ABEL
ABOMIXATION
^vith the Greek equivalent attached to it, as a familiar devotional phrase (like Maran atha [1 Co 16'-^], -which would be quite intelligible to Chris- tians of Gentile origin, though its Greek transla- tion, 6 Ki'ptos iyyds [Ph 4'], was also used ; of. Did. 10^, where ' Maran atha' and ' Amen ' close a public prayer) ; and (4) that our Lord Himself, though this cannot be said to be established beyond doubt, used the double form in pronouncing the sacred Name, which was invoked in His prayer.
In conclusion, it should be noted that, while the phrase is associated with the specially solemn occa- sion of the Gethseinane agony, where our Lord is reported by St. Mark to have used it, both ex- amples of its use in the Pauline writings convey a similar impression of solemnity as connected with the Christian believer's assurance of sonship — and sonship (let it be noted) not in the general sense in which all humanity may be described as children of God, but in the intimate and spiritual connota- tion belonging to vloOecrLa, or ' adoption,' into the family of God.
Literature. — See art. ' Abba ' in HDB, DCG, and JE, an art. in ExpTxx. [1909] 356, and the authorities cited above.
R. Martin Pope.
ABELc — Abel ('A|8eX) has the first place in the roll of ' the elders ' (ol irpea^&repoi, He 11-), or men of past generations, who by their faith pleased God and had witness borne to them. It is recorded of him that he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice (irXelova dvo-iav) than his elder brother (He 11^). In the original story (Gn 4^"'') his offer- ing was probably regarded as more pleasing on account of the material of his sacrifice. It was in accordance with primitive Semitic ideas that the occupation of a keeper of sheep was more pleasing to God than that of a tiller of the ground, and accordingly that a firstling of the flock was a more acceptable offering than the fruit of the ground. The ancient writer of the story (J) evidently wished to teach that animal sacrifice alone was pleasing to God (Gunkel, Genesis, 38 ; Skinner, 105). The author of Hebrews gives the story a different turn. The greater excellence of Abel's sacrifice consisted in the disposition with which it was offered. The spirit of the worshipper rather than the substance of the offering is now considered the essential element. Abel's sacrifice was the offering of a man whose heart was right. Through his faith he won God's approval of his gifts, and through his faith his blood continued to speak for him after his death. In a later passage of Heb. (122'*) that blood is contrasted -with 'the blood of sprinkling,' by which the new covenant is confinned. The blood of Abel cried out from the ground for vengeance (cf. Job 16^*, Is 26^', 2 K 9^ ; also Rev 6''* '") ; it was such a cry as is sounded in Milton's sonnet, ' Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints ' ; but the blood of the eternal covenant intercedes for mercy.
St. John (1 Jn 3'^) uses the murder of Abel by his brother to illustrate the absence of that spirit of love which is the essence of goodness. The writer indicates that the new commandment, or message (d77eX^a), which has been heard from the beginning of the Christian era, was also the funda- mental laAV of the moral life from the beginning of human history. Cain was of the evil one (iK toO TTovrjpod), and slaughtered {^acpa^ev) his brother.
LiTERATTjRE. — Besides the artt. in the Bible Dictionaries, see W. G. Elmslle, Expository Lectures and Sermons, lb92, p. 164 ; J. Hastings, Greater Men and Women of the Bible, vol. i. [1913] p. 53 ; G. Matheson, The Representative Men of the Bible, i. [1902] 45 ; A. P. Peabody, King's Chapel Sermons, 1891, p. 817 ; A. Whyte, Bible Characters, i. [1896] 44.
James Strahan. ABIDING. — As in the Gospels, so in Acts and Ephesians we find both the local and the ethical connotations of this word, which in almost every
case is used to render /xivu or one of its numerous compounds (eiri-, Kara-, irapa-, irpos-, inro-). With the purely local usages we have here no concern ; but there is a small class of transitional meanings which lead the way to those ethical connotations which are the distinctive property of the word. Among these may be mentioned the several places in 1 Co 7, where St. Paul, dealing with marriage and allied questions (? in view of the Parousia), speaks of abiding in this state or calling. In the same Epistle note also S'^* 'If any man's yvork abide,' and 13'^ ' And now abide faith, hope, love.' * Simi- larly we are told of the persistence (a) of Mel- chizedek's priesthood (He 7^), (b) of the Divine fidelity' even in face of human faithlessness (2 Ti 213), and (c) of the word of God (1 P l^^).
It is, however, in the 1st Ep. of John, as in the Fourth Gospel, that we get the ethical use of abiding most fully developed and most amply pre- sented. But, while in the Gospel the emphasis is laid on the Son's abiding in the Father and Christ's abiding in the Church, in 1 Jn 2-''- -' the stress is rather on the mutual abiding of the believer and God (Father and Son). Note the following ex- perimental aspects of the relation in question.