Chapter 2
[Revelation 2:1] -- To the angel of the church in Ephesus write. He reproaches part of this church according to the quality of its name and praises part. For Ephesus is said to be interpreted as a great fall and my will in it.
[Revelation 2:1] -- These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand. That is, he holds you in his hand and governs and controls you by his power.
[Revelation 2:1] -- Who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Who, moving among you, investigates the hearts and loins of each one.
[Revelation 2:2] -- I know your works, and your labor, etc. I see you, he says, diligently performing good works and patiently enduring the intolerable wrongs of the wicked; examining carefully the words and deeds of false apostles, you have not in any way wished to yield to them.
[Revelation 2:4] -- But I have this against you, that you have left your first love, etc. In some matters, indeed, you have abandoned the love you began with, which, unless they recover, I will deprive them of the promised light. However, in some matters, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which are revealed in the following, that is, idolatry and fornication.
[Revelation 2:7] -- He who has an ear, let him hear, etc. What he writes to each, he demonstrates he says to all churches. For it was not only the church of the Ephesians that was to be removed from its place if it did not repent, nor is the seat of Satan only in Pergamum and not everywhere. Thus, the other matters of each individual church are common to the whole Church.
[Revelation 2:7] -- To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. The tree of life is Christ, in whose vision in the heavenly paradise, and in the present body of the Church, the holy souls are refreshed.
[Revelation 2:8] -- And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write. He suggests to this church to endure persecution, to which the name also agrees. For Smyrna means myrrh, which signifies the mortification of the flesh.
[Revelation 2:8] -- These things says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life. Who both created all things and restored all things by dying. A fitting preface for urging patience.
[Revelation 2:9] -- I know your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. For blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Which Fortunatus beautifully explained in a short verse, saying: "The poor in their narrowness reign by having God."
[Revelation 2:9] -- Those who say they are Jews and are not. They profess to know God, but deny him by their deeds. For Jew is the name of religion. Hence also the Apostle: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter."
[Revelation 2:10] -- Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested. These words apply to the universal Church, against which the devil always exercises inextricable enmities.
[Revelation 2:10] -- And you will have tribulation ten days. This signifies the whole time in which the necessary commandments of the Decalogue are present. For as long as you follow the light of the divine word, it is necessary to endure the prison of the adversarial enemy. Some understand the ten persecutions of the nations from Caesar Nero to Diocletian to be signified.
[Revelation 2:10] -- Be faithful unto death, etc. He shows to what extent the ten days reach, advising to keep the faith unto death.
[Revelation 2:11] -- He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. He who remains faithful until the death of the flesh will not fear the eternal death of the soul.
[Revelation 2:12] -- And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write. Pergamum is interpreted as "dividing their horns," meaning he who by judging distinguishes between the virtue of the faithful and the treachery of the Nicolaitans, so that the horns of sinners are broken, and the horns of the just are exalted.
[Revelation 2:12] -- These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword. He fittingly prefaces with judicial power, who is to reward the victors and render punishment to those who err.
[Revelation 2:13] -- I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, etc. I approve of your patience, which, residing among the reprobates who are the throne of the devil, worships me not only by name, being called Christian, but with whole faith even in times of bloody persecution. But I disapprove that I see seducers and false teachers among you.
[Revelation 2:13] -- And in those days my faithful witness Antipas, etc. Some understand Antipas as a martyr who suffered in Pergamum, others as the Lord Christ, who is still killed by unbelievers, as much as it lies in them.
[Revelation 2:14] -- Eating things sacrificed to idols and committing fornication. These are the principal things by which carnal people are militant, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame. But every evil work is idolatry and spiritual fornication.
[Revelation 2:15] -- Holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans are named after Nicholas the deacon, who, as Clement reports, was reprimanded for the zeal of a very beautiful wife and responded that anyone who wished could take her as his wife. Because of this, unbelievers taught that the apostles allowed all communal and promiscuous unions of women. It is said that the Nicolaitans also preached some fabulous and nearly pagan things about the beginning of the world, and did not separate their food from what was offered to idols.
[Revelation 2:17] -- To him who overcomes I will give hidden manna. He who despises the enticement of the flesh, although hypocrites may urge it, will justly be filled with the sweetness of the invisible bread that came down from heaven.
[Revelation 2:17] -- And I will give him a white stone. That is, a body now made white by baptism, then shining with the glory of incorruption.
[Revelation 2:17] -- And on the stone a new name written. That we may be called and may be the sons of God.
[Revelation 2:17] -- What no one knows except the one who receives it. Because he who says he knows God and does not keep His commandments is a liar. The hypocrite does not taste how sweet the Lord is.
[Revelation 2:18] -- And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write. Thyatira is translated as sacrifice. The saints offer their bodies as a living sacrifice.
[Revelation 2:18] -- These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire. He explains what the flaming eyes are below, saying: I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
[Revelation 1:15] -- And his feet are like fine brass. And he explains that the latter works of this church are more numerous than the former.
[Revelation 2:20] -- But I have this against you, that you permit the woman Jezebel, etc. Indeed, you are commendable in your work and faith, but you are reproachable in this, that you do not rebuke with worthy denunciation the synagogue of pseudo-apostles, who falsely claim to be Christians. The name Jezebel, which signifies a flow of blood, is fitting for heretics. And it is conjectured that there was a woman in the aforementioned church teaching these crimes, who was a figure of all Jezebel throughout the world, to whom he also threatens clear vengeance.
[Revelation 2:20] -- To seduce my servants to commit fornication, etc. Certainly, under the name of Christ, she taught spiritual fornication and idolatry. For how could she openly teach the worship of idols, who called herself a prophet in the Church?
[Revelation 2:22] -- Behold, I will cast her onto a bed. By God's just judgment, it happens that she lies in the bed of eternal punishment, who led the wretched into the bed of lust.
[Revelation 2:23] -- And her children into death. Here he calls the posterity and works of the woman her children, threatening them with not the momentary death of the body but the eternal death of the soul.
[Revelation 2:23] -- And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches minds and hearts. In minds, he signifies desires; in hearts, thoughts.
[Revelation 2:23] -- And I will give to each of you according to your works. Therefore, our works and words can be known to men, but only He who sees knows what each one thinks, what each one desires, and where each one wishes to arrive through them. By what consequence is he called the knower of hidden things, punishing fornication and idolatry, which are manifest crimes, unless because these can also be called offenses even in the smallest? "You will destroy all who commit fornication away from You" (Psalm LXII). And the same apostle John, who hears these things, concluded when discussing false brothers: "Little children," he said, "keep yourselves from idols" (1 John V).
[Revelation 2:24] -- To you I say, and to the rest who are in Thyatira. Just as he urges the impious to repent and threatens them with punishment, so he encourages the pious to patience with promises of eternal rewards.
[Revelation 2:24] -- Who have not known the depths of Satan, etc. Just as those who work iniquity do not know God, even though they may preach Him. Likewise, God, although He knows all, does not recognize the workers of iniquity.
[Revelation 2:24] -- I will put upon you no other burden, etc. I will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. Otherwise, he says, be wary of false prophets (Matt. VII). For I do not send you new doctrine, but what you have received, keep it until the end.
[Revelation 2:26] -- To him who overcomes falsehoods and keeps my commands, etc. The Church has this power in Christ, as the body in the head. In whom, according to the Apostle, God has given us all things (Rom. VIII).
[Revelation 2:27] -- And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He governs the meek with inflexible justice, so that they may bear more fruit; but he destroys the obstinate, so that they either perish eternally, or the earthly desires and muddy affairs of the old man are crushed in them, whatever has been contracted and ingrained from the mire of sins.
[Revelation 2:28] -- And I will give him the morning star. Christ is the morning star, who, after the night of the world has passed, promises and reveals to the saints the light of eternal life.