Abelians, Abelonians, and Abeloites, a type of heretics in Africa, near Hippone, whose opinion and distinctive practice was to marry, and nevertheless to profess to abstain from their wives and have no carnal relations with them.

These heretics, though not notable by themselves, (because they were confined in a small stretch of the country and did not survive for long) became famous for the extraordinary efforts to which scholars went to discover the principles on which they were founded and the reason for their name.

Some think that they based themselves on the text of St. Paul, I. Cor. VII. 29. Reliquum est ut et qui habent uxores, tanquam non habentes sint [It remaineth, that those who have wives be as though they had none].

One Author who wrote recently claims they performed their marriages on the basis of the Garden of Eden; alleging a rationale that there was no other union between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden than that of their hearts. He adds that they also had Abel’s example in mind, who they claimed had been married but had never known his wife, thus it is from him that they took their name.

Bochart remarks that there existed a tradition in the East that Adam had such immense sorrow after the death of Abel that for one hundred and thirty years he had no intercourse with Eve. This was, as he showed, the opinion of Jewish Doctors, who transmitted this fable to the Arabs, and that, according to Giggeus, is why Thabala in Arabic, came to signify abstaining from one’s wife. Bochart concluded from this that it is very probable the story reached as far as Africa and gave birth to the sect and name of the Abelians.

Admittedly, Rabbis believed that after the death of Abel, Adam long remained celibate, even until the time that he spawned Seth. But to assert that this interval lasted one hundred and thirty years, is a demonstrated error, and contrary to their own chronology, which places the birth of Seth at the one hundred and thirtieth year of the world, or of the life of Adam, as seen in the two Jewish works entitled Seder-Olam .

Abarbanel states that it was one hundred and thirty years after the fall of Adam, which conforms to the opinions of other Rabbis, that Cain and Abel were conceived immediately after Adam’s transgression. However, others say, indeed, whenever it was that the abstinence brought about by Adam’s fall or by the death of Abel gave birth to the Abelians: it was Adam’s celibacy, and not that of Abel, that the heretics imitated; and on this basis, they would have been called the Adamites , and not Abelians . Actually it is more than probable they took Abel’s name without any other reason, except that like this Patriarch they had no posterity; not that he had lived in abstinence after his marriage, but because he was killed before having been married.

The Abelians apparently believed, according to common opinion, that Abel died before having been married; but this opinion is neither certain or universal. Some authors believe that Abel married and left behind children. According to these authors, this was even the main root of Cain’s fear, worrying that Abel’s children would seek vengeance for his death.

*It is believed that this sect started under the Byzantine Empire and that it ended under Theodosius, the younger, and that its members were finally reduced to a single village, and reunited with the Church. See Saint Augustin De haeresibus ad Quodvultdeum [On Heresies]: chapter 85; Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique.  [1]

1. It would seem that this final paragraph was added by the editor, Diderot, as indicated by the asterisk (*). However, the paragraph ends with the mark (G) indicating Mallet’s authorship, and it seems continuous with the preceding text.