“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.
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