In Revelation 9:1 we are told that a star (cf. Revelation 8:10-11), which had fallen from heaven to the earth was given a key to the bottomless pit. However, before we can understand what power was given to the star, we need to come to understand what the bottomless pit or the pit of the abyss actually is. The Greek word is abussos (G12) and means bottomless (from a intensive and bussos, meaning a depth). The Greek word, therefore, describes an immeasurable depth, hence the rendering bottomless. The word occurs nine times in the New Testament. It first appears in Luke 8:31, then in Romans 10:7. The rest of its occurrences are found in the Apocalypse: Revelation 9:1-2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3.
Luke recorded an event showing the Lord confronting a demoniac who called himself Legion (cf. Luke 8:26-31). We are told the demoniac asked the Lord not to send them into the abyss (G12; Luke 8:31), and adds that ‘they’ were afraid that Jesus would torment (G928) ‘them’ (Luke 8:28), which seems to mean, being cast into the abyss (G12) would be an event involving torment (G928). Both Matthew and Mark agree in that the demoniac was afraid of being tormented (G928; see Matthew 8:29; Mark 5:7). Mark adds that the demoniac pleaded with Jesus that he would not send them out of the ‘country’ (G5561; cf. Mark 5:10), which Luke seems to interpret as “into the abyss” (Luke 8:31). On the other hand, Matthew claims the demoniac didn’t want to be tormented before his time, which seems to indicate that the demoniac knew his destiny was the abyss (G12; or out of the country – G5561), but to go there presently would be before his appointed time.[1]
Paul also wrote of the place called the abyss or bottomless pit (G12) in his letter to the Romans. There he says that the word of God is near to every believer (Romans 10:8). So, Paul calls for believers to let faith reign in their hearts and not desire to see Jesus ascend into heaven for themselves (Romans 10:6; viz. Acts 1:9) or to see his resurrection out of the deep (G12; i.e. the abyss or bottomless pit; Romans 10:7). In other words the grave or death is the bottomless pit. The demoniac was afraid to die. The idea that Jesus would kill him was a thought that tormented (G928) him.
At the time of John’s writing the Apocalypse, the beast, that the great harlot (Mystery Babylon the Great) sat upon, was about to ascend out of the bottomless (G12) pit (Revelation 11:7; 17:7-8). The beast was (existed), is not (had since ceased to exist), but is, nevertheless, about to (exist) again (Revelation 17:8). Even so, the beast was destined to descend into ruin or destruction (Revelation 17:8, 11), meaning it would once more cease to exist.
Revelation 20:1-3 shows that a strong Angel (Jesus) had a great chain in his hand and bound up the dragon, casting him into the bottomless (G12) pit for a thousand years. The thousand years isn’t literal, and I expect to prove that once we get to the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse.[2] During this time of his imprisonment, the dragon (Satan) was unable to deceive the nations, but, after the thousand years was fulfilled, he was loosed from the bottomless pit, and had Gog and Megog make ready for war (Revelation 20:7-9).
On the one hand, that the bottomless pit or the pit of the abyss seems to be the grave (cf. Romans 10:7). The idea of torment being associated with it (Luke 8:28, 31; cf. Matthew 8:29; Mark 5:7) seems to point to one’s fear of dying. Certainly Jesus was in physical torment before his death, but I don’t believe he was tormented by the idea of his dying or being placed in the grave (Numbers 23:10). The fact that some wicked men go to the grave without fear seems to point to the idea that, if torment is their lot (Job 27:13, 20-21), then death, itself, must be a process that extends beyond one’s taking his last breath. Job seems to describe the process as very violent, hence the torment.
Nevertheless, the abyss (G12) seems also to mean a place where things simply cease to exist. Not everything that enters or exits the abyss has a life of its own. For example, if a nation is destroyed, it doesn’t go into a grave per se. It simply ceases to exist, and those who are left of that nation mourn over the fact that they no longer have a government or leader of their own. They have become a scattered, defeated people without a country, and in this there is torment (cf. Luke 8:28, 31; Mark 5:7). If the nation arose again, later, it might be said that it arose out of the bottomless pit or out of the pit of the abyss (viz. Israel in 1947). So the beast that ascends out of the pit (Revelation 17:8), and returns to the pit (Revelation 17:8; cf. 20:3) doesn’t have a life of its own. It simply exists or it doesn’t exist, and this, also, needs to be considered, as we seek to understand the bottomless pit as the term is used in the Apocalypse.
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[1] This understanding presumes the demoniac both knew the truth about his fate, and also told the truth about his fate. Neither is necessarily so. For example, he may have presumed a falsehood to be true or he may have known his destiny, but lied that the ‘appointed time’ was later rather than presently.
[2] For now, if one desires to understand how the thousand years would not be literal, he or she could read my studies in 2Peter 3 – A Thousand Years Is AS a Day and A Thousand Years, a Watch in the Night.
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