Revelation 2:1

Revelation 2:1-7, to Ephesus.

Revelation 2:1. The political and commercial primacy of Ephesus, conjoined with its prestige as a centre for the Imperial cultus which flourished beside the local cult of Diana, lent it œcumenical importance in the Eastern Empire. Christianity had for about half a century already made it a sphere and centre, and its position was enormously enhanced after the crisis of 70 A.D. in Palestine, when Asia Minor became one of the foci of the new faith (cf. von Dobschutz, pp. 100 f.). The description of the speaker is carried on from Revelation 1:12; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 1:20, with κρατῶν for ἔχων (the church is neither to be plucked nor to be dropped from his hand) and the addition of περιπατῶν to ἐν μέσῳ (activity and universal watchfulness, cf. Abbott, pp. 196 f.), touches which make the sketch more definite, but which are too slight to be pressed into any significance, unless one supposes a subtle general contrast between the ideal of the churches “a star shining by its own inherent light” and their actual condition upon earth which, like the lamp, requires constant replenishing and care, if its light is not to flicker or fade.