Revelation 2

The Seven Epistles of Christ

Chapters 2 & 3 are small epistles to the seven churches in Asia Minor given to John directly from Christ. While they deal with what was actually going on in these seven churches in ~96 A.D. the messages pertains to all of Christ’s churches in all of the church age. His words are praises and warnings for specific people/churches and direct God given scripture for all.

1-7 8-11 12-17 18-29

1-7 Ephesus

Ephesus was a major city in the region having the largest harbour in Asia minor even though it was about three miles inland from the sea being built on the broad mouth of the Cayster River. Four great trade roads went through the city and it was a major hub of commerce being known as the gateway to Asia and was the most important city in Asia Minor since the Roman governor resided there, even though it was not the capital of the province. Ephesus was also the center of the worship of Artemis(Greek)/Diana(Roman), whose temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Every spring a month-long festival was held in honor of the goddess, complete with athletic, dramatic, and musical events. Paul may have anticipated this annual event as a unique evangelistic opportunity and have been waiting for it when he wrote the Corinthians that he intended to remain in Ephesus 1 Cor. 16:8 “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,” The worship of Artemis was unspeakably vile. Her idol was a gross, many-breasted monstrosity, popularly believed to have fallen from heaven Acts 19:35 “And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?” The temple was attended by numerous priests, eunuchs, and slaves. Thousands of priestesses, who were little more than ritual prostitutes, played a major role in the worship of Artemis.

The angel of the church is not referring to a heavenly angel but to the pastor/elders of the church in Ephesus, like mentioned in the previous chapter.

Christ says again that he is the one who has the church leaders and the churches in his control, holding the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

Jesus first commends the church for their work, patience and discernment of false apostles, which Paul had warned them of in Acts, Acts 20:28-31 “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.”. Also that they have carried out the gospel to the gentiles in the name of Christ without becoming weary.

All of these commendations from Christ to the church at Ephesus are pictures of how God wants us to be. Always working for Christ, being patient, spreading the gospel, and taking a critical Gospel centered approach to all teachings.

Christ also has a reproach for the Ephesians, that they have forgotten the love that they had when they first were saved. The church had grown cold and although they were maintaining the doctrine given to them they were not as loving as they once were. Inwardly giving the correct love for Christ and for each other. This is a danger we all face everyday, are we doing all we do with love and obedience? Are we secretly growing cold in the heart for God and for our fellow Christians. Jesus commands them, and all of us, to remember the love they had at the beginning and to repent.

Christ then ends his rebuke of their growing coldness of heart with a warning that if they do not turn back and repent he will remove their church from his kingdom, this shows how serious a situation they were in and how bad it is to be a loveless church.

After the rebuke He follows the words to them with another commendation, that they have hated the Nicolaitans whom God also hates.

The Nicolaitans are also mentioned in the words to Pergamum later in verse 15, No one knows for certain who the leader of these people was but some have suggested that they had come from followers of Nicolas, one of the seven men appointed as proto deacons, in Acts 6 to oversee the food distribution to the widows. Acts 6:5 “And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.” Some argue that he was a false believer who broke away and led many to false worship involving sexual immorality and eating things sacrificed to false idols without regard in the name of Christian liberty. Others think these were people who misrepresented Nicolas’s teachings. Either way the church in Ephesus did not tolerate these people and neither does God. This sound to me like people sinning so that grace would abound even more, the exact opposite of what Paul said in Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” is repeated to all seven of the messages to the churches. It is a reminder and emphasizes the responsibility we all have as Christians to follow God’s voice in the Scriptures. In every case it uses the plural “Churches” showing that the words spoken to each individual church is to be followed by all the churches, every church needs to hear and obey every message.

Also Christ promises that to those who conquers ESV or overcomes KJV he will give them eternal life in heaven. Conquers or overcomes what though? John answers this in 1 John 5:4-5 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

8-11 Smyrna

The Greek word translated “Smyrna” was used in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to translate the Hebrew word for Myrrh. Myrrh was a resinous substance used as a perfume for the living and the dead. Matthew 2:11 “And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” John 19:39 “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.” Smyrna had always been on the winning side in the Roman wars and had an intense loyalty to Rome resulting in a strong emperor worship cult in Smyrna. Under Emperor Domitian it became a capital offence to refuse to offer the yearly sacrifice to the emperor. Fifty years after John’s death the pastor of the Church in Smyrna, Polycarp, was burned alive at the age of 86 for refusing to worship Caesar. The church in Smyrna is not mentioned in Acts but was probably planted during Paul’s Ephesian ministry by Paul or one of his converts.

Unlike the words to Ephesus, Christs words to Smyrna do not contain a rebuke but a commendation and a warning. As was customary in letters in the ancient days, the writer would identify himself at the beginning of the letter instead of at the end, and we see this with many of the letters from Paul and others in the New Testament. Christ identifies himself to the Smyrnians as the first and the last , who died and came to life, without question this is Jesus Christ.

He tells them that he knows what they are going through and of their poverty, but they are rich in the wealth of Jesus Christ. The Christians of Smyrna were under constant strife from the emperor worshiping populace and refused to offer sacrifices to him causing them to be branded as rebels.

Also they were under attack by the Jews in the area who hated and rejected Jesus and Jesus calls them a church (synagogue) of Satan. Jesus uses the word blasphemy, which is typically used for hostile words against God, which indicates the Jew’s intensity and severity of their wickedness against the Christians of Smyrna. Christ mentions these things to commend them for their suffering for Christ.

Jesus warns them that they are going to suffer more and some of them will be incarcerated, but do not fear, this is so that they can be tested in their faith and as always God will provide for them through their suffering and trials. The mention of 10 days of suffering is interpreted a few different ways, especially when we are taking this as Scripture for all and not just words to one church. As to the church in Smyrna, the ten days could be a period of ten days coming soon of an increased and intense persecution of the church, a literal ten days, it could mean a short period, or some think it could mean ten different periods of persecution under the Romans. As for the meaning to the Church as a whole the persecution of Jesus’ church will happen but it will be brief, what could one lifetime of suffering measure up against an eternity in heaven with our Savior.

Jesus tells them to be faithful until death and their reward will be eternal life.

Again Jesus uses the phrase he who has an ear, to remind us that this is for all. He also add to the mention of overcoming/conquering like to the church in Ephesus, but here says that the conquerors will not be hurt by the second death, or the faithful will not be thrown into Hell and the lake of fire.

12-17 Pergamum

Pergamum was about 100 miles north of Ephesus with Smyrna about half way between the two. Pergamum was neither a port city nor a center of trade routes but it was the capital city of Asia and considered to be the greatest city in Asia. Pergamum was built on a large conical hill about 1,000 feet above the plains below. At the time when John was writhing Revelation it had been the capital for 250 years, since 133 B.C. when its last king bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Pergamum is still around today as the Turkish city of Bergama. Pergamum was known for its large library, rivaling the library at Alexandria, with over 200,000 handwritten volumes. Legend has it that parchment, which is a writing material that is made of animal skins also know as vellum, was invented in Pergamum when exporting of the writing material at the time, papyrus, was banned by the Egyptians because the King of Pergamum was trying to lure the librarian of the Alexandrian library to Pergamum. The word parchment may even be derived from Pergamum. Being the capital of Asia and housing the great library, there were a lot of diplomats and scholars in Pergamum, and just like cities today that house higher learning and political establishments Pergamum had a large population of worldly people. It also had temples to four of the main deities of the Greco-Roman pantheon; Athena (War), Asklepios (Medicine), Dionysos (Wine and Pleasure), and Zeus (Sky and head deity).

Just like the church in Smyrna, the founding of the church in Pergamum is not recorded in Acts but was founded most likely during Paul’s ministry in Ephesus and also like Smyrna, Pergamum faced severe animosity from the persecuting emperor worshipers.

Jesus greets the church leaders and identifies himself as the one who has the sharp two-edged sword mentioned earlier in Revelation 1:16 “In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”, this refers to the Word of God which is sharper than any two-edged sword. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Jesus then tells them that he knows where they are, comparing it to Satan’s throne, in a place surrounded by wickedness and wicked people. Some people say that the reference to Satan’s throne could be the great altar of Zeus located in Pergamum, this alter was in the form of a horseshoe, 120 ft by 112 ft and the podium of the altar was 18 feet high, there was a sculpture at its base depicting a battle of the gods and the giants. Others think it may be the temple of Asklepios as he was depicted as a snake and nonpoisonous snakes roamed freely in the temple. During the reign of Diocletian some Christians stonecutters were executed for refusing to carve an image of Asklepios. Jesus commends them for keeping the faith even when one of them, Antipas, was killed because of the faith, this passage is the only mention of Antipas but he was probably one of the leaders of the church. Jesus calls him His faithful witness, the Greek word for witness is martus, which would become our word martyr.

Jesus then gets to the bad news, there were two heresies being tolerated at Pergamum, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. There were some there following the teaching of Balaam, a notorious Old Testament “prophet” for hire found in Numbers 22-25. The king of Moab hired Balaam to curse the Israelites because of what they had done done to the Amorites, after that failed he plotted to use Moabite women to lure the Israelites into the behavior of the godless world around them and into sexual immorality and idolatry. Some in Pergamum persisted in following Balaam’s teaching, they believed one could attend pagan feasts, with all their debauchery and sexual immorality, and still join the church to worship Jesus Christ.

The second heresy at Pergamum were some their followed the teachings of the Nicolaitans that were mentioned in the words to the Ephesians, and Jesus already said that he hated the Nicolaitans. The majority of the believers at Pergamum did not follow or practice either of these heretical ways but by tolerating the groups and refusing to exercise church discipline, they shared in their guilt which unless changed or the followers of these groups repenting would bring the Lord’s judgement.

I don’t think its too hard to see what the message here is to the church at large. We are operating in the world but we are not to be of this world. We are to hold fast the faith of Jesus Christ and not allow any heretical teaching to enter His church.

Jesus ends his words to Pergamum by saying whoever overcomes/conquers he will give hidden manna, and a white stone with a new name written on it. The hidden manna symbolizes all of the blessings and benefits of knowing Christ. Some link the white stone to the Urim and Thummim on the breastplate of the high priest that was used to determine God’s will and guidance thus promising the overcomer knowledge of His will. Others think the white stone is a diamond, symbolizing God’s precious gift of eternal life to believers. There is also a Roman custom of awarding a white stone to the victors of athletic contest, a white stone inscribed with the athlete’s name. This stone served as the ticket to a special awards banquet. In this view Christ promises the overcomer entrance to the eternal victory celebration in heaven and we will have a new name to go along with our new glorified body that symbolizes our adoption by God as sons and daughters.

18-29 Thyatira

Thyatira was located on the north-south road about 40 miles south east of Pergamum. Before Roman occupation it served as a forward outpost to defend and delay attackers on their way to Pergamum, but having no natural defenses the city was destroyed and rebuilt several times. After the Roman occupation Thyatira became a major hub of commerce with it being located on the main north-south road in Asia Minor. There were many skilled laborer guilds in the city and one of the major ones was wool and dyed goods. Lydia, whom was spoken of in Acts 16:14-15 “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.” was probably representing her guild in Philippi. Thyatira was not an important religious center and the city’s primary idol was Apollo, the Greek sun god. There was not a sizable Jewish population either, the main pressure faced by the Christians in Thyatira came from the guilds. To hold a job or run a business it was necessary to be a member of one of the appropriate guilds. Each guild had its own patron deity in whose feasts were held complete with meat sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. The Christians in Thyatira faced belonging to the guild and attending those feast or possibly losing their livelihood.

Like Smyrna and Pergamum the Bible does not record the founding of the church at Thyatira but just as the others it was probably founded from an outreach of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus. It is possible that Lydia and her household participated in the Church.

There is a progressive worsening in the character of the seven churches as they become more and more influenced by evil, and the church at Thyatira is a turning point that only gets worse until its lowest point in Laodicea.

Jesus introduced himself to the Church in Thyatira unlike anywhere else in Revelation, he identifies himself as the Son of God not the Son of Man as in chapter 1. The son of Man shows Jesus’ ability to sympathize with the need, trials and temptations of His church. Identifying himself as the Son of God emphasizes his own deity, pointing out the truth that He is of one essence with the Father. Jesus uses the descriptors, eyes like a flame of fire, painting an image of Jesus being able to see all and light up the darkness of men’s hearts, and feet like burnished bronze, glowing hot golden metal showing his purity and holiness able to trample and burn out impurity. This introduction to the church in Thyatira must have been terrifying.

Jesus does begin by commending the church for its works, its love, faith, service and perseverance. Going further in that their works now are greater than when they first started, the opposite of what was happening in Ephesus. Thyatira was the first of the seven churches to be commended for its love.

Thyatira was the smallest of the seven cities and churches but it receives the longest message from Christ and most of it is its warning. Unlike the churches in Pergamum and Smyrna that faced so much external persecution and some of its members were astray, the church in Thyatira was under attack from within. Jesus charges them with tolerating a woman He labels as Jezabel, referring back to the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians who married King Ahab and led Ahab and much of Israel into worshiping Baal. This Jezabel in Thyatira was permitted to teach in the church and was called a “prophetess”. Also the warning that Jesus starts out with is singular, calling out the pastor or leaders of the church in his condemnation, He is holding them responsible for allowing Jezabel to lead the flock astray. Jezabel may have taken a twisted view of God’s grace and it did not matter what you did with your body because your spirit belonged to God and it didn’t matter if they sinned because God would forgive them. Perhaps she was encouraging them to experience the deep things of Satan so that they would be better equipped to witness to the unsaved.

Jesus has already been patient with her but she had not repented so he passed judgment on this Jezabel, saying that He would throw her on a bed of sickness. The words “of sickness’ are not part of the original Greek text but were added as conjecture by the translators and in light of her refusing to repent the bed in which she is being thrown is probably death and hell, the ultimate destination for those who refuse to repent.

It was too late for Jezabel but the ones she has led astray were called on to repent or they will be thrown into great tribulation, not the tribulations described in chapters 4-19 but their own personal distress or troubles.

The church was around forty years old at the writhing of Revelation so her false teaching had been around long enough for a second generation of false teachers and Jezabel followers to have arisen, these being the ones that Christ declares that He will kill with pestilence (literally kill them with death) , not literal children of the woman but her spiritual children, unless some of her biological children were following in her path.

Jesus goes back to his introduction and says that all of the churches will know that he is able to see into the minds and hearts of men and women and will give to each of us according to our works. Those who were innocent he would not punish along with the guilty.

Christ acknowledges that not all in Thyatira were sinning and have come to know the deep things of Satan, or perversely sinning and following Jezabel. He will not chasten those who haven’t with those who had, but he tells them to be strong and hold to the faith until he comes again.

The ones that persevere, overcome, conquer he will give them authority in his new kingdom, using a verse from Psalms 2:7-9 “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.””

While some see His promise to give to his followers the morning star as a reference to Daniel 12:3 “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” or Matthew 13:43 “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” and the promise would be that believers will reflect Christ’s glory. It more likely means that Christ will give his followers Himself in all his fullness, as the title the morning star he gives Himself later in Revelation 22:16 ““I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.””

As for what the church as a whole is to take away from the message to the Thyatiraians is first that practicing and tolerating sin is not tolerated in God’s church, further what we do, our works mark us as true Christians or not. Also in spite of our own struggles with sin if we repent God will forgive and we can experience the fullness of Christ in the kingdom of heaven.

As a side note the church at Thyatira apparently did not heed Jesus’ message as history records that it fell pray to the Montanist heresy (a movement led by a false prophet to claimed continuing revelation from God apart from Scripture) and went out of existence by the end of the second century.