The Nicolaitans ?

[Adstar]

Revelation 2: KJV

5 "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. {6} But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."

 

Revelation 2: KJV

15 "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. {16} Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."

Usually i find in the Bible that it explains things about groups and doctrines clearly.. But it seems to me that the Nicolaitans and what their actual doctrine was is not covered in the Bible..  So does anyone have reliable information on who and what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was or yet still maybe is ?

[wingnut-]

This link explains it pretty well, here are a few excerpts which will give you the idea.

 

In its ecclesiastical setting, Nicolaitans means the bishops and prelates of the Church have gained a triumphal victory or conquest over the LAITON, the laity. Members are compelled and forced to submit to the arbitrary dominion of men who have become that thing which God hates.

"The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:  Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; NOR AS BEING LORDS OVER THOSE ENTRUSTED TO YOU, but being examples to the flock" (1Peter 5:1 - 3).

The teachings and preaching of the Nicolaitans are in religious and secular dictionaries. When we look for the definition of the term we find it is a "hierarchy: the power of dominion, government by ecclesiastical rulers" we find the following, which is offered as evidence.

"If anyone shall say that there is not in the Catholic Church a hierarchy established by the divine ordination, consisting of bishops, presbyters and ministers, let him be anathema, Council of Trent (translation) XXIII 6." (Century Dictionary)

Let anyone who has the audacity to say there is not a hierarchy, not a collection of human beings who try to exercise authority over others, as ecclesiastical rulers over churchmen, let that man be ACCURSED. Surely, the thing in which that ecclesiastical company is glorying is their shame!

Webster's dictionary defines the word "episcopal" as "the power of government, belonging to, or invested in, bishops or prelates. Government of the church by bishops." It also says, "in episcopacy, the order of bishops is superior to the other clergy, and has exclusive power to confer orders."

The above definition affirms that a certain portion of presbyters (elders) were "in apostolic times superior in authority to ordinary presbyters." It also mentions the fact that episcopacy recognizes "episcopal rank," which is created by the institution thus governed. It all of which affirms that any church in which episcopal government obtains is practicing the very carnal and fleshly iniquity of creating "superiors" in what should be a holy brotherhood. The use of this appellation makes INFERIORS out of brethren who are in the selfsame clergy.

 

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/why-does-god-hate-practices-of-the-nicolaitans.html

[TheMatrixHasU71]

27 minutes ago, wingnut- said:

This link explains it pretty well, here are a few excerpts which will give you the idea.

 

In its ecclesiastical setting, Nicolaitans means the bishops and prelates of the Church have gained a triumphal victory or conquest over the LAITON, the laity. Members are compelled and forced to submit to the arbitrary dominion of men who have become that thing which God hates.

"The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:  Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; NOR AS BEING LORDS OVER THOSE ENTRUSTED TO YOU, but being examples to the flock" (1Peter 5:1 - 3).

The teachings and preaching of the Nicolaitans are in religious and secular dictionaries. When we look for the definition of the term we find it is a "hierarchy: the power of dominion, government by ecclesiastical rulers" we find the following, which is offered as evidence.

"If anyone shall say that there is not in the Catholic Church a hierarchy established by the divine ordination, consisting of bishops, presbyters and ministers, let him be anathema, Council of Trent (translation) XXIII 6." (Century Dictionary)

Let anyone who has the audacity to say there is not a hierarchy, not a collection of human beings who try to exercise authority over others, as ecclesiastical rulers over churchmen, let that man be ACCURSED. Surely, the thing in which that ecclesiastical company is glorying is their shame!

Webster's dictionary defines the word "episcopal" as "the power of government, belonging to, or invested in, bishops or prelates. Government of the church by bishops." It also says, "in episcopacy, the order of bishops is superior to the other clergy, and has exclusive power to confer orders."

The above definition affirms that a certain portion of presbyters (elders) were "in apostolic times superior in authority to ordinary presbyters." It also mentions the fact that episcopacy recognizes "episcopal rank," which is created by the institution thus governed. It all of which affirms that any church in which episcopal government obtains is practicing the very carnal and fleshly iniquity of creating "superiors" in what should be a holy brotherhood. The use of this appellation makes INFERIORS out of brethren who are in the selfsame clergy.

 

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/why-does-god-hate-practices-of-the-nicolaitans.html

I have heard too about the Nicolaitans that they took the concept of communal sharing too far, even to wife swapping and they otherwise followed practices similar to today's prosperity preachers

[Jaydog1976]

There really isn't much to describe the Nicolaitans but the idea is that this group of people were leading others into idolatry. I don't believe they had anything to do with lording over the laity or any such thing. The point being is that there were Christians holding to their teachings and heresies. 

[Jaydog1976]

Just now, Yowm said:

Well many that 'lord' over the laity also live in wantonness. 

I don't deny that. My point was what the Nicolaitans were teaching. The OP used the last part of the groups name Laitan and implied it meant "laity" which it does not. Actually the greek work used for the group was more along the lines of preparing food. I think they used food to worship idols. But that is my opinion based upon a little research of the Nicolaitans. There really isn't much information about the group. 

Quite honestly it really doesn't matter in the long run. The idea of the passage it that Christians in the church were holding to idolatry and were not staying true to the faith and Jesus Christ was condemning their practices. 

[wingnut-]

On 1/11/2018 at 9:54 AM, Jaydog1976 said:

I don't deny that. My point was what the Nicolaitans were teaching. The OP used the last part of the groups name Laitan and implied it meant "laity" which it does not. Actually the greek work used for the group was more along the lines of preparing food. I think they used food to worship idols. But that is my opinion based upon a little research of the Nicolaitans. There really isn't much information about the group. 

Quite honestly it really doesn't matter in the long run. The idea of the passage it that Christians in the church were holding to idolatry and were not staying true to the faith and Jesus Christ was condemning their practices. 

 

Hey jay,

Just wanted to clarify that the OP did not post the link, I did in response to the question.  Although from the small segment that I posted from the link it may appear that is what the study focused on, the actual overall meaning is found in the word Nicolaitan.  It is not one word in Greek, it is three Greek words combined.  This is also info from the link itself in regards to that.

 

The Greek word for Nicolaitans (Strong's Concordance Number #G3531) found in Revelation is actually three words combined. As a proper noun, it TRANSFERS, but is not translated, into English. The three Greek words used are Nikos, Laos and Ton.

The first Greek part of the English word Nicolaitans is NIKOS. We use the English equivalents instead of the Greek letters, as we shall also of the other two. Nikos is defined as "a conquest, victory, triumph, the conquered and by implication, those who are dominate over the defeated." Another transferred name in which this word is used is Nicopolis. It is composed of Niko, which means conquest, and polis, which means city. Nicopolis therefore means the city of conquest, or city of victory.

 

The middle part of the word Nicolaitans, in the Greek is LAOS. This word means people. It also is in NICOLAS, which transfers and composes into 'Nikos-laos.' This means one who is "victorious over the people," the letter "s" being in both words the nominative case ending, which is retained only at the end of the word to denote the case, while "a" short and "o" short are contracted into "a" long. A still further transferred use of LAOS is found in the name LaoSdiceans (Strong's Concordance Number #G2994), compounded with DIKE or DICE.

The last part of the word in question is TON. It is contracted into a long "a," thus making the word TAN which is the genitive case plural in all the genders of the definite article 'the.' We therefore have, without the legal Greek construction, the English hyphenated word NIKOS-LAOS-TON, but which, with its lawful contractions, becomes the English translation found in Revelation.

 

 

[frienduff thaylorde]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 6:58 AM, Yowm said:

I've heard both views from 'scholars", rule over laity, and idolators, so I thought why not both? And in some cases both exist.

We may not know for sure what It was the nicolations held too.

But ponder this .      IF the almighty were to send messages to the churches today.     AND ALL INCLUISVE SURE IS CREEPING IN ........

I can only imagine HOW HE UTTERLY HATES THAT .   a church that calls itself christain yet claims all paths good .   OH DEAR that message would be sharp.

VERY SHARP.      VERY VERY SHARP.

VERY < VERY VERY SHARP.    okay you get the point .     

[Steve_S]

Let's try to keep it on topic please. I agree that ecumenicalism is dangerous, but it is not part of every problem and does not belong in every topic.

[simplejeff]

On 1/11/2018 at 7:01 AM, Adstar said:

Usually i find in the Bible that it explains things about groups and doctrines clearly.. But it seems to me that the Nicolaitans and what their actual doctrine was is not covered in the Bible..  So does anyone have reliable information on who and what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was or yet still maybe is ?

It is not an easy thing any more that you seek.   (Before corruption entered in,  it was simple).

http://biblehub.com/library/bullinger/commentary_on_revelation/the_seven_assemblies_as_a.htm

excerpts:

"The Seven Assemblies as a Whole (I. 11).
Commentary on Revelation — E.W. Bullinger
We must here, at the outset, remove the greatest source of all the misunderstandings which have arisen with regard to these seven "churches."

The fact of their being called "churches" has naturally led commentators and students of this book to infer that it is the Church of God, or at any rate the historic Christian Church, which is meant.

The difficulty is thus arbitrarily created. The Bible student is at once confronted with an overwhelming difficulty. He has read the Epistles which are addressed to the churches by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul; and, on turning to the Epistles in Rev. ii. and iii., he is at once conscious of a striking change. He finds himself suddenly removed from the ground of grace to the ground of works. He meets with church-officers of whom he has never before heard; and with expressions with which he is wholly unfamiliar: and he is bewildered.

Two courses are open to him: either to try and force the words into a meaning to suit both, thus lowering the standard of the Church of God, and the Christian's own standing in Christ; or, to invent some purely imaginary interpretation and baseless hypothesis by applying them to Christendom, and holding that instead of seven assemblies we have seven stages of Church history: some going so far as to give the very years which mark off these periods."

... ... ... \

"They will be able to understand what is now so inexplicable to Gentile Christian readers. We find nothing in our Pauline Church Epistles that fits into what is said to these assemblies. But those readers will be at once reminded of the various stages of their own past history, and they will find in almost every sentence some allusion to the circumstances in which they will find themselves as described in this book. ... ... ...

\ ... ... ... "