A'bi (Heb. Abi' ', "^X, my father, or rather father of [see Abi-]; Sept. 'A/3t, Vulg. Abi), a shortened form (comp. 2 Chron. xxix, 1) of Abijaii (q. v.), the name of the mother of King Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii, 2, where the full form is also read in some MSS.).
Abi- (~^X> an old construct form of ZH, father, as is evident from its use in Hebrew and all the cog- nate languages), forms the first part of several Hebrew proper names (Bib. Repos. 1846, p. 760) ; e. g. those following. See Ab-.
Abi'a ('Aftiu), a Grrccized form of the name Abi- jaii (Matt, i, 7 ; Luke i, 5). It also occurs (1 Chron. iii, 10) instead of Abiah (q. v.).
Abi'ah, a less correct mode (1 Sam. viii, 2 ; 1 Chron. ii, 4 ; vi, 28 ; vii, 8) of Anglicizing the name Abijaii (q. v.).
A'bi-al'bon (Heb. Abi'-ATbon', "pa^S-iaS, fa- ther of strength, i.e. valiant; Sept. 'Afil 'A/fit'ov v. r. 'A/31 'Apf3uv, Vulg. Abialboii), one of David's bouV- guard (2 Sam. xxiii, 31) ; called in the parallel passage (1 Chron. xi, 32) by the equivalent name ABIEL (q. v.). Abi'asaph (Heb. Abiasaph', t)OX"'3X, father of gathering, i. e. gatherer; Sept. 'Apiuaacj), Vulg. Abi- asaph), the youngest of the three sons of Korah the Levite (Exo'd. vi, 24); B.C. post 1740. He is differ- ent from the Ebiasaph of 1 Chron. vi, 23, 37 ; ix, 19. See Samuel.
ABIATHAR
ABIEZER
Abi'athar (Heb. Ebyathar', "tt^ax, father of abundance, i.e. liberal; Sept. 'A/JmOup ur 'Afiiatlup, N. T. 'AjSiddap, Josephus 'AjhuOapoc'), the thirteenth high-priest of the Jews, being the son of Ahimelech, and the third in descent from Eli ; B.C. 1060-1012. When his father was slain with the priests of Nob, for suspected partiality to David, Abiathar escaped; and bearing with him the most essential part of the priestly raiment [see Ephod], repaired to the. son of Jesse, who was then in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. xxii, 20-23 ; xxiii, 6). He was well received by David, and be- came the priest of the part)- during its exile and wan- derings, receiving for David responses from God (1 Sam. xxx, 7 ; comp. 2 Sam. ii, 1 ; v, 19). The cause of this strong attachment on the part of the monarch was the feeling that he had been unintentionally the cause of the death of Abiathar's kindred. When Da- vid became king of Judah he appointed Abiathar high- priest (see 1 Chron. xv, 11 ; 1 Kings ii, 26), and a member of his cabinet (1 Chron. xxvii, 34). Mean- while Zadok had been made high-priest by Sanl — an appointment not only unexceptionable in itself, but in accordance with the divine sentence of deposition which had been passed, through Samuel, upon the house of Eli (1 Sam. ii, 30-36). When, therefore, David acquired the kingdom of Israel, he had no just ground on which Zadok could be removed, and Abia- thar set in his place ; and the attempt would prob- ably have been offensive to his new subjects, who had been accustomed to the ministration of Zadok, and whose good feeling he was anxious to cultivate. The king appears to have got over this difficulty by al- lowing both appointments to stand ; and until the end of David's reign Zadok and Abiathar were joint high- priests (1 Kings iv, 4). As a high-priest, Abiathar was the least excusable, in some respects, of all those who were parties in the attempt to raise Adonijah to the throne (1 Kings i, 19) ; and Solomon, in deposing him from the high-priesthood, plainly told him that only his sacerdotal character, and his former services to David, preserved him from capital punishment (1 Kings ii, 26, 27). This completed the doom upon the house of Eli, and restored the pontifical succession — Zadok, who remained the high-priest, being of the elder line of Aaron's sons. See Eleazar.
In Mark ii, 26, a circumstance is described as occur- ring "in the days of Abiathar, the. high-priest" (t7n 'Ajiia^ap too apx'tpiwg — a phrase that is susceptible of the rendering, in [the time'] of A biathar, [the son] of the high-priest), which appears, from 1 Sam. xxi, 1, to have really occurred when his father Ahimelech was the high-priest. The most probable solution of this difficulty (but see Alford's Comment, in loc.) is that which interprets the reference thus: " in the days of Abiathar, who was afterward the high-priest" (Mid- dleton, Greek Article, p. 188-190). But this leaves open another difficulty, which arises from the precise- ly opposite reference (in 2 Sam. viii, 17; 1 Chron. xviii, 16 ; xxiv, 3, 6, 31) to "Ahimelech [or Ahime- lech] the son of Abiathar," as the person who was high-priest along with Zadok, and who was deposed by Solomon; whereas the historj' describes that per- sonage as Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech. Another explanation is, that both father and son bore the two names of Ahimelech and Abiathar, and might be, and were, called by either (J. C. Leuschner, De Achime- lecho binomimi, Hirschb. 1750). But although it was not unusual for the Jews to have two names, it was not usual for both father and son to have the same two names. Others suppose a second Abiathar, the father of Ahimelech, and some even a son of the same name ; but none of these suppositions are war- ranted by the text, nor allowable in the list of high- priests. See High-priest. The names have prob- ably become transposed by copyists, for the Syriac and Arabic versions have " Abiathar, the son of Ahim- elech." The mention of Abiathar in the above pas-