[DavidCox] Abaddon is Hebrew, and Apollyon is Greek, and both signify the destroyer. He is called the angel of death, or the destroying angel. He is king of the locusts of the bottomless pit, and ruler over the destroying agents that proceed from thence: it is one of the characters of Satan. Rev 9:11. The essential meaning of this word is the causer of destruction. The concept of destruction being the key then, we would generally define “destroy” as to cause a thing to change from a good state to a bad state. In the Bible, and from God’s perspective (as should be from our perspective also), something is ruined or destroyed when it no longer services its God given purpose, or functions as God has wanted it to be. Sin is the most obvious “ruining” of a thing, but many would associate many sins with “a good time” or pleasure. But from God’s point of view, every “good time” sin has drastic spiritual consequences that cause a domino effect of bad and worsening consequences. Besides being hardened to further danger and damage from sin, the sin effects a great toll in the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual areas of our life. The destruction spoken of here is not a ceasing to exist (because if that were so, it would not be as nearly a disaster as eternal damnation), but rather a constant, continual, growing suffering. His state becomes worse and worse, never finding an end or relief.
The causer of this state of “ill” is Satan, the father (source cause) or angel (bringing) ill and calamity to all.
Recommended Books and Resources:
ABADDON, OR APOLLYON
The former name is Hebrew, and the latter Greek, and both signify the destroyer, Rev 9:11. He is called the angel of death, or the destroying angel.
[Amtrac]
Apollyon
a destroyer
[Hitchcock]
Apollyon
Angel of the bottomless pit. Rev 9:11
Abaddon [destruction, ruin],
1. Destruction, ruin (Job 31:12); the place of the dead, synonymous with the grave (Ps. 88:11), Sheol (Job. 26:6; Prov. 15:11, R. V.), and death (Job 28:22).
2. A name of the angel of the abyss, who is called in Greek Apollyon (Rev. 9:11).
[Davis]
ABADDON, OR APOLLYON
The former name is Hebrew, and the latter Greek, and both signify the destroyer, Rev 9:11. He is called the angel of death, or the destroying angel.
[Amtrac]
Abaddon. a-bad´on (אכדון ‘ăbhaddōn, “ruin,” “perdition,” “destruction”): Though “destruction” is commonly used in translating ‘abhaddōn, the stem idea is intransitive rather than passive – the idea of perishing, going to ruin, being in a ruined state, rather than that of being ruined, being destroyed.
The word occurs six times in the Old Testament, always as a place name in the sense in which Sheol is a place name. It denotes, in certain aspects, the world of the dead as constructed in the Hebrew imagination. It is a common mistake to understand such expressions in a too mechanical way. Like ourselves, the men of the earlier ages had to use picture language when they spoke of the conditions that existed after death, however their picturing of the matter may have differed from ours. In three instances Abaddon is parallel with Sheol (Job 26:6; Prov 15:11;Prov 27:20). In one instance it is parallel with death, in one with the grave and in the remaining instance the parallel phrase is “root out all mine increase” (Job 28:22; Psa 88:11; Job 31:12). In this last passage the place idea comes nearer to vanishing in an abstract conception than in the other passages.
Abaddon belongs to the realm of the mysterious. Only God understands it (Job 26:6; Prov 15:11). It is the world of the dead in its utterly dismal, destructive, dreadful aspect, not in those more cheerful aspects in which activities are conceived of as in progress there. In Abaddon there are no declarations of God’s lovingkindness (Psa 88:11).
In a slight degree the Old Testament presentations personalize Abaddon. It is a synonym for insatiableness (Prov 27:20). It has possibilities of information mediate between those of “all living” and those of God (Job 28:22).
In the New Testament the word occurs once (Rev 9:11), the personalization becoming sharp. Abaddon is here not the world of the dead, but the angel who reigns over it. The Greek equivalent of his name is given as Apollyon. Under this name Bunyan presents him in the Pilgrim’s Progress, and Christendom has doubtless been more interested in this presentation of the matter than in any other.
In some treatments Abaddon is connected with the evil spirit Asmodeus of Tobit (e.g. 3:8), and with the destroyer mentioned in The Wisdom of Solomon (18:25; compare 22), and through these with a large body of rabbinical folklore; but these efforts are simply groundless. See APOLLYON.
[ISBE] The Hebrew in Job 31:12 and Pro 27:20, “destruction,” or the place of destruction, sheol (Hebrew); Hades (Greek). The rabbis use Abaddon, from Psa 88:12 (“Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in destruction?”) (abaddon) as the second of the seven names for the region of the dead. In Rev 9:11 personified as the destroyer, Greek, apolluon, “the angel of the bottomless pit,” Satan is meant; for he is described in Rev 9:1 as “a star fallen from heaven unto earth, to whom was given the key of the bottomless pit”; and Rev 12:8-9,12: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, for the devil is come down.” Also Isa 14:12; Luk 10:18. As king of the locusts, that had power to torment not kill (Rev 9:3-11), Satan is permitted to afflict but not to touch life; so in the case of Job (Job 1-2). “He walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8). “A murderer from the beginning” (Joh 8:44), who abode not in the truth.
Elliott identifies the locusts with the Muslims; their turbans being the “crowns” (but how are these “like gold”?); they come from the Euphrates River; their cavalry were countless; their “breast-plates of fire” being their rich-colored attire; the fire and smoke out of the horses’ mouths being the Turkish artillery; their standard “horse tails”; the period, an hour, day, month, and year, 396 years 118 days between Thogrul Beg going forth Jan. 18, 1057 A.D., and the fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453 A.D.; or else 391 years and 1 month, as others say, from 1281 A.D., the date of the Turks’ first conquest of Christians, and 1672 A.D., their last conquest. The serpent-like stinging tails correspond to Mohammedanism supplanting Christianity in large parts of Asia, Africa, and even Europe.
But the hosts meant seem infernal rather than human, though constrained to work out God’s will (Rev 12:1-2). The Greek article once only before all the periods requires rather the translation “for (i.e. “against”) THE hour and day and month and year,” namely, appointed by God. Not only the year, but also the month, day, and hour, are all definitively foreordained. The article “the” would have been omitted, if a total of periods had been meant. The giving of both the Hebrew and the Greek name implies that he is the destroyer of both Hebrew and Gentiles alike. Just as, in beautiful contrast, the Spirit of adoption enables both Jew and Gentile believers to call God, in both their respective tongues, Abba (Hebrew in marked alliteration with Abaddon Father (Greek, pater). Jesus who unites both in Himself (Gal 3:28; Eph 2:14) sets us the example: Mar 14:36; Gal 4:6. Jesus unites Hebrew and Gentiles in a common salvation; Satan combines both in a common “destruction.”
[ISBE]
Abaddon. Destruction, the Hebrew name (equivalent to the Greek Apollyon, i.e., destroyer) of “the angel of the bottomless pit” (Rev 9:11). It is rendered “destruction” in Job 28:22; Job 31:12; Job 26:6; Prov 15:11; Prov 27:20. In the last three of these passages the Revised Version retains the word “Abaddon.” We may regard this word as a personification of the idea of destruction, or as sheol, the realm of the dead.
[Easton]
Abaddon. The Hebrew in Job 31:12 and Prov 27:20, “destruction,” or the place of destruction, sheol (Hebrew); Hades (Greek). The rabbis use Abaddon, from Psa 88:12 (“Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in destruction?”) (abaddon) as the second of the seven names for the region of the dead. In Rev 9:11 personified as the destroyer, Greek, apolluon, “the angel of the bottomless pit,” Satan is meant; for he is described in Rev 9:1as “a star fallen from heaven unto earth, to whom was given the key of the bottomless pit”; and Rev 12:8-9,12: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, for the devil is come down.” Also Isa 14:12; Luk 10:18. As king of the locusts, that had power to torment not kill (Rev 9:3-11), Satan is permitted to afflict but not to touch life; so in the case of Job (Job 1-2). “He walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8). “A murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), who abode not in the truth.
Elliott identifies the locusts with the Muslims; their turbans being the “crowns” (but how are these “like gold”?); they come from the Euphrates River; their cavalry were countless; their “breast-plates of fire” being their rich-colored attire; the fire and smoke out of the horses’ mouths being the Turkish artillery; their standard “horse tails”; the period, an hour, day, month, and year, 396 years 118 days between Thogrul Beg going forth Jan. 18, 1057 A.D., and the fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453 A.D.; or else 391 years and 1 month, as others say, from 1281 A.D., the date of the Turks’ first conquest of Christians, and 1672 A.D., their last conquest. The serpent-like stinging tails correspond to Mohammedanism supplanting Christianity in large parts of Asia, Africa, and even Europe.
But the hosts meant seem infernal rather than human, though constrained to work out God’s will (Rev 12:1-2). The Greek article once only before all the periods requires rather the translation “for (i.e. “against”) THE hour and day and month and year,” namely, appointed by God. Not only the year, but also the month, day, and hour, are all definitively foreordained. The article “the” would have been omitted, if a total of periods had been meant. The giving of both the Hebrew and the Greek name implies that he is the destroyer of both Hebrew and Gentiles alike. Just as, in beautiful contrast, the Spirit of adoption enables both Jew and Gentile believers to call God, in both their respective tongues, Abba (Hebrew in marked alliteration with Abaddon Father (Greek, pater). Jesus who unites both in Himself (Gal 3:28; Eph 2:14) sets us the example: Mark 14:36; Gal 4:6. Jesus unites Hebrew and Gentiles in a common salvation; Satan combines both in a common “destruction.” ((See ABBA.)
[Fausset]
Abaddon
In Rev 9:11 this name is shown to be the same as Apollyon, ‘the destroyer,’ who is described as ‘the angel of the bottomless pit.’ It is perhaps not so much one of the names of Satan, as his character personified. It occurs six times in the Old Testament, in three of which it is associated with hell (sheol): Job 26:6; Prov 15:11; Prov 27:20; once with death: ‘Destruction and Death say,’ etc., Job 28:22; and once with the grave. Psa 88:11. In all these passages, and in Job 31:12, it is translated ‘destruction’.
[Morrish]
Abaddon. A Hebrew word signifying: ruin, destruction (Job 31:12); place of destruction; the Abyss, realm of the dead (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11); it occurs personified (Apocalypse 9:11) as Abaddon and is rendered in Greek by Apollyon, 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 26:6, and Proverbs 15:11, the word occurs in conjunction with Sheol.
A.J. MAAS The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
[Catholic Encyclopedia]
Apollyon
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.
[Smith]