2 Peter 2:4

The reference to God not sparing 'the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell' — using 'Tartaros' (tartarōsas), the Greek underworld's deepest abyss — is the New Testament's most explicit use of a Greek mythological term for the realm of divine punishment of fallen spiritual beings. The allusion to the Watcher tradition of 1 Enoch 6-19, where angelic beings transgressed their boundaries by relations with human women (Genesis 6:1-4), gives the verse its historical background in Jewish apocalyptic literature, demonstrating that 2 Peter employs extra-canonical tradition as illustrative material. The argument structure (three historical examples of judgment: angels, flood, Sodom) follows the rabbinic 'three witnesses establish a principle' pattern, showing divine judgment to be consistent across all domains of rebellion. Jude 6 parallels this verse closely, confirming a shared tradition and raising important questions about literary dependence.