Understanding Revelation (20:1)~Riddlebarger

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain."

(Revelation 20:1)

Throughout the Book of Revelation, whenever John uses the word “eidon” (I saw) he is introducing a new vision, that which we have been describing as different camera angles of the same event. In this vision, John sees an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a golden chain to frustrate the purposes of Satan.

The first thing we must remember is that this is apocalyptic symbolism. John never intends us to understand these things literally. How can an angel bind a spiritual being (Satan) with a real chain?

How can a spiritual being be locked away in a pit. The second matter is the identification of this particular angel and the meaning of the symbolism of the key to the abyss and the chain. Keys have been mentioned throughout Revelation. In Revelation 1:18, Christ holds the keys of death and hades in his hand. In chapter 3, we read of the Holy One who has the key of David which opens and shuts. And then in Revelation 9:1-2 we read that “the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.” Therefore we look back to see how these terms were used earlier in Revelation. 

Given the symbolism of the keys prior to this text, we have the “key” (pun intended) to interpret correctly all of these things with some degree of certainty. The abyss is a reference to death and Hades–the realm with which Satan is most closely associated in this book. Having been cast of out heaven (according to Revelation 12:7-9), John now sees an angel (either Christ himself, or an angel exercising Christ’s authority) confining Satan to the realm of the dead since Satan has been cast from heaven where he had been making accusations against the saints. 

(Kim Riddlebarger)