1. General: "seven churches prophetic history eras" (EXTERNAL_HISTORICAL)¶
[GUINNESS] The Approaching End of the Age (Ref: 2402, Score: 0.770) — "THE PROPHETIC TIMES AND THEIR EPACTS."
[HODGKIN] Italy and Her Invaders (Ref: 24596, Score: 0.752) — "which ranks in ecclesiastical history as 'the seventh"
[ELLIOTT3] Horae Apocalypticae Vol. 3 (Ref: 3235, Score: 0.751) — "THE FOUR PROPHETIC EMPIRES, AND THE KINGDOM OF MESSIAH"
[FABER] A Dissertation on the Prophecies (Ref: 189, Score: 0.748) — "Under the six first seals...the history of the Roman empire, before and after the days of Constantine to the beginning of the seventh century...a new era commences: and the prophet henceforth describes a series of troubles and persecutions, which the true Church was to undergo during the space of 1260 prophetic days"
[GUINNESS2] Romanism and the Reformation (Ref: 1233, Score: 0.741) — "arranged in order in three groups of seven: first seven seals, then seven trumpets, and then seven vials...the first six seals represent events extending from John's own day to the fall of paganism and the establishment of Christianity in the Roman earth"
[CLARKE] Commentary on the Bible (Ref: 128605, Score: 0.736) — "seven Asiatic Churches"
[ELLIOTT1] Horae Apocalypticae Vol. 1 (Ref: 739, Score: 0.732) — "and literal application to those Asiatic churches then existing, and signified further seven several phases that the"
[ELLIOTT4] Horae Apocalypticae Vol. 4 (Ref: 5966, Score: 0.732) — "Epistles to the seven Churches"
ELLIOTT1 3181 (Score: 0.647) — Discussion of prophetic peoples and scourges under second woe
ELLIOTT1 1402 (Score: 0.633) — KEY: "The fury of the populace readily...seconded the declared intention of the emperor. And thus...Christian blood was shed throughout the extent of the Roman world. And long before the nine or ten years of the persecution expired..."
ELLIOTT1 1403 (Score: 0.631) — "How long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" — persecution as continued shedding of Christian blood
ELLIOTT1 3025 (Score: 0.688) — "Since the era of Haroun Al Raschid no woe, like that of the Saracens, had come near...the empire of the city of Constantine"
ELLIOTT1 1608 (Score: 0.677) — KEY: "It is from the circumstance of the temporary legal toleration of Paganism by Constantine, and its subsequent partial toleration in act, that the chief argument has been drawn against the application of this prophetic vision to the politico-religious revolution in the Roman empire under Constantine"
ELLIOTT1 2344 (Score: 0.673) — Discussion of Roman empire division changes between Constantine's time and Gothic invasions
ELLIOTT1 1687 (Score: 0.675) — KEY: "Figures; as Apoc. ii. 20, 'Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess,' &c; iii. 12, 'I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God'...appellations as Apoc. ii. 9, and iii. 9, 'that say they are Jews, and are not.' ... 'adeo ut pseudo-ch..."
ELLIOTT1 742 (Score: 0.670) — Full text of Rev 2:18-29 (Thyatira letter)
ELLIOTT1 2166 (Score: 0.617) — Sulpitius Severus on death of Martin of Tours; departed saint as guardian and intercessor
ELLIOTT1 228 (Score: 0.615) — "These apostles and teachers, who preached the name of the Son of God, dying after they had received his faith and power, preached to them who were dead before" (Hermas, Simil. ix. 16)
BARNESREV 278 (Score: 0.720) — "This chapter comprises four of the seven epistles addressed to the seven churches; those addressed to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, and Thyatira. A particular view of the contents of the epistles will be more appropriate as they come separately to be considered"
BARNESREV 218 (Score: 0.719) — "The book of Revelation may be regarded as divided into seven portions...The introduction, chap. i.; the epistles to the seven churches, chap. ii., iii.; the preparatory vision, chap. iv.; the relation of the church to the external world...chap. v-xi..."
BRIGHTMAN 403 (Score: 0.669) — "the first of the 7 churches is notable through Christes righteousnes, the faith and holines of that people"
BRIGHTMAN 474 (Score: 0.639) — "taken from the vision which was seene aboue in the former chapter, the sundry members of it beinge applyed accordinge to the diverfe condition of thinges...the seauen Starres in his right hand, declare the [power] of Christ in defendinge: the ministers of this Church"
BRIGHTMAN 4429 (Score: 0.649) — Discussion of Antichrist and the ancient church's integrity of doctrine
MEDE 89 (Score: 0.652) — "Now, these are the beginnings of the prophecies to which I allude. Of the vision of the seven churches, in these words: 'I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard a great voice behind me, as of a trumpet, saying,' etc."
MEDE 957 (Score: 0.633) — "the Church, liberated from Pagan tyranny, to the time of the seventh trumpet, and the second Advent of Christ, by the type, not of a latent, invisible, but, as it were, an intermediate condition, like that of the Israelitish Church journeying in the wilderness, from its departure from Egypt, to its entrance into the land of Canaan"
TNEWTON 3204 (Score: 0.698) — KEY: "The second and third chapters contain the seven epistles to the seven churches of Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These seven are addressed particularly, because they were under St. John's immediate inspection; he constituted bishops over them; he was as it were their metropolitan...The main subjects, too, of this book are comprised of sevens, seven churches..."
TNEWTON 4792 (Score: 0.683) — "Ephesus, that church admonished to repent, her candlestick now removed, and the seven churches ruined...the first epistle to the seven churches addressed to them...its former magnificence, but present ruinous condition...the denunciation against it strikingly fulfilled"
SCHAFF1 3450 (Score: 0.721) — KEY: "Ephesus, then the metropolis of the Asian church, had withstood, indeed, the Gnostic errorists predicted by Paul, and faithfully maintained the purity of the doctrine delivered to it; but it had lost the ardor of its first love, and it is, therefore, earnestly exhorted to repent. It thus represents to us that state of dead, petrified orthodoxy, into which various churches oftentimes fall."
SCHAFF 3955 (Score: 0.731) — "THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION"
SCHAFF 3952 (Score: 0.715) — KEY: "In 303 Diocletian issued in rapid succession three edicts, each more severe than its predecessor. Maximian issued the fourth, the worst of all, April 30, 304. Christian churches were to be destroyed; all copies of the Bible were to be burned; all Christians were to be deprived of public office and civil rights; and at last all, without exception, were to sacrifice to the gods upon pain of death."
SCHAFF 999 (Score: 0.705) — KEY: "From the fourth century it has been customary...to reckon ten great persecutions of the Christians, under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, and Diocletian, respectively. But this number is in any view incorrect; too great for the general persecutions, and far too small for..."
SCHAFF 3951 (Score: 0.705) — "the chief instigator of the renewal of hostility, according to the account of Lactantius, was Diocletian's co-regent and son-in-law Galerius, a cruel and fanatical heathen. He prevailed at last on Diocletian in his old age to authorize the persecution"
SCHAFF 13966 (Score: 0.778) — KEY: "Constantine, the first emperor who mingled in the religious affairs of Christendom, and who did this from a political, monarchical interest for the unity of the empire and of religion"
SCHAFF 10890 (Score: 0.750) — KEY: "With the union of the church and the state begins the long and tedious history of their collisions and their mutual struggles for the mastery: the state seeking to subject the church to the empire, the church to subject the state to the hierarchy...From the time of Constantine, therefore, the history of the..."
Headers only returned; full texts of Pliny's letters to Trajan about Christians (Epistulae X.96-97) not returned in snippet form. Key content from Pliny X.96: described Christians meeting before daylight, singing hymns to Christ as to a god, binding themselves by oath not to commit crimes, sharing a common meal. Asked Trajan for guidance on persecution policy.
TACITUS 878 (Score: 0.686) — KEY: Passage about propitiating the gods after the fire of Rome. This is the context for the famous passage (Annals XV.44): "all human efforts...were not able to banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace."