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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Abaddon

Hebrew word signifying ruin, destruction

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Abaddon, a Hebrew word signifying

(I) ruin, destruction (Job, xxxi, 12);

(2) place of destruction; the Abyss, realm of the dead (Job, xxvi, 6; Prov., xv, 11);

(3) it occurs personified (Apoc., ix, 11) as Abaddon, and is rendered in Greek by Apolluon, denoting the angel-prince of hell, the minister of death and author of havoc on earth. The Vulgate renders the Greek Apollyon by the Latin Exterminans (that is, “Destroyer”). The identity of Abaddon with Asmodeus, the demon of impurity, has been asserted, but not proved.

In Job, xxvi, 6, and Prov., xv, 11, the word occurs in conjunction with Sheol.

A.J. MAAS


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