Tartarus, Greek mythology mingling with the Bible.

I do love me the slightly unusual and odd things in the Bible, and 2 Peter 2:4 is one of them.

The only time “Tartarus” was used in the Bible. Look at these three different translations.

• “For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;” (ASV)“

  
  

• "For if 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;” (KJV)“

  
  

• "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment:” (DRA)

Now, look at this section of the original Greek Scripture.

As we can see above, the word tartarōsas was used, not Tartarus. This is a verb vs noun situation. Tartarōsas is not a noun; the word tartarōsas is a verb, and it comes from the root word tartaroō, meaning “to cast, or thrust down to Tartarus or Gehenna” In English, we often visualize a purely physical/mental action that either took place or will take place, but we don’t generally consider it further.

We must keep in mind that we are translating from a different language, culture, and time period. This is a culture that utilized many different concepts than we use today, sentence structures, feelings, myths, and an understanding of their world, at that time.

We also need to look at all the properties of what a verb is. One of the missing properties of a verb in this particular situation is that a verb also expresses “a state of being."

Tartarōsas is not a physical place; that would be Tartarus. Let’s change our thinking for a few moments and entertain the idea that this was a “spiritual condition” or a “restraint” that God placed on the fallen angels rather than a physical place where they are physically, bodily chained up right now.

This is where I like to refer to it as they had their wings clipped. Simon Peter could have chosen any other word that was typically used to describe the hell we are aware of in Revelation, but he did not. Understanding Tartarus in the Bible means recognizing that Peter was describing a spiritual restraint rather than a physical underworld. We should sit for a moment and ponder that one.

© Jane Isley

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