Abyss

The Abyss (Greek abyssos, "bottomless" or "unfathomable depth") designates in the NT and Jewish apocalyptic literature the place of imprisonment for demons and fallen angels — the netherworld as a prison of spiritual forces opposed to God. In the LXX, abyssos translates the Hebrew tehom (the deep, the primordial waters of creation, Gen. 1:2), and in some passages refers to the depths of the sea (Ps. 107:26; Jon. 2:3). In the NT, the abyss takes on a more specifically eschatological character. The demons who possessed the Gerasene/Gadarene man pleaded with Jesus "not to command them to depart into the abyss" (Luke 8:31), indicating it as a place of restrained judgment. In Revelation, the abyss is a sealed prison from which the demonic army of the fifth trumpet emerges under Abaddon/Apollyon (Rev. 9:1–11); it is the domain from which the beast ascends (Rev. 11:7; 17:8); and it is the place into which Satan is cast and sealed for the millennium before his final release (Rev. 20:1–3). Paul uses the term in Romans 10:7 (quoting Deut. 30:13) for the depths of the sea or the realm of the dead. The abyss is thus a liminal concept — the boundary between the created order and the realm of imprisoned spiritual powers awaiting final judgment.