UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

Sense 1: pit, deep hole

Semantic entry: 1.59

Semantic domains: Geographical Objects and Features

Subdomains: Depressions and Holes

Notes: This word is found as a variant reading only: ἀλλὰ σιροῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν τηρουμένους ‘but cast them into hell and committed them to the pits of intense gloom to be kept until the judgment’ OET PE2 2:4 (apparatus; the text of OET PE2 2:4 reads σειρά ‘chain,’ 6.15: σειρά). In this one occurrence of σιρός in the NT, the pit in question is a place of imprisonment until the time of judgment. The expression ‘the pits of intense gloom’ may be translated as ‘pits where it is extremely dark.’|Though most scholars have interpreted σιρός as being equivalent to ἄβυσσος (1.20: ἄβυσσος), others see a distinction. But there is a danger in attempting to make too many fine distinctions between the meanings of such biblical terms. There is little evidence that biblical writers used such expressions with the same degree of differentiation which some persons would like to find.