And he laid hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent who is [the] devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Revelation 20 opens with the arrest of the enemy who has troubled the world since Eden, and one angel does it with a key and a chain. The verse piles four names on him and fixes his term, which raises the questions readers still ask: what do the names mean, is the chain real, and has this binding already happened?
Each title in the verse points to a different part of his work, and together they cover his whole record.
H. H. SnellHe is called the Dragon, because of his terrible power. He is called Satan, because he is man's enemy. He is called Devil, because he is the great accuser. He is called old Serpent, because he had been the seducer from the beginning. His power is very great. So he is called the prince of this world, and Scripture says he goes about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
The names also settle a question: is this a force, or a person?
W. T. P. WolstonHe is called here the dragon, but also the old serpent. He was the source of all the evil and sorrow at the beginning of man's life on earth (Genesis 3). Every name that Scripture gives him elsewhere is brought together here, so that no one could mistake that he is a real person.
The chain, the key and the seal are pictures. Commentators grant that, then press the next question.
W. TrotterPeople say that this is figurative language, and we grant at once that it is. No doubt the key of the bottomless pit, the great chain in the angel's hand, the binding of Satan and the seal set on him are all figures. But what are they figures of? Are they words without meaning, just because they are figures? Or must their meaning stay uncertain and vague? They teach us this much: Satan will be restrained by force, in his own abyss, for a thousand years.
Two details need care: the chain, and the place he is sent.
F. B. HoleThe "great chain" necessary to bind him is in the angel's hand — symbolic language again, for no literal chain could bind a spirit being. The "bottomless pit" is not the lake of fire. It is the dungeon that holds him while the thousand-year age runs its course.
Some read this binding as already in force. The New Testament letters settle it.
William KellyIt is certain from God's word that Satan is not yet shut up. On the contrary, he goes about now seeking to deceive and to destroy souls... I am not going to discuss whether the thousand years are to be taken literally or symbolically. But beyond a doubt the period has a beginning and an end, and it cannot have begun yet, because Satan is not bound. The New Testament letters assume that Satan still carries on his schemes. He hinders the work of God. He has to be resisted. He goes about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So there must be a vast change when the time comes for his restraint.
Why bind him at this moment? The answer is a matter of rights.
T. B. BainesUntil now God has left him at large; and such is the power he has gained by his lies over the hearts of men that he is called the prince and the god of this world. But now that the true Prince is come, and God claims His rights as the Creator and Governor of mankind, Satan must be bound. If the true wife is to be acknowledged, the harlot must be judged; if the true Prince is to be acknowledged, the usurper must be put aside.
The key and the chain show who really controls the abyss. This binding is also one stage in a longer story.
Walter ScottThe figures of the key and chain surely show that God is supreme even over the satanic region of the abyss... Until the fall (Genesis 3) Satan's place was on high. When sin entered the world, the heavens and earth became the wider field of his work. After his expulsion from the heavenly places, the earth and the abyss are in a way given over to him. Now he is shut up in the abyss, held there during the thousand-year reign. Then for a short time he is once more allowed to work his will on the earth... at last he is cast into the lake of fire for ever and ever.
- Named — dragon for his power, Satan for his enmity to man, Devil for his accusing, old serpent for his seducing from the start. The verse gathers every title Scripture gives him, so no reader can mistake who he is.
- Seized — the key and chain are figures, but figures of something definite. One angel restrains him by force, in his own abyss, for a thousand years.
- Shut — the bottomless pit is a dungeon, not the lake of fire. This is his prison, not yet his final sentence.
- Still loose — the New Testament letters assume an enemy at large today. So this binding is still future, and the thousand years have not begun.
- Set aside — when the true Prince takes His rights, the usurper must go. His ground shrinks from heaven, to earth, to the pit, and at last to the lake of fire.
and cast him into the abyss, and shut [it] and sealed [it] over him, that he should not any more deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be loosed for a little time.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.