THYATIRA, a City which some ascribe to Mysia, and others to Lydia, or to the Lesser Asia, because it is upon the Frontiers of these three Provinces. This is what St. John says in his Revelation to the Bishop or Angel of Thyatira: I know Rev. ii. 18,19,&c.thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first: Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman, Jezabel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols: And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds: And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and the hearts: And I will give unto every one of you according to your works: But unto you, I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come, &c.
Some think the Angel of Thyatira, or the Bishop of this Church, to whom these Words are directed, to be St. Carpus, or St. Irenæus: But the first is very doubtful, and the latter without any Foundation. It Epiphan. Hæresi 51.is not surely known who this Angel of Thyatira was. Epiphanius says, that some Hereticks doubted of the Authority of the Revelation, because in their time there was no longer any Christian Church at Thyatira; as if that was a Proof that there was none there heretofore. As to Jezabel, who pretended to be a Prophetess, ‘tis believed that Jezabel is only a figurative Expression, to denote some very wicked Woman, but it is not known who she was. Several Greek Manuscripts read, Your Wife Jezabel; and some of the primitive Fathers have thought that it was even the Wife of the Bishop of this City. Others believe it to stand for the Nicolaitans, who corrupted the Manners of the Faithful, and seduced them to their Heresies. But the greater part judge, with good Reason, that under the Name of Jezabel St. John would insinuate some powerful presumptuous Woman, who perverted the People by her vain Pretences to Prophecy.