Revelation 3:14-22 - Indepthbible.org

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Revelation 3:14-22, Translation with Footnotes: 445 3.14 And to the messenger / angel of the church in Laodicea, write: These things 445 The city of Laodicea was located in southwestern Phrygia, a part of the Roman Province of Asia, in what is now western Turkey. The Seleucid King Antiochus II founded the city in the third century B.C., naming it after his wife Laodice. The city was built in the fertile Lycus Valley, on the south bank of the Lycus River, a tributary to the Maeander River--which flowed to the west, emptying into the Aegean Sea at the sea-port city of Ephesus. Six miles to the north of Laodicea was the city of Hierapolis and ten miles to the east was the city of Colossae. Laodicea was located at the juncture of some very important highways--the main highway running across Asia Minor passed through Laodicea as it came from the northeast, from Dorylaeum and northern Phrygia, and then led to the sea-port cities of Ephesus and Miletus, just a little over a hundred miles to the west. On that highway to the east was located the central plateau heartland of Asia, and beyond that, Syria. There was another road that ran from Laodicea to Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira, and Pergamum in the northwest. To the southeast from Laodicea, another highway ran to the Mediterranean coast, ending at the city of Attalia (in Pamphylia). Because of its location at this strategic crossroads, Laodicea became an increasingly prosperous commercial and administrative center in Roman times--indeed, the wealthiest city in Phrygia, the central section of western Asia Minor. So great was its prosperity that in 60 A.D., when the city was destroyed by an earthquake, the Laodiceans were able to rebuild their city by themselves, without an appeal to Caesar Nero for financial assistance. Ancient Roman records show that Laodicea became an important center of banking and finance. Strabo writes concerning the distinctive products that came out of Laodicea-- including fine linen clothing, and glossy-black wool from the sheep which were tended in large numbers in that area, and which furnished the raw material for the manufacture of widely renowned woolen garments and carpets. Laodicea had a notable medical center, famous for its medical school attached to a temple for Asclepius, the god of healing. That school became famous for its practice of ophthalmology, and the manufacture of a "Phrygian powder" which was used as a cure for weak eyes. However, Laodicea had one very noticeable disadvantage--having been built on a location determined by the crossing of important highways, it had no sufficient water supply of its own, and archaeological research has shown that the city was forced to pipe water from hot springs located to the south of the city--water that was very hot, even boiling at its source, but that lost most of its heat by the time it arrived in Laodicea--resulting in a great deal of encrustation in the remains of the stone water-pipes that have been found. The modern city of Denizli which is the descendent of Laodicea has been located much closer to those ancient hot springs. 229 (continued...)
446 447 448 449 450 says the Amen, the Witness, the Trustworthy One and True One, the Beginning of 445 (...continued) Much of what the risen Lord says to the church in Laodicea is rooted in the circumstances mentioned above. The city was quite wealthy from a financial and commercial viewpoint, and was noted as a medical center for ophthalmology--but the risen Lord charges Laodicea with being itself extremely poor and blind! Its neighboring cities had resources of water--hot water at Hierapolis, and cold water at Colossae--but Laodicea had neither--only the "lukewarm" water brought in pipe-lines from afar, and which was nauseating, neither hot nor cold upon arrival in Laodicea. This is the imagery that lies behind the risen Lord's charge that the church in Laodicea is almost totally worthless--thinking herself to be rich and wealthy, she is in truth extremely poverty-stricken; thinking herself healthy and strong, she is in truth blind, unable to see! Thinking of herself as well-dressed and a center of fine clothing, the risen Lord charges that in reality Laodicea is shamefully naked! What the church in Laodicea needed was to buy pure gold from its risen Lord, and the kind of ointment that could cure her blind eyes; she needed to obtain true "clothing" from him, in order to cover her spiritual nakedness! In a beautiful way, this letter to the church at Laodicea, while speaking perhaps the harshest and most stinging indictment of any of the seven letters (not one word of commendation!), still pictures the risen Lord as loving the church at Laodicea, and humbly knocking at her door, requesting entrance, offering this church a wonderful promise of sitting with Him on the throne of God! 446 Following the word which has been transliterated from the Hebrew, ÁìÞí, Amen, the conjunction kai, kai, “and” is interpolated into the text by the first writer of Sinaiticus. The variant reading does not change the meaning of Revelation. What does it mean for the risen Lord to identify himself as the “Amen”? In the Hebrew Bible, the adverb !mea' (which became a loan-word in Greek) is used both by individuals and by the community as an acknowledgment that what has just been said is valid--the validity of which is accepted as binding for the individual or the community that says the "amen!" It signifies concurrence; it means that the one or ones saying it give their personal backing to what has been said, or sworn, or expressed as praise, and commit themselves to the fulfillment or acceptance of that statement. In Isaiah 65:16, the following statement occurs: "...The one who blesses himself in the land will bless himself by God Amen; and he who swears in the land will swear by God Amen." The Greek translation reads "the God, the true one...the God, the true one." Delitzsch commented: “...God is called !mE+a' yheäl{a], elohey )amen, ‘God of Amen,’ i.e., the God Who turns what He promises into Yes and Amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). The epithet derived from the confirmatory Amen, which is thus applied to [YHWH], is similar to the expression in Revelation 3:14, where Jesus is called ‘the Amen, the faithful and true Witness’...The inhabitants of the land stand in a close and undisturbed relation to the God Who has proved Himself to be true to His promises; for all the former evils that followed from the sin have entirely passed away.” (Isaiah, vol. II, p. 487) (continued...) 230
Page 1: THE LETTER OF THE RISEN LORD TO THE
Page 5 and 6: 451 452 453 454 455 the creation of
Page 7 and 8: 459 460 461 462 463 464 neither hot
Page 9 and 10: 465 466 467 you are saying that "I
Page 11 and 12: 472 (...continued) riches that have
Page 13 and 14: 480 481 may be dressed, and so that
Page 15 and 16: and turn around! 491 492 493 3.20 L
Page 17 and 18: 500 3.21 The one who is conquering,
Page 19: 504 (...continued) can look at us o

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