Smyrna #92

Smyrna was a prosperous port city on the Aegean coast of what is now Turkey, about forty miles north of Ephesus. It is one of the seven churches of Asia to which the risen Christ addresses a message in Revelation 2:8-11, and it is one of only two of the seven, with Philadelphia, that receives no rebuke.

Biblical Significance

Christ introduces himself to Smyrna as “the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive” (Revelation 2:8), a description well suited to a church facing suffering and death. He tells the believers that he knows their tribulation and their poverty, yet says, “thou art rich” (Revelation 2:9). He also knows of the slander directed at them by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan (Revelation 2:9). The passage reflects a real conflict in the city between the church and some in the Jewish community, and Christians have differed on how to understand the language, which must be read in its first-century setting and not as a statement about Jewish people as a whole.

The message contains a warning and a promise. Christ says the devil is about to throw some of them into prison to test them, and that they will suffer for ten days, a period commonly understood as short and limited. He says, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death (Revelation 2:11). There is no word of correction in the letter, which makes it one of the most encouraging in the book.

Christian tradition connects Smyrna with Polycarp, its bishop in the second century, who was a disciple of the apostle John according to Irenaeus. The early account of his martyrdom, dated by most scholars to about the mid-150s AD, describes his refusal to deny Christ when pressed to do so, and says that he had served Christ for eighty-six years. His story became a symbol of the faithfulness that the letter to Smyrna commends.

Today

Ancient Smyrna lies beneath the modern city of Izmir, one of the largest cities in Turkey. Its name is related to the Greek word for myrrh, a resin used in perfume and burial, which some readers see as fitting for a church facing death. Because the city has been continuously inhabited, most of ancient Smyrna is covered by modern buildings. The excavated Roman agora, with its colonnades and vaulted substructures, can be visited. Izmir also has churches that mark the city’s long Christian history.