What Does Revelation 20:1 Mean in the King James?
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The supposedly bottomless abyss is pictured with a key and chain in a messenger’s hand: its depth is real, but it is not sovereign.
THE MEANING
You meet the abyss here as a real depth, yet not as a self-ruling power: its key and great chain are in a messenger’s hand. What feels bottomless is still approached through a threshold, with access and restraint under authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the deepest darkness lies beyond every boundary: the scene places its key and chain in a messenger’s hand.
THE ROOT
κλεῖδα
kleída
GROWS FROM
κλει-
Shut, close.
The root centers on shutting, so the key carries authority to close a passage as well as open it. Beside the chain, it makes the abyss a controlled threshold.
ALSO GROWS
kleíō: To shut or close.
κλείω
The key’s root points to the power to close access to the abyss.
kleistós: Closed, shut.
κλειστός
This branch echoes the possibility of a passage being secured.
ἄβυσσος
ábyssos depth without
GROWS FROM
βυθ-
Depth, deep; the prefix ἀ- marks absence.
“bottomless pit” in this verse is ábyssos depth without. Ἄβυσσος joins ἀ- (“without”) to the word for depth, presenting a depth without a bottom. Yet this verse gives that depth a key and a chain: “bottomless” describes its scale, not an absence of authority.
ALSO GROWS
bythós: Depth, the deep.
βυθός
It exposes the depth-word contained in the image of the abyss.
bythízō: To sink or plunge.
βυθίζω
This branch carries the motion of descending into depth, sharpening the abyss’s force as a real place of depth.
ἄγγελος
ángelos messenger
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
Message, report; one who carries a message.
“angel” in this verse is ángelos messenger. The figure’s name describes a messenger, not an independent source of power. The key and chain are placed in a messenger’s hand, making delegated authority part of the image.
ALSO GROWS
angéllō: To announce or report.
ἀγγέλλω
The verb shows the message-bearing function within the messenger’s name.
euangélion: Good message, good news.
εὐαγγέλιον
This related word carries the same message-root, showing how broadly the messenger’s root branches.
THE PATTERN
The deep is not self-governing: its reach, access, and bounds are subject to authority.
When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.THE THREAD
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.Both verses use κλείς (kleís, “key”) and ἄβυσσος (ábyssos, “depth without a bottom”). Revelation 20:1 adds a great chain to that recurring image, bringing restraint alongside access.
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