What thou seest, write in a book, and send to the Seven Churches; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and

unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Some manuscripts read in this passage "the Seven Churches which are in Asia"; but the added words are

certainly an interpolation from the introduction, verse 4, "John to the Seven Churches which are in Asia."

The addition states correctly the limits of the area from which the Seven Churches were selected; but it loses

the emphasis implied in the simple phrase "The Seven Churches." From the context it is clear that they all

belonged to Asia, i.e., to the Roman province called by that name; but here, in the very beginning of John's

vision, the Seven are mentioned as a recognised number, already to the hearer and the readers.

This remarkable expression, "The Seven Churches," must arrest the attention of every reader. At the first

glance one might gather that only those Seven Churches existed in the Province Asia, and that the

Revelation had been composed at an early date when there were no more Churches than the Seven. But that

is impossible. There never was a time when those Seven Churches existed, and no others. Their situation

shows that they could not well be the first seven to be founded: several other unnamed Churches certainly

must have been formed before Thyatira and Philadelphia. Moreover, references in the New Testament prove

beyond question the existence of various other Churches in the Province before the earliest date at which

the composition of the Apocalypse of John has ever been placed. A survey of the chief facts regarding

those other Churches will prove instructive for the present investigation.

(1.) Already during the residence of St. Paul in Ephesus, AD 54 to 56, "all they which dwelt in Asia heard the

word" (Acts 19:10). That would never have been recorded, except as an explanation of the rapid spread of

the new religio n and the growth of numerous Churches.

(2.) Already in AD 61 the Church of Colossae was the recipient of a letter from St. Paul; he asks the

Colossians to cause that his letter be read in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that "ye also read the letter

from Laodicea" (Col 4:16); and he mentions a body of Christians, who must have constituted a Church, at

Hierapolis (Col 4:13). In this case it is evident that the three Churches of the Lycus Valley were considered

by every one to stand in close relation to one another. They are very near, Hierapolis being about six miles

north, and Colossae eleven miles east, from Laodicea, and they are grouped together as standing equal in

the affection and zeal of the Colossian Epaphras. Any letter addressed to one of them was regarded

apparently by St. Paul as common to the other two. This did not require to be formally stated about Laodicea

and Hierapolis, which are in full view of one another on opposite sides of the glen; but Colossae lay in the

higher glen of the Lycus. It has been suggested that Hierapolis and Colossae perhaps ceased to be

Churches, because those cities may have been destroyed by an earthquake between AD 61 and 90. Such a

supposition cannot be entertained. There is not the slightest reason to think that those cities were

annihilated about that time. On the contrary Hierapolis continued to grow steadily in wealth and importance

after this hypothetical destruction; and, if Colossae rather dwindled than increased, the reason lay in its

being more and more overshadowed by Laodicea. The earthquakes of Asia Minor have not been of such a

serious nature, and seem rarely if ever to have caused more than a passing loss and inconvenience. There

was nothing in such an event likely either to kill or to frighten away the Christians of those two Churches.

(3.) Troas was the seat of a Church in AD 56 (2 Cor 2:12) and AD 57 (Acts 20:7ff). It was then considered by

St. Paul to be "a door," through which access was opened to a wide region that lay behind in the inner

country : its situation in respect of roads and communication made it a specially suitable and tempting point

of departure for evangelisation; it was a link in the great chain of Imperial postal communication across the

Empire; and its importance lay in its relation to the other cities with which it was connected by a series of

converging roads. The ordinary "overland" route from Rome to the East by the Appian and the Egnatian

Way crossed the Aegean from Neapolis, the harbour of Philippi, to Troas, Pergamum, etc.; and there must