Revelation 2:14,15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But I have a few things against thee Things that deserve reproof, and require reformation; because thou hast there Those whom thou oughtest to have immediately cast out from the flock, that hold the doctrine of Balaam Doctrine nearly resembling his: who taught Balak And the rest of the Moabites; to cast a stumbling-block before the children Rather, the sons, as των υιων signifies; of Israel So named in opposition to the daughters of Moab, by whom Balaam enticed them to the commission of gross sin; to eat things sacrificed to idols Which, in so idolatrous a city as Pergamos, was, in the highest degree, hurtful to Christianity: and to commit fornication Which was constantly joined with the idol-worship of the heathen. So hast thou also As well as the angel at Ephesus; them that hold the doctrine, &c. Who go so far as to justify their bad conduct by receiving the principles of the Nicolaitanes; which thing I hate Condemn and detest as most inconsistent with the purity of the Christian faith and religion: and these thou sufferest to remain in the flock. “It seems not improbable,” Doddridge thinks, “that the doctrine of Balaam and that of the Nicolaitanes might be the same; or the latter might be more strenuous in justifying and propagating their doctrine, and acting upon it; and that this doctrine might be like that of some modern seducers, namely, that it is lawful to dissemble the Christian faith, and to conform to the established superstition, to prevent persecution: a fatal error, which tends most effectually to overthrow Christianity, the existence of which, in these later ages, is owing to the contrary doctrine and practice.”