Revelation 2:2
Re-evaluation Translation:
2:2 I know your doings, your wearing labor, your steadfastness, and how you are not clinging to wrong: and you have measured against Torah them which say they are Yehuveh-sent instructors, but are not, and have found them liars:
Bible, KJV Translation:
2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Significant Words and Comments:
Commentary on Revelation 2:2 (29 November 2007): “Thy works,” is simply your doings. In Hebrew, this represents anything done, but particularly: “Do all that I command thee.” “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Yehuveh thy Elohim, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes. . . .” Deuteronomy 12:14; Exodus 15:26.
“Thy labour” [from the Greek entry G2873], conveys the idea of exhausting and wearying labor. No labor is more wearing that living and sustaining lies. Thus Isaiah appeals for us to study Yehuveh’s instructions carefully: “Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little, . . . this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.” Isaiah 28:10-12.
“Thy patience,” that is, your steadfastness, endurance, constancy, sustaining stability.
“How thou canst not bear them which are evil,” is literally “how you do not take up in your hands wrongness” of any nature.
“Tried them” examined them for value, tested them for genuine quality or effectiveness. Yehuveh instructed the Levites and set them in charge of His people that “by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried.” Every belief and every behavior are to be measured against “the law and . . . the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Deuteronomy 21:5; Isaiah 8:20.
“Which say they are . . . ” literally, in Greek, “which are pretending.”
“Apostles” is from apostolos [G0652], meaning “a delegated messenger, one sent forth with orders.” This is the self-presentation and accepted status of most religious teachers, evangelists, priests, pastors and rabbis. The test of their genuine quality is, of course, Isaiah 8:20, “to the law and to the testimony.”
Yehuveh is quite clear that when these instructors “seeing vanity, and divining lies” teach the people, saying “Thus saith Yehuveh Elohim, when Yehuveh hath not spoken,” they will be judged and punished for doing so. “Then Yehuveh said unto me, The prophets [every person who speaks the word of Yehuveh to another] prophesy lies in My name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.” Ezekiel 22:28.
Professing to teach Yehuveh’s ways, any one who speaks anything other than what is written in Scriptures is presenting “the deceit” of his own imagination, and is here condemned by Yehuveh. It is imperative that we test every teaching from every source against the plain word of Yehuveh. “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Jeremiah 14:14; Isaiah 8:20.
“Are not, and hast found them liars,” states that when most spiritual leaders and instructors are measured against Scripture, they are found to be liars. The tragedy here is that most pastors, teachers, priests and rabbis are simply faithfully passing on the beliefs they were taught. The indictment is not only that they are teaching lies, but that they themselves are not studying the Scriptures to a depth that they can recognize these teachings to be vanity and lies. Inheriting vanity and lies is not their failure; retaining and propagating them, however, will certainly be their demise. Jeremiah 16:19.
Gael Bataman
Originally Written: 29 November 2007
Latest Update: 11 June 2011
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