Matthijs Den Dulk, «The Promises to the Conquerors in the Book of Revelation», Vol. 87 (2006) 516-522
This article suggests that the promises to the “conquerors” at the close of each
letter to the Asian churches in chapters 2 and 3 of the Apocalypse are based on
subsequent events in salvation-history. The first promise (to the conquerors in
Ephesus) refers to the creation story, the last promise (to the Laodicean
conquerors) refers to the ministry and exaltation of Jesus. The promises to the
other churches fit within this salvation-historical line from creation to the ministry
of the Messiah, which is taken up again at the end of the book in the
eschatological and climactic promise of Rev 21,7.
520 Matthijs den Dulk
my Father and before his angels†(3,5). This promise, given to the believers
at Sardis, starts with a general feature: the conquerors will be clothed in white.
There are almost limitless possibilities if one looks for people clothed in white
in antiquity (21).
A more useful starting point is therefore the promise not to blot out the
names of the believers from the book of life. This points back to Exod 32,32-
33 (22), where Moses, after descending from mount Sinai, sees the idolatry of
the people with the golden calf and says to God: “But now, if you will only
forgive their sin - but if not, blot me out of the book that you have writtenâ€.
To which YHWH responds: “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of
my bookâ€. This reference is especially appropriate here, since Sardis is by far
the church in the worst shape; nowhere is Jesus’ message harsher. Still, the
conquerors are given the chance to escape the fate of being blotted out of the
book of life.
We have seen in the earlier messages that if more than one element is
promised, they are somehow connected to each another. How the white
clothes and the angels are related here to Exod 32,32-33 we can only surmise.
Possibly the reference to angels was prompted by the following verse (Exod
32,34), where Moses, by way of vindication, is told: “my angel shall go in
front of youâ€. The white robes or garments might refer to the washed clothes
that the people had to wear at God’s appearance at Sinai (Exod 19,10.14) (23).
John could well have understood the people to be wearing these white clothes
in their idolatry of the golden calf, just as the believers at Sardis wore white
clothes before they compromised themselves (see Rev 3,4: “a few persons…
have not soiled their clothesâ€).
6. The Promise to Philadelphia and the Jerusalem Temple
The conquerors in Philadelphia are told: “I will make you a pillar in the
temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name
of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes
down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name†(Rev 3,12).
Whatever else this promise may be about, it is unquestionably concerned with
the temple and the temple city, Jerusalem. The pillars mentioned may or may
not refer to the named pillars (Boaz and Jachin) described in 1 Kgs 7,21 (24).
What is central to us here, as elsewhere, is the primary context that is referred
to, which is in this case indubitably that of the Jerusalem temple.
7. Summary
Our findings up till now may be conveniently summarized by the
following scheme:
(21) Cf. AUNE, Revelation 1–5, 223. See also J. LUZARRAGA, Las traditiones de la nube
en la biblia y en el judaismo primitivo (AnBib 54; Rome 1973) 196-197, 231.
(22) So also CHARLES, Revelation, I, 84.
(23) That white clothes are in fact washed clothes is probable in light of Rev 7,14:
“They have washed their robes and made them white†(Cf. 22,14).
(24) Cf. A.M. FARRER, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (Clarendon 1964) 81, and
the literature cited in G. STEVENSON, Power and Place. Temple and Identity in the Book of
Revelation (BZNW 107; Berlin 2001) 245.