Letters and Cities

Over the past century and a half a number of writers have written monographs that attempt to link the letters of Jesus to the seven hurches with the history and culture of each city. The supposed connections are not always persuasive, but some are. Sardis, for instance, though its fortress was situated impregnably on a rock, was twice conquered because of negligence and lack of watchfulness (once by Cyrus, once by Antiochus III). Would the Sardis church have missed the connection between Jesus’ exhortation to wakefulness and the history of their city? It’s unlikely.

But once we have opened the possibility, what do we do with it? Surely the root imagery and messages of the seven letters are drawn from the Bible. Why add another layer of allusion? Perhaps the point is to weave the history of Asia, the bridge between Jerusalem and Rome, into the history of Israel and the church. Perhaps the goal is to absorb the Greco-Roman story into Israel’s story.