The Jewish Annotated New Testament (129 page)
Read The Jewish Annotated New Testament Online
Authors: Amy-Jill Levine
8
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life:
9
“I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
11
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.
12
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword:
13
“I know where you are living, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me
*
even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan lives.
14
But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication.
15
So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16
Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.
18
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:
19
“I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first.
20
But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants
*
to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
21
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication.
22
Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings;
23
and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.
24
But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call ‘the deep things of Satan,’ to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden;
25
only hold fast to what you have until I come.
26
To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,
I will give authority over the nations;
27
to rule
*
them with an iron rod,
as when clay pots are shattered—
28
even as I also received authority from my Father. To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star.
29
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Chs 2–3: The seven churches.
3
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars:
“I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.
2
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.
3
Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
4
Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
5
If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.
6
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
7
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of the holy one,
the true one,
who has the key of David,
who opens and no one will shut,
who shuts and no one opens:
8
“I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
9
I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
10
Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
11
I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
12
If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
13
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
14
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin
*
of God’s creation:
15
“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot.
16
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
17
For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
18
Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
19
I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.
20
Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
21
To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
4
After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
2
At once I was in the spirit,
*
and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!
3
And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.
4
Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads.
5
Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God;
6
and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.
JOHN, A NEW EZEKIEL
New Testament scholars have often noted that Revelation is unusual among Jewish apocalypses for keeping the real name of its seer, John. Most other apocalypses, from Daniel and
Enoch
through those ascribed to Ezra and Abraham, couched their revelations as the experiences of Jewish heroes legendary for their piety, purity, or intimacy with the divine world. Who is this John, scholars ask, that such an outlandish book should depend on his authority? Did the Jesus Movement itself change the terms in which apocalyptic visions were transmitted?
Of course, Revelation does emerge from a milieu of prophetic mediation in which John may well have had some historical authority, and in any event the book gained its credibility in early Christianity not as the visions of “some” John but rather of
the
John who allegedly wrote the Gospel and Letters. But the authority of this book for its audiences would not have depended on the legend of its implied author so much as on the very familiarity of its materials, which echo revered biblical texts: Exodus (7–11; cf. Rev 8–9; 16), Isaiah (6; cf. Rev 4.8), Jeremiah (51; cf. Rev 18), and most importantly, the book of Ezekiel.
John’s debt to Ezekiel appears already in the description of the four “living creatures [Heb
chai’im
]” by the throne of God in ch 4 (cf. Ezek 1.5–11). The idea of divine marks or seals that afford the bearer protection from divine judgment (Rev 7; 9) depends fundamentally on Ezekiel’s secret vision of the destruction of Jerusalem and the marking of the righteous (Ezek 8–9). The instruction to John to eat the rainbow-angel’s scroll, and his description of its sweet taste and bitter digestion (Rev 10.8–11), borrow the vivid symbols for literary prophecy of Ezek 3. The defeat of the mysterious enemies Gog and Magog (Rev 19.17; 20.7) depends on Ezekiel’s vengeful description of these two people’s destruction (Ezek 38–39), while the feminized and sexualized downfall of the
pornē
Rome (Rev 18) draws from Ezekiel’s nearly pornographic tale of the shaming of the two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah (Ezek 23), as well as this same author’s sarcastic dirge over the city of Tyre (Ezek 27). Finally, John’s divine instructions to
measure
Jerusalem before and after its destruction (11.1–2; 21), thus assuring his audience of the city’s heavenly dimensions, follows Ezekiel’s similar actions with the heavenly temple (Ezek 40–42).