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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Revelation 2:13 - 2:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I know thy works - Two oldest manuscripts omit this clause; one oldest manuscript retains it.
Satan’s seat - rather as the Greek is translated all through Revelation, “throne.” Satan, in impious mimicry of God’s heavenly throne, sets up his earthly throne (Rev 4:2). Aesculapius was worshipped there under the serpent form; and Satan, the old serpent, as the instigator (compare Rev 2:10) of fanatical devotees of Aesculapius, and, through them, of the supreme magistracy at Pergamos, persecuted one of the Lord’s people (Antipas) even to death. Thus, this address is an anticipatory preface to Rev 12:1-17; Note: “throne ... the dragon, Satan ... war with her seed,” Rev 12:5, Rev 12:9, Rev 12:17.
even in those days - Two oldest manuscripts omit “even”; two retain it.
wherein - Two oldest manuscripts omit this (then translate, “in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness,” or “martyr”); two retain it. Two oldest manuscripts read, “My witness, MY faithful one”; two read as English Version. Antipas is another form for Antipater. Simeon Metaphrastes has a palpably legendary story, unknown to the early Fathers, that Antipas, in Domitian’s reign, was shut up in a red-hot brazen bull, and ended his life in thanksgivings and prayers. Hengstenberg makes the name, like other apocalyptic names, symbolical, meaning one standing out “against all” for Christ’s sake.