has commonly been identified with the Babylonian Tammuz, and it is believed that the worship of Adonis was adopted by the Greeks from the Semites of Syria and Babylonia as early as the seventh century B.C.E.

Various mythological accounts tell of the violent death of Adonis and his return to life. These myths are generally interpreted as representing the death of vegetation in winter and its return to life in the spring.

In Syria, Phoenicia, Greece and other places, chiefly the women annually bewailed the death of Adonis and carried images of his body as in funeral procession, later tossing them into the sea or springs. In the territory of Byblos in Phoenicia, women even shaved their heads, and those refusing to have their heads shaved were forced to prostitute themselves to strangers, the money acquired thereby being dedicated to Astarte (Ashtoreth).

The ancients evidently believed that their engaging in these rituals promoted the growth of vegetation and that throwing the images of Adonis into the water ensured a good supply of rain for their crops. Even some of the Israelites may have become ensnared by these practices of neighboring peoples. This seems to be indicated by a possible alternate rendering of Isaiah 17:10 (NW, 1958 ed., ftn. b). Israel had forgotten Jehovah and was planting “pleasant plantations” or “plantations to Adonis,” containers filled with earth in which were planted various kinds of seeds that quickly sprouted and then rapidly withered, symbolic of the life and death of Adonis.—See TAMMUZ.

ADONI-ZEDEK

(A·doʹni-zeʹdek) [lord of righteousness].

A king of Jerusalem at the time of the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land, who joined with other petty kingdoms W of the Jordan in a consolidated effort to halt Joshua’s conquering forces. (Josh. 9:1-3) However, the Hivite inhabitants of Gibeon made peace with Joshua. In a retaliatory measure designed to stop further desertion to the enemy, Adoni-zedek united his army with those of four additional kings of the Amorites, and laid siege against Gibeon and warred against it. Joshua’s spectacular rescue of the Gibeonites and the shattering defeat of these combined forces caused the five kings to flee to Makkedah, where they were trapped in a cave. Joshua himself slew Adoni-zedek and the other four kings before his troops, and hanged them upon stakes, stating that “it is like this that Jehovah will do to all your enemies against whom you are warring.” Their corpses were finally thrown back into the cave, which came to be their tomb.—Josh. 10:1-27.

ADOPTION

The placing as a son or daughter one who is not such by natural relationship.

In the Hebrew Scriptures adoption is not dealt with from the viewpoint of legal procedure, but the basic idea is set forth in several cases. It appears that Abraham, prior to the birth of Ishmael and Isaac, considered his slave Eliezer as at least in line for a position similar to that of an adopted son and as the likely inheritor of Abraham’s house. (Gen. 15:2-4) The practice of adopting slaves as sons has long been a common Oriental practice, and as such they had inheritance rights though not above those of children descended naturally from the father.

Rachel and Leah both considered the children born to Jacob by their handmaids as their own sons, ‘born upon their knees.’ (Gen. 30:3-8, 12, 13, 24) These children inherited along with those born directly of Jacob’s legal wives. They were natural sons of the father and, since the slave girls were property of the wives, Rachel and Leah had property rights in these children.

The child Moses was later adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. (Ex. 2:5-10) Whether or not this practice was common in Egypt is not certain, but men and women are said to have had equal rights under Egyptian law, hence Pharaoh’s daughter was in position to exercise such right.

Within the nation of Israel adoption does not appear to have been widely practiced. The law of levirate marriage doubtless eliminated to a great extent a basic reason for adoption of children: the continuance of the parental name.—Deut. 25:5, 6.

CHRISTIAN SIGNIFICANCE

In the Greek Scriptures the figure of adoption is employed several times by the apostle Paul with regard to the new status of those called and chosen by God. Such ones, born as descendants of the imperfect Adam, were in slavery to sin and did not possess inherent sonship of God. Through purchase by means of Christ Jesus they receive the adoption as sons and also become heirs with Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. (Gal. 4:1-7; Rom. 8:14-17) They do not come by such sonship naturally but by God’s choice and according to his will. (Eph. 1:5) While acknowledged as God’s children or sons from the time of God’s begetting them by his spirit (1 John 3:1; John 1:12, 13), their full realization of this privilege as spirit sons of God is shown to be dependent on their ultimate faithfulness. (Rom. 8:17; Rev. 21:7) Thus, Paul speaks of them as “earnestly waiting for adoption as sons, the release from our bodies by ransom.”—Rom. 8:23.

Such adopted state brings benefits of freedom from “a spirit of slavery causing fear,” replacing it with the confidence of sons; of hope of a heavenly inheritance assured by the witness of God’s spirit. At the same time such spiritual sons are reminded by their adoption that such position is by God’s undeserved kindness and selection rather than by their inherent right.—Rom. 8:15, 16; Gal. 4:5-7.

At Romans 9:4 Paul speaks of the fleshly Israelites as those “to whom belong the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law,” and this evidently refers to the unique position granted Israel while they were God’s covenant people. Thus, God, on occasion, spoke of Israel as “my son.” (Ex. 4:22, 23; Deut. 14:1, 2; Isa. 43:6; Jer. 31:9; Hos. 1:10; 11:1; compare John 8:41.) Actual sonship, however, awaited the ransom provision made through Christ Jesus and was dependent on acceptance of that divine arrangement and faith in it.—John 1:12, 13; Gal. 4:4, 5; 2 Cor. 6:16-18.

ADORAIM

(Ad·o·raʹim) [perhaps, two mounds].

One of the cities of Judah rebuilt and fortified by King Rehoboam in the tenth century B.C.E. (2 Chron. 11:9) It is identified with the modern village of Dura, located on a hillside about five miles (8 kilometers) W-SW of Hebron.

ADORAM

See ADONIRAM.

ADORNMENT

That which is put on to decorate, beautify, embellish, add luster to and make the person himself or that which he represents pleasing or attractive. It may be for a good or for a deceptive purpose.

The Scriptures do not condemn physical adornment if it is properly done, and they highly recommend spiritual adornment. Jehovah himself is described as clothed in light and surrounded by beauty. (Ps. 104:1, 2; Ezek. 1:1, 4-28; Rev. 4:2, 3) He has richly ornamented his creation with color, variety and majestic magnificence.—Luke 12:27, 28; Ps. 139:14; 1 Cor. 15:41.

In Bible times the bridegroom and bride adorned themselves for the marriage feast. In preparation the bride decked herself with the finest clothing and the best of the ornamental things that she possessed to present herself before the bridegroom. (Ps. 45:13, 14; Isa. 61:10) Jehovah speaks to Jerusalem, figuratively describing her as a girl whom he decked with fine, costly clothing and jewelry but who used her beauty and adornment unfaithfully as a prostitute. (Ezek. 16:10-19) Jehovah’s prophet Hosea condemned Israel for adorning herself for the wrong purpose of attracting passionate lovers and engaging in false worship. (Hos. 2:13) Through his prophets Jehovah foretold a restoration of Israel when she would come out of Babylonish captivity and again adorn herself to express her joy and exultation.—Isa. 52:1; Jer. 31:4.

The temple of Solomon and Solomon’s governmental buildings were beautifully adorned, to the delight of the queen of Sheba. (1 Ki. chaps. 6, 7, 10) The temple built by Herod was a magnificent edifice adorned with fine stones and dedicated things. But Jesus showed that these material adornments would be of no avail when God’s judgment came upon Jerusalem for her unfaithfulness.—Luke 21:5, 6.

CHRISTIAN COUNSEL ON PERSONAL ADORNMENT

Jesus and his apostles counseled constantly against putting trust in physical things and putting on a false show by means of material adornment. The apostle Paul said that Christian women should “adorn themselves in well-arranged dress, with modesty and soundness of mind, not with styles of hair braiding and gold or pearls or very expensive garb.” (1 Tim. 2:9) During the days of the apostles it was a custom among women in that world of Greek culture to go in for elaborate coiffures and other adornment. This gives point to Peter’s counsel to women in the Christian congregation to put emphasis, not on the ‘external braiding of the hair and the putting on of gold ornaments or the wearing of outer garments,’ but to let their adornment be, as with the faithful women of old, “the secret person of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of the quiet and mild spirit.”—1 Pet. 3:3-5.

The apostle Paul points out that the Christian can, by fine works of incorruptibleness in his teaching, seriousness, wholesome speech and right conduct in all his ways of life, beautify and make the teachings of God attractive to others. (Titus 2:10) In this spiritual way, the Christian congregation, the bride of Christ, eventually appears in her full beauty to her husband Jesus Christ, similarly described at Revelation 21:2 as “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Her spiritual beauty is a direct contrast to the adornment of Babylon the Great, spoken of as adorned with material things, the wage of her prostitution.—Rev. 18:16; see DRESS; JEWELS AND PRECIOUS STONES; ORNAMENTS.

The Proverbs show that if a great number of people choose to live under and delight in the rule of a king it is one measure of his success. It is an adornment to him, recommending and adding luster to him as a ruler. (Prov. 14:28) Jehovah is such a ruler by his Messianic kingdom.—Ps. 22:27-31; Phil. 2:10, 11.

ADRAMMELECH

(A·dramʹme·lech) [“Adar is king,” or “the lordship of Melech”].

1. A son of Assyrian king Sennacherib. Adrammelech and his brother Sharezer killed their father while he was bowing down at the house of his god Nisroch at Nineveh following the failure of his attack of Jerusalem. They then escaped to the land of Ararat apparently in the location of ancient Armenia in the mountainous region to the W of what is now known as the Caspian Sea. (2 Ki. 19:35-37; Isa. 37:36-38) An inscription of Esar-haddon, another son of Sennacherib, relates that as his father’s successor he engaged and defeated the armies of his father’s murderers at Hanigalbat in that region.

2. A god worshiped by the Sepharvites, one of the subjugated peoples the king of Assyria brought into the territory of Samaria after his taking the Israelites of the ten-tribe kingdom into exile. It was to Adrammelech and Anammelech that the Sepharvites sacrificed their sons in the fire.—2 Ki. 17:22-24, 31, 33.

On the basis of the name “Adrammelech,” a number of varying conclusions have been drawn concerning the nature of this deity. Believing the name actually to be “Adad-melekh,” some suggest that he was the Babylonian god of storm and rain, Adad, worshiped in the manner of the Ammonite god Melekh (Molech). (Compare 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31.) Others regard Adrammelech as a sun-god, interpreting his name to mean “fire-king.”

ADRAMYTTIUM

(Ad·ra·mytʹti·um).

A seaport city on the Aegean Sea, located in Mysia at the NW corner of Asia Minor, N of Pergamum. In modern Turkey the harbor site is now called Karatash, while the inland town of Edremit preserves the earlier name.

Adramyttium was part of the province of Asia under Roman rule and was evidently at one time a maritime commercial center of some importance, since it lay on the Roman road that passed through Pergamum and Ephesus to the south and Assos, Troas and the Hellespont to the west and north. It is likely that Paul passed through Adramyttium on his third missionary tour. The only direct Bible reference to the place, however, is at Acts 27:2. At Caesarea, Paul as a prisoner in the custody of the Roman officer Julius, boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was sailing to points along the coast of Asia Minor. Paul’s party left the ship at Myra in Lycia, transferring to a grain boat from Alexandria that was sailing for Italy. (Acts 27:3-6) The Adramyttium vessel likely continued on around the coast heading for its home port.

ADRIA

(Aʹdri·a).

At Acts 27:27 reference is made to the “sea of Adria,” in which Paul spent fourteen turbulent days before being shipwrecked on the island of Malta. Strabo, a Greek geographer of the first century B.C.E., says this name is derived from the city of Atri, located at the mouth of the Po River on what is now called the Gulf of Venice. The present Italian city of Adria lies somewhat back from the coast. It appears that the name “Adria” came to apply to the waters in that vicinity and was progressively extended to include all the present Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea and those waters of the Mediterranean E of Sicily (and Malta) and W of Crete. So the name covered some waters that today are considered as outside the Adriatic Sea; but in Paul’s day the island of Malta could properly be said to be bounded by the “sea of Adria.”

ADRIEL

(Aʹdri·el) [flock of God].

The son of Barzillai, from the city of Abel-meholah. Adriel was given Saul’s oldest daughter Merab as wife, though she had previously been promised to David. (1 Sam. 18:17-19) All five of Adriel’s five sons were later surrendered for execution to help atone for Saul’s attempted annihilation of the Gibeonites. (2 Sam. 21:8, 9) In this account Michal rather than Merab is spoken of as the mother of Adriel’s five sons. Since Michal died childless (2 Sam. 6:23) and is nowhere spoken of as having been the wife of Adriel, some translators view the appearance of Michal’s name as a scribal error. Nearly all Hebrew manuscripts, however, use Michal’s name, and the traditional explanation is that Merab, Michal’s older sister, died early after having borne five sons to Adriel and that Michal thereafter undertook the bringing up of her sister’s five boys, thus resulting in their being spoken of as her sons. The Isaac Leeser translation (7th ed., 1922, Bloch Publishing Co.) reads at 2 Samuel 21:8: “And the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she had brought up for Adriel.”

ADULLAM

(A·dulʹlam) [retreat, refuge].

A city of Judah in the fertile lowland or Shephelah, about halfway between Bethlehem and Lachish. (Josh. 15:35) It is identified with Tell esh-Sheikh Madhkur, about nine miles (14.5 kilometers) N-NE of modern Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis). The original name seems to be preserved in the name of the nearby ruins of ʽAid el-Miyeh. The site of Adullam dominates the Wadi (torrent valley) es-Sur and the approach from that part of the Shephelah into the interior of Judah, thus making it a strategic location. It is primarily