Matthew Poole and continuators on Revelation 2:8

8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna, write , These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive .

Smyrna was a City in Ionia, we read not when, or by whom the Gospel was first planted, and a Church gathered there; nor can we tell who are meant by the Angel of this Church, see chap. 1.20. That it was no single Person, is probable, for he speaks plurally, v. 10. the Devil shall cast some of you [non-Latin text not transcribed], into Prison.

For the meaning of this Phrase, see Annotat. on chap. 1.8, 17, 18. only it is observable how Christ speaking to this Church, under great Tribulation and Persecution, fits a Name proper to comfort them, for he himself was Dead, and yet now alive, and, he living, those that believe in him, because he lives, shall live also, Io. 14.9. and as he was the first, so he will be the last, surviving all his Enemies, and be at last a Conqueror over them.