Who Are The Nicolaitans?
A Deed God Hates
Who are the Nicolaitans? Revelation 2:6 has a “vague” reference to them once when 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 has a severe comment about them in his letter to the church at Ephesus:
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the NicolaitanesFrom the Greek nikos (conquest) + 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 or whoever the Nicolaitans were, God hates their deeds. History doesn’t really have much to say about them. Many have tried to piece together disconnected ideas about them. Why is something God so plainly hates so obscure?
Sounded, Not Translated
Maybe the answer is in the actual word. “Nicolaitans” was never translated into English. It was transliterated. It was spelled out in English to sound like the original Greek, the way names often are. And a transliterated word loses its meaning. We read it as a label, a proper noun for some forgotten sect. We are then unable to get what it actually means. Nicolaitans may as well be written in its original Greek, Νικολαϊτῶν, because we would at least realize that it isn’t actually translated.
So let’s translate it. Nikolaitēs is derived 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 or conquerors of the people. Now read that verse again with the meaning actually translated:
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of [those who rule over the people], which I also hate.
That says something to us. The deed God hates is lording over others.
It Shall Not Be So Among You
This is not a stand-alone concept. It is a significant thread of what Christ 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 susceptible to lording it 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 has two sides of the same coin. 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 the spiritual life:
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13 ESV)
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (1 Timothy 2:5 ESV)
The Way of This Age
Does this mean we are to rebel against the powers of this world?
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight…” (John 18:36, NIV)
The current world runs on domination: its governments, its institutions, its strongest possessors of power. Scripture even calls Satan “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). That way of ruling is contrary to God’s way. Yet God allows it to stand for now. We are called out of it into a different kingdom. That kingdom has a different way. The Head of that kingdom 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 approach belongs to this age. Christ says it has no place in 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. Christians have long wondered and debated about how the church letters are to be understood. The typical perspectives tend to become rivals:
- Only the literal seven city congregations in John’s day
- A time-line 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
- The path of the individual believer, walking each of us through the hazards of the journey
But these are not four options from which we are forced to choose (and there may even be others). They are the same words that can be taken on different 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. All of them are speaking at once. The pattern is the same at every level it is compared with. The same principle repeats 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 limits its real ability to communicate at different levels.
So read the letter to Ephesus again. The deed God hates may not merely be in some “ancient sect”. It is much closer to home. The warning applies to us. Are we one of the dictators? Or can we take the first step of the journey while we are still looking to men, instead of God, to show us how to walk it, especially the men who claim to represent God?
Where are you in that journey?
