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April 28, 2024 |
| The Church of Thyatira | ||
The Book of Revelation describes contains messages to 7 churches in Asia Minor, which we now call Turkey. These messages are essentially a report card for each of those churches.
The evaluations range from doing badly to doing great. Some of the churches are in difficult situations and need encouragement.
Most people think these messages have two purposes:
In this study, we look at one of those churches, the Church of Thyatira. It has a problem that we know many churches in our time are also having.
And to the messenger who is in the assembly in Thawatyra: thus says the son of God, he who has eyes like flames of fire and his feet like the brass of Lebanon. 19 "I know your works, your love, your faith, your service and your patience, and your latter works are more than the first." (Revelation 2:18-19)
This is a church that is doing well in many areas. More than that, they are getting better. That's the meaning of "You are doing more than you did before." They would be pleased to hear this evaluation.
The Son of God is described as having two visual characteristics:
These might seem like odd things to bother saying. They seem to be here to be a contrast with the Church of Thyatira. As we'll see in a moment, they are not perceiving and they are not staying on the path.
"I have much against you, because you are tolerating your wife Jezebel who says about herself that she is a prophetess, and teaches and seduces my servants to commit fornication and to eat the sacrifices of idols." (Revelation 2:20)
To understand, we first need to understand that there is no person in the Church of Thyatira whose name is Jezebel. Jezebel is a symbolic name indicating there is a woman in that church who works in the spirit of Jezebel. Having used a symbolic name, a person in that church would not be able to recognize her, except that the text continues on to say that she can be identified by her claim to be a prophetess.
The text says something about this claim, that she "says about herself." This is God's way of saying I (God) didn't call her to be a prophetess. She is claiming that.
More generally, there are three common misunderstandings of this verse, and therefore about this message to the church. The first and worst is that Jezebel is the focus here. There are studies of this verse that are focused on Jezebel, as a representative of sexual sin in the church. That isn't the focus of this message to the church - I don't even think that Jezebel is a good representative of sexual sin. She was better known for something else which we will see later.
A better understanding of this verse comes from realizing that the key word is "tolerating." That's the real problem Thyatira has.
An even better understanding is built on the word "tolerating" and by understanding that the word "Jezebel" can't be used without also using "Ahab". He was the tolerator who allowed Jezebel to do what she wanted.
The best understanding comes from adding the phrase "your wife" to this. Unfortunately almost all translations do not translate this phrase as "your wife" but as "that woman." The original word could be translated either way. The translators are likely thinking that it makes no sense to say that a church has a wife so "that woman" is used.
That decision misses the point God is making, though. If Jezebel is the church's wife, who is the Church of Thawatyra? It's Ahab. God is charging Thawatyra with being the Ahab church to this Jezebel prophetess in their congregation. God isn't just saying they are tolerators but that they are tolerators in the spirit of Ahab. That connection to historic Ahab and Jezebel will come up again in the verses.
For background, in the time of Ahab, northern Israel had fallen away from God. Under Jeroboam they split from southern Israel who built their own temple. This was done so the people of northern Israel would have no reason to go to southern Israel … and perhaps not come back.
Jezebel was a Phoenician; Ahab was an Israelite. As such, they should not have been married. The marriage was arranged to establish good relations with Phoenicia. Ahab wanted to trade goods with Phoenicia but mostly he has the same concern as Jeroboam. He wanted the temple in northern Israel.
Ahab let Jezebel do whatever she wanted. The Bible explicitly says this.
Surely there was no one who sold himself to do what is evil in the sight of Yahweh like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. (1 Kings 21:25)
The phrase "sold himself" is a reference to slavery. The meaning is that Ahab, though he was king, made himself a slave to whatever Jezebel told him to do. That's the same meaning as tolerating.
The phrase "his wife" above links to the phrase "your wife" in our verses.
Therefore, the spirit of Ahab is the spirit of tolerating / allowing.
Ahab allowed Jezebel to do many evil things. She resolved a failed business deal between Ahab and Naboth by executing Naboth … and Naboth's sons … to make sure there was no inheritance claim on the property.
More concerning to God, it was Phoenician practice for a royal woman to be the priestess of Astarte1. Astarte is the name of a goddess who is also known as Eostre, Ostara, and Eastre, whose name is also linked to Easter. Ahab built a temple to Baal in northern Israel where Jezebel would have been priestess to this goddess.
So, when Elijah had all the prophets of Baal killed, Jezebel was not a disinterested worshiper of Baal. She was their supporter and protector. They were fed from the king's table.
Jezebel was raised in the cult of Baal and Asherah worship. Her goal was to institutionalize that in Israel.
After Ahab died and she became queen, she kept busy:
She did these things to eliminate competition for Baal worship, so Baal worship could flourish. Therefore, the spirit of Jezebel is the spirit of bringing in false teachings.
The verses referred to fornication and eating of food sacrificed to idols. We need to understand what is meant by that.
The Bible's definition of fornication is more general than in English. It describes a collection of sinful practices such as prostitution, adultery, incest, … .
In the verses we are looking at, the intended meaning is more likely spiritual than physical. So that would be spiritual prostitution, spiritual adultery, spiritual incest, …
Paul says idols are nothing and the food sacrificed to them is nothing, but the image of Christians is stained by being seen to be benefiting from an idol and supporting a false god. There are other references in the Bible to not eating food offered to idols.
Again, the intended meaning of "eat the sacrifices of idols" is likely spiritual. Spiritual eating of food sacrificed to idols is to pollute oneself.
"And I gave her time for repentance, and she did not choose to turn from her fornication. 22 Behold, I shall cast her into a coffin, and those who commit adultery with her into great suffering, unless they repent of their deeds." (Revelation 2:21-22)
"Coffin" is a poor translation but it gets the point across - she will die. It is better than "bed" which is commonly seen in other Bible translations and only confuses the reader. The best word in English would be bier but that is not a well-known word.
Bier - a movable frame on which a corpse is placed before burial or on which it is carried to the grave
As discussed earlier, "fornication" and "adultery" are used in a spiritual sense, chasing after other gods and not your husband. Remember that earlier the verses said this prophetess was fornicating and causing others to do the same.
We see here a connection with the Jezebel of the Old Testament again - she was cast out of a window and died. Here we see her being cast onto a bier.
"And I shall kill her children by Death, and all the assemblies will know that I search the kidneys and the hearts, and I shall give to every one of you according to your works." (Revelation 2:23)
Here we see another connection with Jezebel of the Old Testament and the deaths of her children.
In the case of the Jezebel in our verses, the children are spiritual children, meaning followers, those who continue on the spiritual lineage. The verse says they would be killed "by Death", which sounds strange but, that is God's way of describing the physical death of spiritual children. Spiritual death is a different death.
"I say to you and to the rest who are in Thawatyra, all of those who do not have this doctrine, those who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say: I shall not lay upon you any other burden." (Revelation 2:24)
Note the use of "doctrine" to refer to "fornication" and "adultery." The meaning is that the doctrine she teaches, whatever it is, teaches spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. Having (accepting) this doctrine is knowing the depths of Satan.
Some see the phrases "depths of Satan" and "as they say" as a hint at Nicolaitan beliefs that are also mentioned in the messages to two other churches. I don't think that makes sense with a prophetess, with Ahab, and with tolerating.
There is a lot of debate about what "burden" is being referred to. I think the only new burden laid on them is that of intolerance for false teachings.
"That which you have, therefore, hold fast until I come." (Revelation 2:25)
Earlier in these verses, the Church of Thawatyra was commended for the many good things they were doing. Now they are encouraged to hold fast to what you have
The expression "hold fast" is common in the New Testament but not so in our time. We might say, "hold on for dear life."
"To him who is victorious and keeps my works, I shall give authority over the nations, 27 to shepherd them with a rod of iron, and like the vessels of a potter you shall shatter them, for in the same manner I have also received of my Father. 28 And I shall give him the Star of the Morning." (Revelation 2:26-28)
God is speaking about being spiritually "victorious" which means enduring until the end. This idea goes with "holding fast" in the previous verse.
The phrase "keeps my works" refers to a person who does what God asks.
These verses that were written to a church almost 2000 years ago now switch to being a prophecy about the Millennium. In doing that it repeats Psalm 2:9 almost word for word. The Millennium will be a time when we help Jesus rule the world. Sin will not be allowed then and it will be our job to make sure people are broken toward God.
There is much discussion about this Morning Star reference and I have no special insight into what is meant by it.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies. (Revelation 2:29)
This is a common phrase meaning that there is a deeper meaning to what has been said. You now understand that deeper meaning.
We don't really know what happened to the Church of Thawatyra. The Bible never mentions them again.
Obviously God doesn't want the church of Thawatyra (Thyatira) to be an Ahab church. God is going to kill the prophetess. That will help the church but they still need to change the hearts and minds of the people in the church. It isn't easy to get people who have stopped perceiving and judging to get back on that path.
There is no extra-Biblical record of what happened to the church of Thawatyra except that, by the second century, they no longer existed.
1 This and some other information came from Wikipedia.
2 This and some other information came from Wikipedia.