“And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;”
And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who died and came to life — Smyrna faces imminent persecution (verse 10), so Christ identifies himself by his own death-and-resurrection victory, the paradigm for their suffering. The title "first and the last" assures the church that Christ outlasts every human power arrayed against them.
Church Fathers on Revelation 2:8
“This you have also, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitanes.” But because you yourself hate those who hold the doctrines of the Nicolaitanes, you expect praise. Moreover, to hate the works of the Nicolaitanes, which He Himself also hated, this tends to praise. But the works of the Nicolaitanes were in that time false and troublesome men, who, as ministers under the name of Nicolaus, had made for themselves a heresy, to the effect that what had been offered to idols might…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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