The Seven Churches of Revelation, also known as the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse and the Seven Churches of Asia, are seven churches of early Christianity mentioned in the New Testament Book of Revelation. All of them are located in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey.
According to Revelation 1:11, on the island of Patmos in the far east of the Aegean Sea, Jesus instructed John of Patmos to "[w]rite in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." [a] The churches in this context refers to the community or local congregations of Christians living in each city. [1] [2]
The seven churches are named for their locations. The Book of Revelation provides descriptions of each Church.
The letters follow a common pattern. For example: the Lord first addresses each church and identifies Himself, [3] then defines things that He knows about the church in question. [4] After this, a challenge or reproach is given, [5] followed by a promise. [6] In all seven cases the admonition, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches", [7] is appended, although sometimes this comes before the promise and sometimes after.
Although the letters differ in length in accord with the needs of each community, all conclude with an appeal to hold fast and to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Each church is promised that everyone who conquers will be rewarded by Christ.[ citation needed ]
Some historicists typically interpret the seven churches as representing seven different periods in the history of the Western Church from the time of Paul until the return of Jesus Christ. [8] Scofield states that "these messages by their very terms go beyond the local assemblies mentioned." [9] He is of the opinion that the letters have a prophetic purpose disclosing the seven phases of the spiritual history of the Church. Other writers, such as Clarence Larkin, [10] Henry Hampton Halley, [11] Merrill Unger, [12] and William M. Branham [13] also have put forward the view that the seven churches preview the history of the global Church.
Historicism has been criticised by the Eastern Orthodox priest Dimitri Cozby, who writes that historicists take a greatly oversimplified view of church history: "Since dispensationalism is Protestant in origin its 'Church history' is strictly Western. The dispensations take into account almost nothing of Orthodox history after the period of the early councils which we share with the West." [14]
Chapters 2–3 of the Revelation have specific messages for each of the seven angels of the seven churches. The message of each of the seven letters is directed to the angel of the particular church that is mentioned.
Origen [15] explains that these "angels" are the guardian angels of the churches, a view upheld by Henry Alford. But Epiphanius [16] explicitly rejects this view, and, in accordance with the imagery of the passage, explains it as the bishops.
John sees a vision of the Son of man, who walks among seven lampstands and has seven stars in his right hand. Revelation 1:20 states that "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches." The comparison of a teacher to a star is scriptural. [17]
Augustine of Hippo's reason for interpreting angels of the churches as the prelates of the church is that St. John speaks of them as falling from their first charity, which is not true of the angels. [18] [19] Others would say that the falling away relates to the churches, not to the messengers, as each of the seven letters conclude with the words "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
The Amplified Bible states that Revelation 2:2 through to 3:18, "your" and "you" are in the singular, referring to the angel of each church. Much of what is said is rebuke and admonishment, so if the angels are heavenly beings, they may serve in some way as representatives of the sinful people in their churches. Jewish tradition maintained that every nation and individual has a guardian angel, and that when God is about to punish a nation, He first punishes its angel. There is even a story of Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, being rebuked by God for the sins committed in the time of Ezekiel. [ citation needed ] So the original readers of Revelation might have assumed that the angels here are the guardian angels of the individual churches, sharing responsibility for the actions of the members.
In the New Testament, the Greek word for angels ( άγγελος ) is not only used for heavenly angels, but also used for human messengers, such as John the Baptist (Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2, Luke 7:27) and God's prophets (Revelation 22:8–9) [20] C.I. Scofield has noted that "The natural explanation of the 'messengers' is that they were men sent by the seven churches to ascertain the state of the aged apostle ... but they figure any who bear God's messages to a church." [21]
In 1869, the London publishing firm Sampson Low, Son, and Marston published Alexander Svoboda's The Seven Churches of Asia. [22] The Seven Churches of Asia is divided into three primary sections: an introduction written by English clergyman and Biblical scholar H. B. Tristram, Svoboda's personal travel account visiting the Seven Churches sites, and an itinerary detailing Svoboda's route. The book also includes twenty full-page photographs of the Seven Churches sites, photographed by Svoboda. These images are the first produced and published photographs of the Seven Churches. Photographs from Svoboda's Seven Churches project were exhibited in the rooms of the Arundel Society in London in 1868. [23]
The Hebrew term Abaddon, and its Greek equivalent Apollyon appear in the Bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. In the Hebrew Bible, abaddon is used with reference to a bottomless pit, often appearing alongside the place Sheol, meaning the resting place of dead peoples.
The Book of Revelation or Book of the Apocalypse is the final book of the New Testament. Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'. The Book of Revelation is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament canon. It occupies a central place in Christian eschatology.
Christian eschatology is a minor branch of study within Christian theology which deals with the doctrine of the "last things", especially the Second Coming of Christ, or Parousia. The word eschatology derives from two Greek roots meaning "last" (ἔσχατος) and "study" (-λογία) – involves the study of "end things", whether of the end of an individual life, of the end of the age, of the end of the world, or of the nature of the Kingdom of God. Broadly speaking, Christian eschatology focuses on the ultimate destiny of individual souls and of the entire created order, based primarily upon biblical texts within the Old and New Testaments. Christian eschatology looks to study and discuss matters such as death and the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, the Second Coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the rapture, the tribulation, millennialism, the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the New Heaven and New Earth in the world to come.
Enoch is a biblical figure and patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible.
Dispensationalism is a theological framework for interpreting the Bible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in which God interacts with his chosen people in different ways. It is often distinguished from covenant theology. These are two competing frameworks of Biblical theology that attempt to explain overall continuity in the Bible. Coining of the term "dispensationalism" has been attributed to Philip Mauro, a critic of the system's teachings, in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom.
Babylon the Great, commonly known as the Whore of Babylon, refers to both a symbolic female figure and a place of evil as mentioned in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament. Her full title is stated in Revelation 17:5 as "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth".
Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the Book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol, and is often combined with the Cross, Chi Rho or other Christian symbols. A and Z share the similarity with alpha and omega. The Hebrew equivalent is alef and tau.
Wormwood is a star or angel which appears in the Book of Revelation.
The concept of Seven Archangels is found in some works of early Jewish literature and in Christianity. In those texts, they are referenced as the angels who serve God directly.
Codex Washingtonianus, Codex Washingtonensis, Codex Freerianus, also called the Washington Manuscript of the Gospels, The Freer Gospel and The Freer Codex, is a Greek uncial manuscript of the four Gospels, written on parchment. It is designated by W or 032 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and ε014 in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the 4th or 5th century. The manuscript has some gaps. The manuscript was among a collection of manuscripts bought by American industrialist Charles Lang Freer at the start of the 20th century, and first published by biblical scholar Henry A. Sanders.
The two witnesses are two literary figures who are mentioned in Revelation 11:1-14. Some Christians interpret this as two literal people, such as Moses and Elijah or Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle. Others interpret this as a symbol for a group or groups of people, such as the Christian church or the Jews and the Christians. Still others interpret this as a symbol of two concepts, such as the Torah and Nevi’im or the Old Testament and New Testament. The earliest interpretation of the two witnesses is that they are Enoch and Elijah, the only two that did not see death as required by the Scriptures. Hippolytus of Rome is the first commentator to unambiguously present this view.
Against Heresies, sometimes referred to by its Latin title Adversus Haereses, is a work of Christian theology written in Greek about the year 180 by Irenaeus, the bishop of Lugdunum.
In the Bible, the term Seven Spirits of God appears four times in the Book of Revelation. The meaning of this term has been interpreted in multiple ways.
The Codex Athous Laurae, designated by Ψ or 044, or δ 6, is a manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek uncial letters on parchment. The manuscript has many gaps in the text, as well as containing handwritten notes. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeographically), the codex is dated to the 8th or 9th century.
The phrase "unto the ages of ages" expresses either the idea of eternity, or an indeterminate number of aeons. The phrase is a translation of the original Koine Greek phrase εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, which occurs in the original Greek texts of the Christian New Testament. In the Latin Vulgate, the same phrase is translated as in saecula saeculorum.
John's vision of the Son of Man, also known as John’s Vision of Christ, is a vision described in the Book of Revelation in which the author, identified as John, sees a person he describes as one "like the Son of Man". The Son of Man is portrayed in this vision as having a robe with a golden sash, the hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. He holds seven stars in his right hand and has a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. The vision is interpreted by Christians as the only identifiable physical description of Jesus in any form in the Christian biblical canon.
Revelation 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author is a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the prologue of the book, followed by the vision and commission of John.
Revelation 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains messages to churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira, four of the seven churches of Asia located in modern-day Turkey, with messages for the other three churches appearing in chapter 3.
Revelation 8 is the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate.
Revelation 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse to John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter describes the judgment of the Whore of Babylon.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Apocalypse". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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