And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Shut him. 'Aleph (') A B, Vulgate, Syriac, Andreas, omit "him."
Set a seal upon him, х epanoo (G1883)] - sealed up the door of the abyss 'over' his head. A surer seal than his seal over Jesus in Joseph's tomb burst on the resurrection morn. Satan's binding at this juncture is not arbitrary, but the necessary consequence of the events, Revelation 19:20; just as Satan's being cast out of heaven, where he was previously accuser of the brethren, was the legitimate judgment passed on him through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ (Revelation 12:7-10). Satan imagined that he had overcome Christ on Golgotha; but the Lord in death overcame him, and, by His ascension as our righteous Advocate, cast out the accuser from heaven. Time was given him on earth to make the beast and harlot powerful, then to concentrate all his power in Antichrist. The anti-Christian kingdom, his last effort, being destroyed by Christ's mere appearing, his power on earth is at an end.
He thought to destroy God's people by persecutions (just as previously to destroy Christ); but the Church is not destroyed from the earth, but raised to rule over it; and Satan himself is shut up for a thousand years the 'abyss' ("bottomless pit"), preparatory to the "lake of fire," his final doom. As before he ceased, by Christ's ascension, to be accuser in heaven, so during the millennium he ceases to be seducer and persecutor on earth. As long as be rules in the darkness of the world, we live in an atmosphere impregnated with deadly elements. A mighty purification will be effected by Christ's coming. Though sin will not be abolished-for men will still be in the flesh (Isaiah 65:20) - sin will no longer be a universal power, for the flesh is no longer seduced by Satan. He will not be, as now, 'the god and prince of the world;' nor will the world 'lie in the wicked one:' the flesh will become ever more overcome.
Christ will reign with His transfigured saints over men in the flesh (Auberlen). The nations in the millennium will be prepared for a higher state, as Adam in Paradise, supposing he had lived in an unfallen state. Compare Revelation 21:1-27, notes, at beginning. This will be the manifestation of "the world to come," already set up invisibly in the saints, amidst "this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Hebrews 2:5; Hebrews 5:5). The rabbis thought, as the world was created in six days, and on the seventh God rested, so there would be six millenaries, followed by a Sabbatical millennium. Of seven years, every seventh is the year of remission: so of the seven thousand of the world, the seventh millenary shall be the millenary of remission. A tradition in the house of Elias, 200 AD, states, the world is to endure 6,000 years: 2,000 before the law, 2,000 under the law, and 2,000 under Messiah. Compare note and margin, Hebrews 4:9; Revelation 14:13. Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Cyprian, expected a millennial kingdom on earth: not until millennial views degenerated into carnalism was this doctrine abandoned.
That he should deceive. So A; 'Aleph ('), 'shall;' but B, 'that he deceive' х plana (G4105), for planeesee (G4105)].
And. So Coptic, Andreas; but 'Aleph (') A B, Vulgate, omit "and."