Bible Gem 2197 – Who Were the Nicolaitans? (Revelation 2:6, 14-15)

But this is in your favour: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.

Revelation 2:6

“But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.

Revelation 2:14-15

I had planned to deal with the Nicolaitans when we got to Pergamum but a couple of you have already asked the question found in the title of this Gem. Hence I will jump ahead and open up the issue now. As you can see from the above verses, there are two references to the Nicolaitans in both the introduction to the church at Ephesus and also to the Church at Pergamum. Surpisingly, there are no other references to these people anywhere else in the Bible. The word “Nicolaitans” or more correctly the word [Νικολαϊτῶν] only appears in these two places. So what do we know about these people? The straight answer is, “Nothing more that what you see here.” That’s it! If you look up other secondary sources the references are slim to none. I have told you already Revelation is an apocalyptic style of writing and it was written to insiders, people who were in the know. Those who were in the inner circle and knew what John was referring to. What is interesting is that Ephesus and Pergamum lay close together. They are cities located in the same local area of the Roman Province of Asia Minor. Simply put the Ephesians and people (the laity) of Pergamum knew who the Nicolaitans were. But John didn’t give us any more information than what you see above. The rest is left to conjecture or guesswork. Your guess is as good as mine. So have fun doing your own research.

I can hear some of you saying now, “That may be Ian, but your guess would be better than mine because you have so many more resources in your biblical library than I do. I just have my study Bible.” So please just tell me the “right answer”.

You have all you need; you have the words John wrote down straight from Jesus Himself. Gordon Fee wrote:

With this word our own later understanding of the passage begins to grow dim, since apart from the further reference to them in 2:15 (regarding Pergamum) there is no other known mention of the “Nicolaitans” in ancient literature. This leaves room , of course, for a large number of guesses; but the only one that borders on certainty is that these people were followers of a man named Nicolaus. But who he was , and what he taught , simply cannot be known from our distance, and speculation here is ultimately useless.

Gordon D. Fee – Revelation p.28

They [the Nicolaitans] owed their origin to Nicolas, who was one of the Seven (Acts 6:5)

Irenaeus

Clement of Alexandria defended Nicolas saying that he was misunderstood. Victorinus of Pettau, the first commentator of Revelation referred them as “false and troublesome men, who ministered under the name of Nicolaus and made for themselves a heresy to the effect that what had been offered to idols might be exorcised and eaten, and that whoever should have committed fornication might receive peace on the eighth day. But all of this is mere speculation.

It is worth noting that ‘Nicolaitan’ is a compound word derived from [nico/nikē] ‘victory’ or ‘to conquer’ and [laos/laity] ‘the people’. What is interesting is that acccording to some, the name ‘Balaam’ has a similar etymology forming yet another compound word with the meaning [victory/people]. But the parallelism doesn’t end there; note the parallel with the closing refrain to every preamble to each church in the series of the seven churches addressed. We will come back to this closing refrain at the right time. There is more to add to this Gem before I bring it to an end. I did say there is a lot going on in this letter to the seven churches. It is not my goal to comment on everything; I prefer to leave you, my readers, with little gems of your own to find.

To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:7

Varying forms of this closing “victorious” statement are found also in 2:11; 2:17; 2:26; 3:5; 3:12 and 3:21. Is that a coincidence? I don’t think so. More on that at the appropriate time. I am in the process of putting the pieces together. I am delighted that a number of you are digging into who the Nicolaitans were and what it was that they taught. I have just received another email from Margareth who has said she is doing her own research. I think it is sufficient to repeat what I quoted from Gordon Fee above, ‘Speculation is ultimately useless’ which points you back to what John ultimately wrote.

I will add two further snippets that I have found to pique your curiosity for those of you who are digging. John Lightfoot came up with an interesting possibility. He suggested that Nicolaitans may not be derived from Nicolas or Nicolaus at all but rather he suggests it came from the Aramaic for [nokhal] “Let us eat”. He connected the idea to Balaam and the incident from Numbers where the people were feasting on food sacrificed to idols, something clearly in focus in this discussion. He suggests this then was a play on words relating to what God Himself promised in Revelation 2:7 above.

One more little snippet to share with you comes from Rick Renner, a modern Greek scholar whom I greatly respect. Rick’s take on it is that Nicolas was a proselyte from Antioch who had converted to Judaism from paganism, then later re-converted to Christianity. As a pagan he would have been immersed in the occultic practices. He would have been a free thinker having already changed his religious ideas twice and thus not afraid of holding contrary opinions to others. If the comments of others are to be believed he seems to have had no problem with syncretising his beliefs to come up with a hybrid mix between Christianity and paganism and anything else going.

A hint from me at this point for those of you who are in the process of digging. If you are familiar with Deeper Bible and the Bible Gems you will know that I frequently like to keep things open ended in the hope of spurring you to doing some digging of your own. I admit to being fascinated with the fact that the Nicolaitans are only mentioned in the context of the churches in Ephesus and Pergamum. They were close together hinting at a localised influence from these Nicolaitans in both cities. Whoever they were I think their influence is clear on the basis of how Christ has described them. Let the Scripture inform you and accept the fact that they were a group about whom little was said in antiquity, yet they were called out by Christ as being a subversive influence. I will address this matter again after we have covered Christ’s input to the believers in Pergamum. That will give you some time to find out all you can and come to your own conclusions. But realise we have to focus on Smyrna first. Let’s do all things decently and in order.

And yes I will admit to looking widely at all the resources I have gathered to dig into anything I find which sparks my curiosity. I have even added some resources to the photo I took at the beginning of this quest. (Compare the photo below with the one in Gem 2186 and the list in 2185)

When all else fails go back to the text of the Bible and pay attention to each word in the Word of God.

Basil Brown

John was the faithful witness who passed on to us what he saw and heard from Christ Himself. Surely that is enough for us.

Ian

Never judge a book by its movie. Especially the Bible.

Ian

‘Classic.’ A book which people praise and don’t read.

Mark Twain

Don’t let your Bible become a classic!

Ian