What Does Revelation 2:15 Mean?

So you also have those who grip the teaching of the Nicolaitans in the same way.

Revelation 2:15 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

THE KEY

The teaching is not merely present in the assembly; people are holding it fast, and the verse names that teaching as hated.

THE MEANING

An assembly can contain people who firmly hold a teaching that the speaker hates. Their grip and the judgment of that teaching stand together in the same sentence; its presence does not conceal the verdict.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The presence of a teaching inside the assembly does not make it acceptable: this verse names a teaching held there and calls it hated.

THE ROOT

κρατοῦντας

kratountas

GROWS FROM

⁨κρατ-⁩ (krat-), the stem of ⁨κρατέω⁩ (krateō, “to hold firmly”)

Strength or force expressed as grasping, holding fast, or having power over.

The Greek verb carries the sense of a firm grip, so this is more than a teaching briefly passing through the assembly: people are retaining it. The root itself does not approve what is held; the object of the grip gives the sentence its sharp judgment.

ALSO GROWS

kratos: strength, might, dominion

κράτος

This related noun makes the force within “hold” audible: the teaching is being maintained, not merely noticed.

krataioō: to strengthen, make strong

κραταιόω

This related verb uses the same stem for strength made firm, illuminating the force carried by the act of holding.

THE PATTERN

A teaching’s presence and influence within a community do not exempt it from discernment.

But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Revelation 2:6 · SDVThe same named group appears, and the verse makes clear that what is found among the assembly can still be rejected.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

1 Corinthians 5:6 · SDVWhat is allowed to remain within a community can affect the whole, so its presence is not a measure of its acceptability.

And the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us walk after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them;

Deuteronomy 13:2 · SDVEven a persuasive sign can accompany a teaching that leads toward a false allegiance; its presence and power do not settle its truth.

THE THREAD

I know where you settle, where the throne of the Adversary is, and you grip my name, and you have not denied my trust, even in those days when Antipas, my steady witness, was killed among you, where the Adversary settles.

Revelation 2:13 · SDV

“Thou holdest fast” uses the same Greek verb ⁨κρατέω⁩ (krateō, “to hold firmly”) as “hold” in this verse. The same community can hold fast the name and have people hold a teaching; the root describes the grip, while what is held reveals its significance.

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