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Revelation 2-3 Essay

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Are there any clues within the text of Revelation 2-3 that reference the history or economy of the cities addressed? To be more specific, what does the letter to the Church in Smyrna reveal to us regarding the city? Can we discern from three lines anything about Smyrna? For the purpose of this paper, I will argue that yes, there is a wealth of information that we may discover in this short letter. I will flesh out my argument using exegetical, historical and theolgical traces. First of all, Smyrna was located near the modern-day town of Izmir in Turkey. Smyrna sat 35 miles north of Ephesus, built near the ruins of an ancient Greek colony destroyed in the 7th century BC. The Letters to the seven churches…. As Matera states, “the messages function as imperial edicts to warn and assure the churches.” Each letter is structured the same in to four parts with the second part addressing the churches more specifically on whether they are walking the straight and narrow. Christ has not criticism for the church in Smyrna, but instead, offers words of …show more content…

Ten days seems awfully specific. Hemer has an excellent explanation for a verse that is heavily debated by scholars, that this context is gladiatorial. This indeed makes sense, that the Christians would be sent to an arena to fight to death and those that died, would be awarded a crown, post-humus. Furthermore, if one then places Polycarp’s persecution into consideration with this idea, it seems difficult to deny. Polycarp, a bishop of the Smyrna Church, was taken to an arena, threatened with wild animals and fire in an attempt to make him deny Christ and ultimately, was crowned with immortality. We can then infer, that Christians were often taken to an arena, and forced gladiator style to fight for their lives or rebuke

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