the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Abijah
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or ABIJAH (אַבִיָה, Ἁβιά, ‘Jah is my father’: or more probably without the particularizing pronoun, ‘Jah is father’).—. Son of Rehoboam (Matthew 1:7) by Maacah (2 Chronicles 11:20—see art. ‘Maacah’ No. 3 in Hastings’ B [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] iii. 180). Abijah reigned over Judah from about b.c. 920, and the impressions made by him are given with some variety in 1 Kings 15:3 and by a later tradition in 2 Chronicles 13:4-22. His name is introduced by St. Matthew simply as a link in the pedigree, in which it is shown that Jesus was both of Jewish and of royal stock.
2. A descendant of Eleazar, son of Aaron. The name was attached to the eighth of the twenty-four courses into which the priests were alleged to have been divided by David (1 Chronicles 24:10). Members of only four courses seem to have returned from the Captivity (Nehemiah 7:39-42, Ezra 2:36-39; Ezra 10:18-22). According to Jerus. [Note: Jerusalem.] Talm. [Note: Talmud.] Taanith, iv. 68, these men were divided into twenty-four courses with a view to restore the ancient arrangement. The authority for this statement is not of the best kind; but the statement itself is substantially confirmed by Nehemiah 12:1-7, where twenty-two groups are referred to (in Nehemiah 12:12-21 the number has fallen to twenty-one, and two of the courses are grouped under a single representative), and by Ezra 8:2, where two other priestly families are mentioned. Slight changes were probably made in the classification during the process of the resettlement of the country; but by the time of the Chronicler the arrangement seems to have become fixed. The course of Abijah is not mentioned amongst those that returned from the Exile; but in one of the later rearrangements the name was attached to a course that afterwards included Zacharias (Luke 1:5). Each course was on duty for a week at a time, but all were expected to officiate as needed at the three great annual festivals. It is not possible with our present materials to determine exactly how the various services were divided amongst the members of a course, or at what times in the year Zacharias would be on duty. Nor does his inclusion in the course of Abijah carry with it lineal descent through that line from Aaron.
R. W. Moss.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Abijah'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/a/abijah.html. 1906-1918.
