In 2 Peter 2:4, Revised Version, we read, "For if God spared not the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto judgment." What is the meaning of the word, "Hell" or as the marginal reading gives it "TARTARUS," which is the Greek word translated "hell?" (C.V.B.)

The word “Tartaroosas” (2 Peter 2:4 Nestles-Aland Greek New Testament) is used in Grecian mythology as the name for a dark abyss or prison of divine punishment. But the word refers us more to an act (“being Tatarooed”) than to a place. The fall of the angels who sinned was a fall from honor and dignity, into dishonor and condemnation. The thought seems to be–"God spared not the angels who sinned, but degraded them, and delivered them into the chains of darkness." This is the only place in the Scriptures where this word occurs, and refers to the condition of the fallen angels or evil spirits. It never refers to a condition of members of the human race. See Jude 6, where it also reads, “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. He hath reserved in age-lasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment day.”