I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. -Revelation 2:17
Jean posed a heartfelt question as a group of us were enjoying our gelato. “What is the white stone in Revelation?” she asked. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the question. The grandmother of a good friend of ours, Jean had impressed with her joie de vivre, developed through a life of faith nurtured by consistent Bible reading. I love such questions from people eager to learn more about the Scriptures.
In this case, however, I wasn’t particularly familiar with the passage she was interested in. So, as a seasoned pastor, I responded with a tried-and-true response of the seminary-trained. “That’s a great question,” I said. “ I know just the book to go to for an answer. Let me get back to you.”
So the adventure began.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the Bible, written over thousands of years in multiple countries and cultures, contains obscure passages. There are over 1,900 hapax legomenon1 in the New Testament alone. Basically, these are words used only once in the entire Bible. This, of course, makes it more difficult for the translator to figure out exactly what they mean. There are also words whose individual meaning is clear but whose usage in a phrase or an argument is nevertheless obscure. Here are a few of these from the first letter to the Corinthians:
“Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptised for the dead?”
-I Corinthians 15:29
Christians don’t practice “baptism for the dead” today, and we aren’t even sure what it was.
It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. -1 Corinthians 11:10
Though “because of the angels seemed to settle the matter in Paul’s day, it only makes this passage even more obscure.
Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? -1 Corinthians 11: 13-15a
In Paul’s cultural context, the obvious answers were “no” and “yes.” It isn’t in our culture and leaves us questioning how these verses should be applied.
It seems that all of us who seek a growing understanding of the Bible are on this same adventure. So I thought it would be helpful to share my research path for finding meaning and application in obscure passages of Scripture. In this case, the prompt is the question posed about Revelation 2:17: “I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”
Step 1: Clarifying obscure passages by context: First, I looked for illumination in the book itself. Is there another white stone used in the chapter or in the book as a whole? I didn’t see anything in the chapter, so I turned to BibleGateway’s search bar and put in “white stone.” There was no result in Revelation, and a verse in Esther used the two words but not together. Nothing there. So I tried the phrase new name, hoping for a better result. There are three instances of this adjective and this noun being used together in the Bible.
I started with the most relevant: another use of this phrase in the next chapter of Revelation:
…the one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. -Revelation 3:12
Comparing and contrasting, we see that it is a use of “new name,” but the “new name” of the risen Christ, not of the victorious person in Revelation 2:17. So, I turned to our other result.
Daniel 1:7: The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.
Here the “new names” are a part of the radical change in condition and character. Daniel and his friends were privileged in their home country. But then Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, defeated Israel.
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility – young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. -Daniel 1:3-4
These young men would live the rest of their lives in Babylon, trained in the language and literature of this foreign land, and were eventually given the responsibility to lead the land. Their name change made it clear that everything about them was about to change.
The passage in Isaiah uses “new name” to refer to the dramatic change Israel will undergo in the salvation that God will provide for the nation. Just as Abram’s name changed to Abraham (Genesis 17:5) and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel (Gen. 32:28), so Israel will have a new name:
"For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. -Isaiah 62:1-2
So, context (step 1) has helped us understand more about the phrase “new name.” But the white stone and the secretive nature of the new name remain obscure. We need a second step.
Step 2: Consider the literary structure: Our passage comes from the book of Revelation, well known for its obscure imagery. In chapters 2 and 3, for example, we find the following obscure terms and phrases:
seven stars, seven golden lampstands, seven spirits.
the sharp, double-edged sword.
eyes like blazing fire, feet like burnished bronze.
the key of David.
the Amen.
Though I could spend quite a while searching for all of these terms in the Bible, I needed to stay focused on the answer I was looking for. A focused way forward is to look at the structure of this section of Revelation. It dawned on me that the obscure terms listed above came at the beginning of each of seven sections focused on a different church:
The church in Ephesus: 2:1-7
The church in Smyrna: 2:8-11
The church in Pergamum: 2:12-17
The church in Thyatira: 2:18-29
The church in Sardis: 3:1-6
The church in Philadelphia: 3:7-14
The church in Laodicea: 3:14-21
Laying the material out like this shows that Revelation 2-3 is structured as a list of interactions between the risen Christ and seven churches. So, are images used at the end of each section as they are at the beginning? Yes, different images, including our “white stone.”
Ephesus: To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (2:7b)
Smyrna: The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. (2:11b)
Pergamum: To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. (2:17b)
Thyatira: To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations – that one “will rule them with an iron sceptre and will dash them to pieces like pottery” – just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star. (2:26-27)
Sardis: The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. (3:3-5)
Philadelphia: The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. (3:12)
Laodicea: To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. (3:21)
This is helpful, but now we have a multitude of obscure terms and phrases. Not only seven stars and lampstands, but eating from the tree of life. We add “not being hurt by the second death,” mana, and our secret white stone to the double-edged sword. To one with eyes like blazing fire and feet like burnished bronze, we add authority over nations, the morning star, and so on.
We can follow the well-worn path and define each word with a dictionary, but this will offer us little that we don’t already know. For example: a white stone is defined as follows:
white stone: a noun
A stone or pebble that is white in color.
We need a way to go beyond the dictionary definition.
Step 3: Search for an ostensive definition.
Ostensive (adjective): showing or demonstrating the meaning of something by pointing to or presenting an example, rather than explaining it in words.
So, we need to look for an ostensive definition in the context of Revelation. How is “white stone” used in our passage?
Whether or not we understand their dictionary definition, we can see that this first set of obscure words and phrases refers, as a group, to the risen Christ and the seven churches. In the same way, if we look at the phrases at the end of each of the seven sections, they are all, as a group, gifts given to those who persevere victoriously through the challenges each church currently faces. They will eat from the tree of life. They will not be hurt by the second death. They will have some of the hidden mana. They will be given authority over nations. They can be certain of being acknowledged before God and his angels, secure in God’s temple, with a seat reserved on the risen Jesus’ throne, and, yes, a white stone with a secret new name on it.
Rather than a specific verbal definition, I need to let these images, whether clear or obscure, have their intended impact: to make my heart glad and my spirit courageous and strong, knowing I will receive gifts beyond my wildest imagination for persevering through the troubles and suffering of following Jesus.
We complete this step by seeing whether any ostensive definition beyond Scripture might help us. This is the time to turn to books and commentaries beyond the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and our desire to learn.
The book that I mentioned at the beginning of this post is Richard Bauckham’s The Theology of the Book of Revelation. He points to a couple of ostensive possibilities from ancient cultures that might help us:
Ancient Greece used pebbles for a juror’s vote of guilt or acquittal; a white-for-acquittal, black-for-condemnation custom is reported in ancient literary sources. This isn’t proof, but it hints at what the white stone might have meant to the original readers.
Ancient cultures also used tokens for admission to events and religious banquets. The ancient Greeks called these tesserae; however, they could be made of clay, bone, ivory, metal, or stone. Again, not proof, but enough for us to imagine, in line with what we discovered above, the ostensive definition of the white stone in Revelation.
Step 4: The Application.
A few applications became obvious as I took this journey.
I can have a glad heart and courageous spirit in the face of challenges because I am gaining so much by persevering when things are tough.
I considered the new name that I would like to see on my stone. I thought back on how I have worked through the ups and downs of life, and the word I think best describes my discipleship with Jesus is ὑπομονή (hypomonḗ). However, given my British heritage, I would like to see the equivalent in Old English. The name I would like to see, then, is þurhwunung (þ sounds like th). Yes, from Randy to Thorwoonung; that is what I will imagine on my stone…But I’m going to keep the meaning of that word a secret between God and me!
I wanted to use this term to provide you with a way to “wow” your friends and family! Hapax (Greek ἅπαξ) means “once” or “one time.”Legomenon means “something said” or “that which is spoken.” So hapax legomenon literally means “something said once.” One of the challenges of Bible translation is finding the proper definition of words which appear only once in the Bible. Examples in the New Testament include
ὑπερνικάω (hypernikaō) to be more than conqueror Romans 8:37
θεόπνευστος (theopneustos) God-breathed 2 Timothy 3:16
Ἁρμαγεδών (Harmagedōn) Armageddon Revelation 16:16
The Old Testament also has a number of Hebrew hapax legomenon such as:
וְיִצְפֹּר perhaps “leap” or “depart” Judges 7:3
תּוֹלָלֵינוּ our draggers; perhaps “our tormentors” Psalm 137:3
תוֹתָח a weapon—possibly a club or dart Job 41:21