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Word

ἄβυσσος

ábyssos · G12 · Greek · 9 occurrences

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Meanings

  1. abyss, abode of evil spirits, very deep place

    (A figurative extension of meaning of ἄβυσσος ‘pit,’ not occurring in the NT) A location of the dead and a place where the Devil is kept, the abode of the beast as the antichrist, and of Abaddon, as the angel of the underworld

    Examples

    Luke 8:31 And they were begging Him not to command them to go away into the abyss.

    Romans 10:7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

    Revelation 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him.

How it’s used In 2 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

After prepositionsPrepositional phrases

5 occurrences in 2 groups

In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive

4 occurrences in 3 groups

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

In the other Testament 1 word
תְּהוֹם tᵉhôwm · H8415 · ocean, great deep, spring
Hebrew תְּהוֹם denotes the primordial deep/watery abyss (Genesis 1:2, 7:11) and serves as the primary semantic source for Greek ἄβυσσος in LXX usage, with both terms referencing cosmic depth, subterranean waters, and (in NT apocalyptic context) the infernal abyss — a direct translation relationship across Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament.
Semantic domains 1 entry
Abyss, abode of evil spirits, very deep place1.20
This noun denotes the infernal deep, the abode of evil spirits, as in Revelation 9:1's account of the key to the shaft of the abyss being given to the fallen star.
Word family 6 words

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

ἄβυσσοςábyssos · G12βάθος báthos · G899 · depth, deep, deep place · 8×βαθύς bathýs · G901 · deep, extremely, exceedingly great · 4×βυθίζω bythízō · G1036 · to sink, to cause, to bring upon · 2×βαθύνω bathýnō · G900 · to make deep, to go deep · 1×βυθός bythós · G1037 · open sea, high sea, the deep · 1×
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon in classic Greek an adjective, (ος, (from ὁ βύσσος equivalent to βυθός), bottomless (so…
in classic Greek an adjective, (ος, (from ὁ βύσσος equivalent to βυθός), bottomless (so perhaps in Wis. 10:19), unbounded (πλοῦτος ἄβυσσος, Aeschylus, the Sept. (931) 950). in the Scriptures ἡ ἄβυσσος (the Sept. for תְּהום) namely, χώρα, the pit, the immeasurable depth, the abyss. Hence, of 'the deep' sea: Gen 1:2; Gen 7:11; Deut 8:7; Sir. 1:3 Sir. 16:18, etc.; of Orcus (a very deep gulf or chasm in the lowest parts of the earth: Psalm 70:20 ἐκ τῶν ἀβύσσων τῆς γῆς, Euripides, Phoen. 1632 (1605) ταρτάρου ἄβυσσα χάσματα, Clement of Rome, 1 Cor. 20, 5 [ET] ἀβύσσων ἀνεξιχνίαστα κλίματα, ibid. 59, 3 [ET] ὁ ἐπιβλέπων ἐν ταῖς ἀβύσσοις, of God; (Act. Thom.32ὁ τήν ἄβυσσον τοῦ ταρτάρου οἴκων, of the dragon)), both as the common receptacle of the dead, Rom 10:7, and especially as the abode of demons, Lk 8:31; Rev 9:1; Rev 9:11; Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:1, Rev 20:3. Among secular authors used as a substantive only by Diogenes Laërtius 4 (5) 27 κατῆλθες εἰς μέλαιναν Πλουτέως ἄβυσσον. Cf. Knapp, Scripta var. Arg., p. 554f; (J. G. Müller, Philo's Lehre von der Weltschöpfung, p. 173f; B. D. American edition under the word ).

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain

Topical studies with this word 1 entry
Regions Below the Surface of the Earth9 occurrences

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0

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