Dear Bob,
It looks like if you were going to ask a question, you could have at least asked me a hard one. :) Actually, this is probably the most difficult question that I have been asked in a long time. And, the answer to the question is not easy as it involves a considerable amount of historical background to understand what is going on.
This is the only place in the New Testament where the word tartarus (which is translated as hell) is found. Nor does it appear in the Septuagint. The word is used several times in Greek literature; such as, Homer and Lucian. The ancient Greeks appear to have received, by tradition, an account of the punishment of the (fallen angels) bad men after death - where the giants who rebelled against Jupiter and the souls of the wicked were confined, where, said Hesiod, the rebellious Titans were bound in chains. The Greeks imagined the earth to be a boundless depth so that the poets speak of Tartarus as a vast pit or gulf in the bowels of it.
One must keep in mind that Peter is writing to Greeks and by the time Peter is writing, much of the Greek Gnosticism and theology had already been amalgamated into the theology of the period. The dualism of Zoroastrianism had also greatly influenced Greek Gnosticism.
Judaism, on the other hand, knows no such dualism and most Jewish commentaries view references to angels, which is the Greek translation for the Hebrew word malach or messenger, to be a euphemism and God Himself.
Peter seems to be utilizing Greek thought as a metaphor that if God spared not the rebellious angels nor the sinful Antediluvians nor the cities of Sodom and Gomorra, He will not spare those wicked teachers who corrupt the pure doctrines of Christianity.
As I said, this is a very complicated passage because it incorporates so much Greek thought. But, hopefully, this will answer your question satisfactorily.
Roy Blizzard
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