Revelation (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)

Williamson, Peter S., Williamson, Peter S., Healy, Mary

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781441219640
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In this addition to the well-received Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), seasoned New Testament scholar and popular speaker Peter Williamson interprets Revelation from within the living tradition of the Church for pastoral ministers, lay readers, and students alike. The seventeen-volume CCSS series, which will cover the entire New Testament, relates Scripture to Christian life today, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry. Drawn from the best of contemporary scholarship, series volumes are keyed to the liturgical year and include an index of pastoral subjects.

Words from Jesus to the Churches

Revelation 2:1–29

These next two chapters contain what are commonly called “the letters to the seven churches.” Strictly speaking, rather than letters, they are prophetic messages from the risen Lord, addressed to seven churches and revealing “what is happening” as a prelude to the lengthier section of the book devoted to “what will happen afterwards” (1:19). In form these messages resemble †oracles found in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament.

These oracles to the churches are important for the interpretation of Revelation because they provide invaluable information about the circumstances facing its original readers and the world in which they lived. They confirm that Revelation was written for a specific first-century readership. They reveal a diversity of situations: some churches face poverty and persecution, while others enjoy prosperity; some tolerate false teaching, while others firmly reject it; some make fatal compromises with the surrounding culture, while some resist and remain faithful. Two churches receive only commendation and encouragement, while two churches are severely reprimanded.

Although addressed to particular churches in the first century, the oracles themselves invite all readers to consider them personally: “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (2:7 NRSV). This command tells readers to listen not only to the message addressed to their church but also to the messages that the Spirit addresses to all the churches. Taken together, these “letters” provide Spirit-inspired counsel for the Church in every age. Readers often find them the easiest part of Revelation to apply to their lives.

The goal of the seven messages at the outset of Revelation is to provoke readers and listeners to examine themselves and repent. One of my professors, Ugo Vanni, used to compare this summons to conversion to the penitential rite at the beginning of Mass that disposes the people of God for the liturgy. Analogously, these chapters help prepare readers to understand the unveiling of God’s plan in the remainder of the book.

To the Church in Ephesus (2:1–7)

1“To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write this:

“ ‘The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this: 2“I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. 3Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. 5Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6But you have this in your favor: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7“ ‘“Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the victor I will give the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God.”’”

OT: Gen 2:9; 3:22–24; Prov 3:18

NT: 2 Cor 11:13; 1 John 4:1

Catechism: the second conversion, 1428–29

All seven messages to the churches begin with a solemn introduction by Christ himself, followed by his words of rebuke or encouragement; each concludes with an exhortation to pay close attention and with the promise of a reward to those who are faithful. The structure of each letter has six distinct elements that occur in almost exactly the same order. Because of their repetition in the messages to the churches, these common structural elements will be treated in greater depth in the commentary on this first message and presupposed in the commentary on the †oracles that follow.

[2:1]

Each message begins by indicating the church to whom the risen Jesus is dictating the message through the prophet John. What is unexpected is that John is instructed to write to the angel of the church. The Greek word angelos can mean “angel” or “messenger,” and it is not clear here whether it refers to the local church’s guardian angel or to its bishop.1 In either case, however, the content of all the messages is clearly directed to the community as a whole. It is no accident that Ephesus is the first church named, since it was the mother church of the region, located in the leading city of the Roman province of Asia. It is natural that any communication to the churches of Asia would begin there.

BIBLICAL BACKGROUND

Common Structure of the Messages to the Seven Churches

1. Address: “To the angel of the church of . . . , write”
2. Self-presentation of Christ in imagery drawn from the vision of 1:12–20
3. Jesus’ disclosure of the condition of each church, beginning with “I know”
4. Specific exhortation to each church in light of Jesus’ evaluation, stated as an imperative
5. General exhortation to listen to what the Spirit is saying to all the churches
6. Promise “to the victor” linked to final salvation

In two of the messages, the order of the final two elements is reversed.

In each of the seven messages, after naming the church he is speaking to, the risen Lord introduces himself, underscoring the solemnity of the communication, usually by referring to some part of the vision in chapter 1. In this first message Jesus indicates how near he is to his people and how complete is his control: he is walking in the midst of the seven gold lampstands, the seven churches, and he holds the seven stars, the guardians of the churches, whether angels or bishops, securely in his right hand. When Jesus introduces himself in all seven messages as the one who says this, he employs the Greek phrase that the †Septuagint uses for “thus says the LORD.” It is a solemn, awesome, yet reassuring introduction.

BIBLICAL BACKGROUND

Ephesus

The church of Ephesus, the first of the seven to whom Revelation is addressed, played an extraordinarily important role in early Christianity. Because it was a large church, located centrally between Jerusalem and Antioch in the east and Rome in the west, Christian missionaries and travelers would naturally visit there. Church tradition and historical scholarship associate at least eleven of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament with this region.a The city of Ephesus was known as “the metropolis of Asia” (meaning “mother-city”). Boasting a population of about two hundred thousand (although this estimate has recently been challenged), it was the fourth-largest city of the empire and a major center of commerce, government, and religion. It was home to the temple of Artemis, a huge marble structure that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and to a notable temple to the goddess Roma and many other pagan temples. Around AD 90 it became the provincial center of emperor worship when a temple was dedicated to the Flavian Sebastoi, the emperor Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian. To mark that occasion cities from all over Asia donated statues with inscriptions on their bases, some of which archaeologists have recovered.

Christianity also flourished in Ephesus. The account in Acts 19 suggests that it was the scene of the most successful of Paul’s missionary endeavors. The church of Ephesus was large, consisting of many house churches. According to Acts 19:10, “all the inhabitants of the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord, Jews and Greeks alike.” Thus Ephesus became a kind of mother church of Asia. Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus (1 Cor 16:8), and he sent his Letter to the Ephesians and 1 and 2 Timothy to the church there. The apostle John resided in Ephesus, and the Fourth Gospel and the First Letter of John may have originated here. One strand of tradition identifies Ephesus as the final home on earth of the Virgin Mary.

a. John, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1–2 Timothy, Philemon, 1–3 John, Revelation, and perhaps Luke and Acts.

[2:2]

The third element of each message is Jesus’ declaration of the condition of each church, beginning with the words I know. In these prophetic messages Jesus speaks as the future judge who knows your works. The second-person “you” or “your” is singular throughout this message, because Christ is addressing the community as a whole. The Gospel of John and other New Testament writings (Acts 17:31; 2 Cor 5:10) teach that Jesus is the one whom God has appointed to judge the human race at the end of history: “The hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28–29 NRSV).

In the seven letters John’s readers are given an advance warning about their standing in the eyes of their judge so that they can make whatever changes are necessary before the final judgment. This is their midterm examination. The criterion by which they will be judged is their conduct.2 We are saved by grace but will be judged by our works, understood not as a mere counting of good deeds but as Christ’s all-knowing evaluation of our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Christ begins by commending the church of Ephesus for several things: your labor, probably meaning their hard work in every kind of ministry, and your endurance, a major theme in Revelation. This term3 occurs seven times in Revelation (1:9; 2:2, 3, 1...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Endorsements
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Editors' Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Outline of Revelation
• A Revelation from Jesus Christ
• Words from Jesus to the Churches
• More Messages to the Churches
• The Worship of Heaven
• The Lamb and the Scroll
• The First Six Seals
• Visions of God's People
• The Beginning of the Seven Trumpets
• The Woes Experienced by the Inhabitants of the Earth
• The Temple of God, the Two Witnesses, and the Seventh Trumpet
• The Woman, the Dragon, and the Male Child
• The Two Beasts
• The Lamb's Companions, the Eternal Gospel, and the Harvest of the Earth
• Seven Angels with Seven Plagues; the Song of Moses and the Lamb
• The Bowls of God’s Wrath
• The Harlot and the Beast
• Judgment of Babylon
• Celebration in Heaven, Judgment on Earth
• The Millennium, the Dragon’s Defeat, and the Final Judgment
• The New Creation and the Bride of the Lamb
• The River of Life and Concluding Words
• Suggested Resources
• Glossary
• Index of Pastoral Topics
• Index of Sidebars
• Map
• Back Cover