Revelation 2:1

¹ Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), 35.

² Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1-7 (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1992), 129.

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⁴ G. L. Borchert, “Ephesus,” in Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979, 1915), 115.

⁵ “In the Ephesian calendar the month of the spring equinox was named after Artemis . . . and during that month the city celebrated a yearly festival in honour of the goddess.”—Henry Barclay Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998, 1906), lvii.

⁶ Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting, 35.

⁷ Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977), 86.

⁸ “Acts Acts 19:19 hints that the church in Ephesus was very large indeed, for 50,000 pieces of silver represents 50,000 days’ wages, which, at a daily wage of $100, was equivalent to $5,000,000. Now, if each person burned an average of $250 worth of books on magic, that value would represent 20,000 people; and even if every second person in the church was involved in magic this would require a church of, very conservatively, 40,000 members. (Do four-member Christian families on average own $1,000 worth of Christian books?) This, too, is simply an estimate of the size of the Ephesian church before three years of Paul’s ministry was completed (Acts Acts 20:31—church history claims an Ephesian church of 100,000 members in John Chrysostom’s day).”—Monty S. Mills, Revelations: An Exegetical Study of the Revelation to John (Dallas, TX: 3E Ministries, 1987).

⁹ “[Ephesus had a] reputation as a seat of learning. . . . according to Eusebius Ephesus is the scene of Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho.”—Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John, lvi.

¹⁰ Borchert, “Ephesus,” 115.

¹¹ Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting, 39.

¹² J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse: Lectures on the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1966), 56.

¹³ Borchert, “Ephesus,” 116-117.