abiathar Summary and Overview

father of abundance, or my father excels, the son of Ahimelech the high priest. He was the tenth high priest, and the fourth in descent from Eli. When his father was slain with the priests of Nob, he escaped, and bearing with him the ephod, he joined David, who was then in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. 22:20-23; 23:6). He remained with David, and became priest of the party of which he was the leader (1 Sam. 30:7). When David ascended the throne of Judah, Abiathar was appointed high priest (1 Chr. 15:11; 1 Kings 2:26) and the "king's companion" (1 Chr. 27:34). Meanwhile Zadok, of the house of Eleazar, had been made high priest. These appointments continued in force till the end of David's reign (1 Kings 4:4). Abiathar was deposed (the sole historical instance of the deposition of a high priest) and banished to his home at Anathoth by Solomon, because he took part in the attempt to raise Adonijah to the throne. The priesthood thus passed from the house of Ithamar (1 Sam. 2:30-36; 1 Kings 1:19; 2:26, 27). Zadok now became sole high priest. In Mark 2:26, reference is made to an occurrence in "the days of Abiathar the high priest." But from 1 Sam. 22, we learn explicitly that this event took place when Ahimelech, the father of Abiathar, was high priest. The apparent discrepancy is satisfactorily explained by interpreting the words in Mark as referring to the life-time of Abiathar, and not to the term of his holding the office of high priest. It is not implied in Mark that he was actual high priest at the time referred to. Others, however, think that the loaves belonged to Abiathar, who was at that time (Lev. 24:9) a priest, and that he either himself gave them to David, or persuaded his father to give them.

(father of abundance, i.e. liberal), High priest and fourth in descent from Eli. (B.C. 1060-1012.) Abiathar was the only one of the all the sons of Ahimelech the high priest who escaped the slaughter inflicted upon his father's house by Saul, in revenge for his father's house by Saul, in revenge of his having inquired of the Lord for David and given him the shew-bread to eat. #1Sa 22:1| ... Abiathar having become high priest fled to David, and was thus enabled to inquire of the Lord for him. #1Sa 23:9; 30:7; 2Sa 2:1; 5:19| etc. He adhered to David in his wanderings while pursued by Saul; he was with him while he reigned in Hebron, and afterwards in Jerusalem. #2Sa 2:1-3| He continued faithful to him in Absalom's rebellion. #2Sa 15;24,29,35,36; 17:15-17; 19:11| When, however, Adonijah set himself up fro David's successor on the throne, in opposition to Solomon, Abiathar sided with him, while Zadok was on Solomon's side. For this Abiathar was deprived of the high priesthood. Zadok had joined David at Hebron, #1Ch 12:28| so that there was henceforth who high priests in the reign of David, and till the deposition of Abiathar by Solomon, when Zadok became the sole high priest.

ABI'ATHAR (father of abundance, i. e. liberal), the tenth high priest of the Jews, and fourth in descent from Eli. 1 Sam 22:20. He was the son of Ahimelech, and the only one who escaped when Doeg at Saul's command slew the priests at Nob in revenge for Ahimelech's service to David in inquiring of the Lord for him, and in giving him the shew-bread to eat, and Goliath's sword.1 Sam 22. Abiathar fled to David at Keilah, and told him what Saul had done. David received him, and he afterward became high priest. Thus there were two high priests in Israel at the same time -- Abiathar, in the party of David, and Zadok, in the party of Saul, 2 Sam 8:17; but, in consequence of his supporting Adonijah in his pretensions to the throne of David, Solomon, upon becoming king, thrust Abiathar out of the priesthood, 1 Kgs 2:27, and conferred the office exclusively upon Zadok. See Zadok. Thus was fulfilled the word of God to Eli, 1 Sam 2:31; for Abiathar was the last of the priests of the house of Ithamar, to which Eli belonged; and Zadok, who succeeded him, was of the family of Eleazar; and so the priesthood passed into its former channel. Abiathar, mentioned in Mark 2:26, has been supposed by some to be the same with Ahimelech. The most probable solution of the difficulty is, perhaps, that Abiathar and Ahimelech may have been hereditary names in the family, and therefore were both borne by the same person. Hence the name Abiathar, being that of David's friend, would be more commonly used than Ahimelech. This theory also accounts for the substitution of one name for another in 2 Sam 8:17; 1 Chr 18:16, and 1 Chr 24:3, 1 Chr 24:6, 1 Chr 24:31. The facts to which the Gospel alludes in the passage cited are fully stated in 1 Sam 21.

("father of abundance".) The only son of Ahimelech, the high priest, who escaped the slaughter committed by Saul at Nob, on Doeg's information that Ahimelech had inquired of the Lord for David, and given him the shewbread and the sword of Goliath (1 Samuel 22). Eighty-five persons wearing the priestly linen ephod were killed. Abiathar, with an ephod (the high priest's mystic scarf) in his hand, escaped to David. It is an instance of God's retributive justice that Saul's murder of the priests deprived him thenceforth of their services in inquiring of the Lord (1 Chronicles 13:3); step by step he sank, until, bereft of legitimate means of obtaining divine counsel, he resorted to the illicit course of consulting the witch of Endor, and so filled the measure of his iniquity and brought on himself destruction (1 Chronicles 10:13). David, on the contrary, by sheltering Abiathar was enabled to inquire of the Lord in the ordained way (1 Samuel 23:6-9; 1 Samuel 30:7; 2 Samuel 2:1; 2 Samuel 5:19; 2 Samuel 21:1, an undesigned coincidence with Psalm 16:7, and so a proof of genuineness). Abiathar adhered to David during all his wanderings, and was afflicted in all wherein David was afflicted; also when he assumed the throne in Hebron, the Aaronite priestly city of refuge. He bore the ark before David when it was brought up from Obed-Edom's house to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15:11-12; 1 Kings 2:26). He was loyal in Absalom's rebellion; and, subordinate to Altithophel, was the king's counselor (1 Chronicles 27:34). But in Adonijah's attempt to be David's successor, instead of Solomon, Abiathar, probably from jealousy of Zadok, who was on Solomon's side, took Adonijah's part. David had evidently for some time previous given the first place in his confidence to Zadok, a preference the more galling as Abiathar was the high priest and Zadok only his vicar, or sagan; thus it was to Zadok he gave the command to take the ark back in Absalom's rebellion. Abiathar is mentioned subordinately 1 Samuel 15:25; 1 Samuel 15:29; 1 Samuel 15:35. Perhaps Zadok was appointed high priest by Saul after the slaughter of Ahimelech. David on succeeding, to conciliate his subjects, allowed him conjointly to hold office with Abiathar. Zadok had joined David in Hebron after Saul's death, with 22 captains of his father's house (1 Chronicles 12:28). Abiathar had the first place, with the ephod, Urim and Thummim, and the ark, in the tent pitched by David at Jerusalem Zadok officiated before the tabernacle and brazen altar made by Moses and Bezaleel in the wilderness, which were now in Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:1-7; 1 Chronicles 16:37; 1 Chronicles 16:39-40; 1 Chronicles 27:38; 1 Chronicles 27:34; 2 Chronicles 1:3-5). Moreover, Zadok and Abiathar represented rival houses: Zadok that of Eleazar, the oldest son of Aaron; Abiathar that of Ithamar, the youngest (1 Chronicles 24:3-4; 1 Chronicles 6:8). Eli, of whose family it had been foretold 150 years before that the priesthood should pass from it, was Abiathar's progenitor fourth backward, and Abiathar would naturally fear the coming realization of the curse. All these undesigned proprieties mark the truth of the history. His own act brought the prophecy to its consummation (1 Samuel 2:31-35). Solomon banished him to Anathoth, and put Zadok as high priest in his room (1 Kings 2:35). But in 1 Kings 4:4 Abiathar is still called the "priest" second to Zadok. The Septuagint, "the king made Zadok the first priest in the room of Abiathar," solves the difficulty. Abiathar had been first, priest, but henceforth he was made subordinate to Zadok. Ahimelech or Abimelech, son of Ahimelech, is substituted for Ahimelech, son of Ahimelech: 2 Samuel 8:17; 1 Chronicles 18:16; 1 Chronicles 24:3; 1 Chronicles 24:6; 1 Chronicles 24:31. The Lord Jesus (Mark 2:26) names Ahimelech as the high priest in whose time David ate the shewbread. Probably the sense is: "in the days of Ahimelech, who was afterward high priest," and under whom the record of the fact would be made. Perhaps too the loaves being his perquisite (Leviticus 24:9) were actually handed by Ahimelech to David. Both father and son, moreover, it seems from the quotations above, bore both names, and were indifferently called by either.