John heard a voice behind him and
before he turned around the voice, which sounded powerful and loud like a
trumpet and identified Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending,
again, named the specific seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. They do
not still exist and the Roman province of Asia is now a predominantly Muslim
country named Turkey after the Turks who conquered the Eastern Roman Empire in
1453, whose capital was at Constantinople, which the Turks renamed Istanbul.
Each of these cities has an
intriguing background and the archaeology surrounding them is very interesting.
But, it is what God says about them in the Bible that matters the most to us
here, not the suppositions and theories of historians and archaeologists,
although I am not discounting them or rejecting what they say. One book I
recommend is Merrill F. Unger’s landmark work entitled Archaeology and the New Testament.
As they do not exist now, their
presence in the Bible must mean something else to us, if we believe that the
Holy Spirit gave the Bible to the writers of it by inspiration and that He was
an active agent throughout the history of its preservation. We assume that all
of the obscure names given in the Old Testament, for instance, have some type
of significance and importance to us even though we do not know yet what it is.
There are many theories about what
the seven churches mean. Some have said they are seven ages of church history.
Some that they are simply seven types of churches throughout history. John
turned then to see who was speaking to him and here we get an important point
about translating. The translators use the word candlesticks, something which
modernists despise. This does not mean that John is referring to candles of wax
although candles were used at that time and there is plenty of evidence that
candles were used from the middle of the millennium before Christ.
The word, lampstand, is not found in English lexicons and dictionaries before
1800, first showing up in the language in 1803 according to the Collins English
Dictionary at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lampstand
and if you find it earlier let me
know. As the British use the word torch for what we call a flashlight
hearkening back to earlier technology the King
James Bible translators used candlestick
for the apparatus on which a lamp was set.
Zechariah 4:2 And said unto me,
What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of
gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven
pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Referencing;
Exodus 25:31 ¶ And thou shalt
make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made:
his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of
the same. 32 And six branches shall come
out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side,
and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: 33 Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a
knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other
branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the
candlestick. 34 And in the candlestick
shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.
35 And there shall be a knop under two
branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop
under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out
of the candlestick. 36 Their knops and
their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure
gold. 37 And thou shalt make the seven
lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light
over against it. 38 And the tongs
thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. 39 Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it,
with all these vessels. 40 And look that
thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.
Think of other places where the
translators used words that the reader would understand rather than
transliterating a Greek word. Think of furlong
for the Greek stadion in Luke 24:13.
Think of penny in place of denarion in Matthew 20:2.
In verse 13 paps are nipples, so this garment is cinched at breast height.
Luke 11:27 And it came to pass,
as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice,
and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou
hast sucked.
(Oh my! Why isn’t He wearing a
suit and tie!?? I’m so offended. Just joking, fundamentalists.)
The appearance of Christ here, the
image, the likeness we see in this passage is different from what the disciples
saw when He was walking the earth. He is glorified and in the world of spirit.
His head and his hair are white like wool. His eyes glowed like fire. His feet
were like brass in a furnace and His voice sounded like many waters. What’s
that sound like? Imagine the waves of a storm pounding on the beach or
assaulting a ship at sea.
Psalm 93:4 The LORD on high is
mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.
We can picture in our head the
sound of a waterfall or the rapids on a great river but the Bible definition is
the mighty waves of the sea.
He is holding seven stars in His
right hand and a sharp two-edge sword is coming out of His mouth. The stars are
defined as the appearance or angels of the seven churches, and that would be
before God as they existed on earth at the time while the seven candlesticks
were the actual churches. Churches should be a light, shouldn’t they?
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