Abdias

ABDIAS, ab´dî-as: Legendary first bishop of Babylon. Under the title, De historia certaminis apostolici there exists a collection of myths, legends, and traditions relating to the lives and works of the apostles, and pretending to be the Latin translation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew work of Abdias. Neither the book nor its author was known to Eusebius or to Jerome, nor do they find mention before Ordericus Vitalis (12th cent.).

Bibliography: W. Lazinon, De historia certaminis apostolici, Paris, 1560, and often reprinted; Fabricius, Codex apocryphus, ii. (1st ed., 1703), and ii., iii. (2d ed., 1719); C. Oudin, Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, ii. 418-421, Leipsic, 1722; G. J. Voss, De historicis Græcis, p. 243, ib. 1838; J. A. Giles, Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti, London, 1852; Migne, Troisième et dernière encyclopédie théologique, xxiv. (66 vols., Paris, 1855-66); S. C. Malan, Conflicts of the Holy Apostles . . . translated from an Ethiopic MS., London, 1871; DCB, i. 1-4.