Jewish and Christian interpretations According to the narrative in
Genesis, Abel is Eve's second son. His name in Hebrew is composed of the same three consonants as a
root meaning "the air that remains after you exhale" also synonymous in Hebrew to "nothing", as stated in
Ecclesiastes.
Julius Wellhausen has proposed that the name is independent of the root.
Eberhard Schrader had previously put forward the
Akkadian (Old Assyrian dialect)
ablu ("son") as a more likely etymology. '' (Adam and Eve mourn the death of Abel); oil on canvas 1888 painting by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau In Christianity, comparisons are sometimes made between the death of Abel and that of
Jesus, the former thus seen as being the first martyr. In Matthew 23:35 Jesus speaks of Abel as "righteous", and the
Epistle to the Hebrews states that "The blood of sprinkling ... [speaks] better things than that of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24). The blood of Jesus is interpreted as bringing mercy; but that of Abel as demanding vengeance (hence the curse and mark). Abel is invoked in the
litany for the dying in the
Roman Catholic Church, and his sacrifice is mentioned in the
Canon of the Mass along with those of
Abraham and
Melchizedek. The
Alexandrian Rite commemorates him with a
feast day on December 28. According to the Coptic
Book of Adam and Eve (at 2:1–15), and the
Syriac Cave of Treasures, Abel's body, after many days of mourning, was placed in the
Cave of Treasures, before which Adam and Eve, and descendants, offered their prayers. In addition, the
Sethite line of the
Generations of Adam swear by Abel's blood to segregate themselves from the
unrighteous. In the
Book of Enoch (22:7), regarded by most Christian and Jewish traditions as extra-biblical, the soul of Abel is described as having been appointed as the chief of martyrs, crying for vengeance, for the destruction of the seed of Cain. A similar view is later shown in the
Testament of Abraham (A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls. In
Bereshit Rabbah (22:2), a discussion of Gen. 4:1 ff. has Rabbi
Yehoshua ben Korcha mentioning that Cain was born with a twin sister, and Abel with two twin sisters. This is based on the principle that the otherwise superfluous accusative article "et" always conveys some additional teaching (
Pesachim 22b). The "et"'s are parsed slightly differently in
Yebamot 62a where the two "et"'s in Gen. 4:2 indicate Cain and his sister, and Abel and his (one) sister.
Sethian Gnostic interpretation In the
Apocryphon of John, a work belonging to
Sethian Gnosticism, Abel is the offspring of
Yaldaboath and
Eve, who is placed over the elements of water and earth as
Elohim, but was only given his name as a form of deception.
Mandaean interpretation According to
Mandaean beliefs and scriptures including the
Qulasta, the
Book of John and
Genzā Rabbā, Abel is cognate with the angelic
soteriological figure
Hibil Ziwa, (, sometimes translated "Splendid Hibel"), who is spoken of as a son of
Hayyi or of
Manda d-Hayyi, and as a brother to
Anush (Enosh) and to
Sheetil (Seth), Elsewhere, Anush is spoken of as the son of Sheetil, and Sheetil as the son of Hibil, where Hibil came to Adam and Eve as a young boy when they were still virgins, but was called their son. Hibil is an important
lightworld being (
uthra) who conquered the
World of Darkness. As
Yawar Hibil, he is one of multiple figures known as
Yawar (), being so named by and after his father.
Islamic interpretation of Abel in the
Nabi Habeel Mosque According to
Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel (
"Habeel") is buried in the
Nabi Habeel Mosque, located on the west mountains of
Damascus, near the
Zabadani Valley, overlooking the villages of the
Barada river (Wadi Barada), in
Syria. Shi'a are frequent visitors of this mosque for
ziyarat. The mosque was built by
Ottoman Wali Ahmad Pasha in 1599. == In modern media ==