# G5020 - tartaroo

<!-- type: lexicon | created: 2026-05-31 | updated: 2026-05-31 -->

**Strong's:** [G5020](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g5020/) · BLB lookup
**Pronunciation:** *tar-tar-O-o*
**Part of speech:** verb (denominative, derived from the noun *Tartaros*)
**NT occurrences:** 1, a *hapax legomenon* at **[2 Peter 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/)** (*tartarōsas*, aorist active participle, "having cast into Tartarus")
**Root:** denominative from *Tartaros* (Τάρταρος), the Greek-mythological underworld-abyss situated *below* Hades, the deepest pit, where the Titans were imprisoned in the Hesiodic-Homeric tradition (*Iliad* 8.13-16; Hesiod, *Theogony* 717-735)

## Semantic range

The verb names the *action of consigning to Tartaros*, the deepest-imaginable abyss of punitive confinement. Across its narrow attestation, Hellenistic-Jewish, NT, and patristic, it functions in a single bandwidth:

1. **To cast / consign / hurl into Tartaros**, the literal verbal sense; the act of confining a being to the abyss reserved for the most-wicked. Used in classical-Greek myth for the Olympian binding of the Titans; in Hellenistic-Jewish literature (*1 Enoch*; Philo) for the divine binding of the fallen Watchers; in NT-Greek by Peter for the divine binding of the fallen angels awaiting judgment.

2. **To consign to the deepest-prison reserved for the worst offenders** (extended sense). The verb's force is *not* simply "send to a place of the dead" (that is [*Hades*](/codex/g0086-hades/)) and *not* the eschatological-final hell (that is [*Geenna*](/codex/g1067-geenna/)); it names a *holding-cell* at the deepest stratum of the cosmos, a *pre-judgment custodial confinement* in the deepest darkness.

## Theological force

Peter's lone deployment is dense. The Greek noun *Tartaros* is mythological, a god-pit from the Hesiodic tradition, and Peter's *verbal* form (rare even in pagan Greek) is the most deliberate possible lexical choice. He is *not* importing Greek mythology into Christian doctrine; he is *appropriating* the deepest pit-language his Hellenistic-Jewish audience would already recognize from the *Septuagint* ([Job 40:20](/codex/job-40-20/) LXX; 41:24 LXX; [Prov 30:16](/codex/proverbs-30-16/) LXX; the *1 Enoch* tradition) and applying it to a specific revelatory claim: the *fallen angels* of [Genesis 6](/codex/genesis-6/) / [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/) are *currently* bound in the deepest abyss, awaiting the final judgment.

### Distinguish: Tartaros / Hades / Geenna / Abyssos

NT-Greek deploys four distinct underworld-vocabulary terms with distinct functions in the eschatological economy:

- **[*Hades*](/codex/g0086-hades/)** (ᾅδης), the *general realm of the dead* (LXX rendering of Hebrew *sheol*). The intermediate state. Both righteous (pre-resurrection) and unrighteous dead inhabit Hades; [Luke 16:23](/codex/luke-16-23/) distinguishes "Abraham's bosom" from the "place of torment" within Hades. Hades will itself be cast into the Lake of Fire at the final judgment ([Rev 20:14](/codex/revelation-20-14/)).
- **[*Geenna*](/codex/g1067-geenna/)** (γέεννα), the *eschatological final hell*; the Lake of Fire ([Rev 20:14-15](/codex/revelation-20-14-15/)); the place of *final* punishment after the resurrection-of-judgment ([Matt 10:28](/codex/matthew-10-28/); [Mk 9:43-48](/codex/mark-9-43-48/)). The post-judgment terminus.
- **Tartaros** (G5020 verbal *tartaroō*; noun is implied), the *deepest-pre-judgment holding cell* specifically for the fallen angels; named only obliquely in NT (via the verb in [2 Pet 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/) and the parallel-concept "eternal bonds under darkness" in [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/)).
- ***Abyssos*** (G0012, ἄβυσσος, "abyss / bottomless pit"), the *pit* where demonic spirits are confined or to which they are consigned ([Luke 8:31](/codex/luke-8-31/), the demons begging not to be sent to the *abyssos*; [Rev 9:1-2](/codex/revelation-9-1-2/), [11](/codex/revelation-9-11/); 20:1-3, the binding of Satan).

Tartaros and the abyssos overlap conceptually, both name a pre-judgment custodial confinement of disobedient spiritual beings, but the lexical choice is distinct: *tartaros* draws on the Hellenistic-Jewish deepest-pit tradition; *abyssos* draws on the LXX-cosmogonic deep ([Gen 1:2](/codex/genesis-1-2/) LXX; [Ps 71:20](/codex/psalms-71-20/) LXX). Peter's *tartaroō* names a *specific* confinement of the specific angels who sinned at a specific point, the [Genesis 6](/codex/genesis-6/) fallen Watchers in the *1 Enoch* / [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/) tradition.

### The [Genesis 6](/codex/genesis-6/) / 1 Enoch / [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/) / [2 Peter 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/) chain

The [2 Pet 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/) reference rides a tradition-bridge that links four texts:

- **[Genesis 6.1-4](/codex/genesis-6-1-4/)**, *"the sons of God saw the daughters of men... and they bore children to them"*. The *bĕnê hāʾĕlōhîm* ("sons of God") who took human wives. Two main interpretive streams, the *fallen-angels* reading (Second-Temple Jewish, *1 Enoch* 6-7, dominant in patristic-pre-Augustine readings) and the *Sethite* reading (Augustine, Calvin, much-of-the-Reformed tradition).
- ***1 Enoch* 6-21** (extracanonical), the elaborate retelling of [Gen 6](/codex/genesis-6/) where the *Watchers* (heavenly beings) descend, take human wives, teach forbidden arts, and are *bound in the deepest pit* by the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel until the final judgment. *1 Enoch* uses *tartaros*-language for the binding-place (*1 Enoch* 20:2 LXX-translation).
- **[Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/)**, *"the angels who kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day"*. Jude explicitly cites *1 Enoch* in 1:14-15 and his angelology assumes the *1 Enoch* / fallen-Watcher tradition.
- **[2 Peter 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/)**, *"if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell [*tartarōsas*], and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment"*. Peter compresses [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/) (literarily-dependent on Jude or sharing a common source) and adds the *tartarōsas* verb. The substance is identical: a specific subset of angels sinned at a specific point, was *bound* by God, and is *currently* held in the deepest abyss-prison awaiting the *final* judgment.

The patristic mainstream, Justin (*1 Apol.* 5; *2 Apol.* 5), Athenagoras (*Legatio* 24-25), Irenaeus (*Adv. Haer.* 4.36.4), Tertullian (*Apol.* 22), Clement of Alexandria (*Strom.* 5.1; *Eclogae* 53.4), reads the chain straightforwardly: the [Gen 6](/codex/genesis-6/) *bĕnê hāʾĕlōhîm* are the fallen angels; *1 Enoch* preserves the tradition; Jude and 2 Peter affirm it canonically; Tartaros / "eternal bonds under darkness" is their pre-judgment confinement. Augustine (*De Civ. Dei* 15.23) shifted to the *Sethite* reading on philosophical-anthropological grounds (angels do not procreate, [Matt 22:30](/codex/matthew-22-30/)), and his reading dominated the medieval and much of the Reformation tradition. Modern evangelical scholarship (Wenham, Hamilton, Heiser) has substantially recovered the fallen-Watcher reading, treating [2 Pet 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/) + [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/) as decisive canonical witnesses.

### Holding cell, not final judgment

The most pastorally and exegetically important point: *tartaroō* names a *pre-judgment* confinement, *not* the final punishment. Peter is explicit, the bound angels are "reserved unto judgment" (*eis krisin tēroumenous*). The final-judgment moment is the casting of the devil into the Lake of Fire ([Revelation 20.10](/codex/revelation-20-10/)) at the end of the millennial reign, *after* the binding of Satan ([Rev 20:1-3](/codex/revelation-20-1-3/), the *abyssos*-binding) and *after* the brief release-and-final-rebellion. The Tartaros confinement is the deepest *prison*; the Lake of Fire is the *final* eschatological destination.

This three-stage angelology, *current binding* (Tartaros, the abyss) → *brief release* (Satan, [Rev 20:7-9](/codex/revelation-20-7-9/)) → *final consignment* (Lake of Fire, [Rev 20:10](/codex/revelation-20-10/)), is the canonical-Christian framework for the fate of the fallen spiritual beings. The pattern parallels the human-eschatological framework, *current* intermediate state ([*Hades*](/codex/g0086-hades/) / paradise) → *resurrection-and-judgment* → *final* destination ([*Geenna*](/codex/g1067-geenna/) or the New Heavens and New Earth), at the angelic level.

### Peter's rhetorical argument from prior judgments

The [2 Peter 2](/codex/2-peter-2/) deployment is part of a tightly-structured argument-from-precedent. Peter is countering scoffers who deny the coming Day of the Lord ([2 Pet 3:3-4](/codex/2-peter-3-3-4/)). His Chapter 2 response is a triad of *prior judgments* that warrant the future judgment:

1. **The angels who sinned** (2:4, *tartarōsas*, the Tartaros confinement)
2. **The ancient world / Noah's flood** (2:5)
3. **Sodom and Gomorrah** (2:6-8)

Each prior judgment functions as a *proof of God's character* and a *type of the coming judgment*. The argument-structure is: *"if God did not spare A, B, and C, He will not spare the present scoffers either."*

The Tartaros-binding of the fallen angels is the *strongest* link in the chain, angels are higher than humans, and even *they* did not escape. The Petrine logic is *a fortiori*: how much less will the *human* scoffers escape (cf. [Heb 2:2-3](/codex/hebrews-2-2-3/), the same *a fortiori* structure).

## Notable verses

### The single direct occurrence
- **[2 Peter 2.4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/)**, *"if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell [*tartarōsas*]..."*, the lone NT use of the verb.

### Parallel-concept passages
- **[Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/)**, *"angels that kept not their own principality... he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day"*, the parallel binding, near-identical concept, different vocabulary.
- **[Genesis 6.1-4](/codex/genesis-6-1-4/)**, the OT-substrate: the *bĕnê hāʾĕlōhîm* / sons of God taking human wives; the originating sin that occasioned the Tartaros-confinement.
- **[1 Peter 3.18-19](/codex/1-peter-3-18-19/)**, *"in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison"*, Peter's other reference to the bound spiritual beings; the *en phylakē* "in prison" likely names the same custodial confinement (one major patristic + Reformed reading; alternative readings engage Christ's descent and proclamation differently).
- **[Ephesians 6.12](/codex/ephesians-6-12/)**, *"our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"*, the broader Pauline angelology naming the unbound demonic forces still operative in the world.

### Eschatological parallels (final judgment of spiritual beings)
- **[Revelation 20.10](/codex/revelation-20-10/)**, *"the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever"*, the *final* eschatological consignment of the chief spiritual rebel.
- [Revelation 20:1-3](/codex/revelation-20-1-3/), the binding of Satan in the *abyssos*, the millennial-precursor binding (parallel-structure to the Tartaros binding of the fallen angels at the earlier moment).

## Patristic / scholarly note

The verb's lone NT attestation has generated a substantial exegetical and historical-theological literature. The Greek-patristic reading is remarkably uniform across the first four centuries: Justin Martyr (*2 Apol.* 5), Athenagoras (*Legatio* 24-25), Irenaeus (*Adv. Haer.* 4.36.4; 1.10.3), Tertullian (*Apol.* 22; *De Cultu Feminarum* 1.2-3), Clement of Alexandria (*Stromata* 5.1.10; *Eclogae* 53.4), Origen (*Contra Celsum* 5.55; *Hom. Num.* 28.2), and Cyril of Jerusalem (*Catech.* 2.4) all assume the *1 Enoch* / fallen-Watcher tradition and read [2 Pet 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/) within it. The verb's mythological derivation troubled none of them; the divine-revelatory appropriation of pagan vocabulary was a familiar canonical move ([Acts 17:28](/codex/acts-17-28/), Paul citing Aratus and Epimenides).

**Augustine's shift.** Augustine (*De Civitate Dei* 15.23; *De Genesi ad Litteram* 3.10) re-read [Gen 6](/codex/genesis-6/)'s *bĕnê hāʾĕlōhîm* as the *Sethite* line on philosophical-anthropological grounds, primarily the worry that angels do not have the procreative capacity ([Matt 22:30](/codex/matthew-22-30/)). The shift dominated medieval theology, was carried into Reformation exegesis (Luther; Calvin, *Commentary on Genesis* 6:2), and remained the Protestant default until late-20th-century recovery of the patristic reading.

**Modern recovery.** Twentieth-century critical scholarship (R. H. Charles's edition of *1 Enoch*, 1912; Bauckham, *Jude, 2 Peter*, WBC 1983; J. T. Milik's Aramaic *Enoch* fragments from Qumran, 1976) re-grounded the fallen-Watcher reading in its Second-Temple-Jewish context. Evangelical scholarship has substantially followed: Michael Heiser (*The Unseen Realm*, 2015; *Reversing Hermon*, 2017), Daniel Hamilton, Gordon Wenham (*[Genesis 1](/codex/genesis-1/)-15*, WBC 1987, leans Sethite but acknowledges the patristic reading's exegetical force), and the broader *Divine Council* literature have re-centered the canonical-tradition reading.

**The Tartaros-doctrine in systematic theology.** Reformed (Berkhof, *Systematic Theology* 148-150) and Catholic systematics (CCC §§391-395) both retain the *current binding* of (a subset of) fallen angels alongside the *operative-in-the-world* status of (other) demonic forces. The two-tier angelology, *bound-in-Tartaros* and *active-in-the-world*, is the canonical-mainstream reading; the Reformed and Catholic systematics agree on substance, differ in detail.

## Verses in this codex

- **[2 Peter 2.4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/)**, the lone direct occurrence; the load-bearing passage for the doctrine
- **[Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/)**, the parallel "eternal bonds under darkness"; the closest semantic parallel
- **[Genesis 6.1-4](/codex/genesis-6-1-4/)**, the OT-substrate; the originating sin
- **[1 Peter 3.18-19](/codex/1-peter-3-18-19/)**, Peter's other reference to "the spirits in prison"
- **[Ephesians 6.12](/codex/ephesians-6-12/)**, the broader angelological context
- **[Revelation 20.10](/codex/revelation-20-10/)**, the final-judgment terminus

## See also

- [G0086 - hades](/codex/g0086-hades/), *Hades*, the general realm of the dead, adjacent term in the eschatological vocabulary
- [G1067 - geenna](/codex/g1067-geenna/), *Geenna*, the final eschatological hell, the post-judgment terminus
- [Hell and Eternal Punishment](/codex/hell-and-eternal-punishment/), the broader doctrinal hub
- [Eschatology](/codex/eschatology/), the broader doctrinal hub on last things
- [Hypostatic Union](/codex/hypostatic-union/), adjacent Christological context (for [1 Pet 3:18-19](/codex/1-peter-3-18-19/)'s descent)
- Passages: [2 Peter 2.4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/), [Jude 6](/codex/jude-6/), [Genesis 6.1-4](/codex/genesis-6-1-4/), [1 Peter 3.18-19](/codex/1-peter-3-18-19/), [Ephesians 6.12](/codex/ephesians-6-12/), [Revelation 20.10](/codex/revelation-20-10/)