Revelation 2:10

Fear not (mh pobou). As in Numbers 1:17 . Worse things are about to come than poverty and blasphemy, perhaps prison and death, for the devil "is about to cast" (mellei ballein), "is going to cast." Some of you (ex umwn). Without tina (some) before ex umwn, a common idiom as in Numbers 3:9 ; Numbers 11:19 ; Luke 11:49 . That ye may be tried (ina peirasqhte). Purpose clause with ina and the first aorist passive subjunctive of peirazw. John himself is in exile. Peter and John had often been in prison together. James the brother of John, Paul, and Peter had all suffered martyrdom. In Luke 3:10 a general persecution is outlined by peirasmo. Ye shall have (exete). Future active, but some MSS. read echte (present active subjunctive with hina, "that ye may have"). Tribulation ten days (qlipsin hmerwn deka). "Tribulation of ten days" (or "within ten days"). It is unwise to seek a literal meaning for ten days. Even ten days of suffering might seem an eternity while they lasted. Be thou faithful (ginou pisto). "Keep on becoming faithful" (present middle imperative of ginomai), "keep on proving faithful unto death" ( Hebrews 12:4 ) as the martyrs have done (Jesus most of all). The crown of life (ton stepanon th zwh). See this very image in James 1:12 , a familiar metaphor in the games at Smyrna and elsewhere in which the prize was a garland. See also James 3:11 . The crown consists in life ( James 2:7 ). See Paul's use of stepano in 1 Corinthians 9:25 ; 2 Timothy 4:8 .