Νικολαΐτης

From the study of Revelation 2:6

Range of meaning

A follower of Nicolaus. Nikolaos was a common Greek personal name, formed from nikē/nikaō ("victory, conquer") and laos ("people"). Outside Revelation 2:6 and 2:15 the term does not appear in the New Testament.

Against the English

All versions simply transliterate "Nicolaitans". That is right, because the identity of the group is not given in the text.

How it drifted

Popular teaching often takes the name apart ("conquer the laity") and reads it as a warning against clergy ruling over ordinary believers. That meaning comes from a modern sense of "laity", not from Revelation (see the popular_drift section).

Used elsewhere in the period

Irenaeus (Against Heresies 1.26.3; 3.11.1, c. AD 180) says they descended from Nicolaus, the proselyte of Antioch chosen as one of the Seven in Acts 6:5, and "lived lives of unrestrained indulgence." Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 2.20; 3.4; quoted in Eusebius, Church History 3.29) defends Nicolaus himself. He says his followers twisted his saying that "one must misuse (or: make hard use of) the flesh" into permission for indulgence. Hippolytus repeats the link to Nicolaus. These later writers may be inferring from the name, and none of them has independent first-century information. Ignatius (To the Ephesians 9.1, c. AD 110) praises the Ephesians for not letting travelling false teachers "sow" among them, which fits the reputation reflected here.