But  the  former  supposition  could  not  be  applied  in  the
case  of  the  Apocalypse ;  it  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the
results  established  in  chapter  vi.,  since  it  would  leave  un-
explained the  fundamental  fact  in  the  case,  viz.^  that  the
writer  uses  the  expression  "  the  Seven  Churches"  in  i.  4, 11,
as  recognised  and  familiar,  established  in  common  usage,  and
generally  understood  as  summing  up  the  whole  Christian
Province.  Moreover,  the  messenger  in  First  Peter  was
starting  on  a  journey  to  deliver  a  real  letter ;  but  in  the
Apocalypse  the  letter-form  is  assumed  merely  as  a  literary
device,  and  the  book  as  a  whole,  and  the  Seven  Letters  as
part  of  it,  are  literary  compositions  not  really  intended  to
be  despatched  like  true  letters  to  the  Churches  to  which
they  are  addressed.  The  list  of  the  Seven  Churches  is
taken  over,  like  the  rest  of  the  machinery  of  epistolary
communication,  as  part  of  the  circumstances  to  which  this
literary  imitation  has  to  accommodate  itself.
Moreover  those  who  properly  weigh  the  indisputable  facts


i88     XV.   Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities

stated  in  chapter  vi.  about  the  growth  of  the  Laodicean
district,  as  an  example  of  the  steady,  rapid  development  of
early  Christian  organisation,  must  come  to  the  conclusion
that  the  writer  of  the  Letters  cannot  have  been  the  first  to
make  Laodicea  the  representative  of  a  group  of  Churches,
but  found  it  already  so  regarded  by  general  consent.  Now
what  is  true  of  Laodicea  must  be  applied  to  the  rest  of  the
Seven  Churches.
