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John the revelator is the only biblical writer to use the term "Bottomless Pit", which he mentions six times. Before this concept was introduced to the New Testament, it had been written about in the Book of Enoch as an "Abyss" of punishment, "which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it." (Enoch 18:12, Charles)
This Abyss or Bottomless Pit, will play a part in future events; in the Book of Revelation it is a prison, a place of punishment and a place from which some of earth's future troubles are to arise as in Revelation chapter 9.
I've started wondering if the first mention of the biblical Bottomless Pit, the Abyss, might be in Genesis chapter 1.
In most of our English rendereings of the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:2, it runs something like this, "and darkness was over the face of the deep". In the Septuagint the Jewish translators translated this passage from the Hebrew into Greek like this, "and darkness was over the abyss" (New English Translation of the Septuagint). If this is right, it would be an indicator that this earthbound place of spiritual punishment was created right from the beginning.
The surface of our earth is pock-marked with abysses some of which are man-made, and others which are naturally occuring. I believe all can be viewed as visual examples of the earth's ability to sustain and sometimes conceal deep holes, and serve as visual images on a smaller scale of what the opening to the biblical Abyss (aka Bottomless Pit) might be like.
Something we can observe from the behavior of sinkholes is for millenia the earth can sustain huge holes in its mantle which are not visible from its surface. Without notice, these can open up and wreak havok.
The sinning angels in the Book of Enoch were placed in the Abyss and its opening was subsequently covered over thus obscurring its location; Enoch 10:4-5, "Bind Azazal hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dûdâêl, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light." (Charles)
I believe this is the same Abyss referred to by John in Revelation 9:1-11, "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. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
"In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 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." (ESV)
In the Book of Jubilees, God imprisons many demons, (not the same thing as fallen angels), in the Abyss. In the Gospel of Luke, a legion of demons beg Jesus "not to command them to depart into the Abyss."
Taken together, the history of the Bottomless Pit can be viewed in the following seven stages:
1. Created empty per The Book of Genesis
2. Becomes prison for sinning angels per The Book of Enoch
3. Becomes prison for a portion of the demons per The Book of Jubilees and The Gospel of Luke
4. Opened to release demons, evil angels and the Beast per The Book of Revelation
5. Becomes prison for Satan per The Book of Revelation
6. Opened to release Satan per The Book of Revelation
7. Its remaining residents thrown into the Hell of fire per The Books of Enoch and Revelation
This Abyss or Bottomless Pit, will play a part in future events; in the Book of Revelation it is a prison, a place of punishment and a place from which some of earth's future troubles are to arise as in Revelation chapter 9.
I've started wondering if the first mention of the biblical Bottomless Pit, the Abyss, might be in Genesis chapter 1.
In most of our English rendereings of the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:2, it runs something like this, "and darkness was over the face of the deep". In the Septuagint the Jewish translators translated this passage from the Hebrew into Greek like this, "and darkness was over the abyss" (New English Translation of the Septuagint). If this is right, it would be an indicator that this earthbound place of spiritual punishment was created right from the beginning.
The surface of our earth is pock-marked with abysses some of which are man-made, and others which are naturally occuring. I believe all can be viewed as visual examples of the earth's ability to sustain and sometimes conceal deep holes, and serve as visual images on a smaller scale of what the opening to the biblical Abyss (aka Bottomless Pit) might be like.
Guatemalan Sinkhole
Something we can observe from the behavior of sinkholes is for millenia the earth can sustain huge holes in its mantle which are not visible from its surface. Without notice, these can open up and wreak havok.
The sinning angels in the Book of Enoch were placed in the Abyss and its opening was subsequently covered over thus obscurring its location; Enoch 10:4-5, "Bind Azazal hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dûdâêl, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light." (Charles)
I believe this is the same Abyss referred to by John in Revelation 9:1-11, "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. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
"In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 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." (ESV)
In the Book of Jubilees, God imprisons many demons, (not the same thing as fallen angels), in the Abyss. In the Gospel of Luke, a legion of demons beg Jesus "not to command them to depart into the Abyss."
Taken together, the history of the Bottomless Pit can be viewed in the following seven stages:
1. Created empty per The Book of Genesis
2. Becomes prison for sinning angels per The Book of Enoch
3. Becomes prison for a portion of the demons per The Book of Jubilees and The Gospel of Luke
4. Opened to release demons, evil angels and the Beast per The Book of Revelation
5. Becomes prison for Satan per The Book of Revelation
6. Opened to release Satan per The Book of Revelation
7. Its remaining residents thrown into the Hell of fire per The Books of Enoch and Revelation
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