See also artt. SELF-DENIAL and Temperance.
LrrERATURE. — Consult the books referred to in the article and the various Commentaries. See also J. B. Lightfoot, C'olos- sians'\ 1879, p. b97 tf. ; C. E. Luthardt, Christian Ethics before the Reformation, tr. Hastie, Edinburgh, 18S9 ; O. Zbckler, Eritische Gesch. der A><k<'f<e, Frankfurt am M., 1897; A. Harnack, History of Dogma, Eng. tr., 1894-99 ; H. J. Holtzmann, -iV2' Theulogie, Tiibingen, 1911, bk. iv. ch. vii.; A. B. D. Alexander, The Ethics of St. Paul, Glasgow, 1910 ; A. Ritschl, Entstehung der altkaihol. Kirche, Bonn, 1857, p. 173 ff.; E. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church (Hibbert Lecture, 18S8), London, 1890, Lecture vi. DONALD MACKENZIE.
ABUSE, ABUSERS.— The Latin abator means either (1) ' use badly,' ' misuse,' or (2) ' use to the full.' In this second sense Cicero uses the word of spending one's whole leisure time with a friend (see Lewis and Short, Latin Diet., s.v. ' Abator ').
The Greek verb Karaxpo-ofiai had both these mean- ings. Thus in Plato (Menex. 247 A) it means ' use wrongly ' ; and Clem. Alex. PcbcL i. (p. 142, Potter) speaks of ' using fully every device of wis- dom.' In older English the verb had both mean- ings, Cranmer's Bible has ' abuse ' = ' use to the full ' in Col 22'-. In both 1 Co 7^^ and 9'^ Karaxpaofiai means ' use to the full.' The RV translates it so in 9^^ and marginally so in 7^^
(a) 1 Co 7^^ — The connexions {e.g. marriage), circumstances {e.g. sorrow and joy), and concerns {e.g. business and wealth) of life have in Christianity an emotional interest. Stoicism would expel these emotions and leave the soul empty. Christianity determines them eschatologically (cf. 1 Co 7-'''* '*^'^). To avoid abuse of the world is to use it sub specie finis. Abuse here borders on our meaning of misuse (cf. French abuser — on abuse celui qui se laisse captiver ; and Mark Pattison's note on Pope's Essay on Man, ii. 14) ; and that perhaps is why RV retains 'abuse.' Texts like this apply in their original freshness and strength to times of crisis (cf. Luther's hymn, ' Gut, Ehre, Kind, und Weib . . . lass fahren dahin'), when the dissolu- tion of society seems imminent, but in essence they are applicable to all time, as human life is always
uncertain. They do not, however, encourage aloof- ness from or slackness in social duties (cf. St. Paul's attitude towards the non-workers in Thessalonica, 2 Th 3i"«-).
(6) 1 Co 9^^ — One phase of St. Paul's accommodat- ing conduct ((TU7/caTd;3a(r:s) for the gospel's sake was the voluntary abridgment of his rights of maintenance by the Corinthians ( 1 Co 9'-", 2 Co 11^). This accommodation must be distinguished from men-pleasing (cf. Gal 1'°). As the height of right may be the height of injury [summum ius sunuua iniuria), so conversely the abnegation of Christian rights for the gospel's sake enhances the power of both Evangelist and Evangel (cf. Mk 10-'*'').
Summary. — A lawful use of the world (I Co 7^^) or even of Christian rights (9'^) becomes harmful when dissociated from eternal issues, or pursued without regard to others. The lower planes of life gain signihcance in subordination to the highest. Rights legally due may, if pressed without regard to love, become injurious.
(c) In 1 Co 6" and 1 Ti l^'' dpa-evoKo'iTai is translated ' abusers of themselves with mankind ' (cf. Ro 1"'' written from Corinth). This unnatural vice is that known in Greek literature as iraidepaaTla. In St. Paul's view sins of uncleanness were the inevitable Divine penalty of forgetfulness of God — a view strengthened by the association between unclean- ness and the worship of Aphrodite in places like Corinth.
Literature. — Grimm-Thayer, s.v, Karaxpaofxat ; EDB, vol. i. art. ' Abuse ' ; the Comm. on above passages, e.g. Edwards in EGT and Hand-Corn. ; cf. also C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of Life and Godliness, London, 1870, Sermon xix. ; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, vol. iii. sermon xiv. ; W. G. Blaikie, Present Day Tracts, no. 4, 'Christianity and the Life that now is.' On TratSepaorca consult W. A. Becker, Charikles, 3 vols., Berlin, 1877-78, vol. ii. p. 252 ff.
Donald Mackenzie. ABYSS.— This is the RV rendering of the word d^vaaos which occurs in Lk S^S Ro 10^ Rev 9'- ^- " 11" 17*'20^-^ InLk. and Rom., A V translates 'deep'; in Rev., ' bottomless pit ' — no distinction, however, being made between rd ^piap rrjs d^vaa-ov in 9^- ^ (RV ' the pit of the abyss') and tj a^vacros simply in the remaining passages (RV 'the abyss'). dj3vacToi (from a intens. and ^vaa-os. Ion. for ^vd6s, 'the depth') occurs in classical Greek as an adj. meaning ' bottomless,' but in biblical and ecclesi- astical Greek almost invariably as a substantive denoting ' the bottomless place,' 'the abyss.' The word is found frequently in the LXX, usually as a rendering of the Heb, i^hdm, and primarily denotes the water-deeps which at first covered the earth (Gn P, Ps 103 (104)") and were conceived of as shut up afterwards in subterranean storehouses (32 (33)^). In Job 38i6*- the abyss in the sense of the depths of the sea is used as a parallel to Hades ; and in 41^ (LXX) the sea-monster regards the Tartarus of the abyss as his captive. In Ps 70 (71)-" ' the abyss' is applied to the depths of the earth, and is here evidently a figurative equiva- lent for Sheol, though it is nowhere used in the LXX to render the Heb. word. In the later Jewish eschatology, where Sheol has passed from its OT meaning of a shadowy under world in which there are no recognized distinctions between the good and the bad, the wicked and the weary (cf. Job 3", Ec 9'), and has become a sphere of definite moral retribution, the conception of the abyss has also undergone a moral transformation. The Ethiopian Book of Enoch is especially suggestive for the development of the eschatological conceptions that appear in pre-Christian Judaism ; and in the earliest part of that book the fallen angels and demons are represented as cast after the final judgment into a gulf (xdos) of fire (lO'^-"), while in 21'' the chasm (8iaKoirrj) filled with fire (cf. rb (pp^ap in Rev 9^- ^) is described as bordered by the abyss. Apparently