Jezebel

In the letter to the church in Thyatira (Revelation 2:18), the Son of God says: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20).

He had given her time to repent, “but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality” (Revelation 2:21). He warns, “I will throw her and those who commit adultery with her into a bed of great oppression, unless they repent of her works” (Revelation 2:22), and he adds that “all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts” (Revelation 2:23). To the rest in Thyatira, who did not hold her teaching, he says, “I am not putting any other burden on you” (Revelation 2:24).

Her name recalls Ahab's queen Jezebel, who “stirred up” Ahab to do evil (1 Kings 21:25) and whose “prostitution” and “witchcraft” Jehu named (2 Kings 9:22). This Jezebel was a woman of the church in John's day, not the queen, who had died long before (2 Kings 9:33); whether Jezebel was her own name or a name given her for her deeds, the text does not say.