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. 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 Philistine king Achish but was rejected David's by him. Shelter in a cave called Adullam, he gathered a following of some 400 men. David then sought shelter with the king of Moab, leaving his parents in that king's care, but was advised by the prophet Gad to leave this stronghold and return 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."
Saul immediately summoned Ahimelech and his entire extended family, the priests of the sanctuary at Nob, and interrogated them. "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse," Saul demanded, "giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him, so that he has rebelled against me and lies in wait for me, as he does today?"
Ahimelech protested that he knew nothing of David's rebellion and thought him to be Saul's loyal military commander, for whom he had often performed divination on the king's business. Saul remained convinced of Ahimelech's treachery, however, and ordered him and his entire family slain. Saul then ordered his lieutenants to kill the supposedly treasonous priests, but each of them refused the order, fearing God's retribution. Saul then gave them same order to the Edomite Doeg, who complied, leading his forces to slaughter 85 priests and the entire population of the town of Nob itself, including "its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep."
Abiathar was the only one to escape this horrific massacre. Fleeing to David, he reported the crime and repented for his own failure to speak up when he realized that Doeg the Edomite had witnessed Ahimilech's helping David. "That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your father's whole family," Abiathar confessed. David comforted the young priest, saying "Stay with me; don't be afraid; the man who is seeking your life is seeking mine also. You will be safe with me." This was the beginning a long association between the two.
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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