Revelation 2
The full text of Revelation 2 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be liars.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first.
5 Remember, then, how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6 But you have this in your favor: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
8 To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.
9 I know your afflictions and your poverty — yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil will throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
11 Whoever has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
12 To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.
13 I know where you live — where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city — where Satan lives.
14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: there are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and committing sexual immorality.
15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 Repent, therefore! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 Whoever has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
18 To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
22 So I will throw her onto a sickbed, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.
23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned what some call the deep secrets of Satan: I will not impose any other burden on you,
25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations —
27 that one "will rule them with an iron scepter and dash them to pieces like pottery" —
28 just as I have received authority from my Father. And I will also give that one the morning star.
29 Whoever has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Translation notes (14)
- Revelation 2:4a The Greek agapēn (ἀγάπην) may refer to the community's love for God or to their love for one another. The verb aphēkes (ἀφῆκες) means 'you have abandoned' or 'you have left behind'.
- Revelation 2:6a Greek Nikolaitōn (Νικολαϊτῶν) names a group whose identity is otherwise unknown; the name appears in the New Testament only here and in Revelation 2:15. Irenaeus identified them as followers of Nicolaus of Antioch (Acts 6:5), but the claim cannot be verified. The parallel with the teaching of Balaam in Revelation 2:14-15 suggests accommodation to idol feasts and sexual immorality.
- Revelation 2:7a Greek paradeisos, 'garden/park' (παράδεισος) is the Septuagint term for Eden and occurs as paradeisos tou theou in Ezekiel 28:13. In first-century usage it could denote the heavenly garden (see Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4), so the phrase evokes Eden restored in God's presence.
- Revelation 2:9a Greek synagoge tou Satana (συναγωγὴ τοῦ Σατανᾶ), 'synagogue of Satan', reflects a first-century dispute in Smyrna between the church and members of the local Jewish community who denounced Christians, likely to Roman authorities. The word blasphemian may mean either 'slander' or 'blasphemy'; the phrase concerns this specific conflict, not a judgment on the Jewish people.
- Revelation 2:10a The Greek phrase hemeron deka, 'ten days', is likely a symbolic figure for a limited, divinely bounded period of trial, echoing the ten-day test of Daniel and his companions (Daniel 1:12-14), though some interpreters take it as a literal short imprisonment. The stephanos, 'crown', is the victor's wreath awarded in athletic contests, not a royal diadem.
- Revelation 2:13a The phrase ho thronos tou Satana, 'the throne of Satan', most likely alludes to Pergamum's prominence in the Roman imperial cult; the city erected Asia's first provincial temple to Augustus and Roma in 29 BC. Other proposals include the great altar of Zeus and the shrine of Asclepius. The Greek martys, 'witness', applied to Antipas, was already moving toward its later sense of one killed for the faith.
- Revelation 2:14a Didachen Balaam, 'the teaching of Balaam,' evokes Numbers 25:1–3 and 31:16, where Balaam counseled Balak to corrupt Israel. The Greek balein skandalon, 'to put a stumbling block,' underlies 'entice the Israelites to sin' and is followed by the infinitives eidolothyta phagein, 'to eat food sacrificed to idols,' and porneusai, 'to commit sexual immorality.'
- Revelation 2:15a The reading 'likewise' translates homoios. Some manuscripts read hoí, 'which', referring to the teaching of Balaam.
- Revelation 2:17a The Greek psephon leuken (ψῆφον λευκήν), 'white stone', evokes several ancient customs: jurors cast a white pebble to vote for acquittal, and inscribed stones served as tokens of admission to feasts or as awards to victorious athletes. Any of these would suit a promise of vindication, welcome, or victory, and the precise background remains debated.
- Revelation 2:20a Some manuscripts read 'your wife Jezebel.' Jezebel is a symbolic name, recalling Ahab's queen in 1-2 Kings.
- Revelation 2:22a Greek kline, 'bed' (κλίνη), is taken as a sickbed here, an ironic counterpoint to her bed of adultery; 'suffer intensely' renders thlipsin megalen (θλῖψιν μεγάλην), literally 'great affliction'.
- Revelation 2:23a Greek nephrous kai kardias, literally 'kidneys and hearts', is rendered idiomatically as 'hearts and minds'; in Hebrew idiom the kidneys were the seat of the inmost emotions. The phrase echoes Jeremiah 17:10, where the LORD searches the heart and tests the kidneys and repays each according to his ways, a divine prerogative here claimed by the risen Christ.
- Revelation 2:27a The quotation follows Psalm 2:9 in the Septuagint, whose verb poimanei, 'he will shepherd', reads the Hebrew consonants as ra'ah, 'to shepherd', where the Masoretic Text vocalizes the form from ra'a', 'to break'. Both senses stand in the image: the shepherd's iron rod governs the nations and shatters them like clay vessels.
- Revelation 2:28a Greek aster proinos, 'morning star' (ἀστήρ πρωϊνός), commonly denotes Venus. Revelation 22:16 applies this title to Jesus ('the bright morning star'), so the promise likely signifies participation in Christ's own glory and royal authority.
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