Deep

The deep (tehom in Hebrew, abyssos in Greek) in Scripture denotes both the primordial watery abyss and the realm of the dead or demonic powers. In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep before creation began. The same term describes the flood waters (Genesis 7:11, "the fountains of the great deep"). In the New Testament, abyssos (the abyss) refers to the domain of demons (Luke 8:31; Romans 10:7) — the vast depth from which there is no return, and the place to which the dragon will be confined during the millennium (Revelation 20:3). The Psalms use the deep as an image of extreme distress and divine rescue (Psalm 69:15; 88:6). The biblical deep thus combines cosmological, hydrological, and theological meanings under a single potent image of unfathomable depth beyond human reach.