REVELATION 2 — LETTERS TO EPHESUS, SMYRNA, PERGAMUM, AND THYATIRA

Chapters 2 and 3 contain seven letters from the risen Christ to seven historical churches in the Roman province of Asia. They are located in a rough circle, beginning with Ephesus, the leading city, and moving north and then southeast: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Each letter follows a pattern: an address to "the angel of the church," a description of Christ drawn from the vision in chapter 1, a statement beginning "I know" that commends or condemns, a call to repent where needed, a warning or promise, an exhortation to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, and a promise to the one who conquers. The repeated phrase "he who has an ear" shows that each letter is for all the churches, and the seven letters have been read in different ways: as messages to seven actual congregations, as representations of the different conditions that the church faces in every era, and, in some interpretations, as a prophetic outline of seven periods of church history. This commentary holds that they were real letters to real churches, with a message for the church in every age, and it makes no attempt to assign historical periods to them. The letters show Christ as the Lord of the churches, who knows each one intimately and speaks truth, commending what is good and confronting what is wrong. He addresses real problems: lost love, persecution, compromise with idolatry and immorality, spiritual deadness, and lukewarmness. The promises to "the one who conquers" are not for a special class of believers, since in 1 John 5:4–5 the one who conquers is everyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The promises tie to the final chapters, where all of them are fulfilled for all believers. This commentary also holds that the letters show that perseverance is the evidence of true faith, and that the warnings are real and are used by God to keep His people.

The letters to the seven churches contain a wealth of details that match the known history and geography of the cities, which is evidence that the book was written by someone who knew them. Ephesus was the center of the cult of Artemis and was also one of the first cities to build a temple for the emperor, and the great theater where the riot against Paul occurred (Acts 19) can still be seen. Smyrna was known for its loyalty to Rome and was one of the first cities to build a temple for the goddess Roma; the martyrdom of its bishop Polycarp is recorded in an early document, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, which describes how the Jews and Gentiles of the city took part in his execution and that when asked to swear by the emperor's genius and to curse Christ, he refused. This document, from the mid-second century, is one of the earliest accounts of a Christian martyr outside the New Testament. Pergamum was the site of the great altar of Zeus, whose remains were taken to Berlin in the nineteenth century, and of the sanctuary of Asclepius, a center for healing that attracted pilgrims from across the empire. It was also the first city in Asia to build a temple for the emperor Augustus and Rome. The "throne of Satan" may refer to any of these, or to the city's seat of Roman judicial authority, which had the power of the sword. Thyatira was a center of trade guilds, and inscriptions found there refer to guilds of dyers, bronze workers, potters, and others, which confirms the problem of guild membership that Christians faced. Lydia, the seller of purple goods, came from Thyatira, which matches the city's reputation for dyeing. These details add to the historical credibility of the book, and they show that the letters were addressed to real communities with real struggles. The Nicolaitans are mentioned by Irenaeus and Hippolytus, who connected them with Nicolaus, though they may be relying on the text of Revelation itself.