Revelation 3:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 3:9
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
to utter an untruth or attempt to deceive by falsehood · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person plural
behold
ἰδοὺidou
G2400
used as imperative lo! · interjection
I will make
ποιήσωpoiēsō
G4160
to make or do (in a very wide application · verb — future active indicative, 1st person singular
them
αὐτοὺςautous
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative plural masculine
to
ἵναina
G2443
compare G3588 (ὁ)) · conjunction
come
ἥξουσινhēxousin
G2240
to arrive · verb — future active indicative, 3rd person plural
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
worship
προσκυνήσουσινproskunēsousin
G4352
to fawn or crouch to · verb — future active indicative, 3rd person plural
before
ἐνώπιονenōpion
G1799
in the face of (literally or figuratively) · preposition
thy
σοῦsoû
G4675
of thee
feet
ποδῶνpodōn
G4228
a "foot" (figuratively or literally) · noun — genitive plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
know
γνῶσινgnōsin
G1097
to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applicatio… · verb — second aorist active subjunctive, 3rd person plural
that
ὅτιhoti
G3754
demonstrative · conjunction
I
ἐγὼegō
G1473
I · personal pronoun — 1st person nominative singular
have loved
ἠγάπησάēgapēsa
G25
to love (in a social or moral sense) · verb — aorist active indicative, 1st person singular
thee
σέsé
G4571
thee
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 60:14 The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the sol…
Revelation 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, b…
Isaiah 49:23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth,…
Isaiah 45:14 Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and the…
Isaiah 43:4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for t…
Zechariah 8:20-23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities:
1 Samuel 2:36 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bre…
Esther 8:17 And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 3:7-13
We have now come to the sixth letter, sent to one of the Asian churches, where observe,
I. The inscription, showing,
1. For whom it was more immediately designed: The angel of the church of Philadelphia; this also was a city in Asia Minor, seated upon the borders of Mysia and Lydia, and had its name from that brotherly love for which it was eminent. We can hardly suppose that this name was given to it after it received the Christian religion, and that it was so called from that Christian affection that all believers have, and should have, one for another, as the children of one Father and the brethren of Christ; but rather that it was its ancient name, on account of the love and kindness whi…
I will make--Greek present, "I make," literally, "I give" (see on Rev 3:8). The promise to Philadelphia is larger than that to Smyrna. To Smyrna the promise was that "the synagogue of Satan" should not prevail against the faithful in her: to Philadelphia, that she should even win over some of "the synagogue of Satan" to fall on their faces and confess God is in her of a truth. Translate, "(some) of the synagogue." For until Christ shall come, and all Israel then be saved, there is but "a remnant" being gathered out of the Jews "according to the election of grace." This is an instance of how Christ set before her an "open door," some of her greatest adversaries, the Jews, being brought to the…
I will make them - Show them to be, of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, pretending thereby to be of the synagogue of God, and consequently his true and peculiar children.
I will make them to come and worship - I will so dispose of matters in the course of my providence, that the Jews shall be obliged to seek unto the Christians for toleration, support, and protection, which they shall be obliged to sue for in the most humble and abject manner.
To know that I have loved thee - That the love which was formerly fixed on the Jews is now removed, and transferred to the Gentiles.
The Church Fathers
Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not. He promised this to the whole Church at that time, because not only in Philadelphia did they believe from the synagogue of the Jews, as we find in the Acts of the Apostles.
Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and adore before thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved thee. In this passage is foretold the faith of the Jews, according to this: until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved. [Rom. 11:25-26] Now they say they are Jews, but are not, because they have lost on the inside spiritually the name they bear on the outside literally; for the expression of the name of Jews is the confession of Christ. However, when Elijah and Enoch are preaching, they will come to adore before the Church's feet, because they will venerate it by following the examples of its action.
"Behold, those from the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie: behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you." At that time he promised to the universal church that there will be "one flock and one Shepherd." We should note that it was not only in Philadelphia that there were believers from the synagogue of the Jews, as we find recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.… He said to the second angel, "You have the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not." Nevertheless, he did not promise that there would be some who would come from them, that is, [fall] at the feet of the body of Christ. We believe that this will happen everywhere, since God will command his church to be gathered from the whole world. Therefore, to the sixth angel, that is the one before the last, he promised what he had indicated to the others without any promise. And so he foretells to the sixth angel what will happen before the final end, that the unbelieving will come as suppliants to the church of God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Philadelphia — Brotherly love, a city of Lydia in Asia Minor, about 25 miles south-east of Sardis. It was the seat of one of the “seven churches” (Rev. 3:7-12). It came into the possession of the Turks in A.D.…
Love Of Christ, The · To saints, shall be acknowledge even by enemies — — To saints, shall be acknowledge even by enemies —
Philadelphia · One of the seven congregations in — One of the seven congregations in
Synagogue · .Of Satan — .Of Satan
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Revelation 3:9
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan,.... Which may be understood either of the Papists, the followers of the man of sin, whose coming was after the working of Satan, and whose doctrines are the doctrines of devils, many of whom will now be converted, and brought to the true church; or rather of the Jews, who had, and have, and will have till this time, their synagogues for religious worship in their way; but they are no other than synagogues of Satan; the men that assemble in them are of their father the devil, and do his works, and will do them:
which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; they are Jews by name and nation; they are. Jews outwardly, but not inwardly and…
those who belong to Satan’s synagogue: The Christians in Philadelphia had suffered maltreatment by anti-Christian Jews (see study note on 2:9). • bow down at your feet: In the ancient world, captives were often forced to prostrate themselves before their conquerors (see Isa 49:23; 60:14). The church’s human enemies will ultimately acknowledge that Christians are the ones God loves.
