Tartarus (tartaroō)

Summary

To cast sinning angels into Tartarus: confinement in chains of darkness while they await judgment. The word does not name the grave of the human dead or Gehenna’s destructive verdict. Peter uses tartaroō once. The verse identifies its subjects, their present condition, and its limit: sinning angels are delivered into chains of darkness and reserved for judgment (2 Pet 2:4). Jude 6 supplies the close parallel: angels who left their proper habitation are kept in chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Definitions

Symbolic Definition

Not applicable. This is a recovered biblical word, not a separate symbol.

Literal Biblical Definition

To cast sinning angels into Tartarus: confinement in chains of darkness while they await judgment. The word does not name the grave of the human dead or Gehenna’s destructive verdict.

Webster’s Definition

Webster’s 1913 entry places Tartarus beneath Hades in Greek poetry and notes its later use for the punishment of wicked spirits or, more generally, the lower world. That literary history does not erase the narrower subject and action stated in Peter.

Corpus and Method

The New Testament uses G5020 once, in 2 Peter 2:4. Jude 6 is included as the direct verbal and thematic parallel. The definition therefore stays within what those passages actually identify.

Competing Definitions Tested

English Bibles may print hell in 2 Peter 2:4, inviting the reader to merge Tartarus with every other passage carrying that English label. The text itself does not authorize that merger. It concerns angels confined before judgment; it does not call Tartarus the grave of mankind or the Valley of Hinnom.

Relationship to Other Symbols

Hell is the ambiguous English lookup label. Sheol holds the human dead, while Gehenna names the valley-image of destructive judgment. These definitions may participate in one larger doctrine without becoming aliases of one another.

Conclusion

To cast sinning angels into Tartarus: confinement in chains of darkness while they await judgment. The word does not name the grave of the human dead or Gehenna’s destructive verdict.