Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Revelation 1:9-20, Patmos, the Lord's day, lampstands and stars
On the island of Patmos, in the Spirit on the Lord's day, John hears a voice like a trumpet telling him to write to seven churches. He turns and sees one like a son of man among seven golden lampstands, holding seven stars, who holds the keys of death and Hades and explains what the stars and lampstands mean.
Revelation 1:9-20, in every translation this tool compares.
John, a fellow sufferer with the churches, is on the small island of Patmos for his loyalty to God's message about Jesus when, on the Lord's day, a voice orders him to write down his vision for seven named congregations. He turns and sees the risen Jesus standing among seven lampstands, a blazing and overwhelming figure, and collapses before him. Jesus lifts his fear by saying he once died, now lives for ever and controls death itself, and he explains that the lampstands are the churches and the stars are their angels. Why John was on Patmos, which day the Lord's day was, and who the angels of the churches are are all debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-lords-day\/","n":"The Lord's day","s":"The day early Christians kept for Jesus, most likely Sunday, the weekday of the resurrection. In the cities of Asia one day a month was already given to honoring the emperor.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/seven-churches-of-asia\/","n":"The seven cities of Asia","s":"Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, proud cities of the Roman province of Asia, strung along a road a courier could walk. Each letter in Revelation 2 and 3 speaks into its own city's history, trades and temples.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/son-of-man\/","n":"The Son of Man","s":"Plain Aramaic for a human being, and also the figure in Daniel 7 who comes on the clouds and receives a kingdom. It is Jesus' favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/powers-over-the-nations\/","n":"Rulers and powers over the nations","s":"Many Jews believed each nation had a spiritual ruler set over it, often hostile to God's people. Paul's rulers, authorities, powers and thrones belong to that picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/fate-and-the-stars\/","n":"Fate and the stars","s":"Most people in Paul's world believed their lives were ruled by Fate, worked out through the stars, which many took to be heavenly beings. Few thought there was any escape, and cults that promised one drew followers.","r":""}
A governor could banish without loss of property, relegatio; deportatio was the emperor's (Keener). Origen's tradition and the Zondervan dictionary say the emperor sent John, Carson, Moo and Morris and Wright and Bird a local official. Patmos too is disputed. The CSB Study Bible and the dictionary call it a penal colony, the dictionary with mines; the ESV Study Bible an island of political exile, as Pliny attests (Carson, Moo and Morris); Wright and Bird write that "Patmos was a military garrison, not a penal colony", and Heiser, after Aune, pictures John under house arrest there. The seven-branched lampstand was Judaism's most common symbol (the cultural backgrounds notes). Jewish sources gave the keys of death and Hades to God alone (Keener), against magical papyri that gave them to Hekate (Arnold). Gentiles took stars for gods, Jews for angels (Keener); a coin of Domitian shows seven stars around his deified son (Price and House). The angels of the churches are read as guardians (the cultural backgrounds notes; the CSB), personifications (the ESV) or heavenly beings (Beale); Heiser's book allows a human reading, but in his podcast he follows Aune: nearly every angel in Revelation is supernatural, so these are too.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 1:9, 1:10, 1:11, 1:13-15, 1:18 and 1:20
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 1:10, 1:12, 1:14, 1:15, 1:18 and 1:20
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Revelation 1:9, 1:10, 1:11 and 1:20
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Revelation 1:9, 1:10 and 1:20
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 1:9-20
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 34, Origins of the book of Revelation
- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, on Revelation 1:20
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 8, note 207
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, chapter on Revelation, section Provenance
- Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Revelation, Book of the (II. Date and place) and Patmos
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 7, The Powers As Christ's Captives (Eph 4:8-10)
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, chart of archaeological discoveries, Coin of Deified Domitian
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 2: Letters to the Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- Michael S. Heiser, Naked Bible Podcast, Revelation series, audience question-and-answer episodes (about 401-406)
