Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 2:8

"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These things saith the first and the last, who was dead, and lived [again]:" — Revelation 2:8 (ASV)

Smyrna, the modern Izmir, now has a population of about 150,000. Its mercantile prosperity may be measured by its trade. In 1852 the export trade amounted to £1,766,653—about half of this being with England. The imports in the same year were £1,357,339.

It has always been considered one of the most beautiful cities in Asia. It was situated in the ancient province of Ionia, a little north of Ephesus—next to it, as Archbishop Trench says, in natural order, and also in spiritual. Its position was favorable for commerce. In ancient times, as now, it commanded the trade of the Levant, besides being the natural outlet for the produce of the Hermus valley. The neighborhood was peculiarly fertile; the vines are said to have been so productive as to have yielded two crops.

There are indications that intemperance was widespread among the inhabitants. Servility and flattery may be added, for the people of Smyrna seem to have been shrewdly fickle, and to have been keen in preserving the patronage of the ruling powers. In one of their temples the inscription declared Nero to be “the Saviour of the whole human race.”

The city was particularly famed for its worship of Dionysos. Games and mysteries were held yearly in his honor. Its public buildings were handsome, and its streets regular. One of its edifices used as a museum proclaimed, in its consecration to Homer, that Smyrna contested with six or seven other cities the honor of being the birthplace of the poet.

The angel of the church in Smyrna.—We cannot determine with certainty who was the person here addressed. Many who accept the Domitian date of the Apocalypse argue that Polycarp was at this time the bishop or presiding minister at Smyrna. Even assuming this is the true date, it seems exceedingly doubtful that this was the case.

It can only be true assuming that the episcopate of Polycarp extended over sixty years. Polycarp was martyred A.D. 156. We know from Ignatius, who addresses him in A.D. 108 as Bishop of Smyrna, that his ministry lasted nearly fifty years. It seems too much to assume that his episcopate commenced eight or ten years before

Of course, if we adopt the earlier date of the Apocalypse, the Epistle must have been written before Polycarp’s conversion—probably before his birth. But though we are therefore compelled to reject the identification which we would willingly adopt, it is well to remember that Polycarp is the living example of the language of the epistle, and that, as Professor Plumptre has said, “In his long conflict for the faith, his steadfast endurance, his estimate of the fire that can never be quenched, we find a character on which the promise to him that overcometh had been indelibly stamped.”

The first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.—Or better, who became dead, and lived again. From Revelation 1:17-18, we have selected the title best suited to console a church whose trial was persecution. In all changing circumstances, the unchanging One (Hebrews 7:3; Hebrews 13:8), who had truly tasted death and conquered it, even when seeming to fail, was their Savior and King. Some have seen in these words, “dead and lived again,” an allusion to the story of the death and return to life of Dionysos—a legend, of course, familiar to Smyrna.