complete verse (Revelation 2:6)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 2:6:

  • Uma: “But there is also your good behavior: since you also hate the character/behavior of those who follow the teaching of Nikolaus, which I also hate.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But I am also pleased with you because you hate the doings of the people who follow Nikolai, in the same way as I hate their doing.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There is also that which you are doing that I like because the bad works of Nicolaitans anger you as they anger Me also.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But there is however that-which-I-like-about you, because you hate what the Nicolaita are doing which I indeed also hate.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But there is indeed something which pleases me about you, your nature/ways which are like mine in that you hate the disgusting deeds of the Nicolaita.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Yet there is a word about what you do which I look well upon. It is that you do not even a little bit look well upon the words taught by the people of Nicholas. I too do not look well on that word.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 2:6

Here is one more word of praise, perhaps to soften the severity of the censure in verse 5.

Yet this you have: “But you have this in your favor,” “This, however, is to your credit,” “But I will praise you for this,” or “Here is a good thing that you are doing.”

You hate the works of the Nicolaitans: they also appear in 2.15, in the letter to Pergamum. The word means “the followers of Nicolaus,” but there is no way of deciding who this Nicolaus was, if indeed he was a real person and not a fictitious character. Aside from what is said about the Nicolaitans here and in 2.14-15 (and perhaps in 2.20, 24), there is no precise information on their origin or activities. Most commentators see them as Gnostic teachers who, on the basis of their doctrine that the material and spiritual realms are completely separate, taught that immoral conduct does not affect the spiritual life. Hate may be expressed as “despise,” “not like to look at,” or idiomatically in some languages as “heart is not warm towards.” Here the works, as in the other instances (verses 2, 5), mean everything they do and are.

Which I also hate: it is well to have this come at the end, to make for the proper emphasis. Good News Translation “as much as I do” is a possible way of making the comparison.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .