Smyrna was one of the greatest cities of the region, and indeed disputed with Ephesus for the title ‘First (city) of Asia’. It enjoyed great natural advantages, including an excellent harbour at the head of a well-protected gulf. It was thus the natural outlet for the trade of the rich valley of the Hermus and regions beyond. Smyrna was destroyed c. 580 BC, but c. 290 BC Lysimachus rebuilt it to a comprehensive plan. It was thus one of the very few planned cities of antiquity. Many writers comment on its beauty. It was one of the first cities to worship the Roman emperor and it won the honour of erecting a temple to him in the reign of Tiberius. Indeed there was a temple to the goddess of Rome as early as 195 BC (Tacitus, Ann. iv.56; Barclay says this was the first in the world). Smyrna was a faithful ally of Rome in the days before Rome was acknowledged in the region, so its loyalty meant something.

The message is from the First and the Last (cf. 1:17). As in 1:18 this is linked with a reference to the resurrection, very appropriate in a city which had died and now lived once more. In 1:18 the tense denotes continuity (‘I am living’), whereas here the aorist tenses put the stress on the actual happenings: ‘he became dead, and sprang to life again.’

Christ’s knowledge of this church is concerned with the various kinds of trouble its members were undergoing. First is afflictions (actually thlipsis is singular), which means serious trouble, the burden that crushes. Kiddle says, ‘From this letter we can gain some idea of the unbounded fortitude of these early Christians. John assumes that the people of Smyrna (as typical of faithful Christians everywhere) share his own attitude to physical suffering: he speaks lightly of it, as one speaks of familiar things. Words so brief, spoken to men who might at any time go to their death, have in them a heroism which even now has power to stir the blood.’

Next comes poverty. John uses the strong word ptōcheia, which Trench distinguishes from penia: ‘The penēs has nothing superfluous, the ptochos nothing at all.’ The poverty of the Smyrneans was extreme. Yet Christ can say you are rich (contrast 3:17). There is a richness in spiritual things which has nothing to do with this world’s wealth. Many think that the Smyrneans’ poverty was in part due to pillage of their goods by the Jews. Christianity was not legally permitted, which made it easy for Jews or pagans to take action against believers. When Polycarp was martyred at Smyrna somewhat later, the hostility of the Jews toward the Christians came out in their zeal in setting forward the execution. Though it was the sabbath, they gathered wood for the fire in which the martyr was burnt. Such hostility may well go back to the time when John wrote.

He goes on to refer to the slander (blasphēmia) of those who say they are Jews and are not (cf. Rom. 2:25, 28–29). To be a Jew means more than to possess outward membership of the race. These men are a synagogue of Satan. Their assembly for worship did not gather together God’s people, but Satan’s, who is ‘the accuser of our brothers’ (12:10).

10 Do not be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and you will experience affliction ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

11 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.’

For He who has an ear …, see note on verse 7. The overcomer will not be harmed by the second death (explained in 20:6, 14; 21:8 in terms of the lake of fire; it seems to mean eternal punishment, the negation of eternal life). Not is an emphatic double negative. The overcomer will certainly not be harmed. The emphasis would be welcome to those who faced the prospect of martyrdom.