Chasma denotes a yawning chasm or deep gulf, a gap that cannot be crossed. Jesus uses it in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus to describe the unbridgeable separation between the place of comfort (Abraham's bosom) and the place of torment: 'between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' The geographical imagery serves theological purpose, emphasizing the finality of judgment and the impossibility of changing one's eternal state after death. The chasm is not physical distance but moral and spiritual separation made permanent.