Abiathar
Abiathar (אביתר, Ebyathar the father is plentiful or pre-eminent), in the Bible, was the son of Achimelech or Ahijah, priest at Nob, the fourth in descent from Eli. The only priest to escape from the infamous massacre of the priest of Nob, he fled to the David at Keilah. When David ascended the throne of Judah, Abiathar was appointed high priest (1 Chr. 15:11; 1 Kings 2:26) and the "king's companion" (1 Chr. 27:34). He was of great service to the king, especially at the time of the rebellion of Absalom (2 Sam. 25:24-35). In 1 Kings 3:4 Zadok and Abiathar are found acting together as priests under Solomon. In 1 Kings i. 7, 19, 25, however, Abiathar appears as a supporter of Adonijah, and in ii. 22 and 26 it is said that he was deposed by Solomon and banished to Anathoth.
Biography
Abiathar's name may be interpreted is several ways, its component syllables meaning "father" and "plentiful" or "pre-eminent." The word "father" may refer to Abiather's own father, to himself as the "father of plenty" or to God, the divine father.
Abiathar's story is told primarily in the first Book of Samuel. It begins during the time when King Saul had come to see his young commander David as a threat and was seeking David's life. David came to Abiathar's father, Ahimelech for aid after the Philistine king Achish had rejected David's bid for sanctuary. Ahimelech provided David and his men with consecrated bread and returned to David the sword of the famous Philistine giant Goliath, whom David was said to have slain when just a boy.
David then went to the king of Moab leaving his parents in that king's care, but was advised by the prophet Gad to leave this stronghold himself and go to the lands of Judah. There, his general whereabouts were soon discovered by Saul. The king sought to bribe the neighboring tribesmen of Benjamin to reveal David's hiding place. None of them spoke up, but and Edomite by the name of Doeg, who had been a witness to Abiathar's aiding David, was willing to cooperate with Saul. "I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob," Doeg revealed. "Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
taking with him the ephod (1 Sam. xxii. 20 f., xxiii. 6, 9).
When his father was slain with the priests of Nob, he escaped, and bearing with him the ephod, he joined David, who was then in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. 22:20-23; 23:6). He remained with David, and became priest of the party of which he was the leader (1 Sam. 30:7).
Meanwhile Zadok, of the house of Eleazar, had been made high priest.
These appointments continued in force till the end of David's reign (1 Kings 4:4). Abiathar was deposed (the sole historical instance of the deposition of a high priest) and banished to his home at Anathoth by Solomon, because he took part in the attempt to raise Adonijah to the throne. The priesthood thus passed from the house of Ithamar (1 Sam. 2:30-36; 1 Kings 1:19; 2:26, 27). Zadok now became sole high priest. In Mark 2:26, reference is made to an occurrence in "the days of Abiathar the high priest." But from 1 Sam. 22, we learn explicitly that this event took place when Achimelech, the father of Abiathar, was high priest. The apparent discrepancy is satisfactorily explained by interpreting the words in Mark as referring to the life-time of Abiathar, and not to the term of his holding the office of high priest. It is not implied in Mark that he was actual high priest at the time referred to. Others, however, think that the loaves belonged to Abiathar, who was at that time (Lev. 24:9) a priest, and that he either himself gave them to David, or persuaded his father to give them.
In 2 Sam. viii. 17 Abiathar, the son of Achimelech should be read, with the Syriac, for Achimelech, the son of Abiathar. For a similar confusion see Gospel of Mark ii. 26.
| Preceded by: Ahimelech |
High Priest of Israel | Succeeded by: Zadok |
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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