2 Peter 2:4

2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits[61] of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

[61] Some manuscripts have chains.

Expanded Translation

For if God did not spare (keep back his wrath from) the angels when they sinned, but gave them over to pits (dens, caves) of darkness (blackness, gloom) when he thrusted them down to Tartarus, being reserved unto (for) judgment (at which time they will be condemned);

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The apostle begins a trend of thought here that does not culminate until 2 Peter 2:9-12; namely, that the wicked shall not go unpunished. But intertwined with this objective seems also to be another: to show how God protects and preserves the righteous.

For if God spared not the angels when they sinned

Here is the first case in point concerning the inevitable punishment of the wickedthe very angels of heaven were punished for sinning!

Angels are created moral beings. Paul says they are sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). (See comments, 1 Peter 1:12.) As moral beings, they may sin, and those here referred to did sin. We are not told of the nature of their sin. But Jude says in 2 Peter 2:6, And angels that 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. If the same angels are depicted here as in Jude, their sin was in abandoning their proper place of abode.

Hebrews 2:16 indicates that angels are outside the redeeming provisions of God's grace. When they sinned there was no possibility of salvation. In spite of their former rank, glory and holiness, they were not spared. If God punished them so severely, the false teachers could not hope to escape.[62]

[62] The devil himself was evidently an angel, or, more specifically, an Archangel. Macknight paraphrases 1 Timothy 3:6, A bishop must not be one newly converted, lest being puffed up with pride on account of his promotion, he fall into the punishment inflicted upon the Devil. His particular sin was evidently pride.

Other Scriptures Cited in this relation are Revelation 12:7-8 (discounted by many), and Isaiah 14:12 ff (which does not refer to Satan at all, but the king of Babylon, as 2 Peter 2:4 plainly shows). John 8:44(b) states of Satan, He was a murdered from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. The word standeth (histemi) is here in the perfect tense, indicative mode. So Thayer comments, Satan continued not in the truth.

1 John 3:8 adds the devil sinneth from the beginning. If we take the statements of John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16-17 without reserve, it seems to me we must assume that Satan was also created by Christ (God). God would not create anything sinful, hence he must have been holy at first, sinning from the beginning, i.e., soon after his creation.

but cast them down to hell

That is, consigned them to Tartarus for so the verb tartaroo signifies. This is its only occurrence in the New Testament. It is not properly hell, for that comes after the judgmenta time still in the future for these occupants.

The word Tartarus is taken from Greek mythology and used here as a descriptive term for a place that really exists. Homer represents Tartarus as a deep place under the earth,[63] and Hesiod speaks of it as a place far under the ground, where the Titans are bound with chains in thick darkness.[64] It was anciently used, then, as a place of restraint and punishment for the souls of wicked men after death.

[63] Iliad, line 13. under the Greek letter theta.
[64] Theogen, line 119, 718.

As used here, it is evidently the same place, or, rather, a section of the same place, as Hades, described in Luke 16:23-26.

committed them to pits of darkness

A phrase descriptive of Tartarus. In that place are pits (seiros, a pitfall, den, cave) a word used by ancient profane writers of underground graneries. They are full of gloom and thick darknessa darkness darker still, that, namely, of the sunless underworld. being ever used to signify the darkness of that shadowy land where light is not, but only darkness visible (Trench, on zophos, darkness).

It appears from what is said here that Tartarus has a number of these pitsperhaps individual ones for each person abandoned to that horrible place.

to be reserved unto judgment

The word reserve (iereo, meaning to guard, keep, preserve), as we saw under 1 Peter 1:4, may have a very happy issue. But here (as in 2 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 2:17; 2 Peter 3:7; Jude 1:6; Jude 1:13) it is a very unhappy issue. They are kept under guard (as if they were in prison) until the day of judgment. Note the similarity of Jude 1:13 especially: ... for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever.

They were held in this place unto (eis) judgmenteither until the time of, or for the time of judgment. The word krisis (judgment) means properly a distinction or discrimination. Here it evidently refers to the judgment daythe time of trial and the administration of justice.[65]

[65] Bagster would refer it to the time of their impeachment; Thayer to their sentence of condemnation or damnatory judgment.