Abda
Ab'da (Heb. Abda', עבדָּא [a Chaldaizing form], the servant, i.e. of God), the name of two men.
1. (Sept. Α᾿βδά.) The father of Adoniram, which latter was an officer under Solomon (1Ki 4:6). B.C. ante 995.
2. (Sept. Α᾿βδίας.) The son of Shammua and a Levite of the family of Jeduthun, resident in Jerusalem after the exile (Ne 11:17); elsewhere called OBADIAH SEE OBADIAH (q.v.), the son of Shemaiah (1Ch 9:16).
Abdas, a Persian bishop during the reign of Yezdegird (or Isdegerdes), King of Persia, under whom the Christians enjoyed the free exercise of their religion. Abdas, filled with ill-directed zeal, destroyed (A.D. 414) one of the temples of the fire-worshippers; and being ordered by the monarch to rebuild the temple, refused to do so, although warned that, if he persisted, the Christian temples would be destroyed. Yezdegird put the bishop to death, and ordered the total destruction of all the Christian churches in his dominions; upon which followed a bitter persecution of the Christians, which lasted thirty years, and was the occasion of war between Persia and the Roman empire. In the Romish and Greek Churches he is commemorated as a saint on May 16. See Socrat. Ch. Hist. 7:18; Neander, Ch. Hist. 2:110; Theod. Hist. Eccl. v. 39; Butler, Lives of Saints, May 16.
