I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth: in some languages it may not be necessary to say from heaven, since it is essentially redundant information. Care should be taken that the text says “I saw a star that had fallen….” John does not say that he saw the star as it fell to earth.

He was given: the star is spoken of as a living being, either an angel or a minor deity. Such poetic passages as Judges 5.20 or Job 38.7 show that stars could be spoken of as living beings. It is clear that here the same kind of imagery is at work (see Jude 13). In 20.1 an angel appears who has the key to the abyss, but that angel is not the same being as the fallen star in this passage. If in some languages it is difficult to use a personal pronoun to refer to the star, it is possible to say here “the star was given,” and at the beginning of verse 2, “The star opened….” In languages that do not use the passive, one may say, for example, “someone gave it (or, him) a key” or “it (or, he) had received a key.”

The shaft of the bottomless pit: this is the opening of the abyss. The Greek word translated shaft by Revised Standard Version may be translated “opening” or “passage leading to” (which is what the English word “shaft” means). But the Greek word may mean “well” or “pool” (see Luke 14.5; John 4.11-12) as a description of the abyss itself (see Psa 55.23a; 69.15b). The picture is that of an opening with a lid or a door on it that can be closed and locked. The Greek word translated bottomless pit by Revised Standard Version means, more simply, “deep pit” or “very deep hole.” It does not mean literally an abyss that has no bottom to it. The word refers to the place in the depths of the earth where evil spirits were thought to be imprisoned (see Luke 8.31). In some places it is another word for Sheol, the world of the dead (Psa 71.20c; Rom 10.7).

An alternative translation model for the latter part of this verse is:

• I saw something like a star that had fallen down to earth. Someone (or, They) had given it a key to open the very deep pit.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .