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 2:12-17, Pergamum, where Satan's throne is
To Pergamum Jesus, who wields the sword of judgment, says they have stayed loyal in a city he calls Satan's seat, even after the martyrdom of Antipas. But some follow teaching like Balaam's that leads to idol meals and immorality. The faithful are promised hidden heavenly food and a white stone carrying a new name.
Revelation 2:12-17, in every translation this tool compares.
Pergamum's church lives in a city Jesus calls the seat of Satan, and it has kept faith even after one of its own, Antipas, was killed. But some members have accepted teaching that, like the old story of Balaam luring Israel, draws them into idol feasts and sexual sin, and Jesus warns he will come against them with the word of his mouth. To those who overcome he promises secret bread from heaven and a white stone inscribed with a name of their own. What Satan's seat refers to, and what the white stone means, are debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/martyrs\/","n":"Martyrs","s":"Jews remembered those who died rather than break God's law, above all the Maccabean martyrs tortured under Antiochus, and the prophets said to have been stoned or sawn in two. Their hope was the resurrection.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/balaam\/","n":"Balaam, the prophet for hire","s":"The seer from beyond the Euphrates whom Moab's king hired to curse Israel, who could only bless, and who then, Numbers says, showed Midian how to lead Israel into sin. Jewish tradition remembered him as the greatest prophet of the Gentiles and a byword for greed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/food-offered-to-idols\/","n":"Meat offered to idols","s":"Most meat in a Greek city had passed through a sacrifice at a temple. Eating it at the temple's table, buying it in the market or meeting it at a friend's dinner raised the question of whether a believer was sharing in the worship of the god.","r":""}
The sword of Jesus' mouth answers the governor's right of the sword to execute (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). Wright calls Pergamum the governor's seat; Price and House and the atlas place the capital at Ephesus by then. Satan's throne is read as the imperial cult (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes), the cult with the altar of Zeus (Wright and Bird), Asclepius' serpent (Wright), or all at once (the ESV Study Bible; the atlas); Price and House report many scholars for the altar, and Heiser tentatively favors it. Balaam is probably a local teacher's nickname (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes); he led Israel into sexual sin and idol food (Numbers 25:1-2; 31:16). Beale, the cultural backgrounds article Sacrificed Food and Heiser take the issue as eating at idol worship, not market meat. Jewish tradition hid the ark and its manna until the end (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes); the Zondervan dictionary ties the hidden manna to the messianic banquet, Heiser to angels' food (Psalm 78:25). The white stone may be a festival token, a medicinal stone or a juror's acquittal (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes); Heiser, with Aune, reads acquittal, and the name as God's or Christ's (3:12).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Revelation 2:12-17, and on 2:12, 2:13, 2:14-15 and 2:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 2:12, 2:13, 2:14 and 2:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Sacrificed Food (1 Corinthians)
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Revelation 2:13
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 2:12-17
- 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 2:14
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Revelation 2:12, The Church in Pergamon, and Ephesians 1:1, The Archaeology of Ephesus
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Seven Churches of Revelation, Ephesus and Pergamum
- Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry manna
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 2: Letters to the Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
