Revelation 3:17

οὐδέν. With AC; Text. Rec[138] reads οὐδενὸς with אB2P 1.

[138] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

17. ὅτι λέγεις. The construction here ὄτι λέγεις … καὶ οὐκ οἶδας … συμβουλεύω σοι … is unusually elaborate for this book.

πλούσιός εἰμι καὶ πεπλούτηκα. Lit. “I am rich and have gotten riches.” It was thought remarkable, &c., Tac. Ann. xiv. 27, that Laodicea was rebuilt, A.D. 60, after an earthquake without help from Rome of any kind. If there be any distinction of sense between the two words, the second expresses pride in the riches being his own acquisition, in addition to self-complacency in the enjoyment.

For the sense, cf. Hosea 12:8, Καὶ εἶπεν Ἐφραίμ, Πλὴν πεπλούτηκα, εὔρηκα�, where apparently the self-complacency in material prosperity lends itself to and combines with religious self-satisfaction. Hence it is not necessary to interpret these words either of material wealth, or of fancied spiritual wealth, to the exclusion of the other. St James 2:1-6 shews that in the first century, as in the nineteenth, the “respectable” classes found it easiest to be religious, to their own satisfaction.

σὺ εἶ ὁ ταλαίπωρος καὶ ἐλεεινός. “The wretched and miserable one” above all others—at least above all the other six Churches.