ABBAHU (fl. toward the turn of the fourth century CE), Palestinian amora. Abbahu was the younger contemporary of both Shimʿon ben Laqish ("Resh Laqish") and Elʿazar ben Pedat, with whom he studied, but his main teacher was Yoḥanan bar Nappaḥaʾ. Abbahu eventually settled in Caesarea, where he became head of the rabbinic academy. Because of the cosmopolitan nature of that city he had frequent contacts with Christians, Samaritans, and other "heretics"; surviving reports suggest that Abbahu engaged in frequent polemics against these rivals.

Among the reports of these polemics are an exegesis attributed to Abbahu in which Isaiah 44:6 is taken to be God's explicit denial of a father or a brother or a son (Ex. Rab. 29.4) and a remark ascribed to Abbahu to the effect that "if a man tells you 'I am God' he is lying" (J.T., Taʿan. 2.1, 65b). Abbahu is...