The Compromising Church
The Destination
Pergamum was about one hundred miles north of Ephesus, with Smyrna located about halfway in between. Unlike Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum was not a port city but was located about fifteen miles inland from the Aegean Sea. Nor was it on any of the major trade routes. Yet, as its ancient capital, Pergamum was considered Asia’s greatest city. The Roman writer Pliny called it “by far the most distinguished city in Asia” (cited in Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977], 95). By the time John penned Revelation, Pergamum had been Asia’s capital for almost 250 years (since 133 B.C., when its last king bequeathed his kingdom to Rome). Pergamum survives today as the Turkish city of Bergama.
Much of Pergamum was built on a large, conical hill towering some one thousand feet above the plain. So impressive is the site even in modern times that the famed nineteenth-century archaeologist Sir William Ramsay commented, “Beyond all other sites in Asia Minor it gives the traveler the impression of a royal city, the home of authority: the rocky hill on which it stands is so huge, and dominates the broad plain of the Caicus [River valley] so proudly and boldly” (The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (Albany, Oreg.: AGES Software; reprint of the 1904 edition], 226).
Pergamum’s huge library (200,000 handwritten volumes) was second only to that of Alexandria. So impressive was Pergamum’s library that Mark Antony later sent it to his lover, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. According to legend, parchment (or vellum) was invented by the Pergamenes to provide writing material for their library. Seeking to build a library rivaling the one in Alexandria, a third-century B.C. Pergamene king attempted to lure the librarian of the Alexandrian library to his city. Unfortunately, the Egyptian ruler got wind of the plan, refused to allow the librarian to leave, and in retaliation prohibited the further export of papyrus to Pergamum. Out of necessity, the Pergamenes developed parchment, made of treated animal skins, for use as writing material. Though parchment was actually known from a thousand years earlier in Egypt, the Pergamenes were responsible for its widespread use in the ancient world. In fact, the word parchment may derive from a form of the word Pergamum.
Because of its library, Pergamum was an important center of culture and learning. The physician Galen, second only in prominence to Hippocrates, was born and studied in Pergamum. The city saw itself as the defender of Greek culture in Asia Minor. A large frieze around the base of the altar of Zeus commemorates the victory of the Pergamenes over the invading barbarian Gauls.
Pergamum was an important center of worship for four of the main deities of the Greco-Roman world, and temples dedicated to Athena, Asklepios, Dionysos, and Zeus were located there. But overshadowing the worship of all those deities was Pergamum’s devotion to the cult of emperor worship. Pergamum built the first temple devoted to emperor worship in Asia (29 B.C.), in honor of Emperor Augustus. Later, the city would build two more such temples, honoring the emperors Trajan and Septimus Severus. The city thus became the center of emperor worship in the province, and there, more than in any other city in Asia, Christians were in danger of harm from the emperor worship cult. Elsewhere, Christians were primarily in danger on the one day per year they were required to offer sacrifices to the emperor; in Pergamum they were in danger every day. It is likely that the martyr Antipas (2:13) was executed, at least in part, for refusing to worship the emperor.
The Description
The Discernment
The word altar is somewhat misleading. The structure is a monumental colonnaded court in the form of a horseshoe, 120 by 112 feet. The podium of the altar was nearly 18 feet high. The great frieze, which ran at the base of the structure for 446 feet, depicted a gigantomachy, that is, a battle of the gods and the giants. It was one of the greatest works of Hellenistic art. (New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980], 35–36)
The Dilemma
The Demand
The Declaration
There has been much speculation about what the white stone symbolizes. Some link it with the Urim and Thummim on the breastplate of the high priest (
