To understand Tartarus,
first one must understand the area
in which it is...
it is within what the Bible calls
SHEOL
Sheol is a place other than the graves in which the bodies of the dead are put.
It is the place where all the spirits of the dead resided until the death and resurrection of Jesus allowed the righteous spirits to depart paradise and go directly to heaven.
The wicked spirits of men and evil demons still are sent to this "sheol" to await judgment day.
Part of "Sheol" is called "Abraham's bosom..."
Luke 16:22
"And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom..."
This part of "Sheol" is also called "paradise"...
Luke 23:43
"Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise..."
Sheol is not the grave.
The proper word for "grave" is the Hebrew word "qeber-mnaymion".
That word is often translated "hell" and should not have been.
The Hebrew word "sheol" and the Greek word "hades"
should never be translated "grave".
"Sheol" is often translated "hell" incorrectly.
"Sheol" is from the Hebrew word "she-owl".
It refers to a "sub-terranean retreat, or underground place..."
　
Ezekiel 31:16-17
"I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall,
when I cast him down to hell (sheol)
with them that descend in the pit (bor);
and all the trees of Eden,
the choice and the best of Lebanon,
all that drink water,
shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth...
They also went down into hell (sheol)
with him unto them that be slain with the sword..."
Ezekiel 32:21, 27
"The strong among the mighty shall speak to him
out of the midst of hell (sheol)
with them that help him...
they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised,
which are gone down to hell (sheol)
with their weapons of war..."
"Sheol" is synonymous with "nether parts of the earth..."
It is referred to many times in the Bible.
Science has recently proven that the earth is too light to be solid. They know that inside the earth somewhere is a very large empty area... Many scientists know this as the "hollow earth theory." It is accepted by even un-Christian scientists, for most Christians have never been taught enough in depth to know about "sheol". This teaching is more scientific than the "W.I.M.P.S." (Weak, Ignorant, Mortified, Pew Sitters) who have ignorantly accepted the watered down, perverted, and adulterated teaching found in most Christian circles.
The entrance to "sheol" is "down".
Numbers 16:30-33
"...the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up... went down alive to the pit (sheol)... perished..."
Sheol is said to be in the "heart of the earth..."
Matthew 12:40
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth..."
Sheol is in the "lower parts of the earth...."
Ephesians 4:8-10
"When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive... also descended first into the lower parts of the earth..."
PARTS OF
THE PLACE CALLED "SHEOL"
1. Hell
This is the torment part of "sheol". It is in the lowest part of sheol.
　
Deuteronomy 32:32
"... a fire is kindled... shall burn unto the lowest hell (sheol)..."
Psalms 86:13
"...Thou hast delivered My soul from the lowest hell (sheol)..."
Proverbs 9:18
"her guests are in the depths of hell (sheol)..."
The spirits of the wicked are tormented in the hell-fire in this lowest part of sheol.
Luke 16:19-31
"...certain rich man... beggar named Lazarus... in hell (hades) he (the rich man) lifted up his eyes being in torment..."
Psalms 9:17
"...the wicked shall be turned into hell..."
The fire in the lowest part of sheol is literal.
Deuteronomy 32:22
"...a fire is kindled... shall burn unto the lowest hell (sheol)..."
Everyone in this hell-fire of the lowest part of sheol, shall be brought out and judged at the great White Throne judgment. Then, with their resurrected, immortal bodies, they will be cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:4-15
"...rest of the dead lived not again until the 1000 years were finished... the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened... death and hell were cast into the lake of fire..."
2. THE ABYSS, PIT,
BOTTOMLESS PIT, TARTARUS
This place is a prison for angels.
It is somewhat a place of temporary mercy...
for they are not thrown into hell, or the lake of fire,
but into a place of darkness.
The truth of this place was perverted down through the ages, and finally wound up as the false doctrine of "purgatory." There is no such place as "purgatory" for the spirits of "not-so-perfect" humans to go and to await being prayed out of... No, but there is an "abyss" into which wicked, disobedient spirits await judgment day, wherein they will go to a greater punishment.
It is located under the earth, within sheol.
II Peter 2:4
"For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell (tartarus),
and delivered them into chains of darkness
to be reserved unto judgment."
It is a place of darkness.
Jude 6-7
"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. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, 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."
I
nstead of "abyss", Peter (in II Peter 2:4), used the word "tartarus".
He borrowed this word from Greek writings.
They used the word "tartarus"
to refer to a place in the lower earth where the so-called "TITANS" (giants) were cast when they lost.
Evil angels and wicked spirits are bound
in sheol in this part called "abyss, tartarus,"
and sometimes called the "pit".
In fact, some of the spirits of the half human, half angelic, and gigantic, beings that are mentioned in Genesis... are bound in this abyss.
　
　
Proverbs 9:18
"Knoweth not the dead (actually the word - rephaim, referring to these half human, half angelic giants) that are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell (sheol)..."
Isaiah 26:14
"... they (Rephaim) are deceased, they shall not rise (they shall never be resurrected), thou hast visited and destroyed them..."
Genesis 6:1-4 tells us that there were giants in the world in those days. They were the result of fallen angels co-habiting with women of this earth.
The giants born were an attempt of the devil to defile the seed of woman which was to bring forth a Messiah... God destroyed these giant beings in the flood, and the spirits of such are not all human, and therefore not subject to the possibility of salvation through the undefiled Seed of woman, i.e. Jesus.
　
In the large open, i.e. hollow, area of sheol, there is hell-fire in the middle, with Eden and paradise on the outer shell...
In the middle of these two areas is the open area called the abyss.
The abyss has equal gravity pulling in all directions, and therefore is seemingly
a "bottomless" pit. It is the "great gulf" (Luke 16)
mentioned in the story of the rich man and Lazarus...
and is described therein as being between hell-fire and paradise.
Looking up from the inner shell of sheol, one would see hell-fire as we would see the sun as we looked up.
Dark, black clouds orbit about this sun-like hell-fire...
In these dark clouds of the area between paradise and hell-fire are the bound spirits of some fallen angels, and some wicked demonic beings who were disobedient, and some of the spirits of the half human, half angelic beings of Genesis 6:1-4. They are chained, bound, in this bottomless abyss.
3. ABRAHAM'S BOSOM, PARADISE, EDEN
Part of sheol is called "Abraham's bosom". Abraham's bosom was a phrase used by the Jews to refer to paradise. It is called paradise in Luke 23:43. It is located in the lower parts of the earth. Jesus told His disciples that He would be in the "heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights", and then He told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him "in paradise". Jesus also preached to "spirits in prison..." and took those "captive" in that place to heaven with Him when He ascended (Ephesians 4:8-10).