15. Or messengers
16. “And Can It Be?” (1738).
17. The NIV seems to have understood John’s intent correctly here, whose text in the Greek reads (literally): “what you have seen and what is and what is about to happen after these things.” The reason for adopting the NIV’s rendering is a recognition that the three verbs “saw, are, will be” are not in fact coordinate—and almost certainly were not intended to be. That is, the first verb (in the past tense) has to do with John and what he has “seen” in the pictures that follow, while the second and third verbs have to do with the present situation of the churches and what lies ahead for them.
Revelation 2–3
The Letters to the Seven Churches
With the seven letters that make up chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation, one turns from the glories of the introductory materials—the salutation, doxology, opening vision of Christ, and commission of John—to the actual situation of the churches themselves. How much grander it would have been for John to have gone immediately from 1:20 to 4:1! But that would be to miss too much in terms of the point of the book, which was, after all, written to these seven specific churches. In the opening vision Christ appears as standing among them, and John’s commission to write to them was intended in part to do with “what is now” (1:19). In fact what is said here (chs. 2–3) helps to make sense both of the book as a whole and of the preceding commission to John in 1:19 in particular. Whatever else may be true of these individual letters, as a group they let his first readers in on one dimension of “what is”; namely the condition of the church(es), which fills John with concern.
Before one considers each church individually, however, it is important to note that all the believers who are to receive this document end up reading every one else’s mail, as it were—a sure indication that the individual Christian communities still did not think of themselves in isolated terms, but as all belonging to the same larger reality. This is obviously purposeful on John’s part, since these churches are related geographically and each needs to know how the Lord feels about the others. Thus, the living Christ—the One who walks in the midst of the lampstands—addresses each of the churches individually, but he also expects each to take heed to what he says to the others by way of the encouragements and warnings that follow. After all, each letter concludes with the words, “what the Spirit says to the churches.” This reality probably says something about the unity of the early church, which is basically unknown to the church(es) of later centuries.
The seven letters themselves tend to follow a similar pattern, although some items found in the first letter are missing here and there in the letters that follow. First up always is Christ himself, who is consistently presented with the introductory “these are the words of . . .” The depiction of Christ that follows then picks up some dimension of the imagery from 1:12–16. This is then followed by words of praise and/or censure for the church itself. These in turn are followed by words of warning (sometimes followed by further praise), with a concluding word of admonition (the one consistent element in all of the letters) and/or final promise. When one gets to the letter to Sardis (3:1–6) the more universal nature of all the letters becomes obvious, since the concluding promise to the “overcomers” reads, “those who are victorious will, like them, be dressed in white.” The “like them” picks up the immediately preceding promise to the faithful in Sardis, who “will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” The clear implication is that the promise made to the Sardinian believers will also be true of the “victorious” believers in all the churches, and thus to all those who are reading everyone else’s mail.
To the Church in Ephesus (2:1–7)
1“To the angel1 of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To those who are victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Without breaking stride, Christ continues speaking to John by commanding him to write to the angel of the church in Ephesus. But this first word appearing in the address to the churches is also the one that has caused considerable difficulty for later interpreters, not to mention readers. As previously noted, in each case the letter is addressed to the angelos of the church. Among the many interpretations of this word (“pastor,” “bishop,” “angel,” or some other kind of special messenger), the most likely one is that adopted by the translators of the NIV, who render it literally with “to the angel,” while footnoting the option “messenger.” The reason for going this route seems quite simple, and is related to the apocalyptic genre itself. Nowhere in these documents are “angels” thought of as anything other than angels. What John appears to do, therefore, is to keep the apocalyptic genre alive by the use of this word, since what follows in each case is the least apocalyptic material in the entire document. Most likely it is John’s need to address the seven churches in a basically straightforward manner, accompanied by his desire to keep intact the apocalyptic nature of the book as a whole, that has brought about this unusual way of speaking to the seven churches. After all, angels reappear throughout the book as presenting or carrying out the divine plan. Even so, throughout John’s entire vision angels are consistently placed in a secondary position to Christ (on which matter, cf. Hebrews 1:5–14).
A contemporary visitor to the site of the ruins of Ephesus can only be amazed to learn that in John’s day the city was located on the coastline itself, since its harbor has long been silted by years of flow from the Cayster River, so that its ruins are now some miles inland. But in John’s day it was the foremost city of the Roman province of Asia, the flower of Asia if you will, and one of the leading cities in the entire Mediterranean world. An important commercial center, it thus became a haven for a large number of diaspora Jews, many of whom had also secured citizenship. Moreover, it was also both a religious tourist site (home of the famous temple of Artemis) and one of the well-known places of asylum (like the Old Testament “cities of refuge”). It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the church in Ephesus holds pride of place among the seven churches. Furthermore, even though its failure (traditionally, “you have forsaken your first love”) is perhaps the best known of all, it is also the church that is given some of the most lavish commendation.
As with each of the letters, this one begins with the phrase these are the words of him who, which is then followed by a descriptor, taken in most cases from some part of the preceding imagery of Christ in 1:13–16. In this first instance Christ is presented by a combination of language from 1:16 (him who holds the seven stars in his right hand) and 1:13 (and walks among the seven golden lampstands), which would appear to be the most basic way Christ could be described when using terms from the preceding vision. The “seven angels” are thus under Christ’s own absolute authority (in his right hand); and he himself is present among the churches to whom he now has John write on his behalf.
This is followed immediately by a considerable expression of praise for the church, praise that has three dimensions to it, all of which in the Greek text are introduced by the main verb I know. The first thing Christ knows, and thus reveals about them, is a more general depiction of praise, expressed in three