SMYRNA: UNDER TRIAL

Revelation 2:8—11 (contd)

THE church of Smyrna was in trouble, and a further period of trial was imminent.
There are three things that the letter says about this trial.
(1) It is thlipsis, affliction. Thlipsis originally meant crushing beneath a weight. The pressure of events is on the church at Smyrna.
(2) It is ptōcheia, poverty. In the New Testament, poverty and Christianity are closely connected. ‘Blessed are you who are poor,’ said Jesus (Luke 6:20). Paul described the Christians at Corinth as being poor yet making many rich (2 Corinthians 6:10). James speaks of God choosing the poor in this world to be rich in faith (James 2:5).
In Greek, there are two words for poverty. Penia describes the state of those who are not wealthy and who, as the Greeks defined it, must satisfy their needs with their own hands. Ptōcheia describes complete destitution. It has been put this way: penia describes the state of someone who has nothing superfluous; ptōcheia describes the state of someone who has nothing at all.
The poverty of the Christians was due to two things. It was due to the fact that most of them belonged to the lower classes of society. The gulf between the top and the bottom of the social scale was very wide. We know, for instance, that in Rome the poorer classes literally starved because contrary winds delayed the corn ships from Alexandria, and the entitlement of corn could not be distributed to those in need.
There was another reason for the poverty of the Christians. Sometimes they suffered from the plundering of their possessions (Hebrews 10:34). There were times when a mob would suddenly attack the Christians and wreck their homes. Life was not easy for a Christian in Smyrna or anywhere else in the ancient world.
(3) There is imprisonment. John forecasts an imprisonment of ten days. That is not to be taken literally. Ten days was an expression for a short time which was soon to come to an end. So this prophecy is at the same time both a warning and a promise. Imprisonment is coming; but the time of trouble, although sharp, will be short. Two things are to be noted.
First, this is exactly the way in which persecution came. To be a Christian was against the law; but persecution was not continuous. The Christians might be left in peace for a long time; but at any moment a governor might develop a fit of administrative energy, or the mob might call out for a search to find the Christians–and then the storm broke. The terror of being a Christian was the uncertainty.
Second, imprisonment does not sound so bad to us. We might say: ‘Imprisonment? Well, that is not as bad as death anyway.’ But, in the ancient world, imprisonment was merely the prelude to death. People were only prisoners until they were led out to die.

Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., Vol. 1, pp. 87—88). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

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