CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Revelation 2:12. Sharp sword.—Suggesting unusual severity of asserting, and unusual severity of dealing (see Revelation 1:16; also Ephesians 6:17). “On the one hand, it was to smite that it might heal, cutting to the quick, reaching the conscience, laying bare the hidden depths of each man’s life. On the other, it was also quick and powerful to smite and to destroy.
Revelation 2:13. Thy works.—Better omitted, as in Revelation 2:9. Satan’s seat.—Or “throne.” Reference may be to the worship of Æsculapius, under the symbol of a serpent; but Sinclair, on the ground of recent excavations, gives the suggestion that the phrase refers to the great altar of Zeus Soter, carved with the wars of gods and giants, which Attalus set up to commemorate his victory over the Gauls—the last great triumph of Hellenism over barbarism. Another suggestion is, that the phrase merely indicates that Pergamos was, in a special sense, a home of the Satanic spirit of persecution. It may be better, however, to keep the idea of deceiver associated with the term “Satan,” and destroyer associated with the word “Devil.” Antipas.—Probably short for Antipater; a man not otherwise known. Martyr.—Strictly witness; but bearing witness unto death. The death of one of them reveals the severity of the persecution under which all passed. (The legend concerning Antipas cannot be traced earlier than the fifth century, and then legends of martyrs were freely invented.)
Revelation 2:14. Doctrine of Balaam.—Which was this: if you cannot get your own way by open disobedience to God, get it by scheming; get it through offering gratification to human passion. Nothing can be baser, or more demoralising, than this “doctrine of Balaam.” “Israel could not be cursed, but they might be made to bring a curse upon themselves by yielding to sin.”
Revelation 2:15. Nicolaitanes.—These people encouraged Christians to join in the idolatrous feasts of their neighbours, on the plea that to the spiritual man there can be no sin in any merely bodily, animal action. It is true that sin is in the will, but it is known by its expression in acts. I hate.—δ μισῶ. Probably should be ὁμοίως, in like manner.
Revelation 2:16. Repent.—Addressed either directly to the angel or to the loyal ones in the Church. Them.—Those: embers who are yielding to surrounding evil influences. The discipline must be severe on them, and an anxiety for the whole Church.
Revelation 2:17. Hidden manna.—Figure for the Divinely-provided, spiritual food, with which loyal souls are nourished. White stone.—Sign of acquittal. See in “Main Homiletic” account of the “tessara hospitalis,” which explains the secrecy and value of the new name written upon the stone. New name.—That which betokens their adoption into the family of God; a new character, new position and privileges.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Revelation 2:12-17
A Church Flagging in its Duty.—Of this Church there is much complaint, and much need for stern discipline. Two evils were imperilling its very life. Christ deals with them hopefully, because they were yet in their early stages, and undeveloped. Only a few were really bad. Pergamos, or Pergamum (the original of the word “parchment”) was in the province of Troas, Asia Minor, some sixty miles north of Smyrna. It was not a commercial city, but its hill formed a natural fortress. It was the seat of the worship of Æsculapius, the god of healing, who was symbolled as a serpent, and represented by a live serpent which was kept in his temple. There is a legend about this god to the following effect: On one occasion, in the house of Glaucus, whom he was to cure, while he was standing absorbed in thought, a serpent entered, and twined round his staff. He killed it, and then another serpent came in, carrying in its mouth a herb with which it recalled to life the one that had been killed. Æsculapius henceforth used that herb, with healing effects, on man. But an elaborate system of magic grew up around this god, attended with deceptive practices. Pergamos became a focus of idolatrous worship, and could be described as the place “where Satan’s seat is.” Outward circumstances of temptation, rather than of trouble, are represented in the picture of this Church. Under pressure of these temptations the Church has partly yielded; but it does not seem to have recognised the seriousness and peril of this partial yielding; and therefore the Living Christ must come to it with the dividing and revealing two-edged sword.
I. A Church faithful to the truth.—“Hast not denied My faith.” Antipas was probably the proto-martyr of the Asiatic Churches. “I know thy works.” We would like Christ to judge us by our Church activities alone; but He always seeks to judge the soul that is behind the activities. Christ takes due account of our disabilities—“where thou dwellest”; but not so much to excuse failure as to show that He expects energy. Only noble souls are put in dangerous places; they are honoured even as is the “Forlorn Hope” of an army. (The “Nicolaitanes of Revelation 2:15 are best apprehended as the Antinomians of that day.)
II. A Church failing from its duty.—Its practice was by no means so good as its profession. Some were going wholly wrong. Balaam and the Nicolaitanes are introduced as types of the two serious evils affecting this Church. 1. Unrestrained feastings, or self-indulgence in food. The story of Balaam which is specially brought before us here is given in Numbers 31:16. Over-mastered by God, Balaam became a revengeful schemer, and taught Balak to show friendliness, and get the Israelites to mix with his people at the idol-feasts, whose great characteristic was riotous self-indulgence. This evil took a refined form in the early Church, and St. Paul had to advise on the question of eating meat which had been offered to idols, if a Christian was invited to a feast by a heathen friend. The difficulty was based on the Eastern idea of communion by eating. Fulness of self-indulgence in eating and drinking still involves the hopeless ruin of Christian piety.
2. Unrestrained passions, or self-indulgence in sexual relations. In Balaam’s day this over-feeding, and these idol associations, led to sadly immoral relations between Israel and Moab—relations that were in open and wilful opposition to the conditions of the Jehovah-covenant. In connection with this, bring in the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which supported immorality by its assertion that self-indulgence is not sin in the regenerate. There have been known cases in which men who were living in open immorality have persisted in coming to the Lord’s Table. But such men always have been, and are to-day, the canker of the Church. The sign that a man is a saved man is his wanting to be righteous, and trying to be righteous. A Christian absolutely must be self-restrained in matters of bodily appetite and passion.
III. A Church encouraged to become steadfast in holy living.—“Eat of the hidden manna,” to satisfy the feast-feeling. The figure may be based on the legend that Jeremiah hid the Temple pot of manna. Manna is Divinely-provided food—spiritual food. The addition of “hidden” makes it clear that it was not such manna as was provided for Israel—not something to satisfy merely bodily appetite. The point is this: overcome, and hold in wise restraint bodily appetite, and Christ’s reward will be the culture of spiritual appetite, with abundant supply of spiritual food. “White stone and new name,” to satisfy the love for human relations. When houses of public entertainment were less common, private hospitality was the more necessary. When one person was received kindly by another, or a contract of friendship was entered into, the tessera hospitalis was given. It was so named from its shape, being four-sided: it was sometimes of wood, sometimes of stone. It was divided into two by the contracting parties; each wrote his own name on half the tessera. Then they exchanged pieces, and therefore the name or device on the piece of the tessera which each received was the name the other person had written on it, and which no one else knew but him who received it. It was carefully prized, and entitled the bearer to protection and hospitality. The idea is, that human friendships and relations should become wholly pure, freed from carnal strain, sanctified, heavenly, the friendship of purified souls. “In heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels.” Overcoming carnal tastes will surely go with culture of the spiritual tastes, so that we shall prefer the “hidden manna,” and see glory in the “white stone.” Every Christian, and every Christian Church, is expected to wear the “white flower of a blameless life.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Revelation 2:14. Doctrine of Balaam.—“Things sacrificed to idols,” εἰδωλόθυτα.” Every convert from heathenism would acknowledge that he was bound to abstain from any participation, direct or indirect, in the false worship which he renounced at baptism. But the question, What acts involved an indirect participation? was one that gave rise to a perplexing casuistry, and yet could not be avoided. Was the convert to go out of the world, and turn from all social gatherings but those of his own community? Was he to refuse to join in the public meals, at inns, or elsewhere, which travel made almost indispensable? If he did so refuse, he cut himself off, not only from the pleasures, but from the duties and opportunities of family and social companionship. Yet if he accepted the invitation, there was the risk that he might be eating of the flesh of sheep or ox which the host had himself sacrificed, as a festive thank-offering, to Zeus or Apollo, or that the wine which he drank might have been poured out as a libation. If he did so eat, was he not, in “eating of the sacrifice,” a partaker in the worship, eating the flesh and drinking the cup which belonged to the demons that he had learnt to identify with the gods whom the heathen worshipped (1 Corinthians 11:20). Yet another case presented itself, which followed the convert even to his own home. Of the sacrifices that were offered in heathen temples the greater part became the perquisite of the priests. When they had more than they could consume themselves, they sold it to the meat-dealers of the market. The Christian convert, therefore, could never be sure that what he bought had not been thus offered, and the sensitive conscience was harassed with the tormenting thought of an unknown and involuntary transgression, which yet brought with it defilement and condemnation. The Jew might avoid the danger by dealing only, as for the most part, Jews deal now, with a butcher of his own persuasion; but this implied a more settled and organised society than that of most Christian communities in the early days of the Church’s life, and many years would probably pass away before the convert was able to meet with a Christian butcher. On the other hand, in most cases the Jewish butcher would probably refuse to supply him; or, if that were not the case, would only do so under the restrictions (to the Gentile burdensome and vexatious) of the Mosaic law of clean and unclean meats. (See the discussion of this difficulty in 1 Corinthians 10:14-33.) Those who are condemned by this message are precisely those whom St. Paul urges, on grounds of a moral expediency so high that it becomes a duty, to refrain from the exercise of the right and freedom of which they boasted. It was to be expected that some, in their self-will, would harden themselves against the appeal; that they might even use St. Paul’s name, and boast that they were more consistent with his principles than he was himself. This, we know, was what Marcion and his followers actually did when they claimed a true liberty for themselves; and Marcion may well have had forerunners among the Gnostics of the apostolic age.—Dean Plumptre.
Revelation 2:17. The New Name.—The giving of new names is not uncommon in the bible; e.g., Abraham—Israel—Boanerges—Peter. The new name expressed the step which had been taken into a higher, truer life, and the change of heart, and elevation of character, consequent upon it. Such are known in the world by their daily life, their business, their character; they are known above by the place they hold, and the work they are doing in the great war against evil. No man knoweth the characteristics of the growth of the character, the spiritual conflict in which the work is done, and the features of that change which has been, and is being, wrought, except he who experiences the love, the grace, and the tribulation, by which his spirit-life has grown.—Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Revelation 2:12. Pergamos.—Pergamos, a celebrated city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, and for one hundred and fifty years the capital of a powerful and independent kingdom of the same name, is situated about sixty-four miles north-west of Smyrna. It was the residence of the Attalian kings, and a famous seat of Eastern learning, having a noble library, containing two hundred thousand volumes. The advantages of its situation, near the sea, and commanding an extensive plain, rendered it a place of great importance. The acropolis, or citadel (which was always the most ancient part, and the stronghold, of Grecian and Roman cities), stands on a hill two hundred feet above the plain, now crowned with its ruins, amongst which those of a castle or fortress, resembling those at Smyrna and Ephesus, covering the whole summit, and including about eight acres, stand prominent. It was built in the more prosperous times of Pergamos, though much of its present form is of a later date. The town afterwards became more extended, and the modern one lies in part on the slope of the hill, but principally in the plain. Among the antiquities of Pergamos may be mentioned the remains of the temple of Minerva, which rose on a high area, and was unrivalled in sublimity of situation, being visible from the vast plain and the Mediterranean Sea. Its columns now lie in a lofty heap. With a descent almost perpendicular, on the north and west sides is a very narrow valley, with a rivulet, over which, at one extremity, the great aqueduct of one row of lofty arches is constructed, and at the other a pile of massive buildings, which, filling the whole breadth of the valley, was the front and grand entrance into an extensive amphitheatre, … the most complete edifice of the kind in Asia Minor. Here, at times, by retaining the waters of the rivulet, a Naumachia, or place for the exhibition of a mock sea-fight; was formed; while at others, when the arena was dry, and the stream confined within its narrow bounds, it was used for chariot, gymnastic, and other exercises. Of the site of the royal palace of King Attalus, celebrated for its beautiful prospect (and therefore probably occupying an elevated and commanding position), nothing can be positively asserted. Once there was at Pergamos the celebrated temple of Æsculapius, which was also an asylum, and the concourse of individuals to which was without number or cessation. They passed the night there to invoke the false deity, who communicated remedies either in dreams or by the mouth of his priests, who distributed drugs and performed surgical operations.
Revelation 2:17. The White Stone.—We have here an allusion to an ancient mode of indicating approbation and acquittal, as described by Ovid:—
“A custom of old, and still ordains,
Which life or death by suffrage obtains;
White stones and black within urn are cast,—
The first absolve, but death is in the last.”
This ancient custom was something like our modern balloting, or voting by white and black balls. The White Stone promised by our Lord seems to mean full and complete justification at the great day, through His glorious imputed righteousness. Some interpreters refer to the ancient custom of acquitting an accused person by the jurors placing a white pebble in the balloting box. Thus the Christian, at the last great assize, shall receive, not the black stone of condemnation, but the white stone of salvation, through the merits of Him who died for sinners. The white stone has also suggested the token of triumph allotted to the victor at the Olympic games, entitling him to a triumphant reception on his return home. There is another tessera, or white stone—the tesseragladiatoria. Before a young man could appear as a gladiator in the great public games, he had to pass through a long and severe process of training. During that time he went under the name of tiro, or apprentice. When he made his first public appearance in the arena, if he proved victorious, he received an oblong tablet of ivory (tessera gladiatoria) as a reward and sign of his proficiency, on which was written his name, that of his master, and the day of his first fight and victory. He was then admitted to the rank of the spectati (distinguished persons). The name of tiro was dropped, and his new name of spectatus was inscribed upon his tessera. The tessera gladiatoria may not be so attractive in itself as the tessera hospitalis, but there is no objection to the employment of a symbol by St. John which is used by the apostle of the Gentiles. And, then, it fits the case, which the other does not. There is the change of name, the new name being more honourable, and commanding greater privileges, than the old. And this white stone is given as a reward of victory—of a victory, it should be observed, not in a single brief contest, but which was the crown and finish of a long and self-denying course of discipline.