Apohryphen (Stnttg. 1841), p. :i'.'l sq Gieseler, Ch.
Hist. i. (17; Cave, Hist, Lit. anno 59; Baronius, . I rmol. ann. 44.
Ab'diel (Heb. Abdid', i»p?a?, servant of God; Sept. 'A«^"i/;>), a son of (Juui and father of Alii, one of tin' chief Gadites resident in Gilead (1 Chron. v, 15), B.C. between 1093 and 782.
ABED-NEGO
Ab'don (Heb. Abdon', I'faM and 1112?, servile; Sept. 'Aficuw), the name of four men and one city.
1. The son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, of the tribe of Ephraim, and the twelfth Judge of Israel for eight years, B.C. 1233-1225. His administration appears to have been peaceful (*A/3oW, Josephus, Ant. v, 7, 15); 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). He is probabty the Bedan referred to in 1 Sam. xii, 11.
2. The first-born of Jehiel, of the tribe of Benja- min, apparently by his wife Maachah, and resident at Jerusalem (1 Chron. viii, 30; ix, 36), B.C. ante 1093.
3. The son of Micah, and one of the persons sent ly King Josiah to ascertain of the prophetess Huldah the meaning of the recently-discovered book of the Law (2 Chron. xxxiv, 20), B.C. 628. In the parallel pas- sage (2 Kings xxii, 12) he is called Achbor, the son of Michaiah.
4. A "son" of Shashak, and chief Benjamite of Je- rusalem (1 Chron. viii, 23), B.C. ante 598.
5. A Levitical town of the Gershonites, in the tribe of Asher, mentioned between Mishal or Mashal and Helkath or Hukkok (Josh, xxi, 30; 1 Chron. vi, 74). The same place, according to several MSS., is men- tioned in Josh, xix, 28, instead of Hebron (Reland, Palast. p. 518). Under this latter form Schwarz (Pa- lest, p. 192) identifies it with a village, Ebra, which he affirms lies in the valley of the Leontes, south of Ku- lat Shakif; perhaps the place hy the name of Abnon marked in this region on Robinson's map (new ed. of Researches). It is probably identical with the ruined site A bdeh, 8 or 9 miles N. E. of Accho (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 280).
Abecedarians (Abecedarii), a branch of the sect of Anabaptists, founded by Stork, once a disciple of Luther, who taught that all knowledge served to hin- der men from attending to God's voice inwardly in- structing them ; and that the only means of prevent- ing this was to learn nothing, not even the alphabet, for the knowledge of letters served only to risk salva- tion. See Anabaptists.
Abecedarian hymns or psalms — psalms, the verses of which commence with the consecutive letters of the alphabet. See Acrostic. In imitation of the 119th Psalm, it was customary in the early Church to compose psalms of this kind, each part having its prop- er letter at the head of it : the singing of the verses was commenced by the precentor, and the people join- ed him in the close. Occasionally they sang alternate verses. This mode of conducting the psalmody was sometimes called singing acrostics and acroteleutics, and is the apparent origin of the Gloria Patri repeated at the end of each psalm in modern liturgical services. See Chorus. Some of the psalms of David are abe- cedarian, and others so constructed as to be adapted to the alternate song of two divisions of precentors in the Temple. See PSALMS. The priests continued their services during the night, and were required oc- casionally to utter a cry to intimate that they were awake to duty. Psalm exxxiv appears to be of this order. The first watch address the second, remind- ing them of duty. "Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanc- tuary, and bless the Lord." The second respond, "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." This custom was probably introduced into the Christian church from the Hebrew service, and was intended to aid the memory. Hymns, com- posed in this manner, embodying orthodox sentiments, were learned by the people, to guard them against the errors of the Donatists (Bingham, Orig. Eccl. xiv, 1, 12). See Hymn ; Psai.ter.
Abed'-nego (Heb. Abed' Xego' l."? IS?) servant
ABEEL i
of Nego, i. e. of Nebo, or the Chaklaic Mercury, Dan. i, 7, and Chald. id. X153 ^2"; Sept. and Josephus 'AflStvayw), the Chaklee name imposed by the king of Babylon's officer upon Azariah (q. v.), one of the three companions of Daniel (Dan. ii, 49; iii, 12-30). 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 gold- en statue which Nebuchadnezzar had caused to be set up in the plain of Dura (Dan. iii). He has been sup- posed by some to be the same person as Ezra ; but Ezra was a priest of the tribe of Levi (Ezra vii, 5), while this Azariah was of the royal blood, and conse- quently of Judah (Dan. i, 3, 6).
Abeel, David, D.D., an eminent missionary, was horn at New Brunswick, N. J., June 12th, 1804, stud- ied theology at the seminary in that place, and in 1826 was licensed to preach in the Dutch Reformed churches. In October, 1829, he sailed for Canton as a chaplain of the Seamen's Friend Society ; but at the end of a year's labor placed himself under the direc- tion of the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions. He visited Java, Singapore, and Siam, studying Chinese, and laboring with much suc- cess, when his health failed him entirely, and he re- turned home in 1833 by way of England, visiting Hol- land, France, and Switzerland, and everywhere urg- ing the claims of the heathen. In 1838 he again re- turned to Canton. The "opium war" preventing his usefulness there, he visited Malacca, Borneo, and oth- er places, and settled at Kolongsoo. His health giv- ing way once more, he returned in 1845, and died at Albany, Sept. 4, 1846. He published Journal of Res- idence in China, in 1829-1833 (N. Y. 8vo) ; The Mis- sionary Convention at Jerusalem (N. Y. 1838, 12mo) ; Claims of the World to the Gospel (N. Y. 1838). See Williamson, Memoirs of the Rev. D. Abeel (N. Y. 1849, 18mo); Amer. Missionary Memorial, p. 338.