diff --git a/api/src/main/java/jakarta/el/ELResolver.java b/api/src/main/java/jakarta/el/ELResolver.java
index ec3ba5a..8fa83f0 100644
--- a/api/src/main/java/jakarta/el/ELResolver.java
+++ b/api/src/main/java/jakarta/el/ELResolver.java
@@ -284,6 +284,10 @@
      * The <code>propertyResolved</code> property of the <code>ELContext</code> is not relevant to this method. The results
      * of all <code>ELResolver</code>s are concatenated in the case of composite resolvers.
      *
+     * <p>
+     * The default implementation in {@link ELResolver} returns {@code null}. Sub-classes may wish to over-ride this
+     * method.
+     * 
      * @param context The context of this evaluation.
      * @param base The base object whose set of valid properties is to be enumerated, or <code>null</code> to enumerate the
      * set of top-level variables that this resolver can evaluate.
@@ -295,7 +299,9 @@
      * @deprecated This method will be removed without replacement in EL 6.0
      */
     @Deprecated(forRemoval = true, since = "5.0")
-    public abstract Iterator<FeatureDescriptor> getFeatureDescriptors(ELContext context, Object base);
+    public Iterator<FeatureDescriptor> getFeatureDescriptors(ELContext context, Object base) {
+        return null;
+    }
 
     /**
      * Returns the most general type that this resolver accepts for the <code>property</code> argument, given a
diff --git a/spec/src/main/asciidoc/ELSpec.adoc b/spec/src/main/asciidoc/ELSpec.adoc
index 6758f1c..4efe55b 100644
--- a/spec/src/main/asciidoc/ELSpec.adoc
+++ b/spec/src/main/asciidoc/ELSpec.adoc
@@ -2984,6 +2984,11 @@
   Clarify expected behaviour when matching expressions to methods based on
   parameter types
 
+* https://github.com/eclipse-ee4j/el-ri/issues/167[#167]
+  Add a default implementation that returns `null` for the `ELResolver` method
+  `getFeatureDescriptors()` since it has been deprecated so that custom
+  `ELResolver` implementations do not need to implement the method.
+
 === Changes between 4.0 and JSR 341
 
 * The API has moved from the `javax.el` package to the `jakarta.el`