Metaphysical meaning of Abdon (mbd)
Abdon, ab'-don (Heb.)--servile; service; a servant.
a A judge of Israel. He had "forty sons and thirty sons' sons, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years" (Judg. 12:1315). b The name of a city in Asher that was given to "the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites" (Josh. 21:30).
Meta. A phase of the judging, discerning faculty in man. Abdon served Israel as judge. The forty sons imply a thought of completeness, and the seventy ass colts refer to the animal part of man as expressed through the seven senses, seventy being a multiple of seven and showing a tenfold increase of the expression of this animal phase of consciousness, which was held in dominion by the thoughts for which Abdon's sons and sons' sons stand. The riding of Abdon's sons and sons' sons on seventy asses shows that in thought the animal phase of man symbolized by the ass (meekness, stubbornness, persistency, and endurance) is in subjection. (One meaning of servile is held in subjection.)
"And Abdon. . . . died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites" (Judg. 12:15). This means that, as the thought of good judgment, service, and dominion over the animal phase of man (symbolized by Abdon and by the riding of his sons and sons' sons on the asses) sinks deeper into the consciousness, a fuller uplifting of the animal forces, appetites, and passions (Amalekites) may be accomplished.
The city of Abdon symbolizes a happy (Asher), fixed state of consciousness, or an aggregation of thoughts of judgment and service utilized by the natural religious tendencies (Levites) of the individual, from which opposite thoughts of error have been expelled. (Gershon means expulsion.)
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Preceding Entry: Abdiel
Following Entry: Abed-nego
