The Rebellious Angels Of 2 Peter 2 And Jude

Two places in the New Testament speak of specific fallen angels confined before they are deposited in hell for their misdeeds.  The two passages in question are 2 Peter 2 and the brief book of Jude, and they seem to address the standing of the same rebellious angels who are kept in chains in "Tartarus" as they await their transition to hell (the lake of fire, sometimes called Gehenna).  Some translations substitute the word hell for Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4, but the Greek word is not the same as words like Hades or Gehenna that denote other ideas or realms associated with the Biblical afterlife.  Jude forgoes naming their current location while conveying some of the same other information.

Since the gospel accounts and Revelation describe other demons as being quite active, the two aforementioned passages seem to refer to a subcategory or demons guilty of some special offense against Yahweh or humankind.  What exactly this offense is does not get revealed, but both of these New Testament books share clear similarities when it comes to what they do say.  In fact, the very structure and content of both chapters is similar to the point of both mentioning other things like Sodom and Gomorrah and fools who slander celestial beings.  Only 2 Peter 2, however, is the only one that directly talks about Tartarus.

2 Peter 2:4 states as follows: "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment . . ."  This suggests that these fallen angels committed some sin that separated them even from other fallen angels.  Modern translations often omit the word Tartarus except in a footnote, but the word hell here does not speak of the lake of fire.  Jude 1:6 (there is only one chapter of Jude) adds additional details: "And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day."  From this verse, it is clarified that these specific demonic beings are manifested in corporeal forms that are chained as they await an eschatological day of judgment.

Jesus says in Matthew 25 that it was actually the devil and other fallen angels for whom hell was created in the first place, so the lake of fire is the ultimate destination of the angels mentioned in both 2 Peter and Jude.  The fallen angels of 2 Peter 2:4 are specified to reside in a realm called Tartarus before their punishment in hell itself begins.  At the grand judgment described in Revelation 20:11-15, just after verse 10 mentions the eternal suffering of Satan and two other figures, unsaved humans are cast into the lake of fire (hell), and it is likely that this is when the demons of 2 Peter 2:4 and the book of Jude will also be moved into hell.

The obscure and short nature of the only references to this subcategory of demons means that what exactly the Biblical "Tartarus" entails is mostly uncertain, even if the physicality of it is emphasized just like the physicality of New Jerusalem and the lake of fire are in other passages.  It is also apparent that, in using a word for Tartarus in the original language, 2 Peter is not legitimizing extended Greek mythology in the context of Christian theology.  It is using a word that happened to have other connotations in the era it was first written in.  At the very least, 2 Peter and Jude both separate themselves from the stories of Greek-style pantheism by explicitly referring to fallen angels and their punishment from Yahweh, not Titans punished by Zeus after losing the Titanomachy.