ABSTINENCE is a refraining from the use of certain articles of food usually eaten ; or from all food during a certain time for some particular object. It is distinguished from TEMPERANCE, which is moderation in ordinary food ; and from FASTING, which is abstinence from a religious motive. The first example of abstinence which occurs in Scrip ture is that in which the use of blood is forbidden to Noah (Gen. ix. 4). [BLOOD.] The next is that mentioned in Gen. xxxii. 32 ' The children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because he (the angel) touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.' This practice of commemorative abstinence is here men tioned as having been kept up from the time of Jacob to that of the writer, as the phrase ' unto this clay' intimates. No actual instance of the practice occurs in the Scripture itself, but the usage has always been kept up ; and to the present day the Jews generally abstain from the whole hind-quarter on account of the trouble and expense of extracting the particular sinew (Allen's Modern yudaism, p. 421). By the law, abstinence from blood was confirmed, and the use of flesh of even lawful animals was forbidden, if the manner of their death rendered it impossible that they should be, or un certain that they were duly exsanguinated (Exod. xxii. 31 ; Duet. xiv. 21). A broad rule was also laid down by the law, defining whole classes of animals that might not be eaten (Lev. xi. ) [ANIMAL; FOOD.] Certain parts of lawful animals, as being sacred to the altar, were also interd cted. These were the large lobe of the liver, the kidneys and the fat upon them, as well as the tail of the ' fat tailed ' sheep (Lev. iii. 9-I 1). Everything conse crated to idols was also forbidden (Exod. xxxiy. 15). In conformity with these rules the Israelites ab stained generally from food which was more or less in use among other people. Instances of absti nence from allowed food are not frequent, except in commemorative or afflictive fasts. The forty clays' abstinence of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are peculiar cases, requiring to be separately considered. [FASTING.] The priests were commanded to ab stain from wine previous to their actual ministrations (Lev. x. 9), and the same abstinence was enjoined to the Nazarites during the whole period of their separation (Num. vi. 3). A constant abstinence of this kind was, at a later period, voluntarily under taken by the Rechabites (Jer. xxxv. 1-19). Among the early Christian converts there were some who deemed themselves bound to adhere to the Mosaical limitations regarding food, and they accordingly abstained from flesh sacrificed to idols, as well as from animals which the law accounted unclean ; while others contemned this as a weakness, and exulted in the liberty wherewith Christ has made his followers free. This question was repeatedly
referred to St. Paul, who laid down some admir able rules on the subject, the purport of which was that every one was at liberty to act in this matter according to the dictates of his own conscience; but that the strong-minded had better abstain from the exercise of the freedom they possessed, when ever it might prove an occasion of stumbling to a weak brother (Rom. xiv. 1-3; r Cor. viii.) In an other place the same apostle reproves certain sec taries who should arise, forbidding marriage and enjoining abstinence from meats which God had created to be received with thanksgiving (I Tim. iv. 3, 4). The counsel of the apostles at Jerusalem decided that no other abstinence regarding food should be imposed upon the converts than from meats offered to idols, from blood, and from things strangled' (Acts xv. z9).
The Essenes, a sect among the Jews which is not mentioned by name in the Scriptures, led a more abstinent life than any recorded in the sacred books. [EssENEs.] That abstinence from ordinary food was prac tised by the Jews medicinally is not shewn in Scripture, but is more than probable, not only as a dictate of nature, but as a common practice of their Egyptian neighbours, who, we are informed by Diodorus (i. 82); being persuaded that the ma jority of diseases proceed from indigestion and ex cess of eating, had frequent recourse to abstinence, emetics, slight doses of medicine, and other simple means of relieving the system, which some per sons were in the habit of repeating every two or three days.' ABYSS ("Afluoo-os-----313u0os without bottom). The LXX. use this word to represent three different Hebrew words a depth or deep place, Job xli. 23 ; or 161, the deep, the sea, Is. xliv. 27 ; 2. lin breadth, a broad place, Job xxxvi. 16 ; 3. Drill, a mass of waters, the sea, Gen. viii. 2, etc. ; the chaotic mass of waters, Gen. i. 2 ; Ps. civ. 6 ; the subterraneous waters, the deep that lieth under,' Gen. xlix. 25; the deep that couchette beneath,' Dent. xxxiii. 13. In the N. T. it is used always with the article, to designate the abode of the dead, Hades, especially that part of it which is also the abode of devils and the place of woe (Rom. x. 7 ; Luke viii. 31 ; Rev. ix. 1, 2, II ; xi. 7 ; xvii. 8 ; XX. 1, 3). In the Revelation the word is always translated in the A. V. bottomless pit,' by Luther abgrund.' In ch. ix. I mention is made of the key of the bottomless pit' (*ads Too opiceros rigs (1(3. the key of the pit of the abyss), where Hades is represented as a boundless depth, which is entered by means of a shaft covered by a door, altd secured by a lock (Alford, Stuart, Ewald, De Wette, Diisterdieck). In ver. ri men tion is made of the angel of the abyss,' by whom some suppose is intended Satan or one of his angels. [AuAnnoN.]—W. L. A.