The ‘Synagogue of Satan’: A Local Conflict, Not a Global Condemnation

In an age where Jewish conspiracy theories are again gaining traction, Revelation 2:9 & 3:9 are once again being pulled back into the spotlight.

Many assume—in using these two texts—that John is teaching that the Jewish people as a whole have now become something called the “Synagogue of Satan” (SoS)—which is supposedly a label given by John to all Jews after the late first century.

This interpretation is not only careless, but is often grounded in prejudice against the Jewish people, and in some cases, it has even been used to justify hostility and violence against the Jewish people.¹

In recent cultural moments—whether through figures like Tucker Carlson, Candice Owens, or broader online discourses—Jews are once again being cast as scapegoats for broader societal issues. These two texts are often weaponized to support that particular narrative.

My goal is simple:

Examine Revelation 2:9 & 3:9 in their historical contexts, demonstrate that these passages refer to specific local conflicts, and show that they not to be used as a universal condemnation of the Jewish people.

Texts in Question

Revelation 2:9 [Smyrna]
‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Revelation 3:9 [Philadelphia]
Behold, I am giving up those of the synagogue of Satan, those who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.

1. A Crucial Observation: This Is Not Universal!

Out of the seven churches that are addressed in Revelation by our Lord Jesus Christ, only two—Smyrna and Philadelphia—receive this language. This means that there is something unique occuring to these two churches.

This should immediately cause us to pause. Whatever the “SoS” refers to, it is not a universal description of all Jews, rather it is localized issue that affects two of the seven churches.

If John intended to redefine all Jews everywhere as the SoS, we would either expect this to be applied to one church—which could then be extrapolated to all churches—or we would expect this to be applied to all seven churches—which it isn’t. Therefore, our interpretation must wrestle with these facts. This is an isolated issue in Asia Minor.

2. The Historical Setting: Rome, Power, and Suspicion

To understand the conflict here, we have to go back to end of the first century.² Christians in Asia Minor were facing a major problem. The issue is that they were refusing to entertain emperor worship, which meant that they would refuse to call Domitian “Lord.” As Christians, we believe there is one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As James Rochford notes:

“The central issue confronting Christians was likely the fact that Domitian required to be called “Lord and God” (Latin: dominus et deus, Suetonius, Domitian, 13:2-3; Martial, Epigrams 9.56.3; Dio Cassius, History, 67.4.7). All true Christians refused to worship the emperor, and thus, they were marked with suspicion.”³

What does this mean? This means that Christians appeared (a) politically disloyal, and (b) socially dangerous.

Grant Osborne notes in his exegetical commentary on Revelation:

“Christianity…became a double threat, not only religious but political. It is common to theorize that the edict under Domitian demanding emperor worship made it easy to persecute Christians, and that the Jews were active in denouncing Christians to the authorities, possibly to deflect attention from themselves.”⁴

3. Why The Jewish Communities Were in a Different Position

At the same time, we see that Jewish communities occupied a very different legal status. Rome had granted the Jews two particular things which are important to note:

1.) Freedom to practice their religion
2.) Exemption from emperor worship

As Osborne notes:

“Rome had given the Jews the right to practice their religion, and they did not want this precious privilege threatened.”⁵

However, as with any privilege, at what cost?

Under Domitian:

1.) Jews were heavily taxed
2.) Tax evasion was aggressively prosecuted

The historian Suetonius tells us:

“Besides other taxes, that on the Jews was levied with the utmost rigour, and those were prosecuted who without publicly acknowledging that faith yet lived as Jews, as well as those who concealed their origin and did not pay the tribute levied upon their people.”⁶

So, within the Jewish communities, there was pressure to do two things:

1.) Maintain clear identity boundaries
2.) Avoid suspicion from the Roman authorities

It is clear then that Christians weren’t going to help that situation because of their allegiance to Christ, they would only complicate matters.

4. The Problem: Where Do Christians Fit?

By now, it should be clear now that there was a tension between Jews and Christians, summarized below:

1st Century Jews	1st Century Christians
Exempt from Emperor Worship Judaistic (religion of Judaism) Enjoyed legal protection	Refused Emperor Worship Did not fall under Judaism (in Roman eyes) Did not enjoy legal protection

So, what of the Christians? Christians were in a sort of grey zone. At first, it may have been seen that they were a part of Judaism, but as tensions grew between the two groups, those connections became fragile and this is where the role of the synagogue became decisive.

As Christians and Jews began splintering (i.e., Gentile proselytes, Jewish and Gentile Christians, and even apostate Jews) Rome became less concerned about these distinctions. Rome simply wanted money that was owed to them—since Domitian basically bled the empire dry. Control and taxation where the real motivators for the empire.

Colin J. Hemer’s work—though only available in part online—is helpful on this particular issue!

“To the authorities these distinctions were immaterial provided the victims paid up. But the situation placed the Jewish communitites [sic] in a position of peculiar power. By disowning a Christian and informing against him, they might deprive him of his possible recourse to toleration at a price, and render him liable to the emperor-cult.”⁷

The two key points here are:

1.) The Jewish communities had a peculiar power
2.) The Jewish communities could disown a Christian and inform against him to the Roman authorities.

This means that if Christians were publicly identified as non-Jews or outside of Judaism by the synagogue, they could (a) lose legal protection (b) become exposed to Roman punishment (c) face confiscation (such as property loss – cf. Hebrews 10:34) (d) imprisonment, or (e) worse.

So, with this power the synagogues could expel Christians, they could protect Judaism, they could publicly identify who was and was not a legitimate Jew, and they could denunciate them (i.e., report them to the authorities).⁸

S. MacLean Gilmour in his commentary on Revelation concurs:

“The reference to false Jews (vs. 9; cf. 3:9) is usually understood as a bitter comment based on the church’s claim to be the true Israel, but there is another possibility. Jews were exempted by Rome from participating in emperor worship, and this may be John’s condemnation of Christians who seek to escape persecution by claiming to be Jews.”⁹

5. The Curse of Minim

There is another important piece of information that we cannot gloss over. In and around AD 90 Hemer notes that “the curse of the Minim was introduced into the ‘Eighteen Benedictions’. This provided a means of detecting Christians in synagogues. The pressure of the emperor-cult explains why they sought acceptance there, and also accounts for the puzzling proselytization of Gentile Christians to Judaism at Philadelphia, as implied by Ignatius (ad Philad. 6.1). The two cities from which the particular evidence of Jewish activity against the church is drawn are those which possessed ‘synagogues of Satan’ in Rev. 2.9 and 3.9.”¹⁰

Synagogues could now smoke out the Christians—this makes complete sense in a first-century setting. The Christians then had two options: (1) worship the emperor, (2) apostatize to Judaism. Neither option was tenable for a true follower of Christ, because both denied Jesus as Lord. The temptation was then to blend back into the synagogue to regain protection.¹¹

5. Conclusion: Revelation 2:9 & 3:9

John says that these Jewish groups were accusing¹² believers. Their accusations led to persecution, therefore they were acting in line with “the” accuser, Satan. This is why the terminology SoS is being used in both passages. Slander and exposure of believers led to persecution for these Christians, therefore the name was fitting.

The issue was never Jewish identity—it was the act of the accusation that led to the persecution of God’s people in the first century, and therefore it was a localized occurence, not a broad brush smear against the Jewish people.

To synthesize it all:

1. Jewish communities had legal protection
2. Christians were increasingly excluded
3. Synagogue authorities could identify and expose Christians
4. This directly led to persecution

Revelation 2:9-10 depicts this persecution perfectly: “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)…Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

John’s point: Those who act as accusers of God’s people are here said to be aligned with the Accuser, therefore the name was fitting for those Jewish people in Smyrna and Philadelphia.

Appendix: A Necessary Clarification And Plea

I want it to be clear that I do not support all the actions of Israelites in Israel at the present time simply because I believe they are God’s chosen people (Deut. 7:6-9; Rom. 11:1-2; 28-29), nor are all Jews saved on account of their relationship to Abraham. The Jews need Jesus, they need the gospel, and they need to be born-again. They are enemies of the gospel, yet are beloved on account of their relationship to the Abrahamic Covenant. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Full stop! I love the Jewish people, and my heart longs for their salvation. If we cannot stand with Paul in how we see the Jews—his kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom. 9:1-5) then we have become proud and arrogant toward the natural branches.

Paul warns against this:

Romans 11:18
do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast against them, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

God has been kind and merciful to us as Gentiles, the wild branches, and he has preserved a remnant within Israel (Rom. 11:5) to show us that He is not done with His people (Rom. 11:1-2). He has grafted us into the olive tree to partake of the blessings of Abraham and his covenant, but we are not to boast against the natural branches. We know they are hardened, but they are still beloved by God. God will deal with them severely as scripture foretells, but it is also our duty to defend our heritage in a biblical sense.

May we call the Jewish people in the land of Israel to repentance, while also handling Scripture with care and in its proper context. If we are not grieved by the ongoing rise of antisemitism around us, something is wrong with our hearts. As Christians, we must remember our heritage: our King is Jewish (Matt. 2:15), salvation came first to the Jews (Rom. 1:16), and God will yet save and restore His people (Acts 1:6–7; 3:21; Rom. 11:26).

References:

1. Taken from Mottel Baleston’s video’s description: “Several days ago, a man in Mississippi who had raging Anti-Semitism set fire to the only Synagogue in that area, caused very extensive damage, including the incinerating of many printed Bibles and 2 Torah Scrolls. When questioned by police, he said he had to burn down “the synagogue of satan” and then said “Jesus Christ is Lord” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhSbKWp1y_A ↩︎
2. For a defence of the Domitianic Dating of Revelation see my previous work: https://abidingfoundations.com/2021/08/09/when-was-the-book-of-revelation-written/ ↩︎
3. James Rochford, “Synagogue of Satan” https://evidenceunseen.com/new-testament/revelation/difficulties/synagogue-of-satan ↩︎
4. Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 127. ↩︎
5. Ibid. ↩︎
6. Suetonius, The Life of Domitian: 12:2, translated by J. C. Rolfe: https://lexundria.com/suet_dom/12.2/r ↩︎
7. Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in their Local Setting (England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989), 9. Preview is available here: https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780567319432_A23695156/preview-9780567319432_A23695156.pdf ↩︎
8. “Individual Jews may have informed against individual Christians, or the synagogues may have provided on occasion lists of bona fide members of their congregations.” Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in their Local Setting (England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989), 9-10. ↩︎
9. S. MacLean Gilmour, Revelation: The Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971), 951. ↩︎
10. Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in their Local Setting (England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989), 10. ↩︎
11. “These Gentile Christians wanted the legal protection of Judaism.” James Rochford, “Synagogue of Satan” https://evidenceunseen.com/new-testament/revelation/difficulties/synagogue-of-satan ↩︎
12. Is not Satan the accuser in Revelation 12:10? ↩︎