ABEL ('73n, "A/3eX).— 1. The name occurs in the Gospels only in Mt 23"^^ || Lk IP', where Jesus declares that the blood of the prophets will be required of this generation. The passage is one of a series of invectives against Pharisaism, col- lected in Mt 23, parts of which are preserved in Lk 11. 13. 14. 20. 21. Abel is named as the first of the long line of martyrs whose blood had been shed during the period covered by the OT, the last being Zachariah (which see). ' In both cases the ^Kf^TTjffts is indicated: "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground " (Gn 4'") ; " the Lord look upon it, and require it" (2 Ch 24-).' In St. Matthew the words are ad- dressed to the Pharisees in the 2nd person : ' that upon you may come every righteous blood [i.e. the blood of each righteous person] shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous, until the blood of Zachariah . . . etc.' In St. Luke the passage is thrown into the 3rd person : ' that the blood of all the prophets which hath been shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel until the blood of Zachariah . . . etc' _ The description of Abel in St. Matthew as ' the righteous ' is noteworthy, and should be compared with He 11^. In the story of Abel nothing what- ever is said as to his moral character ; the contrast between him and his brother lay in the fact that ' Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offer- ing ; but unto Cain and to his ofTering he had not respect.' The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says that it was faith which led Abel to offer the more excellent sacrifice ; but wherein the excellence consisted the narrative of Genesis does not explain. But the expression tov SiKaiou seems to reflect the Pharisaic conception of righteousness as that which 'consisted primarily in the observance of all the rites and ceremonies prescribed in the law ' (cf. Lk 1"). Abel's ofTering must have been preferred presumably because it was in some way more to I
God's liking— more correct. This, however, was not consonant with Christ's idea of righteousness — ' except your righteousness shall abound beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven ' (Mt 5-"). It may be concluded, therefore, that St. Luke has preserved the more original form of Christ's words, and that ' the righteous ' is an addition in Mt 23"= due to current Jewish conceptions.
2. It is possible that Christ had the story of Abel in mind when He spoke of the devil as being 'a murderer (dvBpwiroKTSi'oi) from the beginning,' i.e. the instigator of murder aa he is of lies(Jn8"). But the passage may be a reference to the intro- duction of death into the world by the fall of Adam.
3. In He 12^ the ' blood of Abel ' is contrasted with the ' blood of sprinkling ' under the new dis- pensation. In Gn 41" God says : ' Hark ! (Sip) thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground,' i.e. it pleads for vengeance. But the blood of sprinkling 'speaketh something better' {Kpi'iTTov \a\ouvTi) : it is the blood shed in ratification of a New Covenant, whose mediator is Jesus.
Literature.— The most recent commentaries on Matthew and Luke (ad locc); Wri^iht, Synojmt; <</ the Gospels in Greek, p. 232 ; Sanday-Headlam, Ramans, pp. 28-31, on hixone^ and its cognates ; Driver, Genesis (in Westminster conmicntaries) ; Dillmann, 'Genesis,' in Kwrzgef. exeget. Handb. z. AT [Eng. tr. by Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1897J ; Marcus Dods, ' Genesis ' in Ex- positor's Bible. ' "" ■"'*■'
ABGAR.— Between'the years B.C. 99 and A.D. 217 eight (or ten) kings or toparohs of Edessa in Osrhoene bore this name. It is with the toparch that ruled in the time of our Saviour, Abgar UkkamaCthe Black,' c B.C. 13 to A.D. 50 [Gut- schmid], B.C. 9 to A.D. 46 [Dionysius of Telmahar]), that we are here concerned, owing to the legendary accounts of his correspondence with Jesus, accepted as historical fact by Eusebius, and by him given wide currency. Eusebius {HE i. 13) relates, with- out any suggestion of scepticism, that 'king Ab- gar, who ruled with great glory the nations beyond the Euphrates, being afHicted with a terrible disease which it was beyond the power of human skill to cure, when he heard of the name of Jesus and His miracles, . . . sent a message to Him by a courier and begged Him to heal the disease.' Eusebius proceeds to impart the letter of Abgar and the answer of Jesus, which he claims to have derived directly from the archives of Edessa, and to have translated (or caused to be translated) literally from Syriac into Greek. The letter of Abgar reads as follows : —
' Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the excellent Saviour who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard the reports of thee and of thy cures as performed by thee without mcdit word only thou njal
iJouB, uenesis in ii