🔼The name Abaddon: Summary
- Meaning
- Destructive One, Place Of Destruction
- Etymology
- From the verb אבד (abad), to perish or to be destroyed.
🔼The name Abaddon in the Bible
Abaddon is destruction personified, and it's curious (not to mention evident of a lopsided theological tradition) that Abaddon never received the popular recognition that generally befalls Armageddon and Sheol.
John the Revelator depicts Abaddon (Αβαδδων) as the angel of the abyss, who is king over the swarm of hellish locust that appear under the fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:11), and dubs his name in Greek Apollyon (and see our article on that name for a lengthy look at this character).
In the Old Testament, Abaddon appears alongside Sheol in Proverbs 15:11 and 27:20 (spelled אבדה, Abaddah) and Job 26:6, and alongside Mawet (Death — commemorated in names like Hazarmaveth) in Job 28:22, and along קבר (qeber) (the grave) in Psalm 88:11. In Job 31:12, fire occurs as a route to Abaddon.
🔼Etymology of the name Abaddon
The name Abaddon comes from the Hebrew verb אבד (abad), meaning to perish or to be destroyed:
אבד
The verb אבד ('abad) means to die, or rather to disintegrate: the falling apart of an organic or social (or even mental) body into independent elements. As such, our verb may even describe how domesticated animals (donkeys, sheep) escape the confines of their human settlement and take off into the unconnected wild (at their great peril).
The derived noun אבד ('obed) means destruction; the noun אבדה ('abeda) denotes a lost item.
The name Abaddon is formed by extending the root with the waw-nun couple that brings about a personification or localization of the root.
🔼Abaddon meaning
The name Abaddon is the root extended with the waw-nun couple that personifies or localizes the root. Abaddon means Destructive One or Place Of Destruction.