Revelation 2:20
“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.” - ABPE
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"Instead of that woman Jezebel, την γυναικα Ιεζαβηλ, many excellent MSS., and almost all the ancient versions, read την γυναικα σου Ιεζαβηλ, Thy Wife Jezebel; which intimates, indeed asserts, that this bad woman was the wife of the bishop of the Church, and his criminality in suffering her was therefore the greater". - Clarke
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"From coins it is evident that guilds of bakers, bronze smiths, wool workers, potters, linen weavers and tanners were active in the city. However these guilds were related with the pagan religions in Thyatira. Such guilds would often hold banquets which included the eating of food offered to idols and participation in immoral sexual acts (cf. Rev. 2:20–24).
his elaborate and highly composite impersonation of the Divine nature, with so many names and such diversity of character, seems to have been produced by a syncretism of different religious ideas in the evolution of the city. To hold a job or run a business in Thyatira, it was necessary to be a member of a guild. Each guild had its own patron diety.
The members of the guild were expected to attend the guild festivals and to eat the food, part of which was offered to the patron deity.
After the feast with meat sacrificed to idols ended, the activities characterized by gross sexual immorality began. To walk out on such activity would make one an object of ridicule and persecution. A faithful Christian may have found it difficult to live his faith, as well as practice his craft.
Thyatira in Church History About 150 AD, Montanus began a cult practice from Thyatira, claiming his prophetesses spoke with the voice of the Holy Spirit (hence, Montanism).
- generationword
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to the Gentiles:
Acts 15:29
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.