Ahimelech

— the name of the following persons: a) (1 Sam. 21:1) (brother of the king). Some think that Ahimelech was the same person as Ahijah; but others suppose that Ahijah was the son of Ahitub and his successor in the priesthood, and that Ahimelech was his brother and successor in the same office. It is not essential for us which of these opinions is more correct. David, while fleeing from Saul, came to Nob, where the high priest Ahimelech lived. He said of himself that he was on urgent royal business, and thus received from him some of the showbread, as well as the sword of Goliath, which was kept among certain sacred objects.

Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief servant, who happened to be at Nob and witnessed the meeting between David and Ahimelech, told Saul of this, and Saul at once summoned Ahimelech and all the priests who were with him (22:17). He accused them of deliberately supporting and aiding his enemy, and they answered by declaring their ignorance of any hostile relations between David and Saul or his kingdom. This explanation, however plausible, did not help them at all, and the king ordered his soldiers to strike them down.

When the soldiers refused to lay hands on the priests of the Lord, the king ordered Doeg to attack them. The foreigner did so and killed them, and also destroyed with the sword the city of Nob, where the priests lived, and all the men, women, and children, as well as the flocks found there. Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, was the only one who escaped — he fled with the ephod to David. In the Gospel of Mark (2:26), instead of the name Ahimelech (1 Sam. 21:1–10), the name Abiathar is mentioned.

This apparent contradiction is explained by the fact that Ahimelech, like his son Abiathar, bore two names, namely Ahimelech and Abiathar (Sacred History of the Old Testament, Archpriest Bogoslovsky, I, 236, note).