Abbadon

Abaddon (Hebrew אבדון Avaddon, Greek Apollyon, Latin Exterminans, meaning "A place of destruction", "The Destroyer", "Depths of Hell") in demonology, is chief of the demons of the seventh hierarchy. In the Revelation of St. John, Abaddon is the King of tormenting locusts and the angel of the bottomless pit. (KJV, Rev. 9:1-11)

In Christianity

Revelation 9:1-11 describes Abaddon as being the king of the bottomless pit locusts that resemble battle horses with crowned human faces, having womens' hair (denoting length), lions' teeth, locusts' wings, and the tail of a scorpion.

The Thanksgiving Hymns—a copy was also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls—tells of "the Sheol of Abaddon" and of the "torrents of Belial [that] burst into Abaddon". The [Biblical Antiquities of Philo mentions Abaddon as a place (sheol, hell), not as a spirit or demon or angel. In Paradise Regained, John Milton also uses Abaddon as a place—the pit. It appears to have been St. John who first personified the term to stand for an angel. In the 3rd century Acts of Thomas, Abaddon is the name of a demon, or the Devil himself. Abaddon has also been identified as the angel of death and destruction, demon of the abyss, and chief of demons of the underworld hierarchy, where he is equated with Samael or Satan. In magic and alchemy, Abaddon is the Destroying Angel of the Apocalypse. In Francis Barrett's The Magus, Abaddon is pictured, in colour, as one of the evil demons. In Medieval legend, Abaddon was considered as a synonym for Hell and/or the ruler thereof, and in Revelation 9:7-11, he was thought to be the Christian angel of Hell, Michael.

In Judeo-Christianity

Abaddon comes to mean "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is associated with Sheol. (Book of Job 26:6; Book of Proverbs 15:11) Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna. By extension, it can mean an underworld abode of lost souls, or hell. In some legends, it is identified as a realm where the damned lie in fire and snow, one of the places in Hell that Moses visited.

In Paganism

In occultism and esoterism, Abaddon is related to blood red, brown and green colours, winter, the month of January, Saturday, intuition, sacrifice and challenge, the ruby and the sword. His Tarot symbol is the one of judgement. In LaVeyan Satanism, Abaddon is the first of the infernal names, as it comes first alphabetically, meaning "The Destroyer."

Identifying Abaddon

The symbolism of Revelation 9:11 leaves the exact identification of Abaddon open for interpretation. Some bible scholars believe him to be the antichrist or Satan.

Jehovah's witnesses believe that Abaddon is Jesus. (However, original Jehovah's Witness doctrine stated that Abaddon was Satan.)

References

• Metzeger, Bruce M. (ed), Michael D. Coogan (ed), The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Oxford University Press, 1993
• Halley. Henry H.., James E. Ruark (ed), Halley's Bible Handbook, Zondervan Publishing House, 2000, ISBN 0-310-22479-9
• MacDonald, William, Art Farstad (ed), Believer's Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, ISBN 0-8407-1972-8

• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge 1907

External Links

• The original source of this article at Wikipedia

• Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Abaddon
• Occultopedia, Abaddon