Revelation 9:1

Revelation 9:1. What the Seer beheld was not a star ‘fall' out of heaven, but a star fallen (as in the Authorised Version). The difference is important, for we are thus led to think not of any punishment which befell the star, but of its moral and religious condition at the time when it was permitted to inflict the plague to be immediately described. The mention of a ‘star' leads to the thought of a potentate or power; and, as what is said of it can hardly be separated from the statement of chap. Revelation 12:7-9, there is little doubt that the star represents Satan, there his expulsion from heaven, here his condition after he is expelled. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that it is everywhere the manner of St. John to present evil as the direct counterpart of good. Christ is the ‘Morning Star' (chap. Revelation 22:16); Satan is a ‘star fallen.' The words used suggest also the important consideration that, in the view of the apostle, Satan was not originally evil. He is a spirit fallen ‘out of heaven,' not merely ‘from heaven,' as if to describe the greatness of his fall, but ‘out of heaven,' that abode of purity and bliss to which he had formerly belonged. Once he was like other happy spirits there: he is now fallen into the earth, the abode of sin and trouble.

That which was given him was the key of the well of the abyss. The word ‘pit' in both the Authorised and Revised Versions fails to convey the proper meaning of the original. It is a ‘well' that is spoken of: and, though the expression may seem strange, it is proper to retain it, both because what men lock is not a pit but the long shaft of a well, which to this day in the East is often covered at the mouth and locked, and because we seem to have here one of the remarkable contrasts so characteristic of St. John, that between a ‘fountain' and a ‘well.' Truth emanates from a fountain. Jesus Himself is the true ‘fountain of Jacob' (John 4:6; John 4:14). Only to the eye which does not yet see is that fountain a ‘well' (John 4:12). The shaft of the well goes down into the ‘abyss,' the abode of Satan (chaps. Revelation 11:7; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:1; Revelation 20:3).