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Rev_2:8-11. The epistle to the church at Smyrna.
Smyrna, eight geographical miles north of Ephesus, on a bay of the Aegean Sea, and the river Meles, was already in ancient times, as it is to the present, an important place of business. After Old Smyrna had been destroyed by the Lydians, New Smyrna, twenty stadia from the old place, was built, according to Pausanias by Alexander the Great, according to Strabo by Antigonus, and afterwards by Lysimachus,—a very beautiful city.[1030]
Of Christian life at Smyrna we have, except in the Apoc., the earliest statement in the Epistle of Ignatius,[1031] at the beginning of the second century. At that time Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna,[1032] of whose martyrdom in the year 168 the church of Smyrna itself has made the record.[1033] Many, especially the Catholic expositors,[1034] regard Polycarp the angel of the church[1035] mentioned in this epistle; which, however, is in a chronological respect untenable, even if it should be admitted that the Apoc. was composed under Domitian, although Polycarp “had served Christ” for eighty-six years.[1036]
[1030] Cf. Wetst., Winer, Rwb.
[1031] Ep. ad Smyrn., ad Polycarp.
[1032] Cf. Irenaeus in Euseb., H. E., iv. Revelation 14 : “ Πολυκ .
ὐπὸ ἀποστόλων κατασταθεἰς εἰς τὴν ʼΑσίαν ἐν τῇ ἐν Σμύρνῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐπίσκοπος (“Polycarp—appointed bishop by the apostles in Asia, in the church at Smyrna”). Cf. iii. 36. Tertullian, Praeser. Haer., 32: “It is reported that Polycarp was placed, by John, in the church of the Smyrnæans.”
[1033] Martyrium S. Polyc. in den Edd. der apostol. Väter. Cf. Euseb., H. E., 4:15.
[1034] N. de Lyra, Ribera, Alcas., C. a Lap., Tirni., Stern, Calov., Hengstenb., etc.
[1035] i.e., bishop. Cf., to the contrary, on Rev_1:20.
[1036] Martyr., c. 9.