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This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
An abyss (Greek αβυσσος = "having no bottom", "bottomless") is a bottomless depth or deep place. In biblical literature the word is usually used to refer to a pit; to the underworld; to the deepest ocean floor; or to hell.
From the late popular Latin abyssimus (superlative of abyssus), through French abisme (nowadays abîme) came the poetic form "abysm", used in 1616 and earlier to rhyme with "time". Greek αβυσσος and its meaning may have arisen as a Greekized form of Sumerian Abzu (Akkadian = Apsu), meaning "deep waters" (Sumerian ab = "water", zu = "far").
The Book of Revelation relates that the destroying angel shall arise out of the abyss during the end times.(Rev. 9:11)
In the Greek version of the Old Testament the word represents both the original chaos (Genesis 1:2) and the Hebrew tehom ("a surging water-deep"), which is used also in apocalyptic and kabbalistic literature and in the New Testament for hell; the place of punishment; in the Revised (not the Authorized) version of the Bible "abyss" is generally used for this idea. Primarily in the Septuagint cosmography the word is applied both to the waters under the earth which originally covered it, and from which the springs and rivers are supplied and to the waters of the firmament which were regarded as closely connected with those below.
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