abyss, bottomless pit

The Greek that is transliterated as “abyss” or translated as “bottomless pit” in English is translated as “unfathomably deep place” or “land below” in Indonesian, “land below” in Batak Toba, or “the deep where the earth opens its mouth” in Sranan Tongo (a term well-known from folk tales).

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as as Höllenschlund or “entrance to hell (lit.: “throat of hell”).”

See also bottomless pit.

He gave freedom to those in bondage of evil (image)

“In Thai society, those who are possessed by evil spirits are usually the weak or mentally unstable. This man is shown as freed from his spiritual and physical chains. Even though he is naked Jesus is not ashamed to be close to him.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.

complete verse (Luke 8:31)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 8:31:

  • Noongar: “All the evil spirits begged Jesus not to send them into the dark hole.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Those demons really asked that they not be shooed going to the sinkhole whose depth cannot be measured.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And the demons really begged Isa asking not to be sent to hell.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And these demons, they begged Jesus that he not yet throw them into the bottomless pit.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Now there were many-pigs rooting-together there on the slope, so the evil-spirits begged Jesus to not send them below where would be their punishment, but rather to permit them to go possess those many-pigs. ‘Yes indeed,’ he said.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And then those evil spirits kept begging-mercy from Jesus, that he would not cause them to go to the deepest canyon which is the place of endless punishment.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

command (Japanese honorifics)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

In these verses, the Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “command” or “commandment” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-meiji (お命じ), combining “command” (meiji) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Luke 8:31

Exegesis:

kai parekaloun auton ‘and they besought him.’ The imperfect tense may either suggest repetition (cf. Plummer, The Four Gospels – a New Translation) or denote an act which may be without result, preferably the latter (cf. parekalesan in v. 32 referring to a request which is granted). parakaleō cf. on 3.18.

hina mē epitaxē autois eis tēn abusson apelthein ‘that he would not order them to go away to the abyss.’ For epitassō cf. 4.36; 8.25.

abussos ‘abyss,’ ‘underworld,’ ‘hell,’ ‘bottomless pit.’

Translation:

Command them to depart into, or because of the context, ‘to command/tell them to plunge-into (Balinese), or, to descend into (Batak Toba), or, to come-out (of the man) and descend into’ (Low Malay). The expression is sometimes rendered by one verb, cf. “order them off to” (An American Translation), “banish them to” (New English Bible, similarly Javanese).

Abyss, or, ‘hole/pit/well that has no bottom,’ ‘unfathomably deep place’ (Bahasa Indonesia). If such renderings would not have the required connotation, one may use terms as, ‘abode of the wicked,’ ‘place where they (i.e. the demons) dwell, or, are punished,’ ‘land below’ (Batak Toba, similarly Bahasa Indonesia KB, lit. ‘layer below’); Sranan Tongo uses, ‘the deep where the earth opens its mouth,’ a term well known from folk tales.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 8:31

8:31

the demons: At this point, the pronoun in Greek switches from “he” to “they,” referring to the many demons who were speaking through the man. For clarity, the Berean Standard Bible translates this pronoun as the demons.

kept begging Jesus: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as kept begging means to “plead for” something. This word is used when a request is earnestly desired. The Greek verb form probably indicates repeated action. It implies that the demons begged Jesus many times. Some ways to translate this are:

begged him repeatedly (New International Version)
-or-
were now begging (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
were begging (New American Standard Bible)

not to order them to go into the Abyss: This request implies that the demons expected Jesus to command them to go into the Abyss. To obey this command, the demons would also have to leave the man. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit. For example:

they begged him that ⌊after they left the man⌋ he would not order them to go into the Abyss

Abyss: The word Abyss is a transliteration of the Greek word abussos. It means a very deep pit, and it may imply a pit that has no bottom. Here this word refers to the place where unclean spirits are kept while waiting for their final punishment. The Jews thought of this place as being deep under the ground. Some ways you could translate this are:

the bottomless pit (God’s Word)
-or-
the prison for evil spirits
-or-
the place where God keeps evil spirits for punishment
-or-
the deep pit, where they would be punished (Contemporary English Version)

You may want to include a note to explain more about the Abyss. For example:

Jews believed that the place of the dead was deep underground. It was also the place where unclean spirits were kept while they waited for the day when God would punish them.

General Comment on 8:31

In some languages it may be best to translate the demons’ request in this verse as direct speech. For example:

they begged him repeatedly, “Do not send us(excl) into the Abyss!”

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.