5. Smyrna’s history is insufficient to explain the deliberate linking of a title for God (‘first and the last’) and testimony to Christ’s death and resurrection (‘I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever’). I will show, in due course, that such juxtapositions are one of John’s significant uses of Scripture. 6. The suggestion that χαλκολίβανος is a product of Thyatira’s metal industry remains a speculation. The first attestation of the word in Greek literature is here and it may be that John