Revelation 3:7

VI. PHILADELPHIA The faithful and blameless Church, Revelation 3:7-13.

7. Philadelphia On his apostolic journey our St. John, Starting from Sardis, would travel a narrow strip between the Cogamus river, a branch of the Hermus on his left, and the range of Tmolus mountains on the right thirty miles in length. He would find the city ensconced like a nest in a narrow nook between river and mountain. See map.

Though one of the smallest and most modern of the seven, Philadelphia has a vividly interesting history. Its name, signifying brotherly-love, was a memento of the fraternal affection which existed between its founder, Attalus II., King of Pergamos, and his brother. It was daringly built in the katakekaumene, or burnt district, and so liable to perpetual earthquakes. It was nevertheless persistently inhabited, on account, probably, of the profitableness of its grapes and wines, which its soil richly produced. The American missionary Brewer, (from whose volume several of our cuts are derived,) in our time found it, however, fertile in wheat, opium, madder, and cotton. When the Persian Xerxes marched with his army of millions into Western Asia, for the conquest of Greece, he came to Philadelphia on his route. As the city stood at the head of the two valleys of the Hermus and the Meander, he could take either route. He here found a “plane tree” of such beauty, that he presented it with golden ornaments, and passed on by the northern route, which led to Sardis. The plane tree is still a flourishing product of this soil, and Svoboda tells us that the natives still make the sort of confection of honey, tamarisk, and wheat, which charmed the palate of Xerxes. In the reign of Tiberius all of Asia Minor suffered from tremendous earthquakes, and Tacitus tells us that Philadelphia was very nearly destroyed. When, in 1390, the Ottoman conqueror Bajazet, surnamed the Thunderer, overran Western Asia, this people, who lived over the slumbering earthquake, bravely met the assaults of the Thunderer. They were the last to capitulate to his arms. The present population of Philadelphia is fifteen thousand, one third Greeks. How, in modern times, these Greeks celebrate Christ and the resurrection, Brewer thus informs us: “It being Easter Sunday with the Greeks, we were aroused soon after midnight to witness, in the principal church, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Here, as in other places, persons pass about the town at the appointed hour of night, and knock loudly at the door of every Christian dwelling. The usual round of ceremonies was gone through with, such as chanting of prayers, reading portions of Scripture, burning incense, lighting tapers and candles some of the size of small trees and moving in procession about the church and churchyard until the day dawned. Then the assembly broke up exclaiming, “Christ has risen! Christ has risen!” Afterward, during the day and the practice is continued more or less for forty days friends and strangers, in place of the customary forms of salutation, use the set Bible phrases, “Christ has risen!” “He has risen indeed!”

He that is holy Not the usual New Testament word for holy, ‘ αγιος , but οσιος ; and so not so much implying the sanctified life as the original absolute rightness of the divine Being.

He that is true True in himself, that is, genuine, and true in all his declarations, that is, veracious. As the revealer of God, the source of all revelation, he is both genuine and true.

Hath the key of David As David was the king having both the sceptre and the key of old Jerusalem so this Son of David has the sceptre and the key of the New Jerusalem. And as David’s son he is heir of the theocracy; of the kingdom of God expanding from the old theocracy into a heavenly theocracy, and stretching into eternity.

Openeth, and no man shutteth A quotation and exaltation of Isaiah 22:22, “The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” And so this King of the New Jerusalem alone has original control of the keys of the New Jerusalem, to admit or exclude according to his divine will. And so much more has he the key of this earthly kingdom of grace; and all true exercise of the power of the keys by human beings is but an acting as his agents.