Wahyu 3:17-22

3:17 Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, ¹  and need nothing,” but ²  do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, ³  poor, blind, and naked, 3:18 take my advice ⁴  and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me ⁵  white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness ⁶  will not be exposed, and buy eye salve ⁷  to put on your eyes so you can see! 3:19 All those ⁸  I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent! 3:20 Listen! ⁹  I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home ¹⁰  and share a meal with him, and he with me. 3:21 I will grant the one ¹¹  who conquers ¹²  permission ¹³  to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered ¹⁴  and sat down with my Father on his throne. 3:22 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

[3:17]  ¹ tn Grk “and have become rich.” The semantic domains of the two terms for wealth here, πλούσιος (plousios, adjective) and πλουτέω (ploutew, verb) overlap considerably, but are given slightly different English translations for stylistic reasons.

[3:17]  ² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:17]  ³ tn All the terms in this series are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[3:18]  ⁴ tn Grk “I counsel you to buy.”

[3:18]  ⁵ tn Grk “rich, and.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation, repeating the words “Buy from me” to make the connection clear for the English reader.

[3:18]  ⁶ tn Grk “the shame of the nakedness of you,” which has been translated as an attributed genitive like καινότητι ζωῆς (kainothti zwh") in Rom 6:4 (ExSyn 89-90).

[3:18]  ⁷ sn The city of Laodicea had a famous medical school and exported a powder (called a “Phrygian powder”) that was widely used as an eye salve. It was applied to the eyes in the form of a paste the consistency of dough (the Greek term for the salve here, κολλούριον, kollourion [Latin collyrium], is a diminutive form of the word for a long roll of bread).

[3:19]  ⁸ tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”

[3:20]  ⁹ tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “come in to him.”

[3:20]  sn The expression in Greek does not mean entrance into the person, as is popularly taken, but entrance into a room or building toward the person. See ExSyn 380-82. Some interpreters understand the door here to be the door to the Laodicean church, and thus a collective or corporate image rather than an individual one.

[3:21]  ¹¹ tn Grk “The one who conquers, to him I will grant.”

[3:21]  ¹² tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.”

[3:21]  ¹³ tn Grk “I will give [grant] to him.”

[3:21]  ¹⁴ tn Or “have been victorious”; traditionally, “have overcome.”