Pergamos

Pergamos (Pergamum) is a city of Mysia in the Roman province of Asia and one of the seven churches addressed in the Revelation letters. It is named on the opening list and then receives its own letter from the one who carries the sharp two-edged sword.

On the list of seven

The Patmos vision charges the seer to send the book to seven named congregations, with Pergamum third in the order: "saying, What you see, write in a book and send [it] to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea" (Re 1:11).

The letter to Pergamum

The dictated letter opens with a self-identification matched to the city: "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Re 2:12). The address to the congregation moves through commendation, indictment, summons, and promise.

Where Satan's throne is

The commendation places Pergamum in a hostile setting and credits the church for holding under it: "I know where you dwell, [even] where the throne of Satan is; and you hold fast my name, and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas my witness, the faithful one, who was killed among you⁺, where Satan dwells" (Re 2:13). The language of the place is doubled — "the throne of Satan" and "where Satan dwells" — and a martyrdom is named: Antipas, the faithful witness, killed there.

The teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans

The indictment turns on tolerated false teaching inside the congregation: "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to go whoring. So you have also some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner" (Re 2:14-15). Two errors are named together — a Balaam-pattern of compromise around idol-food and sexual immorality, and the Nicolaitans' teaching held "in like manner."

Summons and promise

The summons is sharp and tied to the opening self-identification: "Repent therefore; or else I come to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Re 2:16). The closing formula opens out into a private promise: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it" (Re 2:17). Hidden manna, a white stone, a new name — the reward is given personally to the overcomer.