PERGAMUM: RENAMED BY GOD
Revelation 2:12—17 (contd)
IT is just possible that we ought to look for the meaning of the new name and the white stone in another direction altogether.
The words white and new are characteristic of Revelation. R. H. Charles has said that in Revelation ‘white is the colour and livery of heaven’. The word used describes not a dull, flat whiteness but one which glistens like snow in the winter sun. So, in Revelation we find white garments (3:5), white robes (7:9), white linen (19:8, 19:14) and the great white throne of God himself (20:11). White, then, is heaven’s colour.
In Greek, there are two words for new. There is neos, which means new in point of time. A thing can be neos and yet exactly like any number of things. On the other hand, there is kainos, which is new not only in point of time but also in quality; nothing like it has ever been made before. So, in Revelation there is the new Jerusalem (3:12), the new song (5:9), the new heavens and the new earth (21:1); and God makes all things new (21:5). With this in mind, two lines of thought have been suggested.
It has been suggested that the white stone is the individual Christian; that the risen Christ is promising his faithful ones a new self, cleansed of all earthly stains and glistening with the purity of heaven.
As to the new name, one of the features of the Old Testament is the giving of a new name to mark a new status. So Abram becomes Abraham when the great promise is made that he will be the father of many nations and when he, as it were, acquires a new status in the plan of God for men and women (Genesis 17:5). So, after the wrestling at Peniel, Jacob becomes Israel, which means the prince of God, because he had prevailed with God (Genesis 32:28). Isaiah hears the promise of God to the nation of Israel: ‘The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give’ (Isaiah 62:2).
This custom of giving a new name to mark a new status was familiar to Roman society as well. The name of the first of the Roman emperors was Octavius; but when he became emperor he was given the name Augustus to mark his new status.
A curious superstitious parallel to this comes from peasant life in Palestine. When someone was very ill and in danger of death, that person was often given the name of another person who had lived a long and saintly life, as if this turned the one who was sick into a new person over whom the illness might lose its power.
On this basis of interpretation, Christ promises a new status to those who are faithful to him.
This is attractive. It suggests that the white stone means that Jesus Christ gives to those who are true to him a new self and that the new name means the new status of glory into which those who have been true to Christ will enter when this life ends and when the next begins. It remains to be said that, attractive as that interpretation is, the view which traces back the white stone and the new name to the use of charms is more likely to be correct.
Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., Vol. 1, pp. 108—110). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.
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