Revelation 2:17

‘He who has an ear to hear, let him hear, what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows but the one who receives it.'

The hidden manna refers to the manna that was hidden in a pot which was laid up before the Ark of Testimony (Exodus 16:33), the manna that according to Jewish belief was hidden in Heaven and would be revealed at the end time and given to those who were faithful to God. We find the Ark of the Covenant, containing the hidden manna, later in Heaven (Revelation 11:19).

It is thus a promise of benefiting from eternal life, paralleling the Tree of Life and avoidance of the Second Death. And as Jesus makes clear elsewhere, this hidden manna is Himself, for He is the bread of life (John 6:35) and as such He will guarantee their resurrection at the last day (John 6:32; John 6:35; John 6:39). The eating of the hidden manna contrasts with the eating of idolatrous food. Those who reject the latter will enjoy the former.

‘And I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written which no one knows but he who receives it.' Stones with names written on them are described in Exodus 28:9; Exodus 28:21. They are alternately stones of onyx, and stones of all colours, bearing the names of the twelve patriarchs, and thus of the tribes who were associated with them. The tribes thus received their blessing by their connection with the patriarchs to whom the promises were made. They formed part of the High Priest's breastplate (Exodus 28:15) and were also on his shoulders (Exodus 28:12). In one case there was one stone for six tribes, in the other one stone per tribe.

But here there is a new stone, and this one is pure white signifying the true righteousness of those who bear the new name, it is the stone of the righteous. And there is one for each person. The stone testifies to God on their behalf and they receive their blessing by their connection with Christ, whose secret name is on the stone. They are individually represented before the Lord, for each is precious in His sight.

And as a kingdom of priests they are able to represent themselves as Christ's before the Lord, wearing their white stones as tokens of Whose they are. However, the names on the older stones were borne on the High Priest's shoulders and breastplate before the Lord, and it is possible we are to see here that our great High Priest (Revelation 1:13) will figuratively bear on His shoulders and breastplate a stone for every believer, inscribed with His own new name.

For mention elsewhere of this new name we turn to God's declaration in Isaiah 62:2. ‘The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will name'. So this giving of a new name to the people of God was long promised. This name is a new name of Jesus, and is connected with the name of God and of the new Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12; Revelation 19:12).

When God determined to deliver His people in the days of Moses He revealed His new name to Moses (Exodus 6:3 with Exodus 3:14). It is true that the name Yahweh was already known to them, but now He was revealing Himself as the ‘I am', the ‘One Who is there to act' on behalf of His people, giving the old name a new significance, ready for the new deliverance by which His essence would be revealed. In the same way Christ will receive a new name, which will presumably be a variation of the old, but will reveal His essence and will be for the final deliverance of His people. The name is therefore undoubtedly connected with the name which is above every name which He has already received, the name Yahweh (in Hebrew) and ‘Lord' (in Greek) (Philippians 2:9), which is the name in which all Christians are baptised (Matthew 28:19), a name which did reveal His essence.

But Christ's new name, His own eternal name, will even more fully reveal His essence, and it is the significance of this which is to be finally revealed to His own, for ‘He has a name written which no one knows but He Himself' (Revelation 19:12). It may be that this name is KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:16). God says in Isaiah 52:6 ‘therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that I am He who speaks, here I am'. Here ‘knowing the name' means more than just intellectual knowledge, it means knowing the name fully in experience, and we notice that the name is connected with the ‘I am'. In the same way only those who are granted to know Christ fully in experience will ‘know the name'. ‘Now I know in part, but then I will know even as I am known' (1 Corinthians 13:12). Until that day only Christ Himself truly knows the name.

So the reception and ‘knowing' of the new name on the white stone will signify that they belong to Christ and have come truly to know Him in all the fullness of His being, something that can only happen in eternity. Having received His righteousness, and having been made righteous in Him, and being destined to enjoy in the future the full experience of the wonders of God's gracious benefits in Christ in the last day, they are worthy recipients of the white stone of righteousness which has His name written on it. This is in contrast with those who later in Revelation (Revelation 13:17) bear the name of the Beast, the mark of Rome.

The knowledge of a name was considered by the ancients to confer mysterious spiritual powers, but we do not need to bring this idea in here. The true knowledge of the name of Christ does indeed confer spiritual power. However, it is not through magical means, but through the grace of the One Who bears the name.

The fact that they will eat of the hidden manna in the heavenly Temple, and bear the white stone carrying the new name of Christ, sets them apart from those who worship in the Temple of Satan, bear the mark of the beast, and eat the defiled sacrificial foods.