ABEDNEGO (Aramaic, AAbed Nego; , Dan. i. 7, ii. 49, iii. 12 et seq.; once , iii. 29):

By: Charles C. Torrey

The name given to Azariah, one of Daniel's three companions at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The name is evidently a corruption of Abed Nebo (), "Servant of [the Babylonian god] Nebo," a name found (written in both the cuneiform and the Aramaic characters) in an inscription of the seventh century B.C. (Rawlinson, "Inscriptions of Western Asia," iii. 46, col. i. 81 et seq.), and in certain early Syriac documents (see Payne-Smith, "Thesaurus"). It is probable that the substitution of Nego (so also all the old versions) for Nebo was intentional, the purpose being to disfigure, or to get rid of, the name of the heathen deity (see Kohler in "Zeitschrift für Assyriologie," iv. 49). Similarly, the name Barnabas appears to be a slightly disguised form of Barnebo (), "Son of Nebo" (see Barnabas).

C. C. T.