The Abyss, The Bottomless Pit

As we move into Revelation 20 we are confronted by a strange symbolic anomaly, namely "the bottomless pit and a great chain." I say it is an anomaly, because the image is impossible to conceive. How can a pit be bottomless? That would suggest that it goes on forever and ever and ever and that the "dragon" and that "ancient serpent," also known as the devil and Satan are thrown into it. What is implied by this symbol of a pit with no bottom (the word is abyss) into which the dragon is thrown, with its cover sealed and locked by a great chain for a thousand years? How could a spirit being be constrained by something that seems to be physical?

Well, for one thing, the devil isn't going to get loose to do all the hideous things he'd like to do. His great power for evil is constrained and there is no limit to the constraints put upon him. The bottomless pit has been with us a number of other times in Revelation:

And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ... They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. - Rev 9:1-2, 11 ESV

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, - Rev 11:7 ESV

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. - Rev 17:8 ESV

You may want to review this blog's comments for those passages. Use search phrases: bottomless pit. Apollyon and the beast to locate them.  

Orc of Mordor

The Greeks and Romans had a couple similar images in their mythology. They spoke about Orcus and Tartarus.

Orcus started out as the god of the underworld. Then his name was given to the underworld itself, the land of the dead. The French word Ogre seems to be a variant form of this word. In Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy we learn about the race of Orcs who serve the great villains of the tale—Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman. Indeed Orcus also survives in many ways in astrology as the demon lord of the undead and all those who practise necromancy. One can find many references to him in various computer games as well.

Tartarus is a Greek word for the deep abyss, the dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and the prison for the Titans. It is as far below Hades—the place of the dead—as the earth is below the heavens. The New Testament preserves this image in the verb tartaroo, "throw down to Tartarus." So we read in 2 Peter 2:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; - 2Pe 2:4 ESV

There is also a reference to the dark chains that limit the power of the prince of darkness and his minions in the story of Jesus casting out the Gadarene's demons. The demons beg the LORD not to torment them before the time. So Jesus permits them to enter a herd of pigs and dive into the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 8:28-34; cf. also Jude 1:6).

These then are the only references to John's abyss. Both John and Peter borrow from the culture to describe with this word picture the "place" where or how the devil is confined until the thousand years are completed. He is not now free to roam the earth, but is constrained from the deep evil that he intends. When the thousand years end, says the Revelation, this dark lord will be freed for a time. But then God's final judgment will be carried out and all evil rebellion will cease (Rev. 20:7-10).