Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 2:24

Revelation 2:24. But unto you I say, the rest that are in Thyatira. The apostle turns from the church at large to that smaller section of it which had resisted the influences of the false teachers symbolized by Jezebel. They have not this teaching; that is, they have it not as their possession, they do not make it their own. Nor have they known the depths of Satan. The word ‘depths' was a favourite one at the time with those who pretended to a profounder knowledge of the truth, whether of God or Satan, than could be gained through the authorised teachers of the Christian Church, and who seem not unfrequently to have associated with their religious speculations lives of shameless and unrestrained licentiousness. The prevalent idea is, that these persons spoke only of ‘the depths' or of ‘the depths of God,' and that in bitter irony the Lord of the Church either adds here the words ‘of Satan,' or substitutes the name of Satan for the name of God. Such suppositions are perhaps unnecessary. We may have before us a trace of that Gnostic sect known as the Ophites, a name derived from the Greek word for a serpent, the emblem of Satan. That sect entertained a profound reverence for Satan, looking upon him as the benefactor, not the destroyer of man, while the ultimate result of their religious system was that they converted Satan into God and evil into good. The heresy was one of a most disastrous character; and yet in some of its forms it attained a widespread influence in the early Church, more especially in that district of Asia Minor which embraced the seven churches of the Apocalypse. No wonder that we find it alluded to as it is here!

I cast upon you none other burden. It is difficult to determine what precise ‘burden' is thus alluded to, whether the sufferings of one kind or another which the faithful remnant of the church was enduring, or the Christian obligations under which it lay to avoid the sins and errors encouraged by the Nicolaitans. This latter view has been thought to find confirmation in the decree of Acts 15:28-29, where language very similar to that now before us is employed. By such an interpretation, however, the Christian life itself would be represented as a ‘burden;' while, at the same time, the use of the word ‘cast' is unsuitable to the thought of Christian precepts. The circumstances of the case must determine the meaning. The church at Thyatira ‘suffered' Jezebel. The ‘burden' of that part of it which remained true to its Lord was that this was done. Jezebel ought to have been put away: the alliance with the world ought to have been broken. The struggle to effect this, one maintained not against the world, but against brethren in a common faith, was so great that the Lord of the Church would lay upon those engaged in it ‘no other burden' (comp. on chap. Revelation 2:1).

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 2:24

Old Testament

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