Section 2:12–17
Jesus spoke to the church at Pergamum
In this section, Jesus spoke to the people who believed in him at Pergamum. He saw that they had remained faithful to him despite opposition and persecution. But he warned them not to allow people believing in false teachings to remain in the church. He warned them to repent. Lastly, he gave a promise for any believer who persevered in his faith.
Translate this heading as you did for the messages to the churches at Ephesus and Smyrna.
Paragraph 2:12–13
2:12a
To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: You should translate this introduction the same way you did in 2:8. You only need to change the name to Pergamum.
2:12b
These are the words of the One who holds the sharp, double-edged sword: This clause is an introduction to the words in 2:13–17. Translate the phrase These are the words in a way that is similar to 2:1. Some of those ways are:
This is the message from the one who has the sharp, two-edged sword (Good News Translation)
-or-
The message of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword is this :
Jesus spoke these words about himself. He continues to speak in 2:13a with “I.” In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that Jesus was talking about someone else here. If that is true in your language, indicate that Jesus spoke about himself. For example:
These are my words, and I have the sharp, double-edged sword.
the One: See how you translated the similar phrase “He who holds” in 2:1.
who holds the sharp, double-edged sword: The clause here uses the verb holds instead of the verb that means “extend out of” used in 1:16b. The rest of the clause is similar to the clause in 1:16b. Translate it in a similar way so that your readers will know that this clause refers to the same person.
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