Discovery BoxRevelation 3:8 
Context3:8 ‘I know your deeds. (Look! I have put 1 in front of you an open door that no one can shut.) 2 I know 3 that you have little strength, 4 but 5 you have obeyed 6 my word and have not denied my name.
Revelation 2:13
Context2:13 ‘I know 7 where you live – where Satan’s throne is. Yet 8 you continue to cling 9 to my name and you have not denied your 10 faith in me, 11 even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, 12 who was killed in your city 13 where Satan lives.
1 tn Grk “I have given.”
2 tn Grk “to shut it,” but English would leave the direct object understood in this case.
sn The entire statement is parenthetical, interrupting the construction found in other letters to the churches in 3:1 and 3:15, “I know your deeds, that…” where an enumeration of the deeds follows.
3 tn This translation is based on connecting the ὅτι (Joti) clause with the οἶδα (oida) at the beginning of the verse, giving the content of what is known (see also 3:1, 3:15 for parallels). Because of the intervening clause that is virtually parenthetical (see the note on the word “shut” earlier in this verse), the words “I know that” from the beginning of the verse had to be repeated to make this connection clear for the English reader. However, the ὅτι could be understood as introducing a causal subordinate clause instead and thus translated, “because you have.”
4 tn Or “little power.”
5 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
6 tn Grk “and having kept.” The participle ἐτήρησας (ethrhsas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. For the translation of τηρέω (threw) as “obey” see L&N 36.19. This is the same word that is used in 3:10 (there translated “kept”) where there is a play on words.
7 tc The shorter reading adopted here has superior ms support (א A C P 2053 al latt co), while the inclusion of “your works and” (τὰ ἔργα σου καί, ta erga sou kai) before “where you reside” is supported by the Byzantine witnesses and is evidently a secondary attempt to harmonize the passage with 2:2, 19; 3:1, 8, 15.
8 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast between their location and their faithful behavior.
9 tn The present indicative verb κρατεῖς (kratei") has been translated as a progressive present.
10 tn Grk “the faith”; here the Greek article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
11 tn Grk “the faith of me” (τὴν πίστιν μου, thn pistin mou) with the genitive “of me” (μου) functioning objectively.
12 tn Or “martyr.” The Greek word μάρτυς can mean either “witness” or “martyr.”
13 tn Grk “killed among you.” The term “city” does not occur in the Greek text of course, but the expression παρ᾿ ὑμῖν, ὅπου ὁ σατανᾶς κατοικεῖ (par’ Jumin, {opou Jo satana" katoikei) seems to indicate that this is what is meant. See G. B. Caird, Revelation (HNTC), 36-38.
