<p>2:10 <em>Do not fear the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison, you may have tribulation ten days-</em> The Devil that gave the ecclesia at Smyrna &ldquo;tribulation ten days&rdquo; was clearly the Romans. It was only they who could cast them into prison. The casting into prison (place of punishment), tribulation and afterwards being honoured (physical reward), recalls the experiences of Joseph and Daniel who were persecuted by the civil powers of Egypt and Babylon, as those at Smyrna were by the civil powers of the Roman &ldquo;Devil&rdquo;. It has been shown that there were several ten&ndash;year periods of special persecutions of Christians in the Smyrna area: under Domitian, A.D. 81&ndash;91; under Trajan, 107&ndash;117 and under Diocletian, 303&ndash;313. The Septuagint in places uses the term <em>diabolos</em>, false accuser, to translate the Hebrew &lsquo;Satan&rsquo;. &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; therefore carried the sense of both an adversary and also a false accuser. &ldquo;The synagogue of Satan&rdquo; in Smyrna may well refer to not only Jewish adversarial opposition to the Christians, but also that they falsely accused them to the Roman authorities. There could also be the suggestion that the Jewish synagogue in Smyrna was in fact working with the &lsquo;Satan&rsquo;, the Roman empire, against the Christians. Kraybill considers that the phrase &ldquo;synagogue of Satan&rdquo; is &ldquo;a way of highlighting commercial or political relationships some Jews had with Rome&rdquo;. He also gives evidence that Jews in the provinces of the empire cooperated with the Roman government in order to ensure that they continued benefiting from the Roman legislation that exempted Jews from doing military service and paying taxes to the imperial cult (J. Nelson Kraybill, <em>The Imperial Cult and Commerce in John&rsquo;s Apocalypse</em> (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996) pp. 170, 186). In Domitian&rsquo;s time, a tax was levied to support the emperor and the imperial cult. Jews were exempted from this, and Christians refused to pay it. The &ldquo;synagogue of Satan&rdquo; in Smyrna loudly &ldquo;say they are Jews&rdquo; (Rev. 2:9), in order to avoid this tax and get benefits from the Roman empire at the time; but probably denounced the Christians to the Roman &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; because of their refusal to pay that tax. So &ldquo;synagogue of Satan... who say they are Jews but are not&rdquo; was an appropriate description of them (Mark Bredin, &lsquo;The Synagogue of Satan Accusation in Revelation 2:9&rsquo;, <em>Biblical Theology Bulletin</em> Vol. 28 No. 4 (Winter 1999) pp. 160&ndash;164).</p><p>The Devil and Satan in the New Testament often refer to the political and social power of the Jewish or Roman systems. Thus we read of the Devil throwing believers into prison (Rev. 2:10), referring to the Roman authorities imprisoning believers. In this same context we read of the church in Pergamos being situated where Satan&rsquo;s throne, was &ndash; i.e. the place of governorship for a Roman colony in Pergamos, where there was also a group of believers. We cannot say that Satan himself, if he exists, personally had a throne in Pergamos. The Bible repeatedly stresses that human political authority, civil authorities etc. are God given, deriving their power from Him (Rom. 13:1&ndash;7; 1 Pet. 2:13&ndash;17); never are they said to derive their authority from &lsquo;Satan&rsquo;. Yet they can be called &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; in that they are adversarial at times to His people.</p><p>The allusion is to Luke 21:12 concerning the latter-day tribulation.&nbsp;&quot;Some of you&quot; may correspond to &quot;some of you shall they cause to be put to death&quot; (Luke 21:16), seeing that they are exhorted to be &quot;faithful unto death&quot;.&nbsp;The prison tribulation would be for &quot;ten days... and I will give unto you a crown&quot;.&nbsp;This points back to Daniel's 'trial' of ten days (Dan. 1:12), and his later going into prison and emerging to receive a crown.&nbsp; Daniel's 'devil' was Babylon, and the 'devil' of Rev. 2:10 refers to a like power in the last days. The idea of ten days of affliction suggests the 10 days of self-examination and affliction of souls before the day of Atonement- as if the purpose of the final tribulation is to evoke self-examination and repentance in preparation for the High Priest's appearing on the Day of Atonement.</p><p>There is the possibility that some may be preserved from the tribulation: &quot;You <em>may</em> have tribulation ten days&quot;. This will be &quot;because you have kept the word of my patience&quot; (Rev. 3:10).&nbsp;Others will suffer, and even die, but are assured of salvation if they respond to the trials properly. There may be a similar meaning behind Is. 26:20: &quot;Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors about you (i.e. pray intensely- 2&nbsp;Kings 4:33): hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast&quot;. However, this primarily refers to the deliverance of Israel from Assyria in Hezekiah's time; and the hiding in chambers in Jerusalem while surrounded by the terrifying Assyrian army was hardly the quiet get out we might imagine this verse offers. However, it seems from the Olivet prophecy that the household <em>will</em> go through this time of trouble. The fact it is in some sense not required if we are spiritual enough indicates that the household will be weak in the last days- and therefore we will need it.</p><p>There are all manner of possible futures envisaged within God's plans, because He so respects human freewill. This explains the conditional element in prophecies, and in this case the possibility of persecution for some at some points in time. The horn of Dan. 7:21 &quot;prevailed against&quot; the saints. &quot;Prevailed&quot; here can mean 'could prevail' implying that this persecution could be avoided (cp. &quot;You may have tribulation&quot;). Likewise the Hebrew for &quot;make war&quot; can mean 'approached to make war'. Thus it may be possible for the saints to avoid the persecution in some way, e.g. by their &quot;holy way of life&quot; (2 Pet.3:8) shortening the days of tribulation. The fact that the prophecies speak as if there will be persecution may suggest that there will not be sufficient effort in this direction for all the saints to be saved from this. See on 3:10.</p><p><em>Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life</em>- For all the encouragement that the Father and Son are ultimately in control, death under persecution was still a real possibility. But the reward would be &quot;the crown of life&quot;. This may refer to the <em>stephanos</em> given to the victor in a race; but the word is also used about such wreaths given to guests at a wedding, or to the bride herself. The imagery of marriage suppers is far more common in Revelation than that of running an Olympic race.</p>