תּוֹלְדוֹת
Abba Guryon of Tzidon was a tanna of the fourth or fifth generation, in about the second century. His name appears in the Mishnah a single time, where he brings an aggadic teaching in the name of Abba Gurya; the same teaching is found in Masechet Soferim, and in the Talmud Yerushalmi he says it in the name of Abba Shaul, together with a second saying of similar cast in Abba Shaul’s name.
One of the midrashim on Megillat Esther carries his name — Midrash Abba Guryon — because it opens with five sayings of his: as false judges grew many, so did false witnesses; as informers grew many, people’s money was seized; as the brazen-faced grew many, honor and glory were taken from mankind; from the hour that the lesser said to the greater “I am greater than you,” men’s years were shortened; and when beloved sons angered their Father in Heaven by their deeds, He set a flattering king over them, Achashverosh. Esther Rabbah brings the same passage without the fourth clause, and there Abba Guryon says it in the name of Rabban Gamliel. In the sources of Eretz Yisrael his name is written Uryon or Uryan, the gimmel giving way to an aleph as in the speech of the people of Yerushalayim. Rav Avraham, son of the Vilna Gaon, suggested that he may be the sage called Abba HaDoresh in Shemot Rabbah and in Sifrei Devarim.
במקום שהמסורות חלוקות. His town is given in the sources as Tzidon and also in the forms Tzaidan and Tzaidin (Lebanon today). The five sayings are brought in his name from Abba Shaul in one place and from Rabban Gamliel in another.
אבא גוריון איש צידן היה תנא בדור הרביעי או החמישי, בסביבות מאה ה-2 לספירה. נשארו ממנו מאמרי אגדה שאמר בשם אבא שאול ורבן גמליאל.
Abba Gorion of Sidon was a tanna in the second century CE. He handed down sayings from both Abba Saul and Rabban Gamaliel II. The quote from Gamaliel, was used in the introduction to a Midrash on Megilat Esther, for which reason the latter was called Midrash Abba Gorion.