Tartarus
*Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references in this article are from the old King James translation. Using this translation best suits the purposes of this article.
The New Testament of the old King James Version (K.J.V.) translation translates three different Greek words as “hell.” These three words are hades, gehenna, and tartarus. These completely different Greek words being translated as the one English word “hell” has caused untold confusion. This study will identify and describe that place that is called tartarus.
The New Testament Greek speaks of tartarus just one time.
There are many instances where the Bible uses the word “hell.” There is only one instance, however, where the “hell” spoken of would be that place that is called tartarus in the Greek. That one instance is 2 Peter 2:4. In the K.J.V., that verse says: “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” The word “hell” translates the Greek word tartaroo. Tartaroo is the verb form of the noun tartarosas. The English version of tartarosas is tartarus.
Tartarus is the same place as “the bottomless pit” and “the deep.”
Tartarus goes by two other names in the Bible. First, it is also called “the bottomless pit.” The term “the bottomless pit” occurs seven times in the K.J.V. (Revelation 9:1; 9:2; 9:11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1; and 20:3). In these verses, the original Greek uses the word abussos. This word combines a (intensive) with bussos (a depth). Putting the two thoughts together, abussos is defined as “an intensive depth.” From that, the translators of the K.J.V. phrased the noun “bottomless pit.” We get our English word “abyss” from this Greek word abussos.
Second, tartarus is also called “the deep.” In two places the translators of the K.J.V. translated the Greek word abussos as “the deep” (Luke 8:31 and Romans 10:7). As with the verses that translate abussos as “bottomless pit,” the term “the deep” conveys the idea of an intensive depth.
Tartarus is a place exclusively for the imprisonment of fallen angels.
Tartarus (the bottomless pit, the deep) at no time holds the souls of any human beings. Tartarus is exclusively for the holding of fallen angels. The K.J.V. refers to fallen angels as “demons,” “devils,” “unclean spirits,” or “spirits.” Fallen angels know of tartarus and fear the place (Luke 8:31).
Certain fallen angels are right now imprisoned in tartarus.
The Bible is very clear about the fact that certain fallen angels are right now imprisoned in tartarus. There are three passages that deal with this subject. First, 2 Peter 2:4 speaks of “angels that sinned.” Concerning these angels, the verse says that God “cast them down to hell (tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” Second, Jude 6 speaks of “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” That verse says that God has reserved these angels in “everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Third, Revelation 9:1-12 describes “locusts” that will be released from the bottomless pit in the coming tribulation period. These “locusts” are fallen angels. Revelation 9:11 clarifies their identity. It says: “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit.” These “locusts” having a king shows that they aren’t literal locusts (Proverbs 30:27).
These currently imprisoned angels are the infamous “sons of God.”
The Bible teaches that one-third of all angels rebelled against God and subsequently “fell” from their standing with God (Revelation 12:3-4). We know the leader of this group of rebellious angels as Satan. We know the rest of these angels as “demons,” “devils,” or “unclean spirits.”
Most people believe that God has imprisoned Satan and the other fallen angels in “hell.” This belief is very wrong. Satan and the other now unholy angels were never banished to any kind of “hell.” Much to the contrary, they, like all of the still holy angels, continue to have access to this earth. The pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts are filled with instances of demon-possession. All of these instances show that the unholy angels still have access to this earth and are not imprisoned in any kind of “hell.” Furthermore, Satan himself doesn't just have access to this earth (Genesis 3:1-15; Job 1:7; Job 2:2; Matthew 4:1-11; John 13:26-27; 1 Peter 5:8), he even has some kind of limited access to God’s presence in heaven (Job 1:6; Job 2:1).
The fact that the unholy angels are not imprisoned in “hell” is further evidenced by Ephesians 6:12. The K.J.V. of that verse says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” The terms “principalities,” “powers,” “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” and “spiritual wickedness in high places” all refer to fallen angels. Humans couldn’t very well be wrestling against fallen angels if all those fallen angels were imprisoned in “hell.”
Understanding this, the question becomes: “What sinful angels does 2 Peter 2:4 speak of?” The verse says that 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.” Obviously the “sin” these angels committed was not the general “sin” of rebellion that all the fallen angels committed. If that had been the case, then all the rebellious angels would have been cast down to tartarus and delivered into chains of darkness. But all those angels didn’t experience that.
The answer to the question is, the imprisoned angels are the “sons of God” who are mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4. That passage gives us the story of a certain group of fallen angels called “the sons of God.” In the Old Testament, the term “sons of God” refers to angels (Job 1:6; Job 2:1). These particular “sons of God” married human wives, had sexual relations with those wives, and actually produced children by those wives. It has been wrongly taught that these children became giants. Actually, the passage says they became “mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” The Bible doesn’t specify how a sexual union between a fallen angel and a human woman could take place. Neither does it elaborate on how such a sexual union could produce a child. Perhaps the best way to understand the passage is to think of these fallen angels as demon-possessing the bodies of human men. This would give them the male “seed” to impregnate a woman.
In the K.J.V., Jude 6 says these angels “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” The New American Standard translation gives a more literal rendering of the original Greek of the verse. It says they “did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode.” It should be noted that these angels were not cast out of their proper abode. They abandoned (left) it. This isn’t talking about these angels being forcibly cast out of heaven. This is talking about them voluntarily leaving the place they were supposed to be. They refused to remain with the other holy and unholy angels in the angelic domain of this earth. Instead, they abandoned their proper abode, entered into the realm of humans, took up continual residence there, married human women, and somehow produced human (not angelic) children. All of this was the “sin” of these angels.
For this sin, God judged those angels once more. He cast them down to tartarus and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. Now they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. We might say that this group of angels “fell” twice. Their first “fall” took place when they initially rebelled against God and became unholy angels. Their second “fall” took place when they committed the sin that is described in Genesis 6:1-4.
After Christ’s death, He visited tartarus.
Romans 10:6-7 is a very interesting passage. In the K.J.V., those verses say: “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this way, 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.)” It is highly significant that the word translated in this passage as “the deep” is abussos. This is a very specific word that describes a very specific place. In inspiring the writing of the Bible, God could have used the word hades or gehenna here, but He didn’t. He purposely used the word abussos (the deep, the bottomless pit, tartarus) in reference to Christ being brought up from the dead.
With this thought in mind, one should then read 1 Peter 3:18-20. The K.J.V. of those verses says: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
The correct interpretation of these verses depends upon the correct answering of two questions. First, “Where did Jesus do this preaching?” Second, “Who were these spirits in prison that He preached to?”
One interpretation could be that the place was hades and the spirits in prison were the souls in hades. During all of the days prior to Christ’s resurrection and subsequent ascension, the soul of each deceased person went to hades at the moment of bodily death. This means that Christ’s own soul went to hades at the moment of His death. This fact is proven by Acts 2:27. The K.J.V. of that verse says: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” The Greek word translated there as “hell” is hades. Clearly, Christ’s soul went to hades at the moment of His physical death. Is hades, then, the prison that he went to, and were the spirits that He preached to the souls in hades?
No, hades was not the prison, and, no, the souls in hades were not the spirits. There are at least three problems with this interpretation. First, the interpretation doesn’t account for Romans 10:7, which puts Christ in tartarus. Second, even though the souls in the torment section of hades could be described as being in “prison,” that certainly couldn’t be said of the souls in the bliss section of hades. Third, it is very awkward to describe human souls as “spirits.” So, yes, Jesus (in soul) spent some time in hades at his death, but that wasn’t where He did this preaching to the spirits in prison.
A second possible interpretation is that the prison was gehenna and the spirits were fallen angels in gehenna. This interpretation is easily dismissed. First, the Bible at no time puts Jesus in gehenna. Second, at the time of Christ’s death, gehenna had no occupants to listen to preaching. Even now, gehenna has no occupants.
A third possible interpretation is that these spirits in prison were actually the souls in the torment section of hades, and Jesus did His preaching to these people while they were alive on earth in the days of Noah. Under this interpretation, Jesus would have preached to them through Noah as Noah spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit. This interpretation also has problems. First, it doesn’t account for Romans 10:7 using the specific Greek word abussos (the deep, the bottomless pit, tartarus). Second, such an interpretation has been used by some to justify the wrong belief that it is possible to accept Christ after death.
A fourth interpretation seems to be the one that best covers all aspects of the situation. Using this interpretation, the prison Jesus went to was tartarus. This lines up squarely with Romans 10:7. The "spirits" He preached to were the “sons of God” imprisoned in tartarus. This perfectly fits with the fact that the most common New Testament use of the word “spirits” involves angels (Matthew 8:16; 12:45; Luke 10:20; 11:26).
So, putting the entire line of thought together, at Christ’s death His spirit went to God the Father (Luke 23:46; Ecclesiastes 3:21; 12:7; James 2:26), His body went to the grave, and His soul went to hades (Acts 2:27). At some point after that, Jesus, in soul, went to tartarus. He went there for the purpose of preaching to “the sons of God” imprisoned there. This “preaching” was not the preaching of the gospel. It was, instead, His proclamation of victory over them. It was preaching along the lines of what is described in Colossians 2:15, which says in the K.J.V.: “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
The “sons of God” will one day be temporarily freed from tartarus.
Revelation 9:1-12 describes certain days that will occur in the coming tribulation period. The passage says that during these days the bottomless pit (tartarus) will be opened. This will free the fallen angels (“locusts”) that are imprisoned in there. These “sons of God” will then go out and torment people of the earth for five months.
A certain demon from tartarus will possess the Antichrist.
The book of The Revelation first introduces the Antichrist as being a rider on a white horse (Revelation 6:1-2). He symbolically has a bow (with no arrow) and a crown. The bow with no arrow speaks of the fact that the Antichrist will initially be a man of peace. The crown speaks of the conquering that he will be able to accomplish through peace. This pictures the Antichrist at the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period.
Significantly, however, Revelation’s next description of the Antichrist depicts him as a “beast” (Revelation 13:1-10). This describes him three and a half years into the Tribulation period. Revelation then continues to depict him as a “beast” on up through the end of the Tribulation period. In light of this, the question should be asked, “What turns this human conqueror into a beastly dictator the likes of which this world has never seen?”
The answer is found in events that occur at the midway point of the Tribulation period. At that midway point, Satan and the other fallen angels wage a new war in heaven and lose again (Revelation 12:7-8). Following this loss, Satan and the other fallen angels greatly intensify their work down on earth (Revelation 12:9-12). One example of this is Satan’s renewed and energized persecution of the Jews (Revelation 12:1-6; 12:13-17). This persecution lasts for three and a half years (Revelation 12:6, in Bible prophecy one year equals 360 days).
A second example of this intensified work involves the Antichrist. At that midway point of the Tribulation period, it seems that the Antichrist will literally be possessed by one of the fallen angels that is currently imprisoned in tartarus. Both Revelation 11:7 and 17:8 call the Antichrist “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit.” Since the Antichrist will be a human, something significant is obviously being described in these passages. It would seem that midway through the Tribulation period the Antichrist will be demon-possessed by a fallen angel that comes up out of the bottomless pit.
Not coincidentally, he changes in behavior after this demon-possession. Daniel 9:26-27 calls the Antichrist “the prince that shall come,” and tells us that the Antichrist will make a seven-year covenant (peace treaty) with Israel (“week” translates the Hebrew word sabua, which literally means “seven”). This seven-year treaty is the “clock” of the tribulation period. However, in the middle of this seven years, the Antichrist will stop the Jews from offering up their offerings in their temple, a temple that will be built in the future. The Antichrist will then erect an image to himself in the Jewish temple and command the worship of that image. Jesus called this act “the abomination of desolation” and warned that the days that followed it would be the worst days this world has ever seen (Matthew 24:15-22). During these days, the Antichrist will also institute a program of buying and selling that involves “the mark of the beast” (Revelation 13:11-18). All of this is evidence of his demon-possession.
Every fallen angel will be imprisoned in tartarus during Christ’s thousand-year reign upon this earth.
The Tribulation period closes with Christ's Second Coming to this earth. Jesus, with His followers, descends down from heaven, slays the armies of the world at Armageddon, and casts the Antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire (Revelation 16:12-16; 19:11-21). He then has a holy angel lay hold of Satan, chain him, and cast him into the bottomless pit (tartarus). Satan remains imprisoned in tartarus for one thousand years while Jesus reigns upon this earth during those years (Revelation 20:1-6). After the one thousand years are finished, Satan is then released from tartarus and mounts one last revolt against God. He loses again and is finally banished to eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-10).
It is important to understand that Satan will have company in tartarus for those one thousand years of Christ’s earthly reign. The New Testament teaches this in Matthew 8:28-29 and Luke 8:26-31. These passages describe an instance where a group of demons wondered if Jesus had come to torment them before “the time” (the coming time of their incarceration in tartarus) and begged Him not to cast them into “the deep” (tartarus).
As for the Old Testament, it teaches this same thing in Isaiah 24:21-22, verses which speak of the end of the tribulation period. In the K.J.V., they say: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in prison, and after many days they shall be visited (released).” “The host of the high ones that are on high” refers to angels. The “pit” refers to tartarus. “After many days they (the host of the high ones) shall be released” refers to the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign. This passage shows that all of the unholy angels will be imprisoned in tartarus during that reign. They will all then be released from tartarus at the end of that reign, take part in Satan’s final revolt, and join him for all eternity in the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41).
Tartarus has a key to it.
Just as hades has gates and a key to the gates (Matthew 16:18; Revelation 1:18, “hell” translates hades), tartarus also has a key to it (Revelation 9:1). Some Greek scholars say that the original Greek of Revelation 9:1 conveys the idea of a “shaft” which leads down to tartarus. This shaft isn’t tartarus, but it does serve as the only way in and out of tartarus.
Tartarus is somewhere in the heart of this earth.
Like hades, tartarus is somewhere in the heart of planet earth. Revelation 9:1-3 makes this clear. Of course, the eternal prison for Satan and the other fallen angels will be gehenna. Gehenna doesn’t seem to be a part of this earth.