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 2:8-11, Smyrna, poor and slandered
To Smyrna the risen Jesus says he sees their hardship and poverty and the abuse they suffer from local opponents claiming to be the true Jews, whom he condemns in harsh terms. Some will be jailed for a short time; if they stay loyal even to death he will reward them with life.
Revelation 2:8-11, in every translation this tool compares.
Smyrna's believers are poor and harassed, and Jesus, who himself died and rose, tells them he sees it and that in his eyes they are rich. Local opponents who claim the name of Jews are slandering them, and Jesus answers with a fierce label for that gathering. Prison is coming for some, but only for a brief, limited time, and those who stay loyal to death will be given life and will escape the final judgment. What lay behind the slander, and how that harsh label should be heard, are debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/put-out-of-the-synagogue\/","n":"Put out of the synagogue","s":"A Jewish community could punish a member by shutting him out of its life for a time or for good. Since the synagogue was the center of town life, expulsion cut a person off from neighbors and worship, and often from a living.","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\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","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\/athletes-and-games\/","n":"The games and the victor's wreath","s":"Greek cities held great athletic festivals, and Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games every two years, second only to the Olympics. Athletes trained for months under oath for a wreath of leaves that soon withered.","r":""}
Keener calls Smyrna and Ephesus the oldest imperial-cult centers; the atlas and the Zondervan dictionary make Smyrna's emperor temple of AD 26 the second in Asia, after Pergamum's. Judea offered sacrifice to God for the emperor instead of to him, and "Christians expelled from synagogues might well lose their exemption" (the cultural backgrounds article The Imperial Cult; Keener); Carson, Moo and Morris suggest instead that some Christians sheltered in the synagogue. Cases came through informers, delatores, and Jews of Smyrna later joined against Polycarp (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). How harsh the pressure was is read differently: the CSB Study Bible has Domitian make emperor worship mandatory; the article says no one was hunted down unless accused; Beale sees no widespread demand, Wright and Bird local pressure, and Carson, Moo and Morris no solid evidence of persecution in Asia. Synagogue of Satan echoes the Dead Sea Scrolls' polemic, an intra-Jewish debate and no model for Gentile speech (the cultural backgrounds notes); Heiser, calling an antisemitic reading nonsense, takes it as a faction working with the pagan rulers. The crown was the athlete's and the martyr's garland (Keener); the dictionary hears Smyrna's ring of porticoes, the atlas perhaps its citadel.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Revelation (Situation: Inevitable Conflict), introduction to Revelation 2:8-11, and on 2:9 and 2:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 2:8-11, 2:9 and 2:10, and article The Imperial Cult
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 2:8
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 34, Origins of the book of Revelation (Date and provenance)
- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, Introduction, The Situation of the Churches
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, chapter on Revelation, Date (The persecution of Christians; Worship of the emperor)
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Seven Churches of Revelation, Smyrna
- Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Smyrna
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 2: Letters to the Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
