Who Are The Nicolaitans?
A Deed God Hates
Who are the Nicolaitans? Revelation 2:6 names them once, inside Christ’s commendation of the church at Ephesus, and the words are strong:
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the NicolaitanesFrom the Greek nikaō (to conquer) + laos (the people) — literally "conquest over the people," a rule or lording imposed on them. It names a deed, and a doctrine, that the risen Christ twice says he hates (Revelation 2:6, 15). Synonyms: Nicolaitanes (KJV). See Who Are The Nicolaitans? More, which I also hate. (Revelation 2:6, KJV)
Whatever the Nicolaitans were, God hates their deeds. And yet little is said about them, and much has been guessed. It is worth asking why something God hates this plainly should be so obscure.
Carried Over, Not Translated
Part of the answer is in the word itself. “Nicolaitans” was never translated into English. It was transliterated — carried over by sound, letter for letter, the way a name is. And a transliterated word goes quiet. We read it as a label, a proper noun for some forgotten sect, and stop hearing what it actually says. The meaning is not hidden by anyone; it is simply sitting in plain sight, in a language we no longer hear.
So translate it. Nikolaitēs is built from two Greek words plus a suffix:
- nikos — conquest, victory, dominance over
- laos — the people (the root behind our word “laity”)
- -itēs — a suffix marking adherents, the members of a group
Put it together and the Nicolaitans are those who rule over the people — conquerors of the people. Now read the verse again with the meaning restored:
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of [those who rule over the people], which I also hate.
That speaks. The deed God hates is lording over others. (Some trace the name to a man, Nicolas, named among the seven in Acts 6:5; but his name carries the very same meaning, so the deed is the same either way.)
It Shall Not Be So Among You
This is not a stray idea. It is one of the clearest things ChristNot a surname but a title: the Greek Christos, rendering the Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah) — "the Anointed." The anointing that set apart Israel's kings, priests, and prophets all converges on the one person it was pointing to. Synonyms: Messiah, Anointed, the Anointed One, Mashiach, Christos. See also: Logos More taught:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant… even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” (Matthew 20:25-28, ESV)
Peter says the same thing to the elders — the very ones most able to lord over others:
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care… not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples(Greek tupos) — Paul's own word: "these things happened to them as examples, written for our admonition" (1 Cor 10:11; cf. v. 6). Israel's recorded life is set down for us to learn from — largely as a warning; Christ is the example to follow (1 Pet 2:21; John 13:15). See also: Shadow. See: Through What Lens Do We View the Feasts? More to the flock. (1 Peter 5:2-3, NIV)
The deed cuts two ways. We are not to rule over others in the ekklesia — and we are not to let others come between us and God in matters of our own faithFaith (Greek pistis, Hebrew emunah) — trust and faithfulness, not mere belief or assent to doctrine. Scripture's own definition: faith is the substance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1) — the hypostasis, "that which stands under," giving the unseen its standing and reality. Synonyms: trust, faithfulness, assurance. More. Paul keepsFrom the Hebrew shamar — to watch over, guard, protect, give attentive care to. A shepherd shamar the flock. The keeping the feasts and sabbath requires is the attentive, protective engagement that creates the conditions for seeing what they reveal — not external compliance with a schedule. Synonyms: shamar, observe, guard, watch over. More the line clear:
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake… But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:5-7, NIV)
The treasure is real; the vessel is plain clay. The power is God’s, never the vessel’s. The moment a vessel begins to rule, it has forgotten what it is.
The Way of This Age
Does this mean we are to rebel against the powers of the world?
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight…” (John 18:36, NIV)
The world runs on domination — its governments, its institutions, its strongest figures. Scripture even calls Satan “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). That way of ruling is contrary to God’s way, and yet God allows it to stand for now. We are called out of it into a different kingdom — one whose head does not lord over anyone, but serves. When and how this age gives way to that one is its own subject; the point here is simpler: the rule-over-the-people pattern belongs to this age, and Christ says it has no place among his.
At Every Scale at Once
One last thing. Revelation 2:6 was written to Ephesus, the first of seven churches addressed in Revelation 2-3. People have long asked which church the letters are really for, and the usual answers get treated as rivals: a snapshot of seven actual congregations in John’s day; a map of the church’s condition across history, age by age, down to the return of Christ; a standing set of warnings to every church in every generation; or a portrait of the individual believer, walking each of us through the hazards of the journey.
But these are not four options to choose between. They are the same words read at four scales — the single congregationThe English word "church" doesn't translate the Greek ekklesia — it derives from kyriakos, a pagan term for a building belonging to a lord. Ekklesia is a called-out, gathered people; the New Testament rarely leaves it bare but qualifies it — "the church of God" (whose it is, who called it) or "the church at Corinth" (which local gathering) — never a building. The Septuagint already used it for Israel's qahal, the congregation God called out and assembled (Acts 7:38). A spiritual organism, not an institution. Synonyms: ekklesia, ecclesia, called-out ones, assembly, congregation, kyriakos, qahal, edah.
See also: firstfruits. See A People, Not a Place More, the long sweep of history, the church everywhere, the single life — and all of them are speaking at once. That is how this kind of Scripture tends to work: the pattern holds at every level it is laid against, the same shape repeating from the smallest cycle to the largest (See The Biblical Principle of Cycles Within Cycles). Picking one scale and calling it the meaning is the very thing that flattens it.
So read the letter to Ephesus at the scale closest to home. The deed God hates is not a danger waiting somewhere down the road — it sits right at the entrance. We cannot take the first step of the journey while we are still looking to men, instead of God, to show us how to walk it — including the men who claim to represent God.
Where are you in that journey?