The Bottomless Pit

THE UNFOLDING OF THE AGES

By Ford C. Ottman

            (Editor’s note: These are his comments on Revelation 9:1).

            The woe-trumpets bring to pass the full and final development of evil introduced by the apostate star of the third. The perversion of truth through embittering the fountains of life culminates in a general apostasy. Men everywhere are given up to “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.”

            The “star” of the fifth trumpet is seen, not to fall, but as already fallen, and there is given to him “the key to the abyss.” The Greek word, which in the common version is translated “bottomless,” is literally the “abyss.” It is the word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to express the “deep” of the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the abyss.” The legion of demons, before being cast out of the demoniac of Gadara, besought Jesus, “that he would not command them to go out into the deep” (Luke 8:31). The word for “deep” in the Greek is “abyss,” and it here seems to indicate a place of torment dreaded by the demons. The same word is used by Paul in the epistle to the Romans: “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)” (Rom. 10:6-7). The word translated “deep” is literally the abyss, and in this passage evidently means the place into which the dead are gone. The king of the demons is called the “angel of abyss”: but, before speaking of him, let us, if possible, discover what Scripture intends to convey to us by this word abyss. If, as Paul clearly intimates, this be the place of departed spirits, the question still remains, Is it the same as Hades? It might also be asked, Is it the same place as “tartarus” into which the angels that sinned are cast, and “delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment”? (II Pet. 2:4).

            In Greek mythology tartarus was the lower part, or the abyss of Hades, where the spirits of wicked men were imprisoned and tormented. Hades, as we have already seen, was a place to which, prior to the resurrection of Christ, the disembodied spirits of all men, good and bad, were alike consigned. The righteous were separated from the evil by a great chasm (Luke 16:26). May not this chasm suggest that there is, in all reality, lower down than Hades itself, a pit of woe to which the fallen angels are delivered? Is it not also that place of torment from which the demons besought exemption for a time?

            The “beast” of the seventeenth chapter is spoken of as ascending “out of the bottomless pit,” that is, out of the pit of the abyss. Satan is cast into the abyss and confined there for a thousand years during the Millennial reign of Christ (Rev. 20:3). These passages set before us the New Testament usage of the word. The corresponding Hebrew word is found more frequently, and is usually translated “deep” or “depth.” At the time of the deluge, “the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened”; and when the flood was over, “the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped” (Gen. 7:11; 8:2). Here evidently there is a distinction between “the fountains of the deep,” and “the windows of heaven.”

            In Jacob’s last prophecy Joseph is given promise of “blessings of heaven above,” and “blessings of the deep that lieth under” (Gen. 49:25). These blessings of the deep, here spoken of as accruing to Joseph, evidently testify to the acquired glories of Christ, won by His descent into the realms of death.

            Of similar import are the last words of Moses concerning Joseph: “Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath” (Deut. 33:13). “The abyss that coucheth beneath” is again seen to come under the hand of Joseph for blessing.

            In the song of Moses the word is depth (Ex. 15:5-8).

            When the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, He said: “The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen” (Job 38:30). The revised version gives “cohereth,” as alternative of “frozen.” May not the face of the abyss speak of the frowning doors of this dungeon?

            In the thirty-sixth Psalm we read: “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep” (Ps. 36:6). The “deep” again is the abyss, which is nevertheless opened to the searching judgment of God.

            In the misery of a soul separated from God, the Psalmist says in another place: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me” (Ps. 42:7). It is the same ominous word, ---abyss.

            In Psalms 135:6 we read: “Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places” ---literally, “all places of the abyss.” Here there is evidently a distinction between the sea, and that which lies deeper than the sea.

            In Proverbs 3:20; Ps. 78:15; 104:6; 106:9; and 107:26, the sea alone seems to be intended.

            In the final summons to praise Jehovah, found in the one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm, response is demanded not only from “the earth”; but from “the dragons, and all deeps.”

          In the eighth chapter of Proverbs, which manifestly enough refers to Christ, we read: “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when  he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: When he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men” (Prov. 8:23-31). In this passage we again  have the abyss in contrast with the sea.

            In two places in Isaiah, (51:10 and 63:13), the prophet appears to use the word exclusively of the sea.

            In his prophecy of the fall of Tyrus Ezekiel says: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee; When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living” (Ezek. 26:19-20). Here the abyss, and the “great waters” are in contrast, and the dungeon into which Satan is to be cast is once more before us. Again this same prophet, speaking of the grim figure of the “Assyrian” that is to have so prominent a place in the last days, says: “The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high” (Ezek. 31:4). Here again the waters, and the abyss, are not the same. The nations of the earth combine with the dwellers in the abyss to make the Assyrian great. Though thus raised up, he shall be blasted, as the prophet assures us, and “cast. . .down to hell with them that descend into the pit” (Ezek. 31:16).

            Amos speaks of the fires of judgment devouring the great deep (Amos 7:4).

            In the glorious vision of Habakkuk, where the coming of the Lord is put before us, the prophet says: “The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high” (Hab. 3:10). Everything is seen to bow to him, “of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth”; even the abyss itself, lifting up its voice, and extending its hands to God.

            These appear to be all the Old Testament passages in which the Hebrew word corresponding to the Greek word “abyss” is found. Taking them together we may assume with reasonable confidence that they speak generally of a dungeon, or prison of God.

            Isaiah says: “The Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited” (Isa. 24:21-22). The “pit” is plainly a lower part, or dungeon of the abyss, into which Satan and his allies are to be cast to await their judgment at the close of the Millennium.

            “Hades,” or “sheol,” is that compartment of the abyss to which are consigned the disembodied spirits of the wicked dead. The “pit” is apparently a deeper dungeon where the rebel angels are confined. The word “abyss” is the more comprehensive term, indicating the whole region of the lost from which, as already noted, the demons, in the days of our Lord, besought exemption until the fixed time of their torment. The fallen angels, confined somewhere in it, are fettered with “chains of darkness”; from which there shall be no escape until the time of their final doom. Satan is not there yet. demons, though not all of them, are there: and the pit in which they are confined is opened by “the fallen star” in order to give them temporary freedom.

            (The Unfolding Ages in the Revelation of John, pp. 211-216, 1905 edition).