Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Revelation 3:7

Philadelphia. Seventy - five miles southeast of Sardis. The second city in Lydia. The adjacent region was celebrated as a wine - growing district, and its coins bore the head of Bacchus and the figure of a Bacchante. The population included Jews, Jewish Christians, and converts from heathenism. It suffered from frequent earthquakes. Of all the seven churches it had the longest duration of prosperity as a Christian city. It still exists as a Turkish town under the name of Allah Shehr, City of God. The situation is picturesque, the town being built on four or five hills, and well supplied with trees, and the climate is healthful. One of the mosques is believed by the native Christians to have been the gathering - place of the church addressed in Revelation. "One solitary pillar of high antiquity has been often noticed as reminding beholders of the words in chapter Revelation 3:12 : 'Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. '" He that is holy [ο α γ ι ο ς]. See on Acts 26:10. Christ is called holy, Acts 2:27; Acts 13:35; Hebrews 7:26; in all which passages the word, however, is osiov, which is holy by sanction, applied to one who diligently observes all the sanctities of religion. It is appropriate to Christ, therefore, as being the one in whom these eternal sanctities are grounded and reside. Agiov, the word used here, refers rather to separation from evil.

He that is true [ο α λ η θ ι ν ο ς]. See on John 1:9. Alhqinov is not merely, genuine as contrasted with the absolutely false, but as contrasted with that which is only subordinately or typically true. It expresses the perfect realization of an idea as contrasted with its partial realization. Thus, Moses gave bread, but the Father giveth the true bread [τ ο ν α ρ τ ο ν τ ο ν α λ η θ ι ν ο ν]. Israel was a vine of God's planting (Psalms 80:8), Christ is the true [η α λ η θ ι ν η] vine (John 14:1). The word is so characteristic of John that, while found only once in the Synoptic Gospels, once in a Pauline Epistle, and four times in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it occurs nine times in the fourth Gospel, four times in John's First Epistle, and ten times in Revelation, and in every instance in these three latter books in its own distinctive signification.

The key of David. See on chapter Revelation 1:18, and compare Isaiah 22:22. David is the type of Christ, the supreme ruler of the kingdom of heaven. See Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24. The house of David is the typical designation of the kingdom of Jesus Christ (Psalms 122:5). The holding of the keys, the symbols of power, thus belongs to Christ as Lord of the kingdom and Church of God. See on Matthew 16:19 : He admits and excludes at His pleasure.

No man shutteth [ο υ δ ε ι ς κ λ ε ι ε ι]. Read kleisei shall shut So Rev.

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Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Revelation 3:7

Old Testament

New Testament