Albert Einstein once said that logic would take one from A to B, but imagination would take one everywhere. I could say something similar about how one interprets the Apocalypse. Scripture will take us from “A” to “B”, but imagination will take us everywhere. It seems to me that some folks really believe that, if they could imagine a thing to be true as an interpretation of the Apocalypse, then that thing **must** be so. Some of the places the commentaries take us in this book are really bizarre.
Moreover, even in our own day we certainly don’t seem to be in a short supply of newspaper exegetes. If a bomb explodes here or there’s an earthquake there, it must mean the world is coming to an end, and Jesus is already on his cloud that will take him to earth in so many days, months or, perhaps, in a year or two. It has been this way down through the 20 centuries (and counting), since Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, and it doesn’t appear as though things are going to change soon. This is nothing more than the evil fruit of eisegesis, i.e. making the text say what one’s imagination says is there, but is not.
According to Revelation 9:1, a fallen (G4098) star was given the keys to the bottomless pit. The verb, fall, is a perfect active participle and should be translated having fallen, not fall, as in the KJV. John saw a fallen star, not a star that was falling. According to verse-1, this ‘star’ was given the key to the pit of the abyss or to the bottomless pit. If this ‘fallen star’ is the same star we discovered in Revelation 8:10, then a Jewish leader (probably the high priest) was given the key to the pit of the abyss. So, whatever he did with the key would have affected the direction the nation as a whole took in the first century AD.
I believe the occasion of the fall of the star (Wormwood; cf. Revelation 8:10-11) was the imprisonment of Paul and the ensuing plots to have him slain. Moreover, the occasion of Paul being taken out of the way opened the door for an increase in persecution and intimidation toward the elect to leave Christ and return to Judaism (Acts 20:29-30; cf. James 1:1-3; 1Peter 1:1, 6-7; 4:12; 2Peter 2:9; Jude 1:3). It seems to me that these acts would have incurred national judgment, just as similar events in the past (cf. Acts 7:54-60) nearly brought the nation to war with Rome. Years earlier, Caligula wanted to erect a statue of himself in the Temple at Jerusalem.[1] The Jews were persecuting believers at that time, too, but they repented by stopping the persecution (Acts 9:31) before war with Rome could erupt. Nevertheless, repentance did not occur after Paul was imprisoned. In fact, the persecution didn’t end until the Jews were finally at war with Rome in 66 AD.
If someone had the key to the bottomless pit, would that mean he had the key to the grave? I don’t think so, because only the Lord has power to give life to one who is dead, or to give live to the yet unborn. No man or angelic spirit is able to take anyone out of the grave and give that one life, so that he could walk and breathe once again.
Therefore, simply because the star is given the key to the abyss (G12) could not indicate he had power over life and death. However, if the abyss in this case simply refers to existence or nonexistence, then a man could be given a “key” in order to bring forth something that existed at one time and “breathe new life” into it, so to speak. That is, that one wouldn’t have power over life, literally, but he may have power over something’s existence, such as a government that ceased to exist, but was suddenly brought back ‘from the grave’ (so to speak).
In the context of Revelation 9:1, I believe the key that was given the star must have something to do with bringing back into existence something that ceased to exist some time ago. That thing was not a living thing, but it functioned for or served living beings. For example, the Jewish state, as an independent nation ceased to exist in 6 AD when Rome took over the reins of governing the Jews. However, in 66 AD the Jewish state suddenly came back into existence! That might be understood as national independence arising out of the bottomless pit.
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[1] See my earlier studies: Caligula and Antiochus Epiphanies; What Is the Wrath to Come; and Who Is Theophilus.
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