And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
Smyrna - in Ionia, north of Ephesus. Polycarp, martyred in 168 AD, eighty-six years after conversion, was Bishop: probably "the angel of the church in Smyrna." The allusions to persecutions unto death, accord with this view. Ignatius ('Martyrium Ignatii,' 3:), on his way to martyrdom in Rome, wrote to Polycarp, then (108 AD) Bishop of Smyrna. If his bishopric commenced ten or twelve years earlier, the dates will harmonize. Tertullian ('Praescriptione Haereticorum,' 32:) and Irenaeus, who talked with Polycarp in youth, tell us, Polycarp was consecrated by John.
The First and the Last, which was dead, and is alive - attributes of Christ most calculated to comfort Smyrna under its persecution: resumed from Revelation 1:17-18. As death was to Him the gate to life eternal, so it is to them (Revelation 2:10-11).