Seven churches of Revelation 2-3

John begins the book of Revelation with letters to seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Each of these towns had unique personalities that I describe in my book “John’s Apocalypse: A Jewish Idea.” In this series of blogs, I seek to give a brief history of each town, focusing around the time period when John…