2:1. “…the angel of the church…”
The angel of the church “read not the law publicly; but, every sabbath, he called out seven of the synagogue (on other days, fewer) whom he judged fit to read. He stood by him that read, with great care observing that he read nothing either falsely or improperly; and calling him back and correcting him if he had failed in any thing.” [2:90]
“There is no need to mention that prayers were made publicly by the angel of the church for the whole congregation, and that the congregation answered amen to every prayer….” [2:95]
“Besides these {the bench of three, and the congregation of ten}, there was ”the public minister of the synagogue’ who prayed publicly, and took care about the reading of the law, and sometimes preached, if there were not some other to discharge this office. This person was called…the angel of the church, and…the Chazan or bishop of the congregation….’The Chazan (saith he) is…the angel of the church (or the public minister)…one that oversees….
“….The service and worship of the Temple being abolished,…God transplanted the worship and public adoration of God used in the synagogues, which was moral, into the Christian church; to wit, the public ministry, public prayers, reading God’s word, and preaching, &c. Hence the names of the ministers of the Gospel were the very same, the angel of the church, and the bishop; which belonged to the ministers in the synagogues.” [2:90-91]
2:1. “…the angel of the church of Ephesus….” (See Lightfoot, 1:119, regarding play on the sound of words. See commentary at 1:8 ‘oth.)
Not only did the talmudists play around with the letters, but also with similar sounds of words which otherwise had no similarity of meaning. There are Scriptural precedents for this practice, but it was much misused by the traditionalists. For example, in Amos 8:1, the words translated ‘summer fruit’ is from Hebrew qayits, and the word translated ‘the end’ is from the Hebrew word qets which has a very similar sound. The Talmudists prostituted this practice to their own ends by using similar sounding words to misinterpret the Scriptures for their own advantage.
The word ‘Ephesus‘ which was the name of a city in Asia Minor, has the sound of the Hebrew words for ‘mouth of a horse’. One may note on the maps of Asia Minor that Ephesus lies at the point of the entrance of the ‘horses mouth’ if one pictures the area of Asia Minor as the head of a horse, which it closely resembles.
2:4: Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
The fact of being created in the image of God was considered the greatest act of love.
Davies, [55]: “The nature of Adam’s creation is made the basis of the duty of love, equality and peace among men. To quote again M. Sanhedrin 4.5: ‘Again but a single man was created for the sake of peace among mankind that none should say to his fellow, My Father was greater than thy Father….’ Furthermore, R. Simeon B. Azzai ( AD 120-40) deduced the principle of love from Gen.5.1, which reads, ‘This is the book of the generations of Adam…'”
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself [Lev.19.18]. R. Akiba said: ‘That is the greatest principle in the Law.’ Ben Azzai said: ‘The sentence ‘this is the book of the generations of man’ [Gen.5.1] is even greater than the other.’ [Sifra 89 … cf. Gen.R. 24.7….] Gen.5.1 teaches that all men are the offspring of him who was made in the image of God.”
2:6,14, 15, 20. “…the Nicolaitans….”
Lightfoot relates stories from the Jewish traditions concerning how the heretics, (or magicians), bewitched certain Rabbis into breaking the Sabbath and adultery. “While I read these things, I cannot but call to mind the Nicolaitans, and such who indulged to themselves a liberty of all obscene filthiness….” [1:339]
Lightfoot discredits the opinion that the Nicolaitans derived their name from the Nicolas of Acts 6:5, but rather from the Hebrew word Necola, meaning ‘Let us eat together’, comparing them to those of Isaiah 22:13 who reveled in idolatrous eating of flesh and drinking of wine. [4:64] See also [4:204-5]
Regarding the ruling of the apostles that the Gentiles should be required to abstain from the pollution of idols, from fornication, from things strangled and from blood, Lightfoot says:
“… one might wonder at the heart and forehead of the Nicolaitans, who not only practised but taught diametrically contrary to this decree of the apostles, Rev.ii.14,20. Those Balaamites and Jezebelites, with what paint could they beautify that horrid and accursed doctrine and practice of theirs? was it the liberty of the gospel they pretended? or rather, did they not abuse that love and charity commanded in the gospel? namely, making a show of some more transcendent friendship amongst themselves, they would eat any thing with any man, and lie carnally with any woman. …” [4:129]
2-7. “…ears to hear….”
The Gloss upon a certain passage of the Talmud is: “…’The repeating of that passage, ‘Hear, O Israel, &c., is the taking of the kingdom of heaven upon thee. But the repeating of that place, ‘And it shall be, if thou shalt hearken,’ &c. [Deut.xix.13]…is the taking of the yoke of the precept upon thee.'” [2:51] In other words, hearing was basic to the religion.
On the passage in Matt. 10:27: “…What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops,” Lightfoot says: “…allusion is here made to the manner of the schools, where the doctor whispered, out of the chair, into the ear, of the interpreter, and he with a loud voice repeated to the whole school that which was spoken in the ear….The doctor whispered him in the ear in Hebrew.“ [2:187]
Revelation 2:7, (etc.), “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear,” means “If you can understand the language, then you will know what is being said.” This was not to mean Jesus spoke in a foreign language as far as mental comprehension was concerned, but rather, that He spoke spiritual truths to which they were blind and deaf John 8:43: Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. [2:187]
“…’God’s measure is not like the measure of flesh and blood. The measure of flesh and blood is this: An empty vessel is receptive, but a full one can take in no more But God’s measure is this, The full vessel is receptive of more, but the empty vessel receives nothing; according as it is said, … If hearing thou wilt hear; that is, If thou hearest thou shalt hear; if thou does not hear, thou shalt not hear. The Gloss is, ‘If thou accustom thyself to hear, then thou shalt hear, and learn and add.’ That is not much unlike Beracoth, fol. 55.1: ‘God doth not give wisdom but to him with whom is wisdom already.'” [3:87-8]. Reminiscent of Mark 4:24-5.
2:7. “… To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
“… Adam, receiving from him {i.e. God} the promise of Christ, and believing it, named his wife Chava … that is, Life. So the Seventy, … And Adam called his wife’s name ‘Life,’ Gen.iii.20. What! is she called Life that brought in death? But Adam perceived … the last Adam, exhibited to him in the promise to be … a quickening spirit; and had brought in a better life to the soul, and at length should bring in a better of the body. Hence is that, John i.4. … In him was life….
“… The second man is the Lord.] Gen.iv.1; ‘Eve conceived and brought forth Cain, and said, … I have possessed,’ or obtained, … a man, the Lord; that is, ‘that the Lord himself should become man.’….
“…That, without doubt, Eve had respect to the promise of Christ when she named her son; as Adam had respect to the promise in the denomination of Eve.” [4:274-5]
2:7; 22:1-2. “…the paradise of God…”
(The word ‘paradise’ means ‘garden.’) In Lightfoot’s discussion of Luke 16:22, he shows that ‘Paradise,’ the Garden of Eden, the Throne of Glory, and The Altar, are all used synonymously in the Jewish writings. [3:167-8]
“…the phrase … in paradise: in common Jewish speech, … in the garden of Eden.
“Aruch, reciting these words, saith, … It is called paradise, under the signification of the garden of Eden, which is reserved for the just. This place is … in the heavens, where the souls of the just are gathered together.’ And the Talmudical Gloss hath it much to the same sense:….”
Of Paul‘s being caught up into paradise, 2 Cor. 12, … “In the story it is observable, that paradise and the ‘third heaven’ are one and the same things: in the legend paradise and … the highest heavens. For so the doctors comment upon the word in Psalm lxviii.5: ‘There are seven classes or degrees of just persons, who see the face of God, sit in the house of God, ascend up unto the hill of God, &c. And to every class or degree there is allotted their proper dwellingplace … in paradise. There are also seven abiding places in hell. Those that dwell in paradise … they shine like the shining of the firmament, like the sun, like the moon, like the firmament, like the stars, like lightning, like the lilies, like burning lamps.'” [3:212-3]