Lake

The UPDV uses "lake" in two registers. Geographically, the lake is the inland water of Galilee — called the lake of Gennesaret in Lk 5:1-2 and simply "the lake" through the storm and exorcism of Lk 8:22-33. Apocalyptically, the lake is the lake of fire of Revelation, the final repository for the beast, the false prophet, the devil, death, Hades, and any name not found written in the Book of Life. The same noun does both jobs, and the gap between them frames the whole topic.

The Lake of Galilee

Luke names the lake when Jesus first stands beside it: "Now it came to pass, while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and he saw two boats standing by the lake: but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets" (Lk 5:1-2). It is a working lake — boats, nets, fishermen finishing a shift on the shore.

Storm and Exorcism on the Lake

The same lake becomes the setting of two paired displays of authority. Crossing it, Jesus and the disciples are caught in weather: "there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filling [with water], and were in jeopardy" (Lk 8:23). He wakes, rebukes the wind and the raging of the water, and the lake goes calm. The disciples ask, "Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?" (Lk 8:25).

The crossing lands them in the country of the Gerasenes "across from Galilee" (Lk 8:26). The demoniac there, after the demons identify themselves as Legion, begs not to be sent "into the abyss" (Lk 8:31); the demons enter the swine instead, and "the herd rushed down the steep into the lake, and were drowned" (Lk 8:33). The water that obeyed Jesus in the storm receives what he expels from the man.

The Lake of Fire

Revelation moves the noun into a different register. Three figures are cast in, in sequence. First the beast and the false prophet: "both of them were cast alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone" (Rev 19:20). Then the devil: "the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rev 20:10).

Then death itself, with Hades: "death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, [even] the lake of fire" (Rev 20:14). The lake is named here — it is "the second death." Anyone whose name is not in the Book of Life is added: "if any was not found written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev 20:15).

The Second Death

The phrase "second death" recurs as the lake's defining gloss. Rev 20:14 attaches it to the disposal of death and Hades; Rev 21:8 attaches it to a list of persons whose part is there: "for the fearful, and unbelieving, and those who have become disgusting, and murderers, and whores, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part [will be] in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." The catalogue runs through fear and unbelief alongside murder, sorcery, and idolatry — a wide net, the inhabitants of the lake described not only by deed but by disposition.