Revelation 1:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Soon, bringing his proclamation to completion, he says to Timothy: “that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God” (1 Tim 3:15).

We read that a similar form of expression is used in Isaiah, where seven women are foretold as taking hold of one man. The one man is Christ, born not of seed.

The seven women are the churches, eating their own bread and clothed in their own garments. They desire to have their reproach taken away, so that they may be called by His name.

The bread is the Holy Spirit, nourishing unto eternal life. Their own bread means what was promised to them through faith. So too their own garment means the garment promised to them, with which they desire to be covered.

Finally, Paul says: “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:53).

“Take away our reproach.” The reproach is former sin, which is taken away in baptism. The one baptized begins to be called a Christian, which is what it means to say: “let us be called by your name.”

Therefore understand that among them the seven churches arise from the one Church.

That John and Paul, when speaking of the seven churches, spoke of the one catholic Church is an idea common to Apringius, Primasius, Bede, and others.

Isa 4:1 says: “And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, ‘We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.’”

Smyrna means “their song.” What else is the song of the perfect, if not heavenly doctrine, the preaching of the Gospel, the advance of the Christian religion, or the harmonious confession of the catholic Church?

Pergamum means “to him who divides their horns.” He teaches that pride arising from strength, whether the arrogance of the powers of the air or the conceit of heretics, always separates from ecclesial unity and condemns to division. Horns signify either strength or arrogance.

And to Thyatira, that is, “the enlightened one.” This means, of course, that after casting out heretical arrogance and overcoming temptations brought by the powers of the air, the holy Church was counted worthy of the light of righteousness.

Sardis means “the beginning of beauty.” That is, after the Church received the Sun of righteousness and was illumined by the light of truth, she has the Lord Jesus Christ as the beginning of beauty. Through His cultivation she blossoms in unending light.

Philadelphia is interpreted as “he who keeps the one who cleaves to the Lord.” After receiving the Sun of righteousness, after holy illumination, and after the dignity of holy beauty, the Church rightly cleaves to the Lord and keeps herself in the unshaken observance of prayer.

Laodicea means “the tribe beloved of the Lord,” or, as some think, “birth is awaited.” Both meanings show that she was counted worthy of the beauty of faith and the Sun of righteousness.

She has known that through faith the Lord cleaves to her, and that she herself is the tribe beloved by the Lord. The Lord loves her, the Lord keeps her, and the Lord directs her.

She awaits her birth, either regeneration in baptism or the glory of the resurrection, when she strengthens herself by humility and patience.

During Domitian's persecution, the Apostle John was taken in chains from Ephesus to Rome. There he was cast into boiling oil, but remained unharmed. Emperor Domitian then commanded that he be imprisoned on the Aegean island of Patmos. There he enlightened the island's inhabitants with Christianity and wrote the Revelation.

When Nerva, the successor of Domitian, who had been killed in A.D. 96, allowed the exiles to return from banishment, the Apostle John also returned to Ephesus. As before, he kept vigilant care over the churches of Asia Minor. He lived another seven years in Ephesus and peacefully reposed in A.D. 104, being ninety-seven years old. He was seven years younger than the Savior.

The island of Patmos lies west of Ephesus. It is small, rocky, barren, and at that time was sparsely inhabited. To its east lies Asia Minor, where these seven churches then were. Between east and south lies the Promised Land. To the south is Egypt. To the west is the sea, and beyond it Greece, then Italy. Between west and north lie Macedonia and present-day European Turkey, and beyond them Hungary, then Germany and all the northern lands.

All the seven churches named above were in Asia Minor, and therefore east of Patmos. Why, then, was John commanded to write exclusively to these seven churches? Did they have greater need of admonition or consolation? But other churches also were in persecution and in the snares of false teachings, as is evident from the apostolic epistles.

Moreover, the very content of this lofty revelation, which contains the destiny of all Christianity and of the whole world, shows that it refers to all churches and all Christians. Therefore it refers to us as well. Let us now say a few words about these seven churches.

In antiquity Ephesus was a populous, extensive, and wealthy city. Now it is a poor Turkish village called Ayasalykh, or Aya-Soluk. It has a mosque, an aqueduct, and a castle built from the ruins of the famous city located near Ayasalykh. Even now one may still notice there the remains of a stadium, a theater, and the temple of Artemis, which was counted one of the wonders of the world. Ephesus means desirable or longed-for.

Smyrna, in Turkish Izmir, is even now a wealthy trading city, with more than 150,000 inhabitants. It lies fifteen miles north of Ephesus. The word means myrrh or fragrant myrrh.

Pergamum lies still farther north, seventeen miles from Smyrna and thirty-two from Ephesus. In translation it means high or excellent. Formerly it was the capital of the kingdom of Pergamum. Now it is a small town in which up to five thousand Turks and thirty to forty Greek families live.

Thyatira, in Turkish Akazar, lies ten miles northeast of Smyrna. It is a very unattractive and unhealthy place. Its inhabitants are almost entirely Turks, who trade in silk and cotton cloth. The word Thyatira means devouring sacrifices.

Sardis, or Sard, lies sixteen miles east of Ephesus. Formerly it was the magnificent residence of the luxurious kings of Lydia, the richest city in Asia Minor. Now it is a poor village inhabited by Turks.

Philadelphia lies twenty-four miles from Ephesus, still farther east than Sardis. The Greeks have retained the name of this city, but the Turks call it Allahshehir, or Allah-Shehr, that is, City of God. Translated from Greek, Philadelphia means brotherly love. The city is large, but sparsely inhabited.

Laodicea lies twenty-four miles directly east of Ephesus and ten miles from Philadelphia. In Turkish it is called Latakia. Now it is a heap of stones, with an ancient triumphal arch still preserved. The word Laodicea means judgment of the people.

Second, St. John speaks of the time when he received the Apocalypse. It was when he was in exile on Patmos, in his own words, “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

That means he was there for zealous apostolic preaching about Jesus Christ. This was around the time of Nero, the fierce hater of the name of Christ.

Before his exile, according to tradition, St. John was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, from which he emerged with renewed and strengthened powers.

As he begins to set forth his visions, the Apostle John even designates the day of the week on which he was counted worthy of these visions. It was the Lord’s Day, or Sunday.

The apostolic remark about this day is important for us. It is the most ancient historical indication of the very early and rapid change, in Christian society, from the Sabbath feast to the celebration of Sunday.

Third, St. John designates the state of his spirit and body in which the apocalyptic visions were given to him. This state was extraordinary.

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,” says the Apostle of Christ (Rev 1:10). In the language of the prophets, “to be in the Spirit” means to be caught up above the ordinary and everyday circle of thoughts and feelings.

It is a state in which a man, no longer governed by his outward senses, sees and contemplates, through his inward faculties alone, images and representations from the realm beyond experience, from the world of spirits.

He comes to the conclusion that the starry sky was such on September 30, 395. Replacing the persons, actions, and scenes of the Apocalypse with planets, stars, and constellations, he makes broad use of the vague outlines of clouds.

He substitutes clouds for the missing names of stars, planets, and constellations, in order to depict a complete picture of the sky in accordance with the data of the Apocalypse.

If even clouds do not help, despite the softness and pliability of this material in skillful hands, then N. A. Morozov reshapes the text of the Apocalypse in the sense he needs.

He justifies such free treatment of the sacred book’s text either by the scribal error and ignorance of copyists, who did not understand the astronomical meaning of the picture, or even by another consideration.

He claims that the writer of the Apocalypse himself, because of a preconceived idea, forced the description of the starry sky.

By the same “scientific” method, N. A. Morozov determines that the writer of the Apocalypse was St. John Chrysostom, born in 347 and reposed in 407, Archbishop of Constantinople. He pays no attention to the complete historical absurdity of his conclusions.

The Orthodox Church, on the basis of ecclesiastical tradition grounded in the testimony of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church of the second, third, and fourth centuries, regards the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian as the writer of the Apocalypse.

The Apocalypse was written at the end of the first century. At that time John the Theologian, during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he received the Revelation.

The writer of the book himself indicates the place and circumstances in which the revelation was received in the first chapter.

“I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

“I was in the Spirit,” that is, in a state of spiritual illumination, “on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying: ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.

“What you see, write in a book and send it to the churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea’” (vv. 9-11).