Revelation 3 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 3
To Sardis
Verse 3:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And to the angel of the Church in Sardis write: These things says the One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you live, and you are dead.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: A name for being alive means a reputation, set against the blunt verdict dead. The seven spirits and stars are retained without collapsing them into one image.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Become watchful, and strengthen the things remaining that were about to die, for I have not found your works fulfilled before My God.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Become watchful and strengthen are distinct imperatives. Fulfilled describes the works judged before My God, not a claim that all activity was absent.
Reception: R018 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:2).
Verse 3:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore remember how you have received and heard, and keep it and repent. Therefore if you do not watch, I will come like a thief, and you shall certainly not know at what hour I will come upon you.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: How you received and heard recalls their reception of the message. The thief comparison emphasizes unanticipated arrival, without saying the speaker acts dishonestly.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But you have a few names in Sardis who did not defile their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Names is a figure for people, retained from the Greek rather than silently deleted.
Reception: R081 (John Bunyan; scope 3:4,4:4,7:17,14:1–5,21:4); R089 (John Bunyan; scope 2:7,3:4,21:4–5).
Verse 3:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The one who conquers will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will certainly not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The emphatic promise not to erase accompanies clothing and public acknowledgment. The verse does not narrate an actual erasure from the book.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Let the one who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The singular call to hear applies the Sardis address to all the Churches named by the plural noun.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
To Philadelphia
Verse 3:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy One, the True One, the One who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens:
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: David's key signifies the speaker's decisive opening and closing authority. The two clauses preserve their different verb forms rather than forcing identical English tenses.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
‘I know your works. Look, I have placed before you an opened door, which no one can shut, because you have little strength and kept My word and did not deny My name.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The opened door is presented as an enduring gift no one can shut. Little strength and faithful keeping stand together; little is not silently changed to great.
Reception: R019 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:8,3:10).
Verse 3:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Look, I give some from the synagogue of Satan, those who say that they themselves are Jews and are not, but lie. Look, I will make them come and bow before your feet, and know that I loved you.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: As at 2:9, the polemic identifies particular opponents in the local address; no accusation against an entire later population is added. Bow renders proskyneō here in the stated relation to the Church’s feet.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Because you kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of trial that is about to come upon the whole inhabited world, to try those dwelling upon the earth.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Keep you from renders tēreō ek without deciding whether protection through the trial or removal from it is intended. No later timetable is inserted.
Reception: R019 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:8,3:10).
Verse 3:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may take your crown.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The imperative to hold fast accompanies the promised coming; crown remains stephanos, distinct from the diadems in later visions.
Reception: R085 (John Bunyan; scope 3:11).
Verse 3:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall certainly go outside no more. And I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The repeated My God is retained four times. The pillar, permanent belonging and written names are separate promises, with the city's descent still explicit.
Reception: R020 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:12).
Verse 3:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Let the one who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.’
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The plural Churches remain the audience of the Spirit's speech even when the immediate letter names Philadelphia.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
To Laodicea
Verse 3:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And to the angel of the Church in Laodicea write: These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation:
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Beginning renders archē; origin or ruling principle is another sense. The translation does not add first-created or an explanatory doctrinal phrase.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The wish is cold or hot, not merely hot. The translation retains both alternatives rather than explaining away the first.
Reception: R021 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:15–16,3:18,3:21).
Verse 3:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Vomit preserves the force of emeō rather than replacing it with a milder image.
Reception: R021 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:15–16,3:18,3:21).
Verse 3:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Because you say, “I am rich and have become wealthy and need nothing,” and do not know that you are the wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked one,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The Church's self-assessment and the speaker's fivefold diagnosis sharply differ; need nothing belongs inside the quoted boast.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Buying from the speaker is paired with three remedies: refined gold, white clothing and eye salve. Their purposes answer the preceding poverty, nakedness and blindness.
Reception: R021 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:15–16,3:18,3:21).
Verse 3:19
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
As many as I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Reproof and discipline are connected with love. Be zealous and repent name the response; discipline is not reduced to punishment alone.
Reception: R087 (John Bunyan; scope 3:19).
Verse 3:20
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will enter to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The invitation is conditional on hearing and opening. Mutual dining remains the image; the verse does not explicitly name a sacramental rite.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 3:21
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The one who conquers, I will give him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat with My Father on His throne.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The conqueror shares the speaker's throne by gift, on the analogy of His own conquest and sitting with His Father; the comparison does not erase their distinction.
Reception: R021 (Victorinus tradition; scope 3:15–16,3:18,3:21).
Verse 3:22
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Let the one who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.’”
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: This seventh hearing formula closes the sequence of Church addresses and preserves the Spirit as the speaking subject.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.