I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Thy works, and - so 'Aleph (') B; But A C, Vulgate, and Coptic, omit.
Tribulation - owing to persecution.
Poverty - owing to 'spoiling of their goods.'
But thou art rich - in grace. Contrast Laodicea, rich in the world's eyes, poor before God. 'There are both poor rich-men, and rich poor-men in God's sight' (Trench).
Blasphemy of them - blasphemous calumny of thee arising from them, etc.
Say they are Jews, and are not - Jews by national descent, not spiritually of "the true circumcision." The Jews blaspheme Christ as 'the hanged one.' As elsewhere, so at Smyrna, they bitterly opposed Christianity; at Polycarp's martyrdom they joined the pagans in clamouring for his being cast to the lions; and when there was an obstacle to this, for his being burnt alive; with their own hands they carried logs for the pile.
Synagogue of Satan. Only once is "synagogue" in the New Testament used of the Christian assembly, and that by the apostle who longest maintained the union of the Church and Jewish synagogue (margin, James 2:2). As the Jews opposed Christianity, and it more and more rooted itself in the Gentile world, "synagogue" was left altogether to the former, and Christians appropriated the honourable term "Church:" contrast an earlier time, when the Jewish theocracy was "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38). Compare Numbers 16:3; Numbers 20:4, "congregation of the Lord." The Jews, who might have been "the Church of God," had now, by their opposition, become the "synagogue of Satan." So 'the throne of Satan' (Revelation 2:13) represents the pagan's opposition; "the depths of Satan" (Revelation 2:24), the opposition of heretics.