Revelation 2:3 - Exposition

The text followed in the Authorized Version is here very corrupt; we must read with the Revised Version, And thou hast patience (as in Revelation 2:2 ), and didst bear for my Name's sake, and hast not grown weary . The last verb ( κεκοπίακες ) is closely akin to toil ( κόπος ) in Revelation 2:2 . The seeming contradiction between "I know thy toil" and "thou hast not toiled" has caused confusion in the text. Yet οὐ κεκοπίακες does not mean "thou hast not toiled," but "thou hast not wearied of toil." It is all the more probable that this play of words is intentional, because "bear" ( βαστάζειν ) is used in two different senses in Revelation 2:2 and Revelation 2:3 : "canst not tolerate evil men," and "didst endure suffering" (comp. John 16:12 ). "So is patience set over the things of God that one can obey no precept, fulfil no work well pleasing to the Lord, if estranged from it. The good of it even they who live outside it honour with the name of highest virtue … Grand testimony this is to it, in that it incites even the vain schools of the world unto praise and glory! Or is it rather an injury,' 'in that a thing Divine is bandied about among worldly sciences (Tertullian, 'De Pat.,' 1.).