Verse 13
2. Commendation 2:13
The Pergamum Christians had held firmly to their commitment to Jesus Christ and their witness for Him even though they lived in one of Satan’s strongholds.
"Antipas is said to have been a dentist and a physician, but the Aesculapiades suspected that he was propagating Christianity secretly and they accused him of disloyalty to Caesar. He was condemned to death and was shut up in a brazen (or copper) bull, which was then heated until it was red-hot." [Note: Frederick A. Tatford, The Patmos Letters, p. 75.]
Satan’s throne may be an allusion to one or more of the pagan temples in the city, most likely the Aesculapium. [Note: For information about the temples in John’s seven cities of Asia, see R. Larry Overstreet, "The Temple of God in the Book of Revelation," Bibliotheca Sacra 166:664 (October-December 2009):446-53.] The Aesculapium was a complex of buildings devoted to the god of healing. This made Pergamum "the Lourdes of the Province of Asia." [Note: Charles, 1:60.] Some have thought that this throne was the altar of Zeus, which was very prominent in the town. [Note: E.g., Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 281, footnote 3.] Another possibility is that Satan’s throne refers to emperor worship that was stronger in Pergamum than elsewhere. [Note: Beale, p. 246.]
"The city was a leader in this form of worship, which was relatively new to the province of Asia . . ." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 1-7, p. 184. Cf. Mounce, p. 96; and Ladd, p. 46.]
". . . it appears that the ’throne of Satan’ should be identified not with a specific architectural feature of Roman Pergamon (in part because so little is actually known about first-century Pergamon) but rather with the Roman opposition to early Christianity, which the author of Revelation 2-3 perceived as particularly malevolent in that city." [Note: Aune, pp. 183-84.]
Swete referred it to the rampant paganism of Pergamum that included emperor worship. [Note: Swete, pp. 34-35.]
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