B. To The Church Of Smyrna (2:8-11)
B. TO THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA (2:8-11)
Smyrna was one of the greatest cities of the region, and indeed disputed with Ephesus for the title ‘First (city) of Asia’. It enjoyed great natural advantages, including an excellent harbour at the head of a well-protected gulf. It was thus the natural outlet for the trade of the rich valley of the Hermus and regions beyond. Smyrna was destroyed c.580 BC, but c.290 BC Lysimachus rebuilt it to a comprehensive plan. It was thus one of the very few planned cities of antiquity. Many writers comment on its beauty. It was one of the first cities to worship the Roman emperor and it won the honour of erecting a temple to him in the reign of Tiberius. Indeed there was a temple to the goddess of Rome as early as 195 BC (Tacitus, Ann. iv-56; Barclay says this was the first in the world). Smyrna was a faithful ally of Rome in the days before Rome was acknowledged in the region, so its loyalty meant something.
8. The message is from the First and the Last (cf.1:17). As in 1:18 this is linked with a reference to the resurrection, very appropriate in a city which had died and now lived once more. In 1:18 the tense denotes continuity (‘I am living’), whereas here the aorist tenses put the stress on the actual happenings: ‘he became dead, and sprang to life again.’
9. Christ’s knowledge of this church is concerned with the various kinds of trouble its members were undergoing. First is afflictions (actually thlipsis is singular), which means serious trouble, the burden that crushes. Kiddle says, ‘From this letter we can gain some idea of the unbounded fortitude of these early Christians. John assumes that the people of Smyrna (as typical of faithful Christians everywhere) share his own attitude to physical suffering: he speaks lightly of it, as one speaks of familiar things. Words so brief, spoken to men who might at any time go to their death, have in them a heroism which even now has power to stir the blood.’
Next comes poverty. John uses the strong word pt
cheia, which Trench distinguishes from penia: ‘The pen
s has nothing superfluous, the ptchos nothing at all.76 The poverty of the Smyrneans was extreme. Yet Christ can say you are rich (contrast 3:17). There is a richness in spiritual things which has nothing to do with this world’s wealth. Many think that the Smyrneans’ poverty was in part due to pillage of their goods by the Jews. Christianity was not legally permitted, which made it easy for Jews or pagans to take action against believers. When Polycarp was martyred at Smyrna somewhat later the hostility of the Jews toward the Christians came out in their zeal in setting forward the execution. Though it was the sabbath, they gathered wood for the fire in which the martyr was burnt. Such hostility may well go back to the time when John wrote.
cheia, which Trench distinguishes from penia: ‘The pens has nothing superfluous, the ptchos nothing at all.76 The poverty of the Smyrneans was extreme. Yet Christ can say you are rich (contrast 3:17). There is a richness in spiritual things which has nothing to do with this world’s wealth. Many think that the Smyrneans’ poverty was in part due to pillage of their goods by the Jews. Christianity was not legally permitted, which made it easy for Jews or pagans to take action against believers. When Polycarp was martyred at Smyrna somewhat later the hostility of the Jews toward the Christians came out in their zeal in setting forward the execution. Though it was the sabbath, they gathered wood for the fire in which the martyr was burnt. Such hostility may well go back to the time when John wrote.He goes on to refer to the slander (blasphemia) of those who say they are Jews and are not (cf. Rom. 2:25,28-29). To be a Jew means more than to possess outward membership of the race. These men are a synagogue of Satan. Their assembly for worship did not gather together God’s people, but Satan‘s, who is ’the accuser of our brothers’ (12:10).
10. The Smyrneans are not to be afraid, though suffering is certain. Some will be imprisoned, and this is ascribed to the devil. But God is supreme. Even through the devil and evil men he works out his purposes. The imprisonment will be to test you. The clear implication is that God will see them through the test. This is so even if, as a number of commentators think, prison was simply a place of confinement while awaiting execution (against this view are passages like Acts 16:23; 2 Cor. 11:23).
Ten days (the time of Daniel’s testing, Dn. 1:12-15) may well point to the completion of their suffering: ‘It is only for a limited time that you will have to endure, even though endurance will be tested to the limit’ (Niles). It certainly points to something more than three and a half days, which is John’s usual expression for a trial of limited duration. Yet even ten has its limit. Not Satan but God has the last word. In a memorable expression the church is exhorted, Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life (cf. Jas. 1:12). Death, which people fear so much, is set in sharp antithesis to life, which alone matters. There is an article with life (though not with death). It is ’the’ life, eternal life, that is in mind. Crown (stephanos) means a wreath or chaplet, and is to be distinguished from the royal crown (diadma). The stephanos was the trophy awarded to the victor at the games, and the same word was used of the festive garland worn at banquets by all the guests. Here it is plainly the victory wreath, which would be specially appropriate in Smyrna, a city famous for its Games. The believer who remains faithful even when it means death will receive the trophy of victory. His crown is life.
ma). The stephanos was the trophy awarded to the victor at the games, and the same word was used of the festive garland worn at banquets by all the guests. Here it is plainly the victory wreath, which would be specially appropriate in Smyrna, a city famous for its Games. The believer who remains faithful even when it means death will receive the trophy of victory. His crown is life.11. For He who has an ear. . . , see note on verse 7. The overcomer will not be harmed by the second death (explained in 20:6,14; 21:8 in terms of the lake of fire; it seems to mean eternal punishment, the negation of eternal life). Not is an emphatic double negative. The overcomer will certainly not be harmed. The emphasis would be welcome to those who faced the prospect of martyrdom.