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Abyss (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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ABYSS (ἡ ἄβυσσος).—The word ‘abyss,’ which we find in several places in the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 of the NT, is not found in the Authorized Version. There we find instead, in St. Luke (Luke 8:31) and in Romans (Romans 10:7) ‘the deep,’ and in the Apocalypse ‘the bottomless pit.’ In Revelation 9:1-2 we find ( Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885) ‘the pit of the abyss’ (τὸ φρέαρ τῆς ἀβύσσου), a somewhat peculiar expression, but not having, it would seem, a different signification from the simple word ‘abyss.’

It is not easy to see that the word ‘abyss’ has the same signification in Romans as it has in St. Luke and the Apocalypse. In a general way, of course, the word may be taken as meaning the underworld, the world of departed spirits and of things dim and mysterious,—a world conceived of as deeply hidden away from that of things seen and known, even as the interior of the earth and the depths of the ocean are hidden. The abyss is certainly the realm of the departed in Romans 10:7, where St. Paul himself interprets the word for us: ‘Who shall descend into the abyss (that is, to bring up Christ from the dead)?’ But a more specific meaning than that of simply the underworld must be given to the word in Luke 8:31 and in the various passages in the Apocalypse where it occurs. The abyss is not even in Luke 8:31, perhaps, the ultimate place of punishment, but it is there assuredly a place of restraint and of terror, as it is also so far in the Apocalypse. The abyss in the latter is the Satanic underworld, the dark and mysterious region out of which evil comes, but also the prison in which during the millennial period Satan is confined. Of course much that is given in the Apocalypse is given under poetic imagery. The abyss is rather a condition of spiritual beings than a region of space. But under the imagery there is fact, the fact that there are spiritual beings setting themselves in opposition to the Kingdom of God, and yet in their very opposition conscious of His restraining power. Satan is bound for a season in the abyss. He has no absolute power, but must submit to such restraint as is put upon him. Evil comes from the abyss, but the very Spirit of evil has to submit to being bound there.

Literature.—The Commentaries on the passages above cited; the art. ‘Abyss’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible and in the Encyc. Biblica.

George C. Watt.