Revelation 2:20: Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Christ commended the Thyatiran saints for increasingly good works despite pagan pressures exerted on them by the powerful trade guilds in their city.¹ Notwithstanding these good works, the Lord had a few things (i.e., many)² against the Thyatiran saints because they allowed that woman Jezebel to teach pagan practices in their midst.³

Jezebel is probably a symbolic name⁴ borrowed from the wife of King Ahab.⁵ He reigned in the northern kingdom of Israel for 22 years⁶ at the time of the prophet Elijah,⁷ whose Hebrew name means My God is Jehovah.⁸ Jezebel was a Phoenician (non-Israelite) princess who Ahab married for political reasons.⁹ The name Jezebel ironically means chaste in Hebrew.¹⁰ At her insistence, however, Ahab established the highly unchaste and immoral worship of Baal¹¹ (BAY-uhl), meaning lord.¹² Baal was the sun god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites.¹³ The true worship of Jehovah ceased almost entirely in the northern kingdom of Israel because of Jezebel.¹⁴ Her name is therefore used to foreshadow¹⁵ an actual woman in the church at Thyatira¹⁶ who caused great wickedness and calleth herself a prophetess.¹⁷ The wicked Jezebel of Thyatira was antithetical to the righteous Lydia of Thyatira, who was Paul's first Christian convert about six decades earlier.¹⁸

Several Greek manuscripts identify Jezebel of Thyatira as thy wife Jezebel instead of that woman Jezebel.¹⁹ This alternate reading makes Jezebel the wicked and domineering wife of the bishop²⁰ of Thyatira,²¹ just as Jezebel was the wicked and domineering wife of Ahab.²² In John's letter, Christ condemns the Thyatiran bishop because thou sufferest Jezebel to teach and seduce the servants (church members)²³ to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.²⁴ Jezebel of Thyatira induced both types of sin²⁵ from within the church.²⁶ Her husband, the bishop, did not stop her in the same way king Ahab did not stop Jezebel's idolatry in ancient Israel.²⁷

Revelation 2:21: And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Jezebel of Thyatira taught by encouragement and example the immoral and idolatrous doctrines of Balaam²⁸ and the Nicolaitans.²⁹ Her fornication was physical immorality coupled with the sin of idolatry,³⁰ which Ahab's wife also introduced in ancient Israel.³¹ Under the Law of Moses, idolaters were to be stoned to death without delay so there could be no time to repent.³² Nevertheless, by the time John wrote his letter condemning Jezebel of Thyatira, the Lord had already warned her and had also given her time to repent.³³ Unfortunately, she did not do so,³⁴ just as Ahab's wife did not repent of her evil.³⁵ In fact, when Ahab's wife learned that Elijah had killed all 450 of her coveted priests of Baal,³⁶ she hardened her heart and tried to kill Elijah.³⁷

Revelation 2:22: Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Christ condemned Jezebel of Thyatira, saying: I will cast her into a bed.³⁸ Her symbolic bed represents the pain and torment that Jezebel suffers in hell.³⁹ This symbolism is made clear in the Joseph Smith Translation of this verse, which replaces the word bed with the word hell.⁴⁰ In poetic irony, the bed of adultery that gave Jezebel brief moments of pleasure and physical gratification became for her a bed of hell that gives eternal pain and spiritual anguish.⁴¹

Jezebel's punishment also alludes to Ahab's wife, who died when she was literally cast from an elevated window in her palace to the street below which became her bed.⁴² Elijah prophesied the manner of her death,⁴³ which came after Elijah had also caused a 3½-year drought in Israel.⁴⁴ The drought ended after the memorable duel between Jehovah and Jezebel's 450 priests of Baal on Mount Carmel.⁴⁵

The events on Carmel⁴⁶ also foreshadow events in involving the worship of the sun god Apollo.⁴⁷ During the contest on Mount Carmel, Baal (the sun god of fire)⁴⁸ could not cause even a spark of fire on the altar of sacrifice.⁴⁹ Jehovah, on Thyatira the other hand, sent down fire from heaven that consumed the altar and everything around it.⁵⁰ Drawing on these Old Testament images, John's letter to the Thyatiran saints describes Christ (Jehovah of the Old Testament)⁵¹ with eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.⁵² These symbols of real power possessed by Jehovah (Christ) are directly and specifically antithetical to the supposed power of fire possessed by Baal and Apollo‒the fire god of the Old Testament and sun god of the New Testament, respectively.

In Revelation 1:16 and Revelation 2:16, John also described Christ symbolically with a double-edge sword in his mouth.⁵³ This imagery also alludes to the 450 priests of Baal that were slain with the sword in a mass execution at the direction of Elijah.⁵⁴ The death of Jezebel's priests preceded her own ignominious death that occurred when she was forcibly thrown from a palace window, run over by horses, and then eaten by dogs.⁵⁵ The Lord‒writing through John‒used all these vivid images from the past to condemn Jezebel of Thyatira to a similar fate. The condemnation also extended to her spiritual progeny that commit adultery with her⁵⁶ (like her).⁵⁷ By their adulterous and idolatrous conduct, Jezebel and her followers ceased to be the virtuous wife of Jesus Christ in spirit.⁵⁸ She became instead a prototypical harlot⁵⁹ and her collective progeny is now the Great Whore (Modern Babylon) described by John in Revelation 17:1.⁶⁰

Jezebel's wicked progeny was condemned to great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.⁶¹ Great tribulation usually means physical suffering and mortal death,⁶² as opposed to the spiritual pains of hell on earth⁶³ or the torment of the damned.⁶⁴ At the end of Christ's mortal ministry he used the words great tribulation⁶⁵ to describe several abominations of desolation⁶⁶ that later befell the Jews and Jerusalem.⁶⁷ These included the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD,⁶⁸ and again in 135 AD after the Bar Kokhba Revolt.⁶⁹ These abominations of desolation from the past foreshadow the future and final abominations of desolation that will befall the Jews and Jerusalem before the Second Coming.⁷⁰ Before that future date, there will be a Great Tribulation for 3½ years, which corresponds to the 3½ year ministry of the Two Witnesses at Jerusalem in Revelation chapter 11.⁷¹ This Great Tribulation will end with a final abomination of desolation that will last for 3½ days between the death and resurrection of the Two Witnesses. During this brief interval, the gentile armies of Armageddon will commit atrocities against the Jews at Jerusalem "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," according to Matthew 24:21.⁷²

There is no Biblical account of the great tribulation that ultimately befell Jezebel and her followers in Thyatira. However, the future Great Tribulation is the antitype for whatever must have occurred. In addition, their great tribulation is also foreshadowed by the tribulation and death of Ahaziah, whose Hebrew name means held by Jehovah.⁷³ Ahaziah was the son of Ahab and his wicked wife.⁷⁴ Ahaziah's good name belies his character because he too was an idol worshiper like his mother.⁷⁵ Ahaziah's tribulation began when he fell through a roof lattice in his palace and was bedridden.⁷⁶ He called on his pagan god Baal-zebub to cure him instead of calling upon his name-sake, Jehovah.⁷⁷ For Ahaziah's calculated evil, Elijah prophesied that Ahaziah would never rise from his bed again.⁷⁸ Angered by Elijah's prophecy, Ahaziah sent two separate companies of 50 men each to kill Elijah, and both companies were consumed by fire from Jehovah,⁷⁹ the true God of fire.⁸⁰ Ahaziah died in his bed of torment shortly thereafter.⁸¹ His torment and death as a child of Ahab's Jezebel foreshadows the torment and death of the Thyatiran children of Jezebel that commit spiritual adultery and fail to repent.⁸²

Revelation 2:23: And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Jezebel's children are her spiritual followers.⁸³ They are spiritually reared in her wicked likeness,⁸⁴ and Christ declares that he will kill her children with death.⁸⁵ This phrase is a Hebraism⁸⁶ that emphasizes the certainty of their death as a judgment from God.⁸⁷ To kill her children with death includes both their physical and spiritual death.⁸⁸ The manner and certainty of their death was foreshadowed by the death of Ahab and Jezebel's other children‒in addition to Ahaziah‒that were massacred by Jehu.⁸⁹ The Lord appointed Jehu⁹⁰ to slaughter Ahab's entire family after Jezebel died and was eaten by dogs.⁹¹ After killing the extended family of Ahab and Jezebel, Jehu also executed all the followers of Baal when they accepted an invitation to worship Baal in Samaria.⁹² With their execution, the worship of Baal was eliminated in Israel.⁹³

The death of Jezebel's children at Thyatira was to be an event of such renown that all the churches (not the world at large)⁹⁴ would recognize it as a judgment from God.⁹⁵ This deadly event has been lost to recorded history, but its antitype will undoubtedly be the catastrophic fall of Modern Babylon⁹⁶ and the end of all wickedness at the Second Coming.⁹⁷

When Christ declared that he would kill Jezebel and her children with death, he identified himself as the eternal God, I AM,⁹⁸ saying: I am he, that searcheth the reins (kidneys)⁹⁹ and hearts.¹⁰⁰ This phrase means that the omniscient Christ could discern the innermost thoughts and feelings of Jezebel's followers.¹⁰¹ Therefore, he exercised righteous judgment upon them¹⁰² as idol worshipers based on what was in their reins (hearts today),¹⁰³ and also according to [their] works.¹⁰⁴ Followers of Jezebel in any era cannot escape the consequences of their sinful acts even if done in secret because the Lord can see their acts and he knows their innermost thoughts and feelings.¹⁰⁵