I know your tribulation and your poverty: for I know see the comments at 2.2. The translation here should do the same for your and you as in the letter to Ephesus. For tribulation see the comments at 1.9. The poverty John speaks of is material and may have been the result of their possessions having been confiscated by the authorities; but there is no evidence for this. The word poverty occurs in this book only here; the adjective “poor,” in a literal sense, appears in 13.16. In some languages words for poverty or “poor” are often lacking. This is often the case where only certain people in a culture own material things. In such cases one may say “you have nothing” or “you are like those who live far from the chief’s compound.”
(But you are rich): this parenthetical statement turns the situation around; they may be poor materially but are rich spiritually (see 3.18; 1 Cor 4.8). The situation in Laodicea is exactly the contrary; they boast that they are rich but are in fact poor (3.17-18).
If possible the translation should preserve the seeming contradiction in the text. If, however, a literal translation will mislead the reader, the translation can say “I know that you have been persecuted and that you are poor. But in spiritual matters (or, matters of the heart) you are really rich.”
The slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not: the text doesn’t specify what kind of slander this was, but it probably consisted of false accusations made by their enemies for the purpose of getting them into trouble with the Roman authorities. The noun translated here as slander appears also in 13.1, 5, 6; 17.3. Its related Greek verb, “to blaspheme,” “to curse” (13.6; 16.9, 11, 21) always has God as object. In translating this phrase it should be made clear that these false accusations were directed against the believers in Smyrna. Revised English Bible has “I know how you are slandered by,” and Bible en français courant “I know the evil things they say about you.”
Their detractors falsely claim to be Jews. What does this mean? We must keep in mind the fact that John, the writer of Revelation, is himself a Jew. The term may be used in the literal sense of people of the Jewish race, and given the large number of Jews in Smyrna, it is probable that these are Jews. But in denying their claim to be “Jews,” John is using the word in the extended sense of “God’s (chosen) people,” which Jews claimed to be. For him it is the Christians, and not the Jews, who are the chosen people (see Paul’s definition of authentic Jews in Rom 2.28-29; 9.8; Gal 6.15-16). John’s position is that Christians are the true people of God. If translators feel that translating Jews literally will give the wrong impression to readers, it will be helpful to say “those who say (or, claim) to be God’s people, but are not.”
These Jews in the ethnic sense are not Jews in the spiritual sense (also 3.9); they are a synagogue of Satan. John purposely uses the Jewish term synagogue (also 3.9), the name for a group of Jews meeting in one place for religious purposes. The phrase of Satan means either that they belong to Satan, or else that they serve Satan instead of serving God (see John 8.44).
Satan, the Hebrew word for “adversary,” “opponent,” is the name given to the Devil, the ruler of all evil spiritual forces, and “the synagogue of Satan” stands in opposition to “the synagogue of Yahweh” (thus the Septuagint translation of Num 16.3; 20.4). Satan is used in the New Testament as a proper noun, and translators should transliterate it, writing it in the way in which it would be pronounced in their own language. The word used to translate synagogue should not be a building or a place but a group, “an assembly,” “a congregation” (Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); New Jerusalem Bible has “members of the synagogue of Satan.”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• I know (or, am aware of) the troubles you are undergoing. I know that you have few material possessions—but you are rich in things of the heart (or, spirit). I know about those who claim that they are God’s chosen people (Jews), but are not. They say evil things about you, but they are really members of a group that belongs to Satan.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .