In the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, the abyss is an unfathomably deep or boundless place. The term comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word ''abyssos'' (), meaning "deep, unfathomable, boundless". It is used as both an adjective and a noun. It appears in the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, which is the earliest Greek translation of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. It translates the Hebrew words '' tehóm'' (), ''ṣulā'' ( "sea-deep, deep flood") and the name of the

sea monster Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are of ...

rahab Rahab (; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible in Joshua 2:1-24, a Canaanite who resided within Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites by hiding two men who had been sent to scout the city before their attack. In the New Testam ...

'' ( "spacious place; rage, fierceness, insolence, pride.") The

Book of Jonah The Book of Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and an individual book in the Christian Old Testament where it has four chapters. The book tells of a Hebrew prophet named Jonah, son of Amitt ...

portrays the prophet's near death experience and his descent to the abyss. In the original sense of the Hebrew ''tehóm'', the abyss was the primordial waters or

chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Science, technology, and astronomy * '' Chaos: Making a New Science'', a 1987 book by James Gleick * Chaos (company), a Bulgarian rendering and simulation software company * ''Chaos'' (genus), a genus of amoebae * ...

out of which the ordered world was created (). The term could also refer literally to the depths of the sea, the deep source of a spring or the interior of the Earth. In a later extended sense in intertestamental

Jewish literature Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature ...

, the abyss was the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

, either the abode of the dead (''

Sheol Sheol ( ; ''Šəʾōl'', Tiberian: ''Šŏʾōl'') in the Hebrew Bible is the underworld place of stillness and darkness which is death. Within the Hebrew Bible, there are few—often brief and nondescript—mentions of Sheol, seemingly descri ...

'') or eventually the realm of the rebellious spirits ( fallen angels) (

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

). In the latter sense, specifically, the abyss was often seen as a prison for

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

s. This usage was picked up in the New Testament. According to the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...

, Jesus sent the Gadarene swine into the abyss ().

Paul of Tarsus Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

uses the term in when quoting , referring to the abode of the dead (cf. also ). The abyss is also referred to several times in the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

: it is the place out of which the locusts and beast from the sea come ( Revelation 9:1–11; Revelation 13:1;) and serves as a prison for the Seven-Headed Dragon during the Millennium (). In , "deep calls to deep" (referring to the waters), or in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''abyssus abyssum invocat'', developing the theme of the longing of the soul for God.

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...

relates this passage to the mutual witness of the two Testaments, the Old Testament foretelling the New, and the New Testament fulfilling the Old. In ,

Abaddon The Hebrew term Abaddon ( , meaning "destruction", "doom") and its Greek equivalent Apollyon (, ''Apollúōn'' meaning "Destroyer") appear in the Bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. In the Hebrew Bible, ''abaddon'' ...

is called "the angel of the abyss" and the place figures in the conclusion of history and God's final response to evil. '' On the Origin of the World'', a text used in

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...

, states that during the end of the world, the

archons ''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...

will be cast into the abyss by Sophia for their injustice. There they will fight each other until only the chief archon remains and turns against himself.

References

{{reflist The Beast (Revelation) Biblical cosmology Book of Revelation Chaos (cosmogony) Hebrew Bible words and phrases Jewish underworld Septuagint words and phrases Water and Christianity Water and Judaism

See also

References