24. _But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira._ The word――“_and_”――καὶ――is omitted in many MSS. and versions, and in the critical editions of Griesbach, Tittmann, and Hahn, and the connection demands that it should be omitted. As it stands in the received text, it would seem that what he here says was addressed to those who _had_ received that doctrine, and to all others as well as to them; whereas the declaration here made pertains manifestly to those who had _not_ received the doctrine. With that particle omitted the passage will read, as {85} rendered by Professor Stuart, “But I say unto you, the remainder in Thyatira, so many as hold not this doctrine,” &c. That is, he addresses now all the members of the church who were not involved in the charges already made. He does not say how large a portion of the church had escaped the contaminating influence of those opinions, but to that portion, whether great or small, he addresses only words of exhortation and comfort. ¶ _As many as have not this doctrine._ To all who have not embraced it, or been contaminated with it. It may be presumed that there was a considerable portion of the church which had not. ¶ _And which have not known the depths of Satan._ The deep art and designs of Satan. Deep things are those which are hidden from view――as of things which are far underground; and hence the word is used to denote mysteries, or profound designs and purposes. The allusion here is not to any _trials_ or _sufferings_ that Satan might bring upon anyone, or to any temptations of which he might be the author, but to his profound art in inculcating error and leading men astray. There _are_ doctrines of error, and arguments for sin, to originate which seems to lie beyond the power of men, and which would appear almost to have exhausted the talent of Satan himself. They evince such a profound knowledge of man; of the divine government; of the course of events on earth; and of what our race needs; and they are defended with so much eloquence, skill, learning, and subtlety of argumentation, that they appear to lie beyond the compass of the human powers. ¶ _As they speak._ This cannot mean that the defenders of these errors themselves called their doctrines “the depths of Satan,” for no teachers would choose so to designate their opinions; but it must mean, either that they who were opposed to those errors characterized them as “the depths of Satan,” or that they who opposed them said that _they_ had not known “the depths of Satan.” Professor Stuart understands it in the latter sense. A somewhat more natural interpretation, it seems to me, however, is to refer it to what the opposers of these heretics said of these errors. They called them “the depths of Satan,” and they professed not to have known anything of them. The meaning, perhaps, would be expressed by the familiar words, “as they say,” or “as they call them,” in the following manner: “As many as have not known the depths of Satan,