NOTES for Rev 2:12-17

Pergamum was the former capital of the kingdom of Pergamum, an ancient religious and cultural center. From 29 BC the cult of the Roman emperor was introduced in the city, which is why the apostle calls the city the throne of Satan.

Paganism surrounded the Christian community on every side, but the apostle's special warnings are called forth by the Nicolaitans, already mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. By referring to a text from the Old Testament, John explains what exactly is unacceptable in the activity of this sect from the point of view of the Church of Christ. As Balaam inclined the Israelites toward fellowship with pagans, so the Nicolaitans considered it permissible to take part in meals at which food taken from pagan altars was served.

The apostle condemns such a practice, because it is not simply participation in a pagan cult, but also fornication and sexual immorality, since such rituals are unfaithfulness to the God of the Covenant. Faithfulness to the Covenant with God is the fundamental calling of the Pergamene community, and the white stone with a new name written on it will mean for each believer the completion of divine adoption in eternal life.

The situation in the church community of Pergamum was, as can be seen, rather complex. It is no accident that Jesus says it dwells "where Satan's throne is." The point is that in Pergamum there was one of the oldest and most highly revered pagan sanctuaries, the famous Pergamon Altar, and the local cult was rather dark. Of course, human sacrifices were no longer offered there as in ancient times, but among Christians the place had a grim reputation. Yet, judging by the Savior's words, the issue was not only the place as such.

The problem was inside the church, in the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which is mentioned more than once in the letters to the churches. Here Jesus compares it with the sin of Balaam, who wanted to make the Jews the same pagans as all their neighbors. To subject them to his god. We know almost nothing about the Nicolaitans; we can only guess who and what is being discussed.

Judging by the crumbs of information that can be gathered from sparse mentions and hints in different sources, one can suppose that the teaching of the Nicolaitans amounted to this: a Christian cannot sin by definition, and therefore all spiritual and ascetic efforts directed toward keeping the Torah, external or internal, are meaningless. Do whatever you want - the grace received at baptism will not leave you anyway, and therefore in the end, one way or another, you will be saved. Morality was not denied completely, but it was not considered the foundation of spiritual life.

Besides, the Nicolaitans, without being spiritualists in the traditional sense, were nevertheless evidently sure that the spiritual and natural components of the human personality are not connected so closely that a person's natural states seriously affect his spiritual life, and therefore they considered any so-called "sins of the flesh" either unimportant or of little importance. In practice, of course, such an approach to the person destroyed spiritual life and led away from the path of salvation, which is what Jesus tells John.

And there certainly could be no talk here of spiritual renewal and transfiguration, with which the "new name" mentioned by the Savior is clearly connected. A change of name always presupposed one or another initiation, a change in the quality of a person's life. And Christianity as life in the Kingdom implies such a change. Meanwhile the path proposed by the Nicolaitans presupposed nothing of the kind and could not lead into the Kingdom. That is why this movement receives such a harsh assessment from Jesus: it was a spiritual dead end, a path to nowhere, and this had to be said clearly and unambiguously.

In the address to the church in Pergamum, the teaching of the Nicolaitans is mentioned again, which Jesus equates with the defense of immorality and idolatry. As can be seen, following this teaching could render meaningless even the exploit of confession and martyrdom, examples of which were known to the church in Pergamum. Little is known today about the Nicolaitans and their teaching. Judging by the few testimonies that have reached us, one has to think that its supporters, judging by the name, followers of some "teacher" named Nicholas, about whom no information has been preserved except his name, tried to establish for Christians a kind of peculiar "right to sin." Evidently they believed that sin, as an inevitable evil, was not subject to condemnation, just as natural evil, such as natural disasters, is not subject to it. More than that: proceeding from faith that by His death on the cross the Savior had redeemed all sins, they evidently believed that now sin had ceased to be an obstacle in spiritual life. After all, it no longer has power over a person, and therefore, the Nicolaitans evidently thought, one can now sin calmly, being sure that one will not have to deal with the consequences of the sin committed.

In practice such a position led to the justification of sin, elevated into a principle. Of course, with such an approach spiritual life completely degraded and was distorted: the difference between sin and righteousness disappeared, and with it the Torah and the very concept of the path of righteousness as the path into the Kingdom lost their meaning. Of course, everyone has to sin one way or another; there are no sinless people in the world. But following the Torah presupposes repentance for the sin committed, while the path proposed by the Nicolaitans presupposed its justification, which, unlike repentance and subsequent conversion, required no spiritual work, but only a special kind of intellectual agility needed to substantiate the inevitability of sin and the meaninglessness of any efforts to resist it. It is no surprise that Jesus calls the church in Pergamum to a new conversion: the justification of sin spreading in a church environment can spiritually kill any community. And only a complete rejection of attempts at such justification opens the road into the Kingdom for those who walk.