What is the binding of Satan in Revelation 20, and where does the idea come from?

The idea of binding a supernatural enemy didn't appear out of nowhere in Revelation. It traces a line through the Bible and its surrounding literature, using the same Greek verb at each stage.

The verb is deo (δέω, "to bind"), and the earliest narrative of an angel binding a demon appears in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit (roughly 3rd-2nd century BC). In Tobit 8:3, the angel Raphael binds the demon Asmodaeus and casts him into the desert of Upper Egypt. The Greek uses edesen (ἔδησεν) -- "he bound him." One angel, one demon, one binding.

Then Jesus picks up the language. In Mark 3:27, he explains his exorcisms with a parable:

"No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man." -- Mark 3:27

The word for "binds" is the same verb -- deo. Jesus is saying his exorcisms prove that the "strong man" (Satan) has already been restrained. He's not asking permission or performing a ritual. He's announcing that the binding has happened.

Jude picks up the thread with the related noun. Angels who abandoned their proper place are held "in eternal chains (desmois, δεσμοῖς) under darkness, awaiting judgment" (Jude 1:6). The same root, the same concept -- supernatural beings restrained by divine authority, waiting for a final reckoning. Peter says the same thing in different words: God "cast them into Tartarus" and committed them to "chains of gloomy darkness" (2 Peter 2:4).

The trajectory reaches its climax in Revelation 20:2:

"He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." -- Revelation 20:2

The Greek verb is edesen -- the exact same form as Tobit 8:3. Both describe an angel binding a supernatural adversary. But the scope has expanded dramatically: from one named demon exiled to Egypt, to Satan himself bound for a thousand years.

What's remarkable is that the canonical Old Testament already contained the architecture for this. Isaiah 24:21-22 describes the "host of heaven" being gathered "as prisoners in a pit, shut up in prison, and after many days punished." Angelic imprisonment, delayed judgment, future reckoning -- the same sequence that 2 Peter and Jude describe, centuries before the pseudepigraphal tradition (1 Enoch) elaborated it.

The binding trajectory is one verb, four stages: Tobit (one demon), Mark (the strong man), Jude/2 Peter (fallen angels), Revelation (Satan). The scope escalates at each step, and the resolution -- Revelation 20:7-10 -- the canon leaves in the future.

For the complete verb progression and its theological significance, see the study "Between the Testaments" -- From Silence to Storm.