New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. I: Aachen - Basilians

Abaddon

ABADDON, ɑ-bad´ɵn (“Destruction”): In the Old Testament a poetic name for the kingdom of the dead, Hades, or Sheol (Job xxvi. 6; Prov. xv. 11, where Abaddon is parallel to Sheol). The rabbis used the name for the nethermost part of hell. In Rev. ix. 11 the “angel of the bottomless pit” is called Abaddon, which is there explained as the Greek Apollyon (“destroyer”); and he is described as king of the locusts which rose at the sounding of the fifth trumpet. In like manner, in Rev. vi. 8, Hades is personified following after death to conquer the fourth part of the earth. In rabbinical writings Abaddon and Death are also personified (cf. Job xxvii. 22).