RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Abiathar Abraham.
admission into the Church. If it is ascertained that baptism has not been received, no abjuration is demanded; if a previous baptism was valid, or was of doubtful validity, abjuration and profession of faith are necessary preliminaries to reception into the Church. A convert under fourteen years of age is in no case bound to abjure. The act of abjuration is attended with little formality, — all that is necessary is that it be done in the presence of the parish priest and witnesses, or even without witnesses if the fact can otherwise be proved. The modern formula of abjuration found in Roman Catholic rituals is really more in the nature of a profession of faith, the only passages savoring of formal renunciation of heresy being the following, — " With sincere heart and unfeigned faith I detest and abjure every error, heresy, and sect opposed to the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, Roman Church. I reject and condemn all that she rejects and condemns." John T. Creagh.
ABLON: Village on the left bank of the Seine, about 9 m. s. of Paris, noteworthy as the place where public worship was first conceded to the Protestants of Paris. Notwithstanding the edict of Nantes (May 2, 1598), the Protestants of the capital were not allowed a church within the city itself, but had to travel to Ablon. In 1602 they petitioned the King for a place nearer the city, alleging that during the winter forty children had died from being carried so far for baptism. In 1606 their petition was granted and the church was removed to Charenton, at the junction of the Seine and Marne, six or seven miles nearer the city. The toilsome and sometimes dangerous " expeditions " to Ablon are often spoken of by Sully and Casaubon.
ABLUTIONS OF THE MASS: The rubrics of the mass prescribe that immediately after communion the celebrant shall purify the chalice with wine, and his fingers with wine and water. These ablutions, as they are called, are drunk by the priest unless he is obliged to celebrate a' second time on the same day, in which case he pours the wine and water of the last ablution into a special vessel, kept for the purpose near the tabernacle, and consumes them at the next mass. Pope Pius V. in 1570 introduced into his Missal the rubrics on this matter as they exist to-day. The first clear references to the ablutions as practised to-day are found in the eleventh century. Ablution of the hands is also prescribed before mass, before the canon, and after the distribution of communion outside of mass. John T. Creagh.
ABNER. See Ish-bosheth.
ABODAH ZARAH. See Talmud.
ABOT (PIRKE ABOT). See Talmud.
ABOT de-RABBI NATHAN. See Talmud.
ABRABANEL, a-bra"ba-nel' (ABRAVANEL, ABARBANEL), ISAAC : The last Jewish exegete of importance; b. of distinguished family, which boasted of Davidic descent, at Lisbon 1437; d. in Venice 1509. He was treasurer of Alfonso V of Portugal, but was compelled to flee the country under his successor, John II., in 1483. He lived in
Spain until the Jews were expelled thence by Ferdinand and Isabella (1492), when he went to Naples. In both countries he rendered important services to the government as financier. From 1496 till 1503 he lived at Monopoli in Apulia, southern Italy, occupied with literary work, and later settled in Venice. He wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch (Venice, 1579) and on the earlier and the later Prophets (Pesaro, 1520 [?]) which show little originality, and are valuable chiefly for the extracts he makes from his predecessors. In his Messianic treatises (Yeshu'ot meshihho, " The Salvation of his Anointed," Carlsruhe, 1828; Ma'yene ha-yeshu'ah, " Sources of Salvation," Ferrara, 1551; Mashmia' Yeshu'ah, " Proclaiming Salvation," Salonica, 1526) he criticizes Christian interpretations of prophecy, but with no great insight. His religio-philosophical writings are less important. In the interest of Jewish orthodoxy he defends the creation of the world from nothing (in Mij'alot Elohim, " Works of God," Venice, 1592) and advocates the thirteen articles of faith of Maimonides (in Rosh amanah, " The Pinnacle of Faith," Constantinople, 1505). His eschatological computations made the year of salvation due in 1503. (G. Dalman.)
Abrabanel held a place of some importance in the history of Christian exegesis due to the facts that he appreciated and quoted freely the earlier Christian exegetes and that many of his own writings were in turn condensed and translated by Christian scholars of the next two centuries (Alting, Buddaeus, the younger Buxtorf, Carpzov, and others).
J. F. M.
Bibliography: J. H. Majus, Vita Don Isaac Abrabanielis , Giessen(?), 1707(?); C. F. Bischoff, Dissertatio . de . . . vita atque scriptis Isaaci Abrabanielis, Altdorf, 1708; M. Schwab, Abravanel et son epoque, Paris, 1865; JQR, i. (1888) 37-52; H. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, viii. 324-334, ix. 5-7, ii. 208, 213, Eng. transl., London, 1891- 98; Winter and Wiinsche, Geschichte der jildischen Litteratur, ii. 333, 339, 443, 451, 791-792, Berlin, 1894; D. Cassel, Jildische Geschichte und Litteratur, Leipsio, 1879, pp. 321 sqq., 427, 425 sqq.
ABRAHAM, e'bra-ham or a'bra-ham.
Sources of his Biography Analyzed (§ 1). Historicity of Abraham Defended (§ 2). Historicity of the Patriarchs Defended (§ 3). Impossibility of Fully Reconstructing the Sources ( § 4).
This article will be limited to an attempt to establish the credibility of the tradition which represents Abraham as the first ancestor of the Israelites, against the arguments of those who doubt or deny the existence of the patriarch as an historical personage.
Knowledge of Abraham's history must be derived exclusively from Gen. xi. 26-xxvi. 10. Other accounts — Josephus, Ant., I. vi. 5-xvii; Philo, De Abrahamo, De migratione Abrahami, De congressu qumrendos eruditionis causa, De profugis, Quis rerum divinarum hares sit ; the haggadic narratives (collected by B. Beer, Leben i. Sources Abrahams nach Aujjassung der jiidiof His schen Sage, Leipsic, 1859); the notices Biography in Eusebius, Prceparatio evangelica, ix. Analyzed. 16-20 — are all excluded by their late origin. Many maintain that the Biblical narrative is also discredited for the same reason. It is true that the beginnings of the patriarchal
Abraham
Abraham A Sancta Clara