Abaddon

According to the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon, the Hebrew is an intensive form of the Semitic root and verb stem "perish", transitive "destroy", which occurs 184 times in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, renders "Abaddon" as "" (), while the Greek is the active participle of ἀπόλλυμι , "to destroy". ==Judaism==

Hebrew Bible The term abaddon appears six times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible; abaddon means destruction or "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is accompanied by Sheol. • Job 26:6: Sheol is naked before Him; Abaddon has no cover. • Job 28:22: Abaddon and Death say, "We have only a report of it." • Job 31:12: A fire burning down to Abaddon, Consuming the roots of all my increase. • Psalm 88:11: Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? • Proverbs 15:11: Sheol and Abaddon lie exposed to the LORD, How much more the minds of men! • Proverbs 27:20: Sheol and Abaddon cannot be satisfied, Nor can the eyes of man be satisfied. Second Temple era texts The Thanksgiving Hymns—a text found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947—tell of "the Sheol of Abaddon" and of the "torrents of Belial [that] burst into Abaddon". The Biblical Antiquities (misattributed to Philo) mention Abaddon as a place (destruction) rather than as an individual. Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna. By extension, the name can refer to an underworld abode of lost souls, or Gehenna. Rabbinical literature In some legends, Abaddon is identified as a realm where the damned lie in fire and snow, one of the places in Gehenna that Moses visited. ==Christianity==

The New Testament contains the first known depiction of Abaddon as an individual entity instead of a place. In the Old Testament, Abaddon and Death can be personified: And, And, And, The Hebrew text of Proverbs 6:32 does not contain the noun () but a participial form of the verb (). But the Septuagint uses (), the accusative case of the noun () with which it also translates in five of the six Hebrew verses that contain the word. (Though an English interlinear of the Septuagint might read "destruction the soul of him obtains", the reader should understand that "adulterer" is the subject, "soul" is the indirect object, and "destruction" is the direct object.) In Revelation 9:11, Abaddon is described as "Destroyer", the angel of the Abyss, The symbolism of Revelation 9:11 leaves the identity of Abaddon open to interpretation. Protestant commentator Matthew Henry (1708) believed Abaddon to be the Antichrist, whereas the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary (1871) and Henry Hampton Halley (1922) identified the angel as Satan. Early in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress the Christian pilgrim fights "over half a day" long with the demon Apollyon. This book permeated Christianity in the English-speaking world for 300 years after its first publication in 1678. In contrast, the Methodist publication ''The Interpreter's Bible'' states, "Abaddon, however, is an angel not of Satan but of God, performing his work of destruction at God's bidding", citing the context at Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 3. Jehovah's Witnesses also cite Revelation 20:1-3 where the angel having "the key of the abyss" is actually shown to be a representative of God, concluding that "Abaddon" is another name for Jesus after his resurrection. In medieval Christian literature In medieval Christian literature, the depiction of Abaddon often mirrors the religious and cultural contexts of the time. A notable illustration of this is found in the Song of Roland, an 11th-century epic poem. This work associates Abaddon with figures such as Mahome (Mahound), Apollyon (Appolin), and Termagant, which are presented as deities in the context of the poem's portrayal of Muslims. The inclusion of Apollyon, a name sometimes linked with Abaddon in Christian texts, highlights the interpretative approaches of the period towards Islamic practices. ==Mandaeism==

Mandaean scriptures such as the Ginza Rabba mention the Abaddons () as part of the World of Darkness. The Right Ginza mentions the existence of the "upper Abaddons" () as well as the "lower Abaddons" (). The final poem of the Left Ginza mentions the "House of the Abaddons" (). Häberl (2022) considers the Mandaic word ʿbdunia to be a borrowing from Hebrew. ==Apocryphal texts==

In the 3rd-century Gnostic text Acts of Thomas, Abaddon is the name of a demon, or the devil himself. Abaddon is given particularly important roles in two sources, a homily entitled The Enthronement of Abaddon by pseudo-Timothy of Alexandria, and the Book of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by Bartholomew the Apostle. In the homily by Timothy, Abaddon was first named Muriel, and had been given the task by God of collecting the earth that would be used in the creation of Adam. Upon completion of this task, the angel was appointed as a guardian. Everyone, including the angels, demons, and corporeal entities feared him. Abaddon was promised that any who venerated him in life could be saved. Abaddon is also said to have a prominent role in the Last Judgment, as the one who will take the souls to the Valley of Josaphat. ==See also==