The Oxford dictionary defines the word Abyss as: a hole so deep that it appears bottomless. And that is exactly how the King James Version of the Bible in Revelation 9:1 renders the Greek word ‘abussos.’ It calls it, the Bottomless Pit or the deep. Other translators render ‘abussos’ as the Abyss.
Strong’s concordance explains abussos as follows:
12 abussos {ab’-us-sos}
AV – bottomless pit 5, deep 2, bottomless 2; Total: 9
1) bottomless
2) unbounded
3) the abyss
3a) the pit
3b) the immeasurable depth
3c) of Orcus, a very deep gulf or chasm in the lowest parts of the earth used as the common receptacle of the dead and especially as the abode of demons.
To identify the Bottomless Pit (the Abyss) is important to say the least; for it is from there that the Antichrist comes. Failure to identify the Abyss has led to much confusion.
We will rely on the Scriptures to find out. When we do this we discover that the Greek word ‘abussos‘ is translated in the King James Bible as the “Bottomless Pit” or in Luke’s gospel as “the deep.” In Luke’s account we are given an important clue about the Abyss. We find that it is a kind of spirit penitentiary, a prison which evil angels dread.
Luke 8:26-33 (Mark 5:1-20 – Matthew 8:28:34)
26 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
27 And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
28 When he saw Jesus (Yeshua), he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus (Yeshua), thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
29 (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For often times it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
30 And Jesus (Yeshua) asked him, saying, what is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss.
32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.
33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
Similar information is given by Apostles Peter and Jude who also wrote of this dungeon where evil spirits are held captive. These evil angels are confined in the Abyss for committing sexual sins similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrha.
Jude 1:6-7
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Evan as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
2 Peter 2:4
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Revelation 9:1-3
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the abyss.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Revelation 9:11
11 And they had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in Greek his name is Apollyon.
Revelation 11:7
7 And when they complete their testimony, the beast coming up out of the abyss will make war against them and will overcome them and kill them.
Revelation 17:8
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend out of the abyss and go into perdition. And those dwelling on the earth will marvel, those whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 20:1-3
1 And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.
3 And he cast him into the abyss and shut him up and set a seal on him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little time.
Luke 8:31
And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep – In the Chaldaic philosophy, mention is made of certain material demons, who are permitted to wander about on the earth, and are horribly afraid of being sent into abysses and subterranean places. Psellus says, De Daemonibus: “These material demons fearing to be sent into abysses, and standing in awe of the angels who send them thither, if even a man threaten to send them thither and pronounce the names of those angels whose office that is, it is inexpressible how much they will be affrighted and troubled. So great will their astonishment be, that they cannot discern the person that threatens them. And though it be some old woman or little old man that menaces them, yet so great is their fear that they depart as if the person who menaces had a power to kill them.” See Stanley’s Chaldaic Philosophy.