Who and what Apollyon is

[Ripheus27]

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! (Proverbs 15:11)

Sheol is naked before Him, and Abaddon has no covering. (Job 26:6)

His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek it is Apollyon. (Revelation 9:11)

Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. (Revelation 6:8)

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14)

"I have the keys of Death and Hades." (Revelation 1:18)

Where, Death, is thy sting? Where, Hades, is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55)

The last enemy to be vanquished shall be death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)

My understanding of all this is that Apollyon is the same being as Death-and-Hell. I get this from transposing the "Abaddon" of his alternate name, with the Abaddon paired with Sheol in the Hebrew scriptures. Now we can think of death as a state, and death as an event. So Sheol, I would think, goes with Hades (as words), so that Abaddon is Death specifically of Death-and-Hell, so far as those are not the same being.

A deeper account
Now, so far as Apollyon might be both Death and Hell---the two are too tightly woven together throughout the scriptures---I wonder how, and what this would mean. It is worth noting that the Catholic Church has indicated that the angel who binds Satan with the "key of the Abyss" might be the same as Apollyon the-king-of-the-Abyss.

Here's some stuff from Wikipedia:

Abaddon is given particularly important roles in two sources, a homily entitled "The Enthronement of Abbaton" by pseudo-Timothy of Alexandria, and the Apocalypse of Bartholomew. In the homily by Timothy, Abbaton was first named Muriel, and had been given the task by God of collecting the earth that would be used in the creation of Adam. Upon completion of this task, the angel was appointed as a guardian. Everyone, including the angels, demons, and corporeal entities feared him. Abbaton was promised that any who venerated him in life could be saved. Abaddon is also said to have a prominent role in the Last Judgement, as the one who will take the souls to the Valley of Josaphat. He is described in the Apocalypse of Bartholomew as being present in the Tomb of Jesus at the moment of his resurrection.

Also of note is the being named "Temeluchus." He is said (this is also from Wikipedia) to be "the leader of the tartaruchi, the chief angel of torment," where the demons in question are more or less named after Tartarus, which is cognate with Sheol, Hell, and Hades. Moreover, the Ethiopian canon of the Bible includes "the Angel of Death, whose name is called T'ilimyakos," where T'ilimyakos is cognate with Tartaruchus and Temeluchus.

Temeluchus appears to be faithful to God:

And I saw the angel of torments Temeluchus laying most fierce torments upon them, saying: Acknowledge the Son of God. For it was told you before, but when the scriptures of God were read to you, you paid no attention: where the judgment of God is just, for your evil doings have taken hold of you, and brought you into these torments.

This bears comparison with a gloss of Apollyon as a servant of God (not an unknown position by any means), bringing some of God's punishments during the end-times, as well as the Jehovah's Witness position that Apollyon is God (not technically their claim, but they think Christ = Michael = Apollyon and that Christ is a lower-case-"g" god, to say the least). On that last note, my theory of the two-persons-of-Apollyon amounts to this:

Nestorianism is wrong about the Incarnation of the Son, but it is a correct model for the Incarnation of some other divine Person. Without dwelling on Who in particular, let's say that God (for whatever reason!) is the Person of Hell alongside the angel-person of Death. That is, the angel Apollyon, the Angel of Death, is not one person with two natures but two persons in two natures, united almost as the Son's natures are, but not absolutely so.

There's some sense to this notion as such: in the Orthodox tradition, there is a theory that Heaven and Hell are the presence of God experienced differently. So in a way, God is Heaven and Hell. Now, I realize Hell in Death-and-Hell is not supposed to be identical to the Lake of Fire, whereas God's eternal presence would be identical to the Lake of Fire, according to such a picture of these things. On the other hand, I'm not so sure that the Lake of Fire is not also Hell as such. If Apollyon is a being who is also a place (a sort of living/undead demiplane of space), then there might be a metaphorical/parabolic way to understand this entity being sent to itself, so to say.

 

[1am3laine]

Apollyon and Hell(Sheol) are different places but each has an angel/king over them. (Proverbs 15:11)
Apollyon fell before satan did.
So Apollyon gets to torment Satan and the people in hell for eternity. (Revelation 14:9-11)

People always think Satan is the worse but Apollyon is the worse.
That's why its name is A"bad"don #Abaddon, or A bad don, or a bad king since don means king.

 

[Dkh587]

Apollyon and Hell(Sheol) are different places but each has an angel/king over them. (Proverbs 15:11)
Apollyon fell before satan did.
So Apollyon gets to torment Satan and the people in hell for eternity. (Revelation 14:9-11)

People always think Satan is the worse but Apollyon is the worse.
That's why its name is A"bad"don #Abaddon, or A bad don, or a bad king since don means king.

Abaddon is a Hebrew word that means destruction. It doesn’t mean “a bad don”.

 

[HTacianas]

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! (Proverbs 15:11)

Sheol is naked before Him, and Abaddon has no covering. (Job 26:6)

His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek it is Apollyon. (Revelation 9:11)

Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. (Revelation 6:8)

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14)

"I have the keys of Death and Hades." (Revelation 1:18)

Where, Death, is thy sting? Where, Hades, is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55)

The last enemy to be vanquished shall be death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)

My understanding of all this is that Apollyon is the same being as Death-and-Hell. I get this from transposing the "Abaddon" of his alternate name, with the Abaddon paired with Sheol in the Hebrew scriptures. Now we can think of death as a state, and death as an event. So Sheol, I would think, goes with Hades (as words), so that Abaddon is Death specifically of Death-and-Hell, so far as those are not the same being.

A deeper account
Now, so far as Apollyon might be both Death and Hell---the two are too tightly woven together throughout the scriptures---I wonder how, and what this would mean. It is worth noting that the Catholic Church has indicated that the angel who binds Satan with the "key of the Abyss" might be the same as Apollyon the-king-of-the-Abyss.

Here's some stuff from Wikipedia:



Also of note is the being named "Temeluchus." He is said (this is also from Wikipedia) to be "the leader of the tartaruchi, the chief angel of torment," where the demons in question are more or less named after Tartarus, which is cognate with Sheol, Hell, and Hades. Moreover, the Ethiopian canon of the Bible includes "the Angel of Death, whose name is called T'ilimyakos," where T'ilimyakos is cognate with Tartaruchus and Temeluchus.

Temeluchus appears to be faithful to God:



This bears comparison with a gloss of Apollyon as a servant of God (not an unknown position by any means), bringing some of God's punishments during the end-times, as well as the Jehovah's Witness position that Apollyon is God (not technically their claim, but they think Christ = Michael = Apollyon and that Christ is a lower-case-"g" god, to say the least). On that last note, my theory of the two-persons-of-Apollyon amounts to this:

Nestorianism is wrong about the Incarnation of the Son, but it is a correct model for the Incarnation of some other divine Person. Without dwelling on Who in particular, let's say that God (for whatever reason!) is the Person of Hell alongside the angel-person of Death. That is, the angel Apollyon, the Angel of Death, is not one person with two natures but two persons in two natures, united almost as the Son's natures are, but not absolutely so.

There's some sense to this notion as such: in the Orthodox tradition, there is a theory that Heaven and Hell are the presence of God experienced differently. So in a way, God is Heaven and Hell. Now, I realize Hell in Death-and-Hell is not supposed to be identical to the Lake of Fire, whereas God's eternal presence would be identical to the Lake of Fire, according to such a picture of these things. On the other hand, I'm not so sure that the Lake of Fire is not also Hell as such. If Apollyon is a being who is also a place (a sort of living/undead demiplane of space), then there might be a metaphorical/parabolic way to understand this entity being sent to itself, so to say.

Abadon, Apollyon, Exterminans, each mean "destruction" and refers to the evil spirit of the grave. It means "death". Where the "locusts" of the Revelation go, death goes with them. The locusts themselves:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses

They are horses

prepared unto battle;

They are armored

and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold,

Something like a crown of gold on someone's head is a helmet. They are worn by Roman soldiers

and their faces were as the faces of men.

They have the faces of men because they are in fact men. Men wearing helmets riding horses prepared for battle, i.e., Roman cavalry.

The writer of the Revelation describes what he is seeing using, among other imagery, the plagues of the old testament, one of which was the plague of locusts. From a distance the locusts seem like a cloud of smoke rising from a pit. But as they get closer they come more into focus and are recognized as Roman cavalry.

The writer also uses the imagery of the religions of those he describes, many of whom are Mithraists, a popular religion among Roman legions. If you look at this picture of a statue of Mithra slaying a bull:

Mithra kills the bull - hellenic statue

There is a scorpion stinging the bull's testicles. The sting is not to cause burning pain, but to drain the energy from the bull. That's also the writer's meaning when he says the "locusts" have tails like scorpions, and they are not to kill men, but to torment them for five months.

It describes the five month siege of Jerusalem that caused mass starvation inside. "Men sought death but could not find it".

All those with the seal of God in their foreheads had been warned to flee from Jerusalem when they saw the armies surrounding the city, so they were not harmed.

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Apollyon and Hell(Sheol) are different places but each has an angel/king over them. (Proverbs 15:11) Apollyon fell before satan did. So Apollyon gets to torment Satan and the people in hell for eternity. (Revelation 14:9-11)People always think Satan is the worse but Apollyon is the worse. That's why its name is A"bad"don #Abaddon, or A bad don, or a bad king since don means king.

Abaddon is a Hebrew word that means destruction. It doesn’t mean “a bad don”.

"A bad don"..... I like that.........

Revelation 9:11
and they are having of them king the Messenger of the Abyss, name to him to Hebrew abaddwn <3>, and in the Greecian name is having apolluwn <623>

The greek word #623 is formed by the prefix #575 and the root word #3639< of which there are many various forms.....

It appears to be a type of "destroyer" that Yahweh brought against the Egyptian 1st born at Passover [the Israelites were "sealed" by the blood of the Lamb]
[Exodus 12:23--#H07843/LXX #G1842
1842. ex-olothreuo from 1537 and 3645; to extirpate:--destroy.
3645. olothreuo from 3639; to spoil, i.e. slay:--destroy.]


Revelation 17:
8 ‘The beast that thou didst see: it was, and it is not; and it is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go away to destruction/(ap-ōleia)<684>,
and wonder shall those dwelling upon the land, whose names have not been written upon the scroll of the life from foundation of world, beholding the beast that was, and is not, although it is.
10 and there are seven kings, the five did fall, and the one is, the other did not yet come, and when he may come, it behoveth him to remain a little time;
11 and the beast that was, and is not, he also is eighth, and out of the seven he is, and to destruction/(ap-ōleia)<684> he doth go away.

The exact form of the greek word #684 used in Reve 17 occurs in 9 verses.
1 time in the Gospels

Matthew 7:13
Enter! ye thru the strait/cramped gate,
that broad the gate and spacious the way, the one leading into the destruction/(apōleia)<684>
and many are the ones entering thru it,

and 2 verses in Peter 2 and 3:

2 Peter 2:1
And there did come also false prophets among the people, as also among ye there shall be false teachers,
who shall bring in besides destructive sects, and the Owner/Master who bought them disowning/denying,
bringing to themselves quick destruction/(apōleia)<684>,

2 Peter 3:
15 and the long-suffering of our Lord count ye salvation, according as also our beloved brother Paul — according to the wisdom given to him — did write to ye,
16 as also in all the epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, among which things are certain hard to be understood, which the untaught and unstable do wrest,
as also the other Writings, unto their own destruction/(apōleia)<684>.

Greecian name is having apolluwn <623>

623. Apolluon active participle of 622;
a destroyer (i.e. Satan):--Apollyon.
622. ap-ollumi from 575 and the base of 3639;
to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively:--destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.
575. apo apo' a primary particle;
"off," i.e. away (from something near),
3639. olethros from a primary ollumi
(to destroy; a prolonged form); ruin, i.e. death, punishment:--destruction
684. ap-oleia ap-o'-li-a from a presumed derivative of 622;
ruin or loss (physical, spiritual or eternal):--damnable(-nation), destruction, die, perdition, X perish, pernicious ways, waste.
(to destroy; a prolonged form); ruin, i.e. death, punishment:--destruction.
3644. olothreutes ol-oth-ryoo-tace' from 3645;
a ruiner, i.e. (specially), a venomous serpent:--destroyer
3645. olothreuo ol-oth-ryoo'-o from 3639;
to spoil, i.e. slay:--destroy.

Hebrew abaddwn <3>

6 'abad aw-bad' a primitive root;
properly, to wander away, i.e. lose oneself; by implication to perish (causative, destroy):--break, destroy(- uction), + not escape, fail, lose, (cause to, make) perish, spend, X and surely, take, be undone, X utterly, be void of, have no way to flee.
7 'abad ab-ad' (Aramaic) corresponding to 6:--
destroy, perish.
8 'obed o-bade' active of participle of 6;
(concrete) wretched or (abstract) destructin:--perish.
9 'abedah ab-ay-daw' from 6; concrete,
something lost; abstract, destruction, i.e. Hades:--lost. Compare 10.
11 'abaddown ab-ad-done' intensive from 6;
abstract, a perishing; concrete, Hades:--destruction.
12 'abdan ab-dawn' from 6;
a perishing:--destruction.
13 'obdan ob-dawn' from 6;
a perishing:--destruction.