and thereby produce a distinct form, called by grammarians the emphatic, or definitive, which is equivalent (but with much less strictness in its use, especially in Syriac) to a noun with the article in Hebrew. This emphatic form is also commonly used to express the vocative case of our language-the context alone determining when it is to be taken in that sense (just as the noun with the article is sometimes similarly used in Hebrew). Hence this form is appropriately employed in all the passages in which it occurs in the New Testament (Mark xiv. 36; Rom. viii. 15; Gal. iv. 6): in all of which it is an invocation. Why Abba is, in all these passages, immediately rendered by & Tarp, instead of drep,

may perhaps be in part accounted for on the supposition that, although the Hellenic (as well as the classical) Greek allows the use of the nominative with the article for the vocative (Winer, Gram. des Neutest. Sprach. § 29), the writers of the New Testament preferred the former, because the article more adequately represented the force of the emphatic form.

It is also to be observed that, in the usage of the Targums, N2N, even when it is the subject of an ordinary proposition, may mean my father; and that the absolute form of the word is not used with the suffix of the first person singular. Lightfoot has endeavoured (Hora Hebr. ad Marc. xiv. 36) to show that there is an important difference between the Hebrew N and the Chaldee NN: that whereas the former is used for all senses of father, both strict and metaphorical, the latter is confined to the sense of a natural or adoptive father. This statement, which is perhaps not entirely free from a doctrinal bias is not strictly correct. At least the Targums hav rendered the Hebrew father by NN, in Gen. xlv. 8, and Job xxxviii. 28, where the use of the term is clearly metaphorical; and, in later times, the Talmudical writers (according to Buxtorf, Lex. Talm.) certainly employ NN to express rabbi, master-a usage to which he thinks reference is made in Matt. xxiii. 9.-J. N.

ABBREVIATIONS. As there are satisfactory grounds for believing that the word Selah, in the Psalms, is not an anagram, the earliest positive evidence of the use of abbreviations by the Jews occurs in some of the inscriptions on the coins of Simon the, Maccabee. Some of these, namely,

and some ;חרות for חר and ישראל for יש have

of those of the first and second years have N and ; the former of which is considered to be a numeral letter, and the latter an abbreviation for, anno II. (Bayer, De Numis Hebræo-Samaritanis, p. 171). It is to be observed, however, that both these latter abbreviations alternate on other equally genuine coins,

שנת שתים and שנת אחת with the full legends

and that the coins of the third and fourth years invariably express both the year and the numeral in words at length.

The earliest incontestable evidence of the use of abbreviations in the copies of the Old Testament is found in some few extant MSS., in which common words, not liable to be mistaken, are curtailed of one or more letters at the end. Thus is written for ; and the phrase 170 oby, so frequently recurring in Ps. cxxxvi., is in some MSS. written Yet even this licence, which is rarely used, is always denoted by the sign of abbreviation, an oblique stroke on the last letter, and is generally confined to the end of a line; and as all the MSS. extant (with hardly two exceptions) are later than the tenth century, when the Rabbinical mode of abbreviation had been so long established and was carried to such an extent, the infrequency and limitation of the licence, under such circumstances, might be considered to favour the belief that it was not more freely employed in earlier times.

Nevertheless, some learned men have endeavoured to prove that abbreviations must have

of the New Testament, 1. may be observed that they have furnished little matter for critical inquiry. Those that exist are almost exclusively confined to common and easily supplied words, e. g. God, Lord, father, son, &c.; or to the terminations of formation and inflexion, in which case they fall more properly under the province of general Greek Palæography. They very rarely furnish any hint of the mode in which a various reading has arisen, as has been suggested, for instance, in the case of Kaip and Kuple in Romans xii. 11. The use of letters for numerals, however, according to Eichhorn's Einleit. ins N. T., iv. 199, is not only found in some MSS. now extant, but, in the instance of the number 666, in Rev. xiii. 18, can be traced up to the time of the apostles; partly on the testimony of Irenæus, and partly because those MSS. which wrote the number out in words differ in the gender of the first word, some writing gakóστοι, some ἑξακόσιαι, some εξακόσια. The early fathers have also unhesitatingly availed themselves of the theory that numbers were originally denoted by letters, whenever they wished to explain a difficulty in numbers. Thus Severus of Antioch (cited by Theophylact) accounts for the difference of the hour of our Lord's crucifixion, as stated in Mark xv. 25, and John xix. 14, by the mistake of 7 (3) for s (6). Eichhorn has given a lithographed table of the most usual abbreviations in the MSS. of the New Testament.

Lastly, the abbreviations by which Origen, in nis Hexapla,' cites the Septuagint and other Greek versions, deserve some notice. The nature of this work rendered a compendious mode of reference necessary; and, accordingly, numeral letters and initials are the chief expedients employed. A large list of them may be seen in Montfaucon's edition of the Hexapla;' and Eichhorn (Einleit. ins A. T. i. 518-50) has given those which are most important.-J. N.

1. ABDON (ji¬‡y, a servant; Sept. 'Aßò), the son of Hillel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and tenth judge of Israel. He succeeded Elon, and judged Israel eight years. His administration appears to have been peaceful; for nothing is recorded of him but that he had forty sons and thirty nephews, who rode on young asses-a mark of their consequence (Judg. xii. 13-15). Abdon died B.c. 1112.

There were three other persons of this name, which appears to have been rather common. They are mentioned in 1 Chron. viii. 29; ix. 36; xxxiv. 20.

2. ABDON, a city of the tribe of Asher, which was given to the Levites of Gershom's family (Job xxi. 30; I Chron. vi. 74).

ABEDNEGO (112, servant of Nego, i. e. Nebo; Sept. 'Aßdevay), the Chaldee name imposed by the king of Babylon's officer upon Azariah, one of the three companions of Daniel. With his two friends, Shadrach and Meshach, he was miraculously delivered from the burning furnace, into which they were cast for refusing to worship the golden statue which Nebuchadnezzar bad caused to be set up in the plain of Dura (Dan. iii.).

ABEL (7; Sept. "ABEλ), properly HEBEL, the second son of Adam, who was slain by Cain,

his elder brother (Gen. iv. 1-16). The circum stances of that mysterious transaction are considered elsewhere [CAIN]. To the name Abel a twofold interpretation has been given. Its primary,signification is weakness or vanity, as the word 2, from which it is derived, indicates. By another rendering it signifies grief or lamentation, both meanings being justified by the Scripture narrative. CAIN (a possession) was so named to indicate both the joy of his mother and his right to the inheritance of the first-born: Abel received a name indicative of his weakness and poverty when compared with the supposed glory of his brother's destiny, and prophetically of the pain and sorrow which were to be inflicted on him and his parents. Ancient writers abound in observations on the mystical character of Abel; and he is spoken of as the representative of the pastoral tribes, while Cain is regarded as the author of the nomadic life and character. St. Chrysostom calls him the Lamb of Christ, since he suffered the most griev ous injuries solely on account of his innocency (Ad Stagir. ii. 5); and he directs particular attention to the mode in which Scripture speaks of his offerings, consisting of the best of his flock, and of the fat thereof,' while it seems to intimate that Cain presented the fruit which might be most easily procured (Hom. in Gen. xviii. 5). St. Augustin, speaking of regeneration, alludes to Abel as representing the new or spiritual man in contradistinction to the natural or corrupt man, and says, Cain founded a city on earth, but Abel as a stranger and pilgrim looked forward to the city of the saints which is in heaven' (De Civitate Dei, xv. i.). Abel, he says in another place, was the first-fruits of the Church, and was sacrificed in testimony of the future Mediator. And on Ps. cxviii. (Serm. xxx. sec. 9) he says: this city' (that is, the city of God') 'has its beginning from Abel, as the wicked city from Cain." Irenæus says that God, in the case of Abel, subjected the just to the unjust, that the by what he suffered (Contra Hæres. iii. 23). righteousness of the former might be manifested

Heretics existed in ancient times who represented Cain and Abel as embodying two spiritual powers, of which the mightier was that of Cain, and to which they accordingly rendered divine homage.

In the early Church Abel was considered the first of the martyrs, and many persons were accustomed to pronounce his name with a particular

reverence. An obscure sect arose under the title of Abelites, the professed object of which was to inculcate certain fanatical notions respecting marriage; but it was speedily lost amid a host of more popular parties.-H. S.

ABEL ; Sept. 'AẞéX), a name of 9veral villages in Israel, with additions in the case of the more important, to distinguish them from and Syriac, it appears to mean fresh grass; and one another. From a comparison of the Arabic the places so named may be conceived to have been in peculiarly verdant situations. In 1 Sam. vi. 18, it is used as an appellative, and probably signifies a grassy plain.

ABEL, ABEL-BETH-MAACHAH, or ABEL-MAIM, a city in the north of Palestine, which seems to have been of considerable strength from its his

thar,' as the person who was high-priest along with Zadok, and who was deposed by Solomon; whereas the history describes that personage as Abiathar, the son of Abimelech. The only explanation which seems to remove all these difficulties-although we cannot allege it to be altogether satisfactory-is, that both father and son bore the two names of Abimelech and Abiathar, and might be, and were called by, either. But although it was not unusual for the Jews to have two names, it was not usual for both father and son to have the same two names. We therefore incline to leave the passage in Mark ii. 26, as explained above; and to conclude that the other discrepancies arose from an easy and obvious transposition of words by the copyists, which was afterwards perpetuated. In these places, the Syriac and Arabic versions have Abiathar, the

son of Abimelech,'

ABIB. [NISAN.]

1. ABIEL (N, father of strength, i. e. strong; Sept. 'ABA), the father of Kish, whose son Saul was the first king of Israel, and of Ner, whose son Abner was captain of the host to his cousin Saul (1 Sam. ix. Î; xiv. 5).

2. ABIEL, one of the thirty most distinguished men of David's army (1 Chron. xi. 32). He is called Abi-albon († 18) in 2 Sam. xxiii. 31; a name which has precisely the same signification (father of strength) as the other.

ABIEZER (, father of help; Sept. 'ABtéCeo, Josh. xvii. 2), a son of Gilead, the grandson of Manasseh (Num. xxvi. 30), and founder of the family to which Gideon belonged, and which bore his name as a patronymic Abiezrites (Judg. vi. 34; viii. 2). Gideon himself has a very beautiful and delicate allusion to this patronymic in his answer to the fierce and proud Ephraimites, who, after he had defeated the Midianites with 300 men, chiefly of the family of Abiezer, came to the pursuit, and captured the two Midianitish princes Zeba and Zalmunna. They sharply rebuked him for having engrossed all the glory of the transaction by not calling them into action at the first. But he soothed their pride by a remark which insinuated that their exploit, in capturing the princes, although late, surpassed his own in defeating their army: What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the (grape) gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?' (Judg. viii. 1-3).

אֲבִיגַיִל) ABIGAIL

or

by, father of joy; Sept. 'ABryaía), the wife of a prosperous sheepmaster, called Nabal, who dwelt in the district of Carmel, west of the Dead Sea. She is known chiefly for the promptitude and discretion of her conduct in taking measures to avert the wrath of David, which, as she justly apprehended, had been violently excited by the insulting treatment which his messengers had received from her husband [NABAL]. She hastily prepared a liberal supply of provisions, of which David's troop stood in much need-and went forth to meet him, attended by only one servant. When they met, he was marching to exterminate Nabal and all that belonged to him; and not only was his rage mollified by her prudent remonstrances and delicate management, but he became sensible

that the vengeance which he had purposed was not warranted by the circumstances, and was thankful that he had been prevented from shedding innocent blood. The beauty and prudence of Abigail made such an impression upon David on this occasion, that when, not long after, he heard of Nabal's death, he sent for her, and ste became his wife (1 Sam. xxv. 14-42). By her it is usually stated that he had two sons, Chileab and Daniel; but it is more likely that the Chileab of 2 Sam. iii. 3, is the same as the Daniel of 1 Chron. iii. 1; the son of Abigail being known by both these names.

1. ABIHAIL, father of light or splendour; Sept. 'Aßiata), the wife of Rehoboam, king of Judah. She is called the daughter of Eliab, David's elder brother (2 Chron. xi. 18): but, as David began to reign more than eighty years before her marriage, and was 30 years old when he became king, we are doubtless to understand that she was only a descendant of Eliab. This name, as borne by a female, illustrates the remarks under AB.

2. ABIHAIL, father of might, i.e. mighty; Sept. 'Aßixatλ). This name, alrized version, is, in the original, different both in though the same as the preceding in the authoorthography and signification. It should be written ABICHAIL. The name was borne by several persons: 1. ABICHAIL, the son of Huri, one of the family-chiefs of the tribe of Gad, who settled in Bashan (1 Chron. v. 14); 2. ABICHAIL, the father of Zuriel, who was the father of the Levitical tribes of Merari (Num. iii. 35); 3. ABICHAIL, the father of queen Esther, and brother of Mordecai (Esth. ii. 15).

ABIHU (N7, father of him; Sept. 'Aẞloud), the second of the sons of Aaron, who, with his brothers Nadab, Eleazer, and Ithamar, was set apart and consecrated for the priesthood (Exod. xxviii. 1). When, at the first establishment of the ceremonial worship, the victims offered on the great brazen altar were consumed by fire from heaven, it was directed that this firs should always be kept up; and that the daily incense should be burnt in censers filled with it from the great altar. But one day, Nadab and Abihu presumed to neglect this regulation, and offered incense in censers filled with strange' or common fire. For this they were instantly struck dead by lightning, and were taken away and buried in their clothes without the camp [AARON]. There can be no doubt that this severe example had the intended effect of enforcing becoming attention to the most minute observances of the ritual service. As immediately after the record of this transaction, and in apparent reference to it, comes a prohibition of wine or strong drink to the priests, whose turn it might be to enter the tabernacle, it is not unfairly surmised

that Nadab and Abihu were intoxicated when they committed this serious error in their ministrations (Lev. x. 1-11).

1. ABIJAH (72, 73, see signif. in ABIAH; Sept. 'Aßiá, 2 Chron. xiii. 1). He is also called Abijam (D'IN; Sept. 'Aßioú, 1 Kings xv. 1). Lightfoot (Harm. O. T. in loc.) thinks that the writer in Chronicles, not describing his reign as wicked, admits the sacred JAH in his name; but which the book of Kings, charging him with fol