Category Archives: Bible Study

Jezebel and the Nicolaitans

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Israel’s most accursed queen carefully fixes a pink rose in her red locks in John Byam Liston Shaw’s “Jezebel” from 1896. Jezebel’s reputation as the most dangerous seductress in the Bible stems from her final appearance: her husband King Ahab is dead; her son has been murdered by Jehu. As Jehu’s chariot races toward the palace to kill Jezebel, she “painted her eyes with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window” (2 Kings 9:30). Image: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK/Bridgeman Art Library.

“Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.” (Apocalypse 2:20)

There is a woman in Thyatira who is a rival of St. John the Apostle. She teaches a group known as the Nicolaitans. She–and her followers–reject the authority of the St. John and disobey his teaching. He compares her to the Old Testament queen, Jezebel.

Jezebel appears in the Old Testament (2 Kings). She is the archenemy of the prophet Elijah. She teaches the people to commit adultery and practice sorcery. Tyconius–the first Biblical scholar to write a commentary on the Apocalypse–says that the figure of Jezebel in the Apocalypse “stands for the whole fallen order.” She is everything that stands in opposition to God. Always and everywhere, whatever opposes God is “Jezebel.” Tyconius also says that her followers, her “children,” can be seen as Goliath, who refused to admit the truth: that Israel’s God is the true God and that David was the one chosen by God to protect the people. Jezebel’s followers refuse to admit the truth: that the Apostle John is the authentic teacher chosen by God and serves as the protector of the Christian communities, as David was in the Old Testament.)

The woman in Thyatira that St. John was concerned was an “antinomian.” (That’s a fancy word that means “against the rules.” Antinomian groups always object to having to follow any rules.) She taught her followers that it didn’t matter what they ate or who they slept with or if they denied Christ when arrested by the Romans and were facing execution. (There was an antinomian faction among the Christians in Corinth, as well–people thought it didn’t matter what they ate or who they slept with.)

“Jezebel” in Thyatira told her followers to just blend in with mainstream society. St. John did not want the Christians to assimilate at all with the society in which they lived. “How much assimilation is acceptable?” was a difficult question that different Christian teachers answered in different ways in different places at different times.

Balaam and the Nicolaitans

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Left: Balaam and the angel. Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
Right: Balaam and the Ass, by Rembrandt van Rijn, (1626)

“There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught … the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.” (Apocalypse 2:14)

The gentile prophet Balaam appears in the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapters 22-24. He is hired by a pagan king to curse the Israelites before they can conquer the pagan king’s territory. Balaam warns the king that he cannot do anything the gods do not approve of; the king hires him anyway. Balaam attempts to curse the Israelites three times but each time his words become blessings for the Israelites. The king is furious.

The three blessings that Balaam pronounced over the Israelites were understood by the Israelites to refer to the Messiah, especially the third blessing: “A star will rise out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” Christians often read this story at Christmas and Epiphany.

The story of Balaam and his donkey reports that as Balaam was going to a cliff that was near the Israelite camp–he wanted to look out over the Israelites as he tried to curse them–the donkey he was riding suddenly refused to walk any further. Balaam kept hitting the donkey, trying to force it to go forward. At least the donkey turned to him and said, “Don’t you see the angel blocking the road ahead?!” Shocked that the donkey spoke, he looked ahead and DID see the angle blocking the road. But the angel withdrew and allowed the donkey and Balaam to go forward although Balaam never was able to curse the Israelites. (Balaam’s donkey is one of the only two animals who are ever reported to speak in the Bible; the other one is the serpent in Eden.)

But in Numbers 25, we are told that the Israelites abandoned the true God and ate non-kosher food and engaged in a wide variety of sexual misbehavior. Later in Numbers, we read that Balaam and the pagan king taught the Israelites to do these things; they hoped that God would abandon the people if they disobeyed the commandments they had been given. (Since the king couldn’t get Balaam to curse the people, he tried this as a Plan B.) The plan worked: God struck the Israelites with a plague because of their disobedience. But they repented and eventually conquered the pagan king’s territory anyway.

The heretics in Asia Minor–false Christian teachers who instruct their followers to behave in ways St. John thinks are sinful–are compared to Balaam who taught the Israelites to disobey God even after he had blessed them and promised that the Messiah would appear among them.

Every Eye Shall See

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Eve is born from the side of Adam.
Left: Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily (built AD 1172-1267)
Right: Basilica of St. Mark, Venice (mosaic approx. 13th century)

“Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him.” (Apoc. 1:7)

The first chapter of the Apocalypse is the “cover letter” that was sent to accompany each of the seven letters to the seven churches, whose contents we read in chapters 2-3. This sentence quotes Zechariah 12:10, which is also quoted in the Gospel of St. John (19:37) in connection with Christ’s side being pierced by a spear as he hung on the Cross. The prophet in the Old Testament describes how God will share the suffering of His people in exile and that those who inflict this suffering will realize–too late?–who it is that they have been really tormenting. The gospel cites this allusion to illustrate how Christ is the fulfillment of all that Israel has been hoping for. In the Apocalypse, the true identity of the letter-writer–the true author who ‘dictates’ the letter to John, to be written down–is the same Christ who hung on the Cross and was pierced.

When Christ’s side was pierced on the Cross, blood and water poured forth. (Scientists report that the “water” was most likely hydropericardium, a clear fluid that collects around the heart during intense physical trauma.) Early Christians saw the piercing of Christ’s side as the birth of the Church. Just as Eve was born from Adam’s side as he slept in Paradise, many preachers and teachers said that the Church was born from the side of Christ as he “slept” on the Cross. Methodius of Olympus, a famous second century preacher and Biblical interpreter, said that “Christ slept in the ecstasy of his Passion and the Church–his bride–was brought forth from the wound in his side just as Eve was brought forth from the wound in the side of Adam.” The Church, the Bride of Christ, is often identified as the “new Eve” just as Christ is the New Adam. (In other contexts, the Mother of God is also identified as the New Eve. Both can be the New Eve, just as the Church and the Eucharist are both the Body of Christ–just in different manner and context.)

The blood and water that poured from Christ’s side are also considered signs of baptism and the Eucharist. Read selections from a sermon by St. John Chrysostom here about those images.