Sardisa name that thou livest
To Sardis, which had a name for being alive and was dead: be watchful.
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Now playing: Sardis: a name that thou livest
The whole story
To Sardis speaks he that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. The church had a name for being alive and was dead: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die” (Revelation 3:2). “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief” (Revelation 3:3).
A few names in Sardis had not defiled their garments, and they would walk with him in white, for they were worthy. He that overcometh is promised white raiment, a name not blotted out of the book of life, and his name confessed before the Father and before his angels.
Sardis had been the capital of Croesus, king of Lydia, whose wealth was a byword, on a citadel thought impossible to take. Twice it fell because no one was watching: to Cyrus in 546 BC, and to Antiochus the Third in 214 BC, when soldiers climbed the cliff by night. Its great temple of Artemis and a vast synagogue still stand in ruins.
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Revelation 3:1, KJV
Where it happened
Sardis, Sart, Turkey.
Sart, below the hilltop citadel of the old Lydian kings.
Every story stands at its place on the Worldwide Watch map: the Bible’s world, on the map.
More from Revelation
Revelation
Sources and editorial method
Research and editorial references used for this page include:
- The King James Bible, as published by bible-api.com
- The Book of Enoch, translated by R. H. Charles (1917), Project Gutenberg
Every story is told from the King James Bible, and from the Book of Enoch in R. H. Charles’s translation (1917) where a story names it. Every quotation was checked word for word against those texts. Where a place is not known, the page says so. The paintings and the narration were made for the house.
