[zeek]

Originally Posted by HERn

Not that Scofield's comments are the "cat's meow", but here's what's in his 1917 version:

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2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Nicolaitanes

From nikao, "to conquer," and laos, "the people," or "laity." There is no ancient authority for a sect of the Nicolaitanes. If the word is symbolic it refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order, or "clergy," which later divided an equal brotherhood Matthew 23:8 into "priests" and "laity." What in Ephesus was "deeds" Revelation 2:6 had become in Pergamos a "doctrine Revelation 2:15 .

Nicolaitanes Revelation 2:15, contra, ; 1 Peter 5:2 1 Peter 5:3 ; Matthew 24:49 .
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WL made reference to this somewhere and during my "due diligence" early days I found it, which helped me swallow the whole thing "hook, line, and sinker".

Does anyone know if Scofield was anti-cleric?

Here is the Recovery Version note on Revelation 2:6 for comparison:

The Greek word is composed of two words, one meaning conquer or be victorious over and another meaning common people, secular people, or laity. Thus , it means conquering the common people, being victorious over the laity. Nicolaitans, then, must refer to a group of people who esteem themselves higher than common believers. This was undoubtedly the hierarchy adopted and established by Catholicism and Protestantism. The Lord hates the works, the behavior, of these Nicolaitans, and we must hate what the Lord hates. God in His economy intended that all His people be priests serving Him directly. In Exo. 19: 6 , God ordained the children of Israel to be a kingdom of priests. This means that God wanted them all to be priests. However, because they worshipped the golden calf ( Exo. 32: 1-6 ), they lost the priesthood, and only the tribe of Levi, because of its faithfulness to God, was chosen to replace the whole nation of Israel as priests to God ( Exo. 32: 25-29 ; Deut. 33: 8-10 ). Hence , there was a mediatorial class between God and the children of Israel . This became a strong system in Judaism. In the New Testament, God has returned to His original intention according to His economy, in that He has made all believers in Christ priests ( 1: 6 ; 5: 10 ; 1 Pet. 2: 5 , 9 ). But at the end of the initial church, even in the first century, the Nicolaitans intervened as the mediatorial class to spoil God’s economy. According to church history, this became a system that was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and has been retained by the Protestant churches. Today in the Roman Catholic Church there is the priestly system, in the state churches there is the clerical system, and in the independent churches there is the pastoral system. All these are a mediatorial class, spoiling the universal priesthood of all believers. Thus, there are two distinct classes — the clergy and the laity. But in the proper church life there should be neither clergy nor laity; all believers should be priests of God. Because the mediatorial class destroys the universal priesthood in God’s economy, the Lord hates it. Among the seven serving ones in Acts 6: 5 , one was named Nikolaos (Gk.). There is nothing in church history to indicate that this Nikolaos was the first of the Nicolaitans.

... said the MOTA, Oracle of God, Pope and Chief Clergyman of the "Lord's Recovery" a church of his own conception and control who broached no other doctrine, teaching or opinion under his domain but his and his alone. He was the last of the Nicolaitans, at least for me.