“I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 8–11. To the Angel of the church of Smyrna. To S. Polycarp, or some bishop there before him. No reprehension is given to this bishop, or to his church, but a commendation for suffering in poverty and tribulation, when they were rich in grace. Witham.—Poverty. He was poor in temporal things, but rich in grace and merits.—Thou art blasphemed by those false teachers, who call themselves Jews and Israelites, and the chosen people of God, waiting for the coming of the Messias, but are not to be looked upon as such; having refused to own their true Messias, Jesus Christ, they are the Synagogue of Satan, the greatest enemies of the true faith.—You shall have tribulation ten days, which several here understand for a long time, others for a short time, ten times being used in both senses. Witham.—The first death is that of the body, the second of the soul. Ven. Bede.