Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 2:9

πτωχείαν. Means no more than poverty: πενία, the Greek word for ordinary poverty is unknown to the New Testament, and πένης only occurs once in a quotation from the LXX. (where πτωχεία is a synonym of θλίψις). Here the poverty is perhaps the effect of the persecution, Jewish converts being, as in Hebrews 10:34, deprived of their property when put out of the synagogue on their conversion: or perhaps rather the cause of the persecution being more intense here, the Christians being people of no dignity or influence, it was safe to attack them.

ἀλλὰ πλούσιος εἶ. Contrast 1 Timothy 6:17. Compare James 2:5.

βλασφημίαν. Probably rather in the sense of calumny, coarse slanders against them, than blasphemy against their Lord: though of course both may have been combined, as when Christians were ridiculed as worshippers of the Crucified.

ἐκ τῶν λεγόντων Ἰουδαίους εἶναι ἑαυτούς. ἐκ because the calumny is not only uttered by them, but originates from them, and is very likely received and repeated among the heathen. εἶναι belongs to the oldest text here (though not sup. Revelation 2:2), because Ἰουδαίους stands before ἑαυτούς, or perhaps because λεγόντων is in the genitive. No doubt the persons meant are real Jews by birth as well as by profession, but are denied to be worthy of the name. It is treated as still an honourable title, implying religious privileges; as by St Paul in Romans 2:17; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 3:1. Contrast the way that “the Jews” are spoken of in St John’s Gospel—always meaning the chief priests and scribes, the persistent enemies of the Gospel. Hence is drawn an argument, that this book could not be written after the Gospel by the same author: though if this book were written before the fall of Jerusalem, and the Gospel long after, the change in his point of view will be intelligible.

καὶ οὐκ εἰσίν. “And they are not”—the relative construction is not continued. For similarly broken constructions cf. Revelation 1:6 καὶ ἐποίησεν, and perhaps Revelation 1:18, sup. Revelation 2:3.

συναγωγὴ τοῦ Σατανᾶ. For an instance of the same severity from the same mouth, see John 8:44. While they claimed to be, as the old Jewish Church was, “the congregation of the Lord.” Synagogue is etymologically almost equivalent to congregation, and is, as St Augustin observes, a less noble word than that used for the Christian Church, Ecclesia, a summoned assembly: for while brutes may be “gathered together,” reason (and we may add, freedom) is implied in being summoned together. But the distinction between the two words is not always maintained: Israel is called “the Church” in Acts 7:38, and the assembly of Christian Jews is called a “synagogue” in St James 2:2, and almost in Hebrews 10:25.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 2:9

Old Testament

New Testament