Lecutre #2: Revelation 2

Introduction- Review of Revelation 1

Last week we began a study on the book of Revelation that covered the first chapter. Last week we went over:

Four views/ interpretations of the Bbok of Revelation

Preterism

Historicist

Futurist

Idealist

Introduced the extra-biblical resources that are referenced or alluded to in the book of Revelation

Pseudepigrapha

Apocrypha

Introduced the Old Testament books that are used in the book of Revelation

Zechariah

Ezekiel

Daniel

Isaiah

others

Three majors points of the first chapter

Jesus is the firstborn from the dead

Jesus is Daniel’s Son of Man

Jesus is Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

However, there is another point I had wished to elaborate on in last week’s review. The book of Revelation has a running theme of God’s people finally being released from exile, spiritually and naturally. God’s people are being liberated from the spiritual forces that entrap them and the natural forces that oppress them from accomplishing the tasks that have been established for the children of God before the foundation of the world.

Exposition of Scripture

Now, as we stated on last week, these seven churches are significant, because they are the churches of what I call the exilic region. These seven churches surround the island of Patmos. Jesus designated John, the apostle to reveal this spectacular revelation for the benefit of these churches. It is only fitting that one of Jesus’s apostles, messengers should deliver this revelation since the apostles’ role in the New Testament time is to administer the message given to them. Therefore, John fulfills his role as an apostle of dispensing this message to seven churches facing their tribulation. (Note, I refer to the tribulation of Revelation as their tribulation, because everything in Revelation points to a contextual and historical event that is related to the conditions these seven churches were facing.)

Revelation 2:1: Write to the angel is an imperative statement from Jesus Christ and is found in each one of the commandments for the seven churches (see Revelation 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). The word “angel” could be misleading to the natural reader. It is translated as such in every major translation that I am familiar with. The reason it is impossible to translate this term as some other, is because of the Greek term ἄγγελος, which has a natural meaning of what we refer to as supernatural or “angelic” beings. So, how do we conclude that this term is a human messenger rather than a supernatural one?

A simply word study on how the greek word ἄγγελος is used in the Greek translation of Hebrew scriptures will be incredibly insightful. While the gloss of the term ἄγγελος refers to supernatural meaning, this is not the only meaning this term carries. In fact, the best way to understand the meaning is to consider the usage in its context. When we do this, we find that the word ἄγγελος is used several times in the Old Testament to refer to human messengers (see Genesis 32:3, 6; Judith 1:11; 3:1; 1 Maccabees 1:44; 7:10). Another way to examine the use of the word is by comparing the biblical references to the contemporary writings of the time to determine if the word had any other meaning. Here our investigation shows that Josephus used the term to refer to human messengers, rather than angelic figures. Therefore, we conclude that the messengers of the churches are human messengers who have the responsibility of sharing what they receive from John the apostle to the churches.

…the church in Ephesus: Ephesus was a city with a large seaport in the Roman province of Asia. Most scholars believe that this church was started by the Apostle Paul. Obviously, Paul had some connection to this church as we see in Acts 19.

However this church started, Ephesus, as a city, was an amazing place. It experienced extraordinary commercial growth and was one of the premier cities with a sophisticated highway system. It was most known for its temple of Artemis and the other imperial temples that paid honor to the emperors.

The temple of Artemis was Ephesus’ greatest sacred building, and was deemed one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Artemis was the goddess of wild animals, hunting, and fertility. She was considered the patron deity of Ephesus (The impact of this temple and goddess can be seen in Acts 19:23-41).

There was also the temple of Hestia, the goddess of hearth and domestic activity; temple of Serapis, and the sanctuary of Zeus and Mother Goddess. As one could tell from this description, Ephesus was an highly religious environment. Though Jews would call this form of religion pagan, it is worth noting that the area would not have seen things in this manner. They would have seen their religious practices as a spiritual expression of the most logical way to worship the gods. Remember, they were Greeks and they thrived on the intellectual rigor of thought and debate.

Among these religious institutions were a variety of amenities such as gymnasiums and baths for physical and mental training and social gatherings. Additionally, the agoras were used for social gatherings, business meetings, and political purposes. Essentially, Ephesus was an interesting place to have a church.

...the one who holds the seven stars…and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: This description mimics the Old Testament prophetic ministry that saw the prophets as receiving divine message from God to deliver to the people. This is exactly the point John, the apostle seeks to portray. He wants his audience to understand that this revelation was God-sent or Jesus-sent, which would have translated a greater sense of authority.

Revelation 2:2: