Revelation 2:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then John says the same: "He who says, 'I know Him,' but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 Jn 2:4).

The stone is a sign used in voting, a favorable decision. See Mt 13:46.

These consolations are the "hidden manna" of the Apocalypse, of which the Son of God, appearing to John the Theologian, said: "To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna."

It is truly "hidden." It is invisible to men. God, who gives it, sees it. The servant of God who receives it sees it invisibly, by sensation. Such a servant of God, while dwelling among many people, dwells alone with the one God. He is visible and invisible, known and unknown to anyone.

"I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written." Roman judges had the custom of collecting votes by stones, white and black. White stones signified acquittal, black stones condemnation (Ovid, Metam. 15).

Cicero says that in the Roman comitia similar stones were cast with the name of the person being elected (De Divinatione II, 41; Pro Planco, 20).

According to the interpreters, the white stone signifies the body of the Christian, washed by the water of Baptism and whitened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is cleansed from sins. This reward fully corresponds to the one who has overcome and rejected the teaching of the Nicolaitans, who defiled the flesh by corruption.

"A new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it." To give names to new members of a kingdom belongs to all kings and lords.

The King of Heaven, when He reveals His Kingdom, will give new names to all the chosen sons of the Kingdom. These names will signify their inward qualities, their dignity, and their appointment or service in the Kingdom of glory.

Yet "no one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him" (1 Cor 2:11). Therefore the new name given by the all-knowing Master, expressing the fullness of a man's qualities, will be known or understood by the one alone who receives this name.

For this reason the Lord calls the Pergamenes to repentance. Otherwise He will come and fight against the lawless with the sword of His mouth. To those who overcome He promises the hidden manna, a white stone, and a new name written upon it.

"I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is" (Rev 2:13). What should be understood by this throne of Satan? Clearly this name here denotes one of the chief representative places of idolatry and pagan impiety. One could say that Satan had, as it were, established His dwelling there.

From historical accounts it is known that Pergamum was renowned for many pagan temples. Among them the most famous was the temple of Asclepius, the god of the medical art. Along with many medical superstitions, the priests of Asclepius possessed scientific medical knowledge. By this they drew many idolaters to Pergamum.

These priests, together with the pagans of Pergamum under their influence, both natives and those flocking there from many other cities, could only be fierce opponents of Christianity. Probably at their instigation the hieromartyr Antipas was killed. Not without reason he is considered bishop of Pergamum.

"To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it" (Rev 2:17). What is the hidden manna?

It is that true bread from heaven by which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself names Himself (Jn 6:32). The manna kept in the Mosaic tabernacle served as its type (Ex 15:31, 32).

The heavenly sanctuary now conceals our Savior from our sight. Yet the unwaning day of the Kingdom of Heaven will one day come. Then we shall partake more truly of this heavenly bread and this hidden manna. That is, we shall be in living communion with Christ the Savior.

This is the reward promised to all in the person of the victors of Pergamum over sensual desires. By these desires the Nicolaitans there enticed and drew men into their company.

What is the white stone and the wondrous name upon it? The metaphor of the white stone has its basis in an ancient custom. Victors in public games and contests were given tablets of white stone. They later presented these to receive the rewards awarded them.

In the mouth of the holy seer John, the white stone symbolically signifies the purity and innocence of Christians. For this they will obtain an immeasurable and endless reward in the age to come.

The mysterious name written on the white stone is the name of children and heirs of God. So lofty a blessedness is joined to this name in the future that no one can yet comprehend it. Even now we have the right to be called children of God (Jn 1:12), but "it has not yet appeared what we shall be" (1 Jn 3:2).

The human spirit, being created and continually dependent on God, is not self-sufficient, because it is not God. Since it is not self-sufficient, it needs to acquire the sufficiency it requires, or to be nourished in the manner proper to it.

Its will hungers for the good as for food. Its mind thirsts for truth as for drink. But the root of good is not in it, nor is the source of truth in it. Therefore it has neither food nor drink within itself. These must be given to it.

In God is the root of good. In God is the source of truth. Therefore the nourishment of the spirit requires not what rises from the earth, but what descends from heaven, manna.

Bread that is purely heavenly, not only in origin but also in its nature, cannot be set openly on the earth before bodily eyes. The water of life cannot be poured into a vessel made of dead matter. Therefore the true food of the spirit is necessarily hidden from the flesh.

The word of God often speaks of this food, so that we may know and feel our essential hunger and find saving nourishment.

And Incarnate Wisdom says: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (Jn 6:51).

And He says to the Samaritan woman: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life" (Jn 4:14).

And again: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4).

And the Apostle describes true Christians as those "who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come" (Heb 6:4-5).

Will some say that these are only figures? Let us grant, if they wish, that this is true. Yet spiritual things by their nature contain more reality and power than bodily things.

Therefore these figures and likenesses, if one wishes to call them so, must contain more reality and power than the things from which they are borrowed.

If the thought of bodily food and of its necessity is not a dream, then much more the thought of spiritual food and of its necessity is truth.

Will someone ask how the nourishment of the spirit can be conceived, since the spirit, as a simple being, knows neither loss nor increase? I answer that everything in the spirit must be understood spiritually.

A body deprived of its proper food is finally destroyed, but the spirit cannot be destroyed. Yet as the body is distressed and weakened by excessive prolonged hunger, so the spirit is distressed and weakened without the food proper to it.

These states belong even more to the spirit than to the body. The body can have living strength and the sensation of pleasure only through the action of the spirit.

As bodily food and nourishment delight, strengthen, calm, and satisfy the sensual man, so spiritual food gives the spiritual man inward, heartfelt, and noetic delight, strengthening, peace, and satisfaction.

Some may also ask why we do not feel within ourselves this supposed spiritual hunger or thirst. Let them add another question to this.

Why, when we hear the word of God, which is called bread or the water of life, do we not notice in our soul living sensations of delight or inward nourishment? And why, when the word falls silent, do we soon remain as empty as before?

To answer this, ask a man whose taste and natural disposition toward nourishment have been damaged by sickness or gross incapacity: why is food not sweet to him?

Why does he not wish to take it? Or why, after taking it without being nourished, does he disorderly cast it out?

Unbridled sensuality and earthly passions enfeeble the spirit. They stifle its inward sensations and corrupt its heavenly desires.

For this reason the hidden manna is not promised to everyone. What benefit is there, and how is it possible, to give food to one in whom sickness has produced aversion to it and incapacity for nourishment?

When the body overcomes the sickness that fights against it, then it can make use of food. When the spirit conquers sensuality and the passions, then it will be able, in spiritual health, to eat of the hidden manna.

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna."