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Our study in the book of Revelation is progressing along nicely. We actually finished chapter 1 in only 9 messages. If I keep that up with 21 chapters, Revelation will only be 189 messages! And today, we begin chapter two, where Jesus addresses the seven churches of Asia. Let’s get going.
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write… Revelation 2:1 (NRSVue)
And this is where we must stop. We’re not quite ready to move forward, but we’re close. The subtitle of this series demands that we spend more time putting together the pieces of the puzzle I’ve already given you, and then adding one big piece today. And of course, that subtitle is “What Revelation Meant to the Ones It Was Written To.” That’s the angle we want to look at the book from. I’ve already told you how important this is, not just for the Book of Revelation but all Scripture. We can’t figure out what any biblical text means to us today until we first go back and discover what it meant to the ones it was written to.
It wasn’t all that long ago that I came across a statement that completely changed my understanding of Scripture and, in turn, my walk with God. I share it with you often, and it’s this: “The Bible wasn’t written to us, but it was written for us.” God’s Word was originally written to the audiences who first received it, but God made sure we got copies bound together into one amazing, Spirit-inspired book so that we might draw meaning from it for us today. The vast majority of heresies, misinterpretations, and unwarranted weaponizations of God’s word would disappear if we followed this interpretive and applicational rule.
To get into the minds of those original audiences, we must grasp the world in which they lived. That means researching the historical, geographical, political, and cultural backgrounds of that time. We’ve been doing that in bits and pieces as we’ve unpacked chapter one. So, for a minute, let’s back up and cover some of the things that we’ve already seen so that I can bring you to something today that’s going to pull everything together, I hope.
First, let’s get our geography straight. When John writes to the “seven churches of Asia,” that word “Asia” doesn’t mean what we think it means. To a first-century Roman, Asia referred specifically to the western region of modern-day Turkey, officially called Asia Proconsularis. This was one of the most prestigious, wealthy, and strategically important provinces in the Eastern Empire. By the time John was writing Revelation, Asia had been a Roman territory for over two hundred years. Because it was so stable and prosperous, it didn’t need a large standing army. That made it a senatorial province, governed by a Proconsul, the pinnacle of a Roman political career. In fact, the proconsul of Asia is likely the very official who signed off on John’s exile to Patmos. The seven churches were all located in this province, connected by a major circular Roman road system, a first-century superhighway, that allowed a courier to carry John’s letter from Ephesus northward to Smyrna and Pergamum, then looping southeast through Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and finally Laodicea.
One of the things I emphasized is the mental picture we tend to carry around of the first-century world. When most of us think of “ancient biblical times,” we picture dusty roads, mud huts, and people living like cavemen. That’s about as far from the truth as you could get. Rome governed over fifty million people across three continents. They had perfected a volcanic ash-based concrete that actually got stronger over time and lasts forever, something we only recently figured out how to replicate. They engineered advanced aqueducts that fed Roman cities unbelievably vast amounts of fresh water every day, which made its way to homes much like our water on tap today. They had underfloor heating systems, paned glass windows, and theaters with acoustic engineering so precise that a single voice projected on stage could be heard clearly by twenty-four thousand people in the upper rows. Beyond that, many thousands of miles of paved road connected the empire, their legal system gave us concepts like habeas corpus and the distinction between civil and criminal law, and their global trade network was so organized that archaeologists have found a literal mountain in Rome made of fifty-three million broken shipping jars, all stamped with ancient barcodes tracking their origins. Every coin, every public building, every road reminded the people living there exactly who was in charge. The seven churches weren’t hiding out in the wilderness. They were urban congregations trying to follow Jesus right in the middle of the most sophisticated civilization the ancient world had ever seen.
To understand why that mattered so much for the people John was writing to, we had to back up five hundred years to a man most of us had never heard of: Tarquin the Proud, Rome’s seventh and last king. The way Romans told it, Tarquin murdered his way to power, ignored the Senate, and his son committed a crime so heinous it triggered a revolt that threw the entire royal family out of Rome in 509 BC. When it was over, the Roman people swore a near-sacred oath that no one man would ever be king over them again. That oath gave birth to the Roman Republic, a system so carefully engineered that the Founding Fathers of the United States basically used it as their blueprint. The entire governing system was designed to ensure that no single person ever accumulated too much power. But it had a fatal flaw. It was built to restrain politicians, not generals. And by the first century BC, Rome had produced generals whose armies were loyal to them personally rather than to the Republic. Caesar was the one who finally broke the system. He crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, won the civil war, declared himself dictator, and was stabbed twenty-three times on the Senate floor in 44 BC. What followed was chaos until an eighteen-year-old named Octavian outmaneuvered everyone, won the final civil war, and, in 27 BC, staged one of the greatest pieces of political theater in history. He went before the Senate, dramatically offered to hand everything back, and when they begged him to stay, he “reluctantly” agreed. He never called himself king. He called himself Princeps, first citizen. But historians call it exactly what it was: a disguised monarchy. He kept every outward form of the Republic while personally holding every seat of actual power.
Here’s where our goal of understanding the world in which these seven churches lived comes into play. The Senate gave Octavian, now Augustus, a religious title. Augustus comes from the Latin word for “consecrated, set apart, touched by the divine.” You can argue with a politician. You can oppose a general. But how do you argue with someone the gods themselves have chosen? Emperors after Augustus took that and ran with it. Roman coins and inscriptions called them Divi Filius, Son of God. Kyrios, Lord. Soter, Savior. Epiphanes, God Manifested. A famous inscription from the city of Priene described Augustus’s birth using the word euangelion, the exact same Greek word translated “gospel” and “good news” in our New Testament. And when the emperor made a personal visit to a city, the official term for his arrival was parousia, the same word the New Testament uses for the Second Coming of Christ.
By the time John was sitting on Patmos, those titles weren’t just on coins and inscriptions anymore. They were embedded in the trade guilds, the city calendar, the civic festivals, and the temple sitting on the hill you walked past every morning. And if you wanted to fully participate in the economy of these cities, if you wanted to work in a trade guild, do business in the marketplace, or show up at a civic banquet, you must acknowledge the Emperors’ divine status, along with honoring Rome’s pantheon of deities, one way or another. This is a big piece of the puzzle that helps us understand the situation of those first-century Christians and those seven churches. To understand this better, let’s go to a book of the Bible that, at first, wouldn’t make sense if you’re trying to understand Revelation, but then again, makes perfect sense when you think about it. That book is Acts, chapter 19, beginning in verse 21.
21 Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia and then to go on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have gone there, I must also see Rome.” 22 So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he himself stayed for some time longer in Asia.
Asia. Does that ring a bell? The Roman province of the seven churches.
23 About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. 24 A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans. 25 These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, “Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business.
We’ll come back to this later as we visit the seven churches, but note how religion and trade overlap here, and that overlap permeates everyday life for first-century Roman citizens. Depending on where you lived and which Roman deity your area or city sponsored, you worshiped that deity in some way and/or made a living off the worship of that deity, in this case, the goddess Artemis, AKA Diana. Back to Demetrius’ rant against Christians:
26 You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods.
Ah! Where is all this happening? We know we’re in Asia, but what city? Ephesus. Do you see the connection? The Gospel has not only reached Ephesus but is also turning the city upside down. What Luke records here would have occurred approximately 40+ years before John wrote down the visions he saw on the island of Patmos. Back to old Demetrius, or Tray for short.
27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.”
We’ll talk more about this, too, as we unpack Jesus’ words to the Christians in Ephesus. But know for now that they were head over heels crazy about the goddess Artemis, hosting a major temple dedicated to her. Measuring 426 by 229 feet, it was almost four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens and was known as one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
So Tray-Tray goes cray-cray trying to shut down the gospel movement for both economic and religious reasons. “If we don’t stop the Way, we’ll be living on the street and desecrating the glory of the goddess Artemis that we devote ourselves to as a city!” This guy is crazy smart because if you want to get people riled up, use money and religion.
28 When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 The city was filled with the confusion, and people rushed together to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travel companions. 30 Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; 31 even some officials of the province of Asia who were friendly to him sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theater. 32 Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. 33 Some of the crowd gave instructions to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. And Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
The city is about to have a riot on its hands, and remember, there’s one thing Rome will not tolerate in any province, and it’s an uprising.
35 But when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven? 36 Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. 37 You have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess. 38 If therefore Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one another. 39 If there is anything further you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly. 40 For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” 41 When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. Acts 19:21–41 (NRSVue)
Shew! Crisis averted. Alright, now we want to pay close attention to verse 35.
35 But when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven? Acts 19:35 (NRSVue)
Let’s home in on the phrase, “temple keeper,” which is one word in Greek, neokoros (nay-ah-koros). This is the only place in the New Testament where we find this particular Greek word, but outside the New Testament, it’s all over the place in writings and documents. So, scholars have a really good idea not only of what it means but also of how its meaning changed over time. Originally, it meant one who sweeps or cleanses a temple. But it also came to signify someone who oversees a temple, a warden, or a caregiver. But by the time of the seven churches of Asia, it referred to a status a city might boast. This is why the Ephesian clerk spoke of Ephesus as the temple keeper (neokoros), or warden, of Artemis. It was a status they bragged about because of the lengths they went to promote her in the city.
Now, if we are trying to understand this in modern terms, the only thing that I can think of that might come close is something I don’t know much about, but I bet all of you do: the Green Bay Packers. That’s football, right? Green Bay, Wisconsin’s identity, pride, economy, reputation, architecture, local language, tourism, and public image are all wrapped around the Packers. Green Bay does not merely “have” a football team; it’s who they are. In many ways, Green Bay is known nationally as the home and guardian of the Packers tradition. Ephesus and Artemis were that and far more for the Ephesians because we are not just talking about sports or entertainment. We are talking about religion, civic pride, economic life, public honor, and local identity all fused together. Ephesus did not simply “have” a temple dedicated to Artemis. Ephesus was known as the temple keeper — the neokoros — of Artemis. That was the city’s status, identity, reputation, and sense of itself.
By the time of John’s exile on Patmos in the first century, neokoros had come to mean something else, and it ties in to all that stuff I shared with you about the deification of emperors and how it showed up on coins and such. To understand what I’m talking about, let me introduce you to a phenomenon of ancient Rome called the Imperial Cult. You’ve probably never heard of it, but its reality is evident throughout the New Testament, nowhere more so than in the book of Revelation. Because it’s complicated, here’s a scholarly, reputable source explaining what the Imperial Cult was:
The imperial cult can be understood… as “the direct worship of the emperor by sacrifice and prayer in the context of priesthoods, temples, rites and festivals”… [and] direct worship of the emperor was embedded in complex religious, social, economic, and political systems.
…the imperial cult differed from the worship of other deities mainly in that the emperor had the quality of immanence—of being present (Ando, The Matter of the Gods, 97–98, 119). The imperial cult was expanded in different forms to the institutions and the multi-cultural populations of the Roman Empire. The social elite, officials, and populations in relatively remote locations within the empire embraced the imperial cult more enthusiastically than people in Rome because the cult personified the absent emperor….
The power that the emperor exercised, the resources at his disposal, and the benefits received from the emperor were all considered divine in nature; therefore, appropriate honor and gratitude took traditional forms of worship, including altars, temples, statues, inscriptions, sacrifices, and festivals. Eastern cities, which often joined emperor worship with the principal local civic cult, competed with each other to have a religious center or temple that honored the emperor. Doing so would grant the city preferred status as a client of the emperor within the patronage system.1
In our minds, we might think the people pretended the Emperors were gods out of fear when they knew they weren’t, or even blindly and ignorantly thought they really were, so they worshiped them, but it was more nuanced than that. It wasn’t so much that they truly believed the emperors were divine as that the power they possessed and the benefits they extended to Roman citizens were of divine origin. This is why Eastern cities, such as the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation, competed with each other when it came to showing allegiance to the emperor and the empire regarding the Imperial cult, and here is how they did it: they worked hard for the title of neokoros (temple keepers), a title only granted to a city by Rome. And this is yet another meaning of the word (neokoros evolved from one who maintains the temple to one who oversees or manages a temple to a status a city could hold to a title designated by Rome).
A city could designate itself as a temple warden of its patron deity, but only Rome could give you the special designation of temple warden of the Imperial Cult. That meant you built and maintained a temple to worship the emperor, which in turn became central to the civic, social, and even work lives of everyone in the city. Ephesus fought long and hard for this honor. And the reason it was hard may very well be what we observed in the book of Acts, chapter 19. The Ephesians were so devoted to Artemis that Rome was reluctant to grant them the status they sought. In other words, Rome said, “You guys have made it pretty clear: you’re temple wardens for Artemis. Looks like you don’t have room for a temple to the emperor.” But by the first century, when the Book of Revelation was written, they were finally declared neokoros under Emperor Domitian, who is very likely the emperor in power at the time.
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write… Revelation 2:1 (NRSVue)
Those nine words are so loaded that the only way we can discover what they mean is to put ourselves into the lives of Ephesian Christians and the other cities of Asia. And a major part of that is grasping how a city earned the status of temple warden. Above all, everyone was pressured to get on board. That meant every man, woman, and child; every profession; every citizen in the city was expected to participate in the worship of the emperor in some way, such as making sacrifices at the temple to show their loyalty, attending the many festivals honoring the emperor, and so much more, and people would be watching.
This is a good place to debunk another Revelation myth that has been perpetuated for hundreds of years. Modern scholarship has concluded that there was probably no widespread persecution of Christians in Rome in the first century. We are pretty sure it was not illegal to follow Christ, with believers being dragged out of their homes and imprisoned or executed. That’s the story we’ve been told, but that’s not what the evidence suggests. Rome was cool with people worshiping pretty much any deity they wanted, as long as they were willing to syncretize their religion with the Imperial Cult. Christians in the seven churches in Asia were HEAVILY pressured to do that. Not doing so could lead to subversion, a high crime in Rome with serious consequences such as eventual imprisonment or death. It wasn’t against the law to follow Christ, but it was illegal to be involved in anything that could eventually be considered subversion.
Think about this. How does a Christ follower honor an earthly man as Son of God and Savior whose birth is proclaimed as Good News to the world when they have devoted themselves to honoring the true Son of God, the true Savior, the true King of the World who brings the genuine Good News? It’s not possible. Paul wrote some of the most beautiful words ever written about Jesus:
9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, 10 so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9–11 (NRSVue)
Brothers and sisters, Jesus does not share his glory with any earthly man or woman, and certainly not with any earthly authority, government, or anything else. Not because he’s insecure or prideful or boastful, but because he is just who he is.
Can we even imagine this tension in which the Christians of the seven churches lived? THIS is what unlocks John’s visions for the people they were given to 2,000 years ago. As we head into the seven churches, and even into the strange imagery of the following chapters, keeping their situation in front of us pulls us away from hunting for the secret identity of the Antichrist or mapping out a timeline of end-times events. That’s what we tend to focus on. But what Revelation is really about is this: how do we live faithfully to the Son of God in a world that is constantly competing for that loyalty? And that is just as relevant today as it was back then.
Westfall, C. L. (2016). Roman Religions and the Imperial Cult. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.