A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

James Hastings • SECTION 19

Section 19

← A Dictionary of the Bible — Volume 1

his son Jaasiel was captain of Benjamin in David's reign (1 Ch 27'"). N. J. D. White.

ABODE. — 1. The past tense of Abide (which see). 2. In Jn W^ (' We will come unto him, and make our abode with him ') a. is tr. of the same word (fuivit) which in Jn 14" is rendered Mansion (which see). J. HASTINGS.

ABOMINATION.— Four separate Heb. words are thus rendered in OT (sometimes with the variation abominable thing), the application of which is in many respects very difTerent. (1) The commonest of these words is '^^)^^, which expresses most generally the idea of something loathed (cf. the verb, Mic 3"), esp. on religious grounds : thus Gn 43" ' to eat food with the Hebrews is an abomination to the Egyptians,' — a strong ex- pression of the exclusiveness with which the Egyptians viewed foreigners, esp. such as had no regard for their religious scruples ; thus, on account of their veneration for the cow (which was sacred to Isis), they would not use the knife or cooking utensil of a Greek, which might have been employed in preparing the flesh of a cow as food (Hat. ii. 41); Gn 46'* 'every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians,' — shepherds, viz., were ranked, it seems, with the /3ou«6Xoi, whose occupation was deemed a degrading one, who from living with their herds in reed cottages on the marshes wore called marshmen, and who are depicted on the monuments as dirty, unshaven, poorly clad, and even as dwarfs and deformed (cf. Del. ad loc. ; Birch-Wilkinson, Atic. Eg. 1878, i. 288 f., ii. 444 ; Wiedemann, Herodots zweites Buck, 1890, p. 371 f. ; Erman, Life in Atic. Eg. p. 439) ; Ex 8" <*' the Israelites are represented as unwilling to sacrifice ' the abomination of the Egyptians ' in Egypt itself, with allusion, probably, to animals wliicli the Egyptians abstained religiously from sacrificing, though they were sacrificed freely by the Hebrews, as the cow, which was sacred tolsis, the bull, unless it was pronounced by the priests to be KaOapis, or free from the sacred marks of Apis (Herodotus' statements on this point are not entirely borne out by the monuments, but there seems to be some foundation for them), sheep at Thebes, and goats [according to Wiedemann, an error for rams] in Mendes (Hdt. ii. 38, 41, 42, 46; cf. Birch-Wilk. ii. 460, iii. 108 f., 304 f. ; Wiede- mann, I.e. pp. 180-182, 183, 187 f., 196 f., 218 f.).

Two special usages may be noted : (a) the phrase Jehovah s abomination, of idolatry or practices connected with it, or of characters or acts morally displeasing to God, Dt 1^ W^ W 18'' 22" 23'9|'»l 25'* 27" (cf. 24<, Lk 16"), Pr 3" 11'- *> 12-=i 158-»-*i 16" 17" 20"'-" (comp. in a Phcen. inscription, ap. Driver, Samuel, p. xxvi, the expression ''Asn- toreth's abomination,' of the violation of a tomb) ; (6) esp. in the plur., of heathen or immoral practices, urincipally in H and Ezk, as Lv IS"-- ^- "• a. ao 20", i)t I3i*(") 17* 18''- " 20", Jer 7" 32*>, 1 K M", 2 K 16' 2P- ", Ezk 5»- " 7'- *• »■ ' 8«- "• " etc. (43 times in Ezk), rarely of an actual idol, 2 K 23" (of Milcom), Is 44", and perhaps Dt 32'".

(2) Su5, the technical term for stale sacrificial flesh, which has not been eaten within the pre- scribed time, only Lv 7" 19', Ezk 4'* (where the prophet protests that he lias never partaken of it), and (plur.) Is 65*. For distinction this might ho rendered refuse meat ; the force of the allusion in Ezk 4'*, Is 05*, in particular, is entirely lost by the rendering ' abominable thing ' of AV, UV.

(3) riJ»'> f'O technical term for the flesh of pro- hibited animals (see article Unclean), Lt 7" )iw-u.».j3.«.«a(cf_ the corresponding verb, V. "•"•♦• 20®) : this sense of the word gives the point to Ezk 8'", Is 66". |'B5' would be best represented by

12 ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

detestation, or detestable tkinij (cf. detest for the Terb, Dt T'*). Note that in IJt 14' abomination is njyiB, not the technical jijy used in Lv 11.

(4) \ifiv, allied in etymology to (3), but in usage confined almost exclusively toobjectsconnec ted with idolatry, and chiefly a contemptuous designation of heathen deities themselves: lirst in Hos9"* 'and }i<ii:&u\& detestations like thatwhich they loved ' (Baal of I'eor, named just before) ; more frequently in writers of the age of Jer and Ezk, viz. Dt 29'" i">, Jer4'7»<'( = 32'*) 13" 16'*, Ezk 5" 7"" 1I'«-^ 20'- ^-m 37^, 1 K i I" Milcom the detestation of the Ammon- ites,' V.'-', 2 K 23"- "s (not of MUcom), v."; also Is 66', Zee 9'. In AV, KV, where this word occurs beside nji^'in {No. 1), as Ezk 5" 7" (and Ezk 37-^, even where it stands alone), it is rendered for distinction detestable thing ; and either this or detestation would be the most suitable Eng. equivalent for it. 8. R. Driver.

ABOMINATION OP DESOLATION, THE (t6

fidavy^ Tijs ip-niiidia^), Mt 24'*, Mk 13'*, ' spoken of by Daniel the prophet,' the appearance of whicli, 'standing ir Tbici^ a.-fl<f (Mt), or irov oi ie'i (Mk),' is mentioned by Christ as the signal for the lliglit of Christians from Judaea, at the time of the approaching destruction of Jems. The Gr. plirase is borrowed from Dn ff" LXX pSiKuyiw. tCiv ipriii.w(r(ur (so Theod.), 11" LXX ^SiXvy/ia iprfixuiaciat (Theod. ^5. Tiipai/iiifUyoy), 12" LXX ri /Sot'Xvy/ja T-^s ^pT/^iicreut (Theod. ;S5. ep.) ; cf. 8" (LXX, Theod. ) T] ap.apTla iprip,uffcas. The Heb. in the first of these passages is D;lro D'VPP, in the second y^pvn Dck'9, in the third cry rpp, in the last Dcr jpjn. pp?* is the word explained under ABOMINATION (4), as being often the contemptuous designation of a heathen god or idol, cttyq and opir are, however, diliicult. Dciyci elsewhere (only Ezr 9^-*) means horrifed ; ccl? means usually desolate (as La l*- '°), though it might also (as ptcp. of od^, Ezk 26'° 27^° al.) mean horrified as well; in Dn, however (supposing the te.xt to be sound), the exigencies of the sense have obliged many commentators to sup- pose that the Poel conjug. has a trans, force ; hence KV 9^ ' one that maketh desolate ' ; 11" ' and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and sliall take away the continual bumt-otiering, and they sliall set up the abomination that maketh desolate ' ; 12" ' from the time that the continual burnt-offering shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up ' ; so 8" DCb' vgijn ' the trans^ession that mctkethdesolate' (the form Dcy might just be a ptcp. Poel with the D dropped ; Ges.-K. §§ 55 R. 1, 52. 2 R. 6). In spite, however, of the uncertainty as regards ceo (or CDB'O), the general sense of IP' and 12" is clear. Dn 1 !''"*• deals with the history of Antiochus Epiphanes, and v." refers to the desecration of the temple by the troops of Antiochus, the subsequent susjiension of the daily bunit-oU'ering and other reli^'ious services (wliicli lasted for three years), and 'to the erection on 15 Chislev, B.C. 168, of a small idol-altar (jSu^is) upon the AUar of bumt- ofiering (1 Mac l*"-'"). 12" (like 8") is another reference to the same events. It is remarkable, now, that in 1 Mac 1" the idol-altar is called by exactly the same name that is used in the Bk. of Dn — i^KoSiifiTjaay ^S^Xi'yfj.a ipTjfiuffews iwl rh SvaKKrHipiOf (cf. 6'). Dn 9'-'' is very diflicult : but, as the reference in NT is rather to 11" and 12", it need not here be further considered ; LXX, Theod., however, it may be noted, have itai iirl rb Upiv fi5i\lrf^l.a tuk iprifiwatuy. Of tlie perplexing expression ddo ppp, now, a clever and plausible explanation has been suggested by Nestle (ZATW 1884, p. 248 ; cf. Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, p. 105 ; Bevan, Dnn. p. 193), viz. that it is a con- temptuous allusion to o'cs' Svn Baal of heaven, a

Public-domain historical reference work (1898–1905); OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.

Project Gutenberg source record →