• A Hebrew word signifying: ruin, destruction (Job 31:12); place of destruction; the Abyss, realm of the dead (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11)
Catholic Encyclopedia.Kevin Knight.2006.
Abaddon
Abaddon
†Catholic_Encyclopedia ►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 VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company.Nihil Obstat.1910.
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; 31:12; 26:6; Prov. 15:11; 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.
Angel of the Bottomless Pit; also, hell itself. Hell seemed powerfully real at this time. The terror of spending eternity in hell added greatly to the universal fear of death. The fires were not considered to be metaphorical but to be real: it was the Inferno, the place of punishment.