ABEL-MAUL

ABEL-MAUL (Gr. ʾΑβελμαωυλ), a city cited in the apocalyptic work the Greek Testament of Levi 2:3, 5 as the place where Levi received a vision of the seven heavens. The name is the Greek form of the Hebrew "Abel-Meholah," mentioned in Judges 7:22 and in I Kings 4:12; 19:16. Abel-Meholah was situated in the mountains of Ephraim, a fact which calls into question the text of Testament of Levi 2:5 which associates it with the Sirion mountain ("the mountain of the shield," a false etymology from Shiryon). In the Dead Sea fragment of Testament of Levi, however, the place where Levi received the vision is Abel-Main, an alternate form of Abel-Maim, the name which replaced the earlier abel-beth-maacah (cf. I Kings 15:26, II Chron. 16:4). Abel-Maim is in fact situated in the very northern part of Palestine and could easily be connected with the Sirion, the Anti-Lebanon. The confusion in Greek Testament of Levi is evidently the translator's. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Milik, in: rb, 62 (1955), 398 ff.; Charles, Apocrypha, 2 (1913), 304; Press, Ereẓ, 1 (1951), 5; Avi-Yonah, Land, 153, s.v. Abelmea. (Michael E. Stone)