Revelation 3:14

{11} And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the {h} Amen, the faithful and true witness, the {i} beginning of the creation of God; (11) The seventh passage is to the pastors of the Church of Laodicea. The introduction is taken out of Re 1:5. (h) Amen sounds as much in the Hebrew tongue, as truly, or truth itself. (i) Of who all things that are made, have their beginning.

Of the Laodiceans (Ααοδικέων) Read ἐν Ααοδικείᾳ in Laodicea. Laodicea means justice of the people. As Laodice was a common name among the ladies of the royal house of the Seleucidae, the name was given to several cities in Syria and Asia Minor. The one here addressed was on the confines of Phrygia and Lydia, about forty miles east of Ephesus, and was known as Laodicea on the Lycus. It had born successively the names of Diospolis and Rhoas, and was named Laodicea when refounded by Antiochus Theos, b.c. 261-246. It was situated on a group of hills between two tributaries of the Lycus - the Asopus and the Caprus. Towards the end of the Roman Republic, and under the first emperors, it became one of the most important and flourishing cities of Asia Minor. One of its citizens, Hiero, bequeathed all his enormous property to the people, and adorned the city with costly gifts. It was the seat of large money transactions and of an extensive trade in wood. The citizens developed a taste for Greek art, and were distinguished in science and literature. Laodicea was the seat of a great medical school. During the Roman period it was the chief city of a Roman conventus or political district, in which courts were held by the proconsul of the province, and where the taxes from the subordinate towns were collected. Cicero held his court there, and many of his letters were written thence.

The conventus represented by Laodicea comprised not less than twenty-five towns, and inscriptions refer to the city as "the metropolis." The Greek word διοίκηδις, corresponding to the Latin conventus was subsequently applied to an ecclesiastical district, and appears in diocese. The tutelary deity of the city was Zeus (Jupiter). Hence its earlier name, Diospolis, or City of Zeus. Many of its inhabitants were Jews. It was subject to frequent earthquakes, which eventually resulted in its abandonment. It is now a deserted place, but its ruins indicate by their magnitude its former importance. Among these are a racecourse, and three theatres, one of which is four hundred and fifty feet in diameter. An important church council was held there in the fourth century. The Amen Used only here as a proper name. See Isaiah 65:16, where the correct rendering is the God of the Amen, instead of A.V. God of truth. The term applied to the Lord signifies that He Himself is the fulfilment of all that God has spoken to the churches. Faithful (πιστός) The word occurs in the New Testament in two senses: trusty, faithful Matthew 24:45; Matthew 25:21, Matthew 25:23; Luke 12:42); and believing, confiding (John 20:27; Galatians 3:9; Acts 16:1). Of God, necessarily only in the former sense. True (ἀληθινὸς) See on Revelation 3:7. The veracity of Christ is thus asserted in the word faithful, true being not true as distinguished from false, but true to the normal idea of a witness.

Revelation 3:14-16 . And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write — Laodicea lay south of Philadelphia in the way to return to Ephesus: for the seven churches lay in a kind of circular form, so that the natural progress was from Ephesus to Smyrna, and so forward in the order in which the cities are here addressed, which probably was the order in which St. John used to visit them. “That there was a flourishing church at Laodicea, in the primitive times of Christianity, is evident, from St. Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, wherein frequent mention is made of the Laodiceans, as well as from this epistle by St. John. But the doom of Laodicea seemeth to have been more severe and terrible than that of almost any other of the seven churches. For it is now utterly destroyed and forsaken of men, and is become a habitation only for wolves, foxes, and jackals, a den of dragons, snakes, and vipers. And that because the Lord hath executed the judgment that he had pronounced upon her, that all the world might know and tremble at the fierce anger of God against impenitent, negligent, and careless sinners. The ruins show it to have been a very great city, situated on six or seven hills, and encompassing a large space of ground. Some notion may be formed of its former greatness and glory from three theatres and a circus which are remaining; one of which is truly admirable, as it was capable of containing about thirty thousand men, into whose area they descended by fifty steps.

This city is now called Eski Hisar, or the Old Castle; and though it was once the mother church of sixteen bishoprics, yet it now lies desolate, not so much as inhabited by shepherds; and, so far from showing any of the ornaments of God’s ancient worship, it cannot now boast of an anchorite’s or hermit’s chapel, where God is praised or invoked.” The testimony of Mr. Lindsay (quoted respecting the other churches) agrees perfectly with this of Bishop Newton. “Eski Hisar,” he says, “close to which are the remains of ancient Laodicea, contains about fifty poor inhabitants, in which number are but two Christians, who live together in a small mill: unhappily, neither could read at all: the copy, therefore, of the New Testament, which I intended for this church, I left with that of Denizli, the offspring and poor remains of Laodicea and Colosse. The prayers of the mosque are the only prayers which are heard near the ruins of Laodicea, on which the threat seems to have been fully executed in its utter rejection as a church.” These things saith the Amen — That is, The true One; the faithful and true Witness — He who attests those truths, which are of the utmost importance, on the most perfect knowledge of them, and with the most unerring exactness: the beginning — The Author, Head, and Ruler of the creation of God — Of all creatures, as αρχη της κτισεως evidently here signifies. The person by whom the Father created all things, Hebrews 1:2 ; Ephesians 3:9 ; John 1:3 .

We read of this church, Colossians 4:16 . Laodicea was a city in Lydia, by the river Lycus: see Revelation 1:11 . These things saith the Amen: Amen, as we have oft noted, is a particle used in asserting, and in wishing, or praying; here it hath the use of a noun, and is assertive, he that is true, as it followeth. He may be conceived thus to preface his epistle, to ascertain to the ministers of this church the truth of what he blames in them; or of the threatenings or promises contained in it; to which purpose he also calls himself the faithful and true witness: see the notes on Revelation 1:5 . The beginning of the creation of God: those that deny the Divinity of Christ, are deceived in their thoughts that this text will afford them any defence for their error; for arch, the word here used, doth not only signify the cause, but principality, or the chief, or prince, Ephesians 3:10 Colossians 1:16 . Hence Christ is said to be arch, which we translate the beginning, because he was the Creator, the efficient cause of the creation, or hath a lordship over the whole creation; all power both in heaven and earth being committed to him, and all knees both in heaven and earth bowing down to him, Philippians 2:10 . Unless we had rather interpret it of the new creation, either in the world, so he was the beginning of the gospel; or in particular souls, so he is the beginning of regeneration and sanctification.

But though this be a truth, and consistent enough with the Greek phrase, Galatians 6:15 , yet I see no reason why we should fly to it against the Arians, or their spurious offspring; for taking the creation, as ordinarily it signifies, the giving all creatures their first being, Christ was the efficient cause of it, and so the beginning of it, without him was nothing made; and he hath a lordship and dominion over it.

The Church in Laodicea. 14–22 14 . the Amen ] See the last note on Revelation 1:7 . Here the name is used, (i) because this is the last of the seven Epistles, that it may confirm the whole: (ii) as synonymous with the title “Faithful and True” that follows: for which see the latter group of references on Revelation 3:7 . Isaiah 65:16 is specially noticeable, where “the God of truth ” is in the Hebrew “the God of Amen”: in the other O. T. passages a different but cognate form is used. the faithful and true witness ] See Revelation 1:5 . the beginning of the creation of God ] Exactly equivalent to Colossians 1:15 , as explained by the words that follow: in both places the words are such as might grammatically be used of the first of creatures, but the context there, and the whole tone of the Book here, proves that the writer does not regard Him as a creature at all. But St John is not here, as in the first verses of his Gospel, describing our Lord’s Nature theologically: it might be enough to say that here and in Proverbs 8:22 (where the words “the Lord possessed” or “created Me” lend themselves more easily than these to an Arian sense), the Word coming forth to create is conceived as part of His earthly mission, which culminates in the Incarnation, so that in a sense even creation is done by Him as a Creature.

(14) Laodicea.— Situated half way between Philadelphia and Colossae, and not far from Hierapolis. It received its name from Laodice, wife of Antiochus the second king of Syria, by whom it was rebuilt and beautified. It had borne in earlier times the names of Diospolis and afterwards Rhoas. It shared with Thyatira and Sardis in the dye trade; the woods grown in the neighbourhood were famous for their quality and the rich blackness of their colour. Prosperity in trade had so enriched the population that when their city suffered in the great earthquake (A.D. 60) they were able to carry on the work of rebuilding without applying, as many of the neighbouring towns were compelled to do, to the Imperial Treasury for aid. The language of St. Paul ( Colossians 1:5-8 ) suggests that the churches of Colossae and the neighbourhood first received Christianity from the preaching of Epaphras, though it seems strange that so important a city, lying hard upon the great Roman road from Ephesus to the east, should have been passed over by St. Paul in his journeyings throughout Phrygia (see Acts 16:6 ; Acts 18:23 ); yet, on the other hand, Phrygia was a vague term, and the language of Colossians 2:1 is most generally understood to imply that the Apostle had never personally visited either Colossae or Laodicea. (See Note on Colossians 2:1 .) But it was a Church in which St. Paul took the deepest possible interest; the believers there were constantly in his mind.