Abel

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Abel

, son of Adam and Eve, in the Bible

Abel, in the Bible, son of Adam and Eve, a shepherd, killed by his older brother, Cain; in the Gospel of St. Matthew, mentioned as the first martyr.

Abel

, places in the Bible

Abel, in the Bible. 1 Ostensibly a place name. The RSV text does not give the name. 2 See Abel-beth-maachah.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Abel

a biblical mythological character, the second son of Adam and Eve; a shepherd. His older brother Cain, a tiller of the soil, killed him in a jealous rage when Yahweh preferred Abel’s sacrifice. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition Abel is the image of a meek and innocent victim of cruelty.

Abel

Old Testament the second son of Adam and Eve, a shepherd, murdered by his brother Cain (Genesis 4:1--8)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in periodicals archive ?

Hooked on the two-day high he would get from performing at open mikes, Abel decided to become a comedian.

Years later, Abel's wife made a train stop in Eugene on her way from Los Angeles to Vancouver, B.C., and decided that Oregon would be a beautiful place to live.

Paul, Tim Bedore and Milt Abel - strive to be as clean as a new sweater.

Stand up and laugh with dear old dad

(3) Both Cain and Abel gave sacrificial gifts to God and Abel's was accepted above that of Cain.

(4) And lo, when they were in the field, Cain's field, with grain to be protected, Abel came with his sheep or goats to graze on the fields of Cain.

Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him, slew him." Note: not [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and murdered him, as in the sixth declaration (commandment: "[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Don't murder!" Cain slew Abel, unintentional killing, manslaughter, in self defense.

Cain versus Abel

No altar is even mentioned, let alone described, in the original biblical presentation of Abel's death.

The rabbis claim that the field where Cain murdered Abel was the future site of the Temple: "FIELD refers to nought but the Temple[;] as you read, Zion [the Temple] shall be plowed as a field (Micah III, 12)" (Midrash 187).

The rabbis of the Midrash first suggest a sexual foundation for Cain's anger, involving either Eve or the twin sister who, the rabbis believed, had been born with Abel (87).

"Cain rose up against Abel": murder, mystery, and paradise lost

Convinced that all his "misery" resulted from "disobedience" to his "maker" in refusing to leave for Ohio, Abel rejected the contrary pleas of his mother and again decided to go.

Still struggling to free himself from his dilemma, Abel managed to sell his crop and lease the farm to another man.

Abel made more than half a dozen attempts to slaughter his family during a series of miserable, largely sleepless nights.

Homicidal compulsion and the conditions of freedom: the social and psychological origins of familicide in America's early republic