Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church

Lay Academy – The Bible in Context

Pergamum was a great city, at one time capital of Roman Asia, until the title was taken by Ephesus.  Its shrine to Ascepelius was  famous for its healing, and the library second only to the one at Alexandria.  The Temple to Zeus was excavated at the end of the nineteenth century, and exported to Berlin, where the Pergamum Museum is named after it.

The rather cryptic letter to Pergamum contained in Revelation refers to “the seat of Satan”.  This may refer to the Temple of Zeus, or to the Roman Praesidium.

The Pergamum church was influenced by the mysterious Nicolaitans, whom we saw in the letter to Ephesus, and by those who had been taught by “Balaam”.  Balaam is a semi-legendary figure, whose name was given to all kinds of heresy and error.  The quasi-historical reference to Balaam in Numbers 22-24 is, however, somewhat sympathetic.  Here he appears as a freelance prophet, who, when hired to curse the Israelites, finds he can only pronounce words of blessing.