14. few—in comparison of the many tokens of thy faithfulness.

hold the doctrine of Balaam—“the teaching of Balaam,” namely, that which he “taught Balak.” Compare “the counsel of Balaam,” Nu 31:16. “Balak” is dative in the Greek, whence Bengel translates, “taught (the Moabites) for (that is, to please) Balak.” But though in Numbers it is not expressly said he taught Balak, yet there is nothing said inconsistent with his having done so; and Josephus [Antiquities, 4.6.6], says he did so. The dative case is a Hebraism for the accusative case.

children—Greek, “sons of Israel.”

stumbling-block—literally, that part of a trap on which the bait was laid, and which, when touched, caused the trap to close on its prey; then any entanglement to the foot [Trench].

eat things sacrificed unto idols—the act common to the Israelites of old, and the Nicolaitanes in John’s day; he does not add what was peculiar to the Israelites, namely, that they sacrificed to idols. The temptation to eat idol-meats was a peculiarly strong one to the Gentile converts. For not to do so involved almost a withdrawal from partaking of any social meal with the heathen around. For idol-meats, after a part had been offered in sacrifice, were nearly sure to be on the heathen entertainer’s table; so much so, that the Greek “to kill” (thuein) meant originally “to sacrifice.” Hence arose the decree of the council of Jerusalem forbidding to eat such meats; subsequently some at Corinth ate unscrupulously and knowingly of such meats, on the ground that the idol is nothing; others needlessly tortured themselves with scruples, lest unknowingly they should eat of them when they got meat from the market or in a heathen friend’s house. Paul handles the question in 1 Co 8:1–13; 10:25–33.

fornication—often connected with idolatry.

15. thou—emphatic: “So thou also hast,” As Balak and the Moabites of old had Balaam and his followers literally, so hast thou also them that hold the same Balaamite or Nicolaitane doctrine spiritually or symbolically. Literal eating of idol-meats and fornication in Pergamos were accompanied by spiritual idolatry and fornication. So Trench explains. But I prefer taking it, “thou also,” as well as Ephesus (“in like manner” as Ephesus; see below the oldest reading), hast … Nicolaitanes, with this important difference, Ephesus, as a Church, hates them and casts them out, but thou “hast them,” namely, in the Church.

doctrine—teaching (see on Rev 2:6): namely, to tempt God’s people to idolatry.

which thing I hate—It is sin not to hate what God hates. The Ephesian Church (Rev 2:6) had this point of superiority to Pergamos. But the three oldest manuscripts, and Vulgate and Syriac, read instead of “which I hate,” “in like manner.”

16. The three oldest manuscripts read, “Repent, therefore.” Not only the Nicolaitanes, but the whole Church of Pergamos is called on to repent of not having hated the Nicolaitane teaching and practice. Contrast Paul, Ac 20:26.

I will come—I am coming.

fight against them—Greek, “war with them”; with the Nicolaitanes primarily; but including also chastisement of the whole Church at Pergamos: compare “unto thee.”

with the sword of my mouth—resumed from Rev 1:16, but with an allusion to the drawn sword with which the angel of the Lord confronted Balaam on his way to curse Israel: an earnest of the sword by which he and the seduced Israelites fell at last. The spiritual Balaamites of John’s day are to be smitten with the Lord’s spiritual sword, the word or “rod of His mouth.”

17. to eat—omitted in the three oldest manuscripts.

the hidden manna—the heavenly food of Israel, in contrast to the idol-meats (Rev 2:14). A pot of manna was laid up in the holy place “before the testimony.” The allusion is here to this: probably also to the Lord’s discourse (Jn 6:31–35). Translate, “the manna which is hidden.” As the manna hidden in the sanctuary was by divine power preserved from corruption, so Christ in His incorruptible body has passed into the heavens, and is hidden there until the time of His appearing. Christ Himself is the manna “hidden” from the world, but revealed to the believer, so that he has already a foretaste of His preciousness. Compare as to Christ’s own hidden food on earth, Jn 4:32, 34, and Job 23:12. The full manifestation shall be at His coming. Believers are now hidden, even as their meat is hidden. As the manna in the sanctuary, unlike the other manna, was incorruptible, so the spiritual feast offered to all who reject the world’s dainties for Christ is everlasting: an incorruptible body and life for ever in Christ at the resurrection.

white stone … new name … no man knoweth saving he—Trench’s explanation seems best. White is the color and livery of heaven. “New” implies something altogether renewed and heavenly. The white stone is a glistening diamond, the Urim borne by the high priest within the choschen or breastplate of judgment, with the twelve tribes’ names on the twelve precious stones, next the heart. The word Urim means “light,” answering to the color white. None but the high priest knew the name written upon it, probably the incommunicable name of God, “Jehovah.” The high priest consulted it in some divinely appointed way to get direction from God when needful. The “new name” is Christ’s (compare Rev 3:12, “I will write upon him My new name”): some new revelation of Himself which shall hereafter be imparted to His people, and which they alone are capable of receiving. The connection with the “hidden manna” will thus be clear, as none save the high priest had access to the “manna hidden” in the sanctuary. Believers, as spiritual priests unto God, shall enjoy the heavenly antitypes to the hidden manna and the Urim stone. What they had peculiarly to contend against at Pergamos was the temptation to idol-meats, and fornication, put in their way by Balaamites. As Phinehas was rewarded with “an everlasting priesthood” for his zeal against these very sins to which the Old Testament Balaam seduced Israel; so the heavenly high priesthood is the reward promised here to those zealous against the New Testament Balaamites tempting Christ’s people to the same sins.

receiveth it—namely, “the stone”; not “the new name”; see above. The “name that no man knew but Christ Himself,” He shall hereafter reveal to His people.

18. Thyatira—in Lydia, south of Pergamos. Lydia, the purple-seller of this city, having been converted at Philippi, a Macedonian city (with which Thyatira, as being a Macedonian colony, had naturally much intercourse), was probably the instrument of first carrying the Gospel to her native town. John follows the geographical order here, for Thyatira lay a little to the left of the road from Pergamos to Sardis [Strabo, 13:4].

Son of God … eyes like … fire … feet … like fine brass—or “glowing brass” (see on Rev 1:14, 15, whence this description is resumed). Again His attributes accord with His address. The title “Son of God,” is from Ps 2:7, 9, which is referred to in Rev 2:27. The attribute, “eyes like a flame,” &c. answers to Rev 2:23, “I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts.” The attribute, “feet like … brass,” answers to Rev 2:27, “as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers,” He treading them to pieces with His strong feet.

19. The oldest manuscripts transpose the English Version order, and read, “faith and service.” The four are subordinate to “thy works”; thus, “I know thy works, even the love and the faith (these two forming one pair, as ‘faith works by love,’ Ga 5:6), and the service (ministration to the suffering members of the Church, and to all in spiritual or temporal need), and the endurance of (that is, shown by) thee (this pronoun belongs to all four).” As love is inward, so service is its outward manifestation. Similarly, faith and persevering endurance, or “patient continuance (the same Greek as here, Ro 2:7) in well-doing,” are connected.

and thy works; and the last—Omit the second “and,” with the three oldest manuscripts and the ancient versions; translate, “And (I know) thy works which are last (to be) more in number than the first”; realizing 1 Th 4:1; the converse of Mt 12:45; 2 Pe 2:20. Instead of retrograding from “the first works” and “first love,” as Ephesus, Thyatira’s last works exceeded her first (Rev 2:4, 5).

20. a few things—omitted in the three oldest manuscripts. Translate then, “I have against thee that,” &c.

sufferest—The three oldest manuscripts read, “lettest alone.”

that woman—Two oldest manuscripts read, “thy wife”; two omit it. Vulgate and most ancient versions read as English Version. The symbolical Jezebel was to the Church of Thyatira what Jezebel, Ahab’s “wife,” was to him. Some self-styled prophetess (or as the feminine in Hebrew is often used collectively to express a multitude, a set of false prophets), as closely attached to the Church of Thyatira as a wife is to a husband, and as powerfully influencing for evil that Church as Jezebel did Ahab. As Balaam, in Israel’s early history, so Jezebel, daughter of Eth-baal, king of Sidon (1 Ki 16:31, formerly priest of Astarte, and murderer of his predecessor on the throne, Josephus [Against Apion, 1.18]), was the great seducer to idolatry in Israel’s later history. Like her father, she was swift to shed blood. Wholly given to Baal worship, like Eth-baal, whose name expresses his idolatry, she, with her strong will, seduced the weak Ahab and Israel beyond the calf-worship (which was a worship of the true God under the cherub-ox form, that is, a violation of the second commandment) to that of Baal (a violation of the first commandment also). She seems to have been herself a priestess and prophetess of Baal. Compare 2 Ki 9:22, 30, “whoredoms of … Jezebel and her witchcrafts” (impurity was part of the worship of the Phoenician Astarte, or Venus). Her spiritual counterpart at Thyatira lured God’s “servants” by pretended utterances of inspiration to the same libertinism, fornication, and eating of idol-meats, as the Balaamites and Nicolaitanes (Rev 2:6, 14, 15). By a false spiritualism these seducers led their victims into the grossest carnality, as though things done in the flesh were outside the true man, and were, therefore, indifferent. “The deeper the Church penetrated into heathenism, the more she herself became heathenish; this prepares us for the expressions ‘harlot’ and ‘Babylon,’ applied to her afterwards” [Auberlen].

to teach and to seduce—The three oldest manuscripts read, “and she teaches and seduces,” or “deceives.” “Thyatira was just the reverse of Ephesus. There, much zeal for orthodoxy, but little love; here, activity of faith and love, but insufficient zeal for godly discipline and doctrine, a patience of error even where there was not a participation in it” [Trench].

21. space—Greek, “time.”

of her fornication … she repented not—The three oldest manuscripts read, “and she willeth not to repent of (literally, ‘out of,’ that is, so as to come out of) her fornication.” Here there is a transition from literal to spiritual fornication, as appears from Rev 2:22. The idea arose from Jehovah’s covenant relation to the Old Testament Church being regarded as a marriage, any transgression against which was, therefore, harlotry, fornication, or adultery.

22. Behold—calling attention to her awful doom to come.

I will—Greek present, “I cast her.”

a bed—The place of her sin shall be the place of her punishment. The bed of her sin shall be her bed of sickness and anguish. Perhaps a pestilence was about to be sent. Or the bed of the grave, and of the hell beyond, where the worm dieth not.

them that commit adultery with her—spiritually; including both the eating of idol-meats and fornication. “With her,” in the Greek, implies participation with her in her adulteries, namely, by suffering her (Rev 2:20), or letting her alone, and so virtually encouraging her. Her punishment is distinct from theirs; she is to be cast into a bed, and her children to be killed; while those who make themselves partakers of her sin by tolerating her, are to be cast into great tribulation.

except they repent—Greek aorist, “repent” at once; shall have repented by the time limited in My purpose.

their deeds—Two of the oldest manuscripts and most ancient versions read “her.” Thus, God’s true servants, who by connivance, are incurring the guilt of her deeds, are distinguished from her. One oldest manuscript, Andreas, and Cyprian, support “their.”

23. her children—(Is 57:3; Ez 23:45, 47). Her proper adherents; not those who suffer her, but those who are begotten of her. A distinct class from the last in Rev 2:22 (compare Note, see on Rev 2:22), whose sin was less direct, being that only of connivance.

kill … with death—Compare the disaster that overtook the literal Jezebel’s votaries of Baal, and Ahab’s sons, 1 Ki 18:40; 2 Ki 10:6, 7, 24, 25. Kill with death is a Hebraism for slay with most sure and awful death; so “dying thou shalt die” (Ge 2:17). Not “die the common death of men” (Nu 16:29).

all the churches shall know—implying that these addresses are designed for the catholic Church of all ages and places. So palpably shall God’s hand be seen in the judgment on Thyatira, that the whole Church shall recognize it as God’s doing.

I am he—the “I” is strongly emphatical: “that it is I am He who,” &c.

searcheth … hearts—God’s peculiar attribute is given to Christ. The “reins” are the seat of the desires; the “heart,” that of the thoughts. The Greek for “searcheth” expresses an accurate following up of all tracks and windings.

unto every one of you—literally, “unto you, to each.”

according to your works—to be judged not according to the mere act as it appears to man, but with reference to the motive, faith and love being the only motives which God recognizes as sound.

24. you … and … the rest—The three oldest manuscripts omit “and”; translate then, “Unto you, the rest.”

as many as have not—not only do not hold, but are free from contact with.

and which—The oldest manuscripts omit “and”; translate, “whosoever.”

the depths—These false prophets boasted peculiarly of their knowledge of mysteries and the deep things of God; pretensions subsequently expressed by their arrogant title, Gnostics (“full of knowledge”). The Spirit here declares their so-called “depths,” (namely, of knowledge of divine things) to be really “depths of Satan”; just as in Rev 2:9, He says, instead of “the synagogue of God,” “the synagogue of Satan.” Hengstenberg thinks the teachers themselves professed to fathom the depths of Satan, giving loose rein to fleshly lusts, without being hurt thereby. They who thus think to fight Satan with his own weapons always find him more than a match for them. The words, “as they speak,” that is, “as they call them,” coming after not only “depths,” but “depths of Satan,” seem to favor this latter view; otherwise I should prefer the former, in which case, “as they speak,” or “call them,” must refer to “depths” only, not also “depths of Satan.” The original sin of Adam was a desire to know evil as well as good, so in Hengstenberg’s view, those who professed to know “the depths of Satan.” It is the prerogative of God alone to know evil fully, without being hurt or defiled by it.

I will put—Two oldest manuscripts have “I put,” or “cast.” One oldest manuscript reads as English Version.

none other burden—save abstinence from, and protestation against, these abominations; no “depths” beyond your reach, such as they teach, no new doctrine, but the old faith and rule of practice once for all delivered to the saints. Exaggerating and perfecting Paul’s doctrine of grace without the law as the source of justification and sanctification, these false prophets rejected the law as a rule of life, as though it were an intolerable “burden.” But it is a “light” burden. In Ac 15:28, 29, the very term “burden,” as here, is used of abstinence from fornication and idol-meats; to this the Lord here refers.

25. that which ye have already—(Jud 1:3, end).

hold fast—do not let go from your grasp, however false teachers may wish to wrest it from you.

till I come—when your conflict with evil will be at an end. The Greek implies uncertainty as to when He shall come.

26. And—implying the close connection of the promise to the conqueror that follows, with the preceding exhortation, Rev 2:25.

and keepeth—Greek, “and he that keepeth.” Compare the same word in the passage already alluded to by the Lord, Ac 15:28, 29, end.

my works—in contrast to “her (English Version, ‘their’) works” (Rev 2:22). The works which I command and which are the fruit of My Spirit.

unto the end—(Mt 24:13). The image is perhaps from the race, wherein it is not enough to enter the lists, but the runner must persevere to the end.

give power—Greek, “authority.”

over the nations—at Christ’s coming the saints shall possess the kingdom “under the whole heaven”; therefore over this earth; compare Lu 19:17, “have thou authority [the same word as here] over ten cities.”

27. From Ps 2:8, 9.

rule—literally, “rule as a shepherd.” In Ps 2:9 it is, “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.” The Septuagint, pointing the Hebrew word differently, read as Revelation here. The English Version of Ps 2:9 is doubtless right, as the parallel word, “dash in pieces,” proves. But the Spirit in this case sanctions the additional thought as true, that the Lord shall mingle mercy to some, with judgment on others; beginning by destroying His Antichristian foes, He shall reign in love over the rest. “Christ shall rule them with a scepter of iron, to make them capable of being ruled with a scepter of gold; severity first, that grace may come after” (Trench, who thinks we ought to translate “scepter” for “rod,” as in Heb 1:8). “Shepherd” is used in Je 6:3, of hostile rulers; so also in Zec 11:16. As severity here is the primary thought, “rule as a shepherd” seems to me to be used thus: He who would have shepherded them with a pastoral rod, shall, because of their hardened unbelief, shepherd them with a rod of iron.

shall they be broken—So one oldest manuscript, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic Versions read. But two oldest manuscripts, read, “as the vessels of a potter are broken to shivers.” A potter’s vessel dashed to pieces, because of its failing to answer the design of the maker, is the image to depict God’s sovereign power to give reprobates to destruction, not by caprice, but in the exercise of His righteous judgment. The saints shall be in Christ’s victorious “armies” when He shall inflict the last decisive blow, and afterwards shall reign with Him. Having by faith “overcome the world,” they shall also rule the world.

even as I—“as I also have received of (from) My Father,” namely, in Ps 2:7–9. Jesus had refused to receive the kingdom without the cross at Satan’s hands; He would receive it from none but the Father, who had appointed the cross as the path to the crown. As the Father has given the authority to Me over the heathen and uttermost parts of the earth, so I impart a share of it to My victorious disciple.

28. the morning star—that is, I will give unto him Myself, who am “the morning star” (Rev 22:16); so that reflecting My perfect brightness, he shall shine like Me, the morning star, and share My kingly glory (of which a star is the symbol, Nu 24:17; Mt 2:2). Compare Rev 2:17, “I will give him … the hidden manna,” that is, Myself, who am that manna (Jn 6:31–33).