Revelation 3:1-6, Sardis, alive in name only

Sardis had a large, respected Jewish community (Keener) that later built one of antiquity's largest synagogues (the cultural backgrounds notes; the atlas). Its reputation for being alive may allude to a renewal cult, the burial ground facing the acropolis or, most plausibly, the faded glory of Croesus (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener), whom the Zondervan dictionary calls a byword for wealth and pride; the CSB Study Bible, death and Artemis. The earthquake of AD 17 ruined it, and despite ten million sesterces of Roman relief it never recovered (the dictionary). Its acropolis was twice taken by stealth through lax guards (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes), by Cyrus and, the dictionary says, later by the Romans; but coming like a thief most directly recalls Jesus' saying. Temples barred worshipers in soiled clothes (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes), and the atlas hears Sardis's textile trade in the white garments; for Heiser, white denotes "membership or belongingness for those who overcome". Cities struck names from citizen rolls (Keener). On the book of life, Beale sees no threat of losing salvation; the dictionary stresses assurance but says being blotted out means perdition; Heiser, with Aune, argues an erasable name rules out a predestinarian reading.