Definition of the Antichrist
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Agrippa II
Agrippa II.
He was the son of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 25:26), and Paul was presented before him in Acts 26. As with other in his family, Agrippa II had a very horrible death. He died in Rome in 100 A.D.
From John Brown’s “Dictionary of the Holy Bible“ vol 1 (1789)
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The Twelve Apostles
The Twelve Apostles is a short study on the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. These are his closest followers.
Abraham’s Bosom
A temporary holding place for OT believers until Christ actually paid for their sins on the cross. The key concept here is fellowship, good fellowship with family. This brotherly fellowship is an element of heaven, and this place is a part of Sheol (Seol), the place of the dead. This “chamber” of Sheol is for those who are saved, believing in the Messiah before he came. Christ went to this place to preach (announce) the good news of their salvation (the details) and then carry them up to heaven in the resurrection, but first a brief stop off on earth again.
This is a place of repose, on the father´s chest, where the child is safe. This was where John reposed on Jesus´chest.
ape
An ape is a human-like creature which is really an animal not a human in evolution. God does have a sense of humor.
addax
Addax is a kind of antelope with twisted horns, and from the Hebrew, the idea of white on the hindquarters identifies it with antelopes.
adder
An adder is a kind of snake that is known for its venomous and painful bite. While all snakes are identified with Satan’s temptation of Eve, the idea of an encounter with a snake that hurts you is this
ant
ants have a prudent habit of providing for the future, they are industrious, doing very hard work as encouraging us to always work hard.
Bible occurrences: Pro 6:6; 30:25
Ant – DCox
The notable character of the ant is its prudent habit of providing for the future. The ant’s industry as a worker, doing very hard work is what the ant would represent to us as an encouragement to always work hard.
Ant. Approximately 100 species of ants live in the Holy Land. Harvester ants are the ones meant in (Proverbs 6:6-8) and (30:25). These tiny insects settle near grain fields, carrying seed after seed into their private storehouses. In cold weather these ants cluster together and hibernate. When winter comes, they have food stored up until the next harvest.
God has provided ants with such amazing instincts that they appear to reason and plan ahead. If stored grain gets wet, they haul it out into the sun to dry. Their hard work was considered a worthy example for human beings by the writer of Proverbs (Prov. 6:6-8; 30:25).
The Ant – Cook
If you look at the sixth verse of the sixth chapter of Proverbs, you will read, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” A sluggard, you know, is a man, or woman, or child, who does not love to read or to do any kind of work, but likes to sleep or be idle all the day long. Do you think you were ever acquainted with one?
Now see what the Bible tells the sluggard to do. It bids him go to the little ant, and “consider her ways,” that is, look on and see what she does. Have you ever watched the ants when they were busy at work? It will give you very pleasant employment for half an hour on a summer’s day. In some places you may see small ant-hills scattered about, so close together that you can hardly step without treading on them; and you may find other places where there are not so many, but where the hills are much larger. I have seen them so large that you could hardly step over one of them without touching it with your foot and breaking some part of it. And then how busy the little creatures are! Just kneel down on the grass beside them, and notice how they work! You will see one little fellow creeping along as fast as he can go, with a grain of sand in his mouth, perhaps as large as his head. He does not stop to rest, but when he has carried his grain to help build the hill, away he goes for another. You may watch them all day and never see them idle at all.
You see why God tells the sluggard to go and look at the little ants: it is that when he sees them so busy, he may be ashamed of himself for being idle, and learn to be “wise,” or diligent in whatever he undertakes. I should not think he could help going to work, after he had looked at them a little while. The ants seem to be very happy, and I think it is because they are so busy. God has put nobody in this world to be idle: even children have something to do. The inside of an ant-hill is very curious, but it is not easy to examine it without destroying all the work that the little insects have taken so much pains to finish. There is a kind of ant in warm climates that builds for itself hills as high as a man. They are not made of sand, but of a kind of clay; and have a great many cells or apartments, and many winding passages leading from one part to another. All this is done, as the Bible says, without “guide, overseer or ruler;” that is, they have no one to direct them how to do it. God gives them skill just as he does to the honey-bees in building the beautiful cells which you have so often admired; all His works are wonderful.
Apollyon
Apollyon [ISBE]
Apollyon – a-pol´i-on
(Ἀπολλύων, Apollúōn; אבדּון, ‘ăbhaddōn, “destroyer”): Present participle of the verb ἀπολλύω, “to destroy.”
I. Definition
A proper name, original with the author of the Apocalypse and used by him once (Rev 9:11) as a translation of the Hebrew word “Abaddon” (see ABADDON) to designate an angel or prince of the lower world.
II. Old Testament Background
1. Fundamental Meaning
The term Abaddon (“destruction”) appears solely in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament and in the following narrow range of instances: Job 26:6; Job 28:22; Job 31:12; Psa 88:11; Prov 15:11. In all these passages save one (Job 31:12) the word is combined either with Sheol, “death,” or “the grave,” in such a way as to indicate a purely eschatological term based upon the advanced idea of moral distinctions in the realm of the dead. In the one exceptional passage (Esther 8:6 is incorrectly referred to – the word here is different, namely, אבדן, ‘ābhedhān) where the combination does not occur, the emphasis upon the moral element in the “destruction” mentioned is so definite as practically to preclude the possibility of interpreting the term in any general sense (as Charles, HDB, article “Abaddon”; per con., Briggs, ICC, “Psalms” in the place cited.; BDB, sub loc.). The meaning of the word, therefore, is: the place or condition of utter ruin reserved for the wicked in the realm of the dead.
2. Personification
One other feature of Old Testament usage is worthy of consideration as throwing light upon Rev 9:11. Abaddon and the accompanying terms “Death” and Sheol are personified (as in Job 28:22) and represented as living beings who speak and act (compare Rev 6:8).
III. New Testament Usage
1. The Starting-Point
The starting-point of the Apocalyptist’s use of “Apollyon” is to be found in the fundamental meaning of “Abaddon” as moral destruction in the underworld, together with the occasional personification of kindred terms in the Old Testament. The imagery was in general terms familiar while the New Testament writer felt perfectly free to vary the usage to suit his own particular purposes.
2. Apollyon Not Satan but Part of an Ideal Description
(1) Since Apollyon is a personification he is not to be identified with Satan (compare Rev 9:1 where Satan seems to be clearly indicated) or with any other being to whom historical existence and definite characteristics are ascribed. He is the central figure in an ideal picture of evil forces represented as originating in the world of lost spirits and allowed to operate destructively in human life. They are pictured as locusts, but on an enlarged scale and with the addition of many features inconsistent with the strict application of the figure (see Rev 9:7-10). The intention is, by the multiplication of images which the author does not attempt to harmonize, to convey the impression of great power and far-reaching destructiveness.
(2) This interpretation finds additional support in the writer’s significant departure from the familiar usage. In the Old Testament the place of destruction is personified – in Rev 9:11, personal forces issue from the Abyss, of which the presiding genius is Destruction in person. The seer’s picture is equally independent of the tradition represented by the Talmud (Shab f. 55) where Abaddon is personified as jointly with Death president over six destroying angels. These modifications are evidently due to the exigencies of the pictorial form. It is clearly impossible to portray forces proceeding from the place of ruin in the charge of the place itself.
3. Apollyon Necessary to the Picture
The importance of the conception of Apollyon to the completeness of the picture should not be overlooked. It is intended to represent these forces as having a certain principle of internal unity and as possessors of the power of effective leadership.
4. General Significance of the Description
As to the specific significance of the vision of the locusts as a whole it is not easy to reach a conclusion. Professor Swete suggests (Commentary on Apocalypse in the place cited.) that “the locusts of the abyss may be the memories of the past brought home at times of divine visitation; they hurt by recalling forgotten sins.” It seems to us more probable that it represents an actual historical movement, past or to come, demoniacal in origin and character, human in the mode of its operation and the sphere of its influence, used by God for a scourge upon mankind and kept in restraint by His grace and power.
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or, as it is literally in the margin of the Authorized Version of (Revelation 9:11) “a destroyer,” is the rendering of the Hebrew word ABADDON, “the angel of the bottomless pit.” From the occurrence of the word in (Psalms 88:11) the rabbins have made Abaddon the nethermost of the two regions into which they divide the lower world; but that in (Revelation 9:11) Abaddon is the angel and not the abyss is perfectly evident in the Greek.
Source: [Smith]
Aleph, Alpha
Aleph, Alpha
________
1. Aleph, first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet.
It symbolizes the beginning of something when used as a concept instead of just a letter and part of other words. For lack of specific words for numbers, the Hebrews use the alphabet as numbers, so this is also the number “1”. This symbol is also used as a manuscript notation for a specific (very early) Greek manuscript, an Alexandrian manuscript found in a monastery in Mount Sinai.
2. A and O (alpha and omega), first and last.
These two letters are the beginning and ending letters of the Greek alphabet, and likewise, represent symbolically the beginning and end of something. God uses this pair as a description of His own eternity, i.e. God is before the beginning, and is after the ending if that is possible. (See Rev 1:8; 21:6, comparing with Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). This divine attribute is described with the term “aseity”, which defines what God is. God’s aseity is God’s “aloftness” from Creation, the world, time, etc. While created things have a beginning and an end, and they have what is considered a limited duration, God in his being is without their restrictions. God has always existed, and this is what makes God what he is, God. Only God has this element, and it is technically referred to as “Aseity.”
Jesus’ Aseity.
The fact that God (Jehovah) uses this term to describe his eternity and aseity, which sets God apart from all creation and the coordinating fact that Jesus is also identified with this proves the deity of Jesus In Rev 1:8, 17, the Lamb of God (obviously referring to Jesus) is attributed with having the name “Alpha and Omega”, which gives Jesus the attribute of aseity. So Jesus is set apart from the world in this exclusively divine quality.
The first letter of the alphabet represents the beginning of things. Jesus is the beginning of all things (and the end or summation of all things).
More entries from Alphabets