Revelation 2 Footnotes

2:12-17 In the church at Pergamum, things were worse than at Smyrna. Though the church members seem to have been facing similar spiritual warfare from Satan (v. 13), a faithful one named Antipas had already died (v. 13). Also, a viewpoint called the teaching of Balaam (v. 14; see Nm 22–25), which is equated with the teaching of the Nicolaitans (Rv 2:15), had a strong foothold in the church. Those involved were to repent of their sinful behavior of eating things sacrificed to idols and engaging in immorality (v. 14).

2:18-29 In the church at Thyatira, things had reached a crisis point. A false prophetess, called Jezebel (v. 20), had involved her followers in the same sins as those infecting the church at Pergamum (vv. 14,20). Here this view/lifestyle is unmasked as the “so-called secrets of Satan” (v. 24). This false belief and behavior originated with the devil. As discipline for this waywardness, there would be maximized suffering (the Gk is thlipsis megale, “great affliction,” which refers to the end of the age in 7:14), which serves as a dire warning to “all the churches” (v. 23). The strong parallels between Jezebel and Babylon, the great harlot, in chaps. 17–18, as well as the startling usage of “great tribulation” (v. 22), suggests Jezebel was a first-century preview of Babylon the Great.