NOTES for Rev 2:8-11

The situation in the church of Smyrna differed somewhat from what was characteristic of the church of Ephesus. Here, as we can see, the main problem was a conflict with zealots for the Torah, or, more precisely, for Jewish religious traditions, with whom Paul himself had already had to deal more than once. As we can see, the essence of this conflict was the same regardless of where and when it arose. It apparently began with a call to strict observance of the Torah on the part of those who considered themselves its chief defenders, and it invariably ended in conflict between supporters of observing Jewish religious prescriptions and those for whom Judaism was a matter of indifference (and after AD 70 the number of such people in the Church began to grow rapidly).

As is well known, Paul already did not make following the Torah depend on observance of the norms and rules of Judaism, and now Jesus Himself confirms Paul's rightness through the revelation given to His apostle. It is not accidental that He says of the opponents of the Christians of Smyrna that they only present themselves as Jews, or consider themselves such, while in reality they are opponents of God and His people (v. 9). Apparently, secular authority intervened in this intrachurch conflict, and persecutions began, of which Jesus says that they will not last long (v. 10).

The assessment given by Jesus is, of course, not accidental. In essence, He only confirms what He had already said more than once through the mouths of His other servants: the meaning of the Torah and of the old Covenant as a whole is not reducible to Jewish religiosity, despite the latter's importance for the spiritual and historical preservation of the people of God. It is broader than Judaism, and to narrow its bounds means to resist the fulfillment of God's design for the salvation of humanity. And the witness of confessors and martyrs who defend the universal scope of the Torah in opposition to zealots for Jewish religious traditions turns out to be a witness to the freedom of the Kingdom, the fullness of whose life they will not lose (v. 11).

Judging by Jesus' words, the persecutions experienced by the church of Smyrna were connected with conflict and even confrontation between this church and the local synagogue. Here we have before us a fairly typical situation, one can think, of a transitional period. Indeed, most biblical scholars today tend to consider that the Book of Revelation was written either in the late 80s or in the 90s of the first century, already after the catastrophe of A.D. 70, which put an end to Jerusalem and the Temple, and to Jewish history itself in its former quality. Formerly the Church, like the Synagogue, was part of the large Yahwistic community.

Jews looked at the Church as a messianic movement within the Synagogue, a movement not entirely traditional, perhaps in the opinion of some not even having the right to exist in such a form, but still as an undoubtedly Yahwistic and even Jewish movement despite all its, as many thought, unorthodoxy. Now, however, after A.D. 70, the situation changed substantially. The Yahwistic community, the community united by the Temple and the sacrifices, ceased to exist together with its main sanctuary.

The Synagogue had to seek other forms of its existence and self-definition, spiritual, religious, and doctrinal. Now unanimity was required on questions that had earlier been considered secondary and open to differing opinions. Besides, now the conservative core of the Synagogue began to look with suspicion on every messianic movement, especially one that appealed not only to Jews.

A very serious fundamental rupture, previously impossible, was ripening between the Church and the Synagogue. Of course, it took shape definitively and was understood much later, but by the end of the first century its outlines had already appeared quite clearly. Formerly Christians were insiders for Jews; now they were becoming outsiders to them, and it was precisely this attitude toward them as outsiders, not the conflict and not even the persecution in themselves, that shocked many Christians.

What does it mean that the Synagogue pushes away the Church? Has the people of God split in two? And the Savior Himself answers this question: the people of God has not split in two; it is being torn in two by those who are ready to consider Christians outsiders, who want to get rid of them in an effort to preserve the supposed purity of this very people, purity as they themselves understand it. Such persecutions, such rejection, are not God's work but the devil's, and Jesus calls things by their proper names with complete clarity.