It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. It said, “Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
“Write down what you have seen—both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Revelation 1:1:10-11, 19-20
I want to outline for you my approach for handling this letter to the seven churches in the Roman Province of Asia. I intend to investigate in a comparative way the introductory details written for each church. I believe there are a number of significant elements to be investigated. I want to compare the introduction to each church in the context of both what was said to each church and the historical background recorded for each church. I sense there are links between them. I want to make the significance of the connections clear for each church. But I suspect there is more to the significance for all churches beyond what was written to each church individually. I wrote in the last Gem that the order of the churches is simply the sequential position of each city in a circular direction. I sense there is more to this pattern than a first glance reveals. However I wish to make it as clear as I can that this letter, or these letters were written to these seven churches to address historical realities they all faced as a wider community. The initial section of Revelation found in Chapters One to Three was written to address “the things happening now”. To see it otherwise is to miss the essential reason why the Revelation of Christ was written as a letter and sent to the seven churches. It was a letter sent to real churches to address real events the Christian community was facing; not pie in the sky when you die things.
This letter was crafted in apocalyptic terms, which is difficult to interpret because it was deliberately encoded for insiders who were facing difficult circumstances. The revelation John recorded as he was told it was actually quite subversive by nature. It was anti-Roman in essence and therefore written in code for the encouragement of the faithful followers of Christ in the midst of the Roman Emperor Cult. All the Roman Emperors to one degree or another insisted on being worshipped like a deity. Therefore the message is couched in symbolic terms and written to those who were facing persecution because of their desire to worship Christ and give their allegiance to Him only. That brought them into direct conflict with Imperial Rome due to the edicts passed by each emperor. The reaction of the Roman authorities varied depending on the nature of the emperor ruling at the time. The most severe and tyrannical of the emperors were Caligula (37-41 AD), Nero (54-68 AD), Vespasian (69-79 AD) and Domitian (81-96 AD). The most likely threat to the churches in the Province of Asia occurred following Domitian’s reign, which likely sets the background to this letter in the early second century.
As a result one had to acknowledge the Emperor as a god and to bow down to him and worship when he or his statue passed by or when you passed his statue. This brought all Christians into conflict with Imperial Rome on a daily basis. Not only that, but the fact that Rome was ruled with an iron fist by the Emperors I have mentioned, led John to refer to the goddess Roma as a harlot (Rev 17:6-9). The harlot sitting on the seven hills drunk with the wine of her immorality is a cryptic reference to the goddess of Rome, depicted on this coin from Vespasian’s era showing Roma sitting on the seven hills of Rome.
Allow me to bring all of this background into the context of the city of Ephesus where the local deity Artemis ruled. Ephesus was the leading city of the Province of Asia where the Temple of Artemis was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient World. The city was known as an important commercial, business and trading centre, marked by the prosperity trade in marble, vermillion, oils and essences from the East brought to the city. Ephesus was the seat of the provincial government representing the Empire but it also had independence in its own municipal affairs (Acts 19:25). Ephesus was an educational and religious centre with philosophers, an architectural school, drama and sports stadium. A statue to Augustus was set up in the Artemisiōn alongside the image of Artemis of the Ephesians.
Artemis was the local deity of Ephesus and the citizens were to pay homage to her as much as the Emperor. Every year her image was carried around the city accompanied by her entourage of guards, priests, priestesses, wards and slaves. Artemis ensured the prosperity and blessing remained over the city of Ephesus. But to be able to rely on her blessing the citizens had to provide offerings to her and to ask for her favour in business meetings and trade in the market place. So you can understand why life in the city of Ephesus revolved around offerings and prayers to Artemis. To do business in this city one made prayers and offerings to the deity and bowed in deference to the Emperor. There was very little you could do without acknowledging the Emperor or the deities of the city. There was always a chance you would be reported for non-compliance as a follower of Christ; if you didn’t comply you could be brought before the municipal and religious authorities.
The practice of religion in the Roman Empire was very syncretistic. It was not a big problem for the citizens of the Roman Empire to worship any deity at all. In fact they could cover themselves by praying to any god or goddess or spirit at all, as long as they worshipped the Emperor as a god as well. I am sure you are getting the idea. Combining the image of the Emperor Augustus or Vespasian in addition to carrying the image of Artemis of the Ephesians around the city and worshipping was perfectly acceptable. What was not acceptable was to worship Christ, the Son of Man as the only one true God and by so doing to refuse to worship the Emperor as a god. That was punishable by death: death in the arena at the mercy of wild animals, death by the sword of a gladiator in the Colosseum or death by burning or by crucufixion mattered not as long as you died by one means or another.
This was the constant threat to the life of a believer in Christ at this time in history. Thus any mention of Rome, its Emperor and the laws were written in code and were talked about using symbols, visions and word pictures to share with fellow believers what you didn’t want the Roman authorities to understand. Thus it was perfectly reasonable to discuss such things in code and symbols the authorities didn’t understand. Hence the fish symbol was used at this time to signal the fact that a church gathering met here in the catacombs under the city of Rome and other outlying areas. Potential attendees were required to seek the Holy Spirit to know where and when the meeting was held.
All of this is background not only to the letter to the church in Ephesus but for all churches of the followers of Jesus Christ anywhere in the Empire. In the following Gem I will focus solely on the introduction to the church in Ephesus and focus on the specifics of this church. I feel confident I will share some surprises with you. Don’t miss it.
You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
Exodus 20:3-4
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
Do you realise the folly of praying to Christ and Artemis (of the Ephesians) for healing? Who gets the credit when you are healed?
Ian
I like the way that reads. I’m enjoying it already.
Kev