Pergamos

Revelation 2:12-17 New King James Version

Revelation 2:12

1. “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write,

a. Pergamum was not on the coast like Ephesus and Smyrna, but inland about 16 miles (25 km) and 65–70 miles (110 km) north of Smyrna (the northernmost of all the seven cities).[1]

i. MAP

b. Pliny called Pergamum “by far the most distinguished city in Asia.”2Built on a cone-shaped hill a thousand feet in height, it dominated the surrounding valley of the Caicus. Its very name in Greek (Pergamon) means “citadel.” [2]

c. Pergamum was a famous city that had long prospered; it included between 120,000 and 200,000 inhabitants.1 Its citizens had also proved foresighted enough to take the lead in joining Rome to defeat the other kings of the eastern Mediterranean, thereby securing for themselves special favor.[3]

d. The city’s loyalty to Rome was rewarded when the province’s first temple dedicated to the emperor cult was built in Pergamum soon after Augustus consolidated his power in 31 BC (see notes on v. 13). [4]

2. ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:

a. Revelation 1:16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

b. In the context of life in a provincial capital where the proconsul was granted the “right of the sword” (ius gladii), the power to execute at will, the sovereign Christ with the two-edged sword would remind the threatened congregation that ultimate power over life and death belongs to God.[5]

i. Revelation 1:18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Revelation 2:13

1. “I know

2. your works,

3. and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.

a. Arrayed near it on the acropolis was a temple to Athena, an altar to Zeus, and temples to Dionysus and to Demeter. On the edge of town was a large complex for the worship of Asclepius where the sick could go to seek healing. [6]

b. The healing cult of Asclepius was famous at Pergamum; Christians from this city may recognize in Revelation’s serpent (12:9) the chief symbol of their city’s deity.4 More often scholars think of the famous huge throne-like altar of “Zeus the Savior,” whose sculptures included serpents; it was “a monumental colonnaded court in the form of a horseshoe, 120 by 112 feet,” whose podium “was nearly 18 feet high.”[7]

c. The expression is best understood, however, in connection with the prominence of Pergamum as the official cult center of emperor worship in Asia. In addition to the erection of a temple to Augustus in 29 b.c., a second temple was built in the time of Trajan when the city acquired the title “twice neōkoros (temple warden).” It was here that Satan had established his official seat or chair of state.14 As Rome had become the center of Satan’s activity in the West (cf. 13:2; 16:10), so Pergamum had become his “throne” in the East.[8]

4. And you hold fast to My name,

5. and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

a. Given the context, paganism in general or, more likely, the imperial cult in particular led to the martyrdom of Antipas mentioned in 2:13. As a “faithful witness” he is like his Lord (1:5; cf. 3:14).[9]

i. Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

b. The legend appears in later hagiographers (Simon Metaphrastes, the Bollandists) that he was slowly roasted to death in a brazen bowl during the reign of Domitian. [10]

Revelation 2:14

1. But I have a few things against you,

a. Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

2. because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

a. In the Bible and more clearly in Jewish tradition, Balaam acted out of greed for money (Num. 22:19; Deut. 23:4; Neh. 13:2; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11).[11]

i. 2 Peter 2:15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

ii. Numbers 25:1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

iii. Numbers 25:2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

iv. Numbers 25:3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.

v. Numbers 31:16 Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.

b. “Food sacrificed to idols” probably refers to meat that was eaten at pagan feasts rather than that sold in the open market after having been offered to idols. “Sexual immorality” should also be understood literally as part of the pagan festivities. Some writers take both expressions metaphorically as referring to idolatrous practice in general and religious infidelity.[12]

i. Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

Revelation 2:15

1. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans,

2. which thing I hate.

a. Revelation 2:6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Revelation 2:16

1. Repent,

2. or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

a. Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quicklyand remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

b. Revelation 2:12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:

Revelation 2:17

1. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

2. To him who overcomes I will givesome of the hidden manna to eat.

a. This promised manna also contrasts starkly with the idolatrous food for which Balaam’s followers seem prepared to compromise their future reward (2:14).[13]

b. Alluding to God’s life-sustaining provision for Israel in the wilderness (Exod 16:4, 14–36; Num 11:6–7),39 this image speaks of how Christ’s deliverance will provide all that his people truly need for human life as God designed it to be lived in his renewed creation (John 6:25–40; Rev 7:16–17; 21:1–7; 22:1–3).[14]

i. Revelation 2:9 “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

3. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” ’

a. Perhaps the most significant allusion is a reference to some ancient courtrooms, where jurors voted for acquittal with a white stone and for conviction with a black one. Here a capital case is probably in view (2:13), and Jesus will overturn the verdict of the Pergamum Christians’ persecutors at the final judgment when he declares both life and the second death (2:13; 20:12–14; cf. Acts 7:56–60).[15]

b. More likely, however, people used pebbles as admission tokens for public assemblies or festivities; the occasion here would be the celebration of heaven and the new manna of the messianic banquet (7:9; 19:9).[16]

c. This pebble may also be white to symbolize eternal life or purity from sin (Rev. 3:4–5, 18; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9, 13–14). Practical considerations also support a white stone for inscribing a name; although most building materials in Pergamum were of dark brown granite, that city used white marble for its inscriptions.27 Pagan deities sometimes gave worshipers new names to signify a new identity (just as parents named children shortly after birth).28 In Israel’s own history, a change of name was often associated with a promise (see, e.g., Gen. 17:5, 15; cf. 17:4, 9, 20).[17]

d. The new name alludes here to Isaiah 56:5 and especially 62:2, which promises that God will give his people a new name, removing their shame (62:4); this fits the time of the new Jerusalem and new creation (65:15–19). The new name may represent a new description of a person’s identity (cf. Rev. 3:1, 5), but in the context of Revelation more likely the hidden name of God (3:12; cf. 2:13; 3:8; Isa. 43:1) and the Lamb (14:1; 19:12–13, 16), which they will bear forever (22:4).[18]

i. Revelation 19:12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.

[1] Fanning, B. M. (2020). Revelation. (C. E. Arnold, Ed.) (p. 135). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic. 2 Hist. Nat.5.30. [2] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 78). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1 On its prosperity, see Strabo, 13.4.1–3; for the population, see the Galen citations in Aune, Revelation, 1:181. [3] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 122). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. [4] Fanning, B. M. (2020). Revelation. (C. E. Arnold, Ed.) (pp. 135–136). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic. [5] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 79). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [6] Fanning, B. M. (2020). Revelation. (C. E. Arnold, Ed.) (p. 136). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic. 4 For Asclepius’s cult there, see Pausanius, 2.26.9; Herodian, 4.8.3. Associations with healing there appear as early as Homer, Il. 5.446–448 (Apollo). For information on Asclepius, who was particularly popular in this period and centered in this city, see Howard Clark Kee, Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method (New Haven: Yale, 1983), 78–104. [7] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 123). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 14 MM, 293. Swete notes that θρόνος is always used in this sense in the NT (cf. Matt 5:34; 19:28; 25:31; Luke 1:32, 52) and occurs forty-five times as such in the Apocalypse (34). [8] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 79). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [9] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 123). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. [10] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 80). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [11] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 124). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. [12] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (p. 81). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [13] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 126). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 39 The patterns of God’s dealings with Israel in the Exodus from Egypt are evoked again and again in subsequent parts of the Bible to describe how God delivers his people in recurring situations of peril and enslavement to evil (cf. the new-exodus imagery involving provision of food in Isa 49:9–10). And these all point by typological escalation to God’s ultimate provision in the eschaton (see Rev 7:16–17; 19:9; 21:1–7; 22:1–3). [14] Fanning, B. M. (2020). Revelation. (C. E. Arnold, Ed.) (p. 141). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic. [15] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 126). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. [16] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 126). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 27 Hemer, Letters to the Seven Churches, 101–2. That a particular white curative stone was called the “Judean stone” (Galen 9.2.5; Dioscurides, Materia Medica 5.137) is probably irrelevant; calcareous white stone characterized some regions of Asia (cf. J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [n.p.: Macmillan & Company, 1879], 10). 28 Talbert, Apocalypse, 19; Hemer, Letters to the Seven Churches, 99–100, citing Aelius Aristides, Hymn to Ascl. 6.69. Children generally received names eight to nine days after birth (Plutarch, R.Q. 102, Mor. 288BC; Luke 1:59). Cf. figurative renaming in 1QpHab 8.9. [17] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 127). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. [18] Keener, C. S. (1999). Revelation(p. 127). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.