Thyatira: A Cultic Gospel

Background:

*Thyatira was the least significant church of all the seven cities

• Located 55 miles northeast of Smyrna
• Only church off the main road the other churches/cities were on
• Strategically important to Roman military as it connected the Caicus and Hermus valleys where two rivers met
• Unlike the politically important Ephesus, wealthy Smyrna, or ultra-religious Pergumum, Thyatira had no illustrious past.
  • Little mention of Thyatira in ancient sources, and where it is mentioned, its in passing as a quaint military garrison
• The significance of Thyatira was in its military garrison and its trade guilds
  • It was a blue-collar town
• The trade guilds are very apparent in the city. They had guilds in:
  • Dyes – See Lydia’s conversion in Acts 16:11-15
    • It was a guild of all dyes, but is specialized in purple dye
      • The rivers that met in the valleys possessed a special snail that secreted purple, so it was a long and strenuous process to detract purple dye, which is why only royalty or highly religious authority wore it (because they were the only one who could afford it)
  • Wool
  • Linen
  • Leather
  • Tanner
  • Potters
  • Bakers
  • Slaves
  • Bronze-smiths

*Thyatira was essentially a mix between Pittsburgh and 29 Palms

• Thyatira was Roman (temples to artemis, Dionysus, asklepios), but was religiously diverse and frankly, quite weird
  • Coins found show diverse group of Asian, ancient mesopotamean, Greek, persian, roman gods
• In Thyatira also existed a shrine to Sambethe
  • At the shrine, a sybl i.e. prophetess would receive divine revelation and share to those paying homage
  • Sambethe was called Egyptian, Persian, Chaldean, and Hebrew, but the bigger context is the Sibylline Oracles
    • Collection of Persian, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman “prophecies” and “oracles”
• The Sibylline oracles also tell “Apollos Homile” with his epic fight with the dragon, python, who comes to devour Apollo but is rescued when Apollo returns to restore order from the oppressive reign of python- See correlations to Revelation 12 and how Christ re-purposes the Apollo homile to retell the curse of Genesis 3
  • Also see Revelation 9:11 where John associates the “angel in charge of the bottomless pit” as apollo
  • John, writing on Patmos, was the birthplace of where this homile/story take place, hence the massive temple to apollo on Patmos. So John writing from here to a community where a shrine is instituted to the one credited with the story

Side Note: They Sibylline oracles also have oracles and stories from the Garden of Eden, Tower of Babel, and Noah (one tradition claims Sabethe, the prophetess, was a daughter of Noah)

*The Book of Revelation is meant to be a anti-thesis, violently counter to the Sybille impression among Romans, Jews, and Christians in this area

Revelation 1:14-15

¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

Revelation 2:18-29

¹⁸ “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

• See Revelation 1:14-15- Same description as how John see Christ

 ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

• “your deeds, love, and faith”
  • Remember Ephesus: The “Mature” church’s love grew cold, but in Thyatira, it increased!
• “your service and perseverance”
  • Trade guilds in ancient Rome were more than just clubs or associations, but were vital for success as a craftsman in a trade
  • Modern “guilds”:
    • FDA would be food and drug guild
    • FDC would be a bank guild
    • FAA would be an aviation guild
    • Kimberly Process is the diamond guild
    • Unions are functionally what guilds provided
  • Without Guilds protection, advocacy, approval, and promotion, it was very hard to do business
  • Guilds put on festivals or parades to promote the different trade guilds, but the festivals would culminate in paying homage, or worship, to Roman gods and emperors

*The church Thyatira were either Roman military or craftsman who belonged to guilds, but because membership in a guild required festival participation that culminated in idol worship, eating a feast of food sacrificed to idols; the Christians left the guilds.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

• Apparently, the church was headed in two directions. The majority was maturing and growing in Christ, but an element seemed to turn away from truth
• Who was this Jezebel woman?
  • Jezebel objectives-1 Kings 16-17
    • Provoked God- 1 Kings 16:29-33
    • Usurp, legitimate God-ordained authority
    • Turn congregation towards idolatry and sexual immorality
      • Notice: In both Pergamum and Thyatira, Jesus associates sexual immorality with Satan
  • In this situation, Jesus may be speaking less to the Jezebel woman but more the desire for the church to act like Elijah

*Elijah essentially asked God’s people (like Christ is asking Thyatira now), “How long will you co-exist with two opinions between two gods?

• The issue with this church is they, like Israel in the days of Jezebel, tolerated a domineering woman to lead them into sin
• The church, through inaction, gave tacit approval of her “revelations” like sambethe’s prophetess. They were not doctrinally decisive.

*The Jezebel spirit is not only a woman problem, but found in both men and women. Its people trying to undermine church authority/leadership, and turn worship away from its focal point

 ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

• Unlike previous churches, where Jesus warns them to repent and gives them time. Here, He has given her time, but she has refused and now judgment has come

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

• Its interesting, that this is a one-issue church. They were healthy in everything else, but this one thing. How many churches, or believers, are healthy except that ONE thing they won’t repent of…and its still enough to bring judgment
• Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 his burden is light, but we bring additional burden on ourselves

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’^[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

• “Authority with a scepter”- Just the Roman garrison is ruling over you with authority, you will have authority over them
  • Note they will be shattered like pottery, nod to their trade in the city
• “the morning star”- Jesus promises Himself
  • 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 22:16