“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write…” Revelation 2:18
We come to the fourth church that the Lord addresses in Revelation 2. This is the church located in the town of Thyatira. There are several
important points about this letter. First it is the longest letter the Lord writes to any of the churches yet the city the church was located in, Thyatira, which is the least significant of the seven cities. The city was located 42 miles inland on a flat plain. Its location had no value from a military perspective but It was a good location from a trade perspective since it was located on the road between Pergamum (the capitol of Asia Minor) and Sardis. The city had an armed garrison stationed there to deter attacks against Pergamum but Thyatira did not have sufficient military might to defend itself since it lay in the middle of an open valley. Thyatira was intended to slow an advancing army until Pergamum could prepare a defense – it existed to sacrifice itself for the good of the capitol city.
The history of Thyatira is sketchy. It started as small town that was given its name by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the four generals who split Alexander the Great’s kingdom after he died. Prior to that it held the name of “Semiramis,” who was the famous queen regent of the Assyrian Empire, who reigned from 811-806 BCE. One writer records “According to historical documents she’s known as a legendary warrior who exercised political power like no other—commanding territory that stretched from Asia Minor to modern-day Iran. Historians describe her as a rare beauty, a fine military strategist, a master builder, and some even say she was builder and founder of Babylon. But Eusebius—a well-respected ancient biblical scholar and historian—identifies Semiramis as the wife of Nimrod…One of the more recent renditions of the ever-evolving lore of Semiramis was included in the book The Two Babylons, written in 1853 by a Scottish minister, Alexander Hislop. In the book the author affirms Eusebius’s claims that Semiramis was Nimrod’s wife and elaborates on her rise to power, citing Greek historical records as reference and proof. Hislop asserts that Semiramis was instrumental in Nimrod’s plan to rebel against God, and he speaks of the woman’s unusual ability to manipulate the will of men. Hislop goes on to say that together, Nimrod and Semiramis created a polytheistic religious system focused on the stars. It intents was to lure God’s chosen people away from true worship. Shortly after Nimrod died, Hislop reports that Semiramis took the title Queen of Heaven—when she claimed that Nimrod was a god and that her newborn son was Nimrod, reincarnate. “So began the worship of Semiramis and the child-god, all the symbolism and ritual of the Babylonian religious system.”
What can we learn? As the Lord speaks to his church he uses characteristics of the city it is in. The heritage of the city back
to Semiramis is one of those links. Worship of Semiramis is well documented throughout history. Her image holding
her infant son (supposedly a virgin birth) has been the object of worship for numerous religious groups throughout the ages. A second link is found in the name Thyatira. While there is some dispute over its meaning there is documentation that the name means “Female Butcher” or “She Who Rages Madly”. It derives from the verb θυω (to
slaughter (or to rage), and the suffix -τειρα (she who ). In Thyatira God will introduce us to the New Testament Jezebel. In the Old Testament she is a wicked idolatress who led an entire nation into idolatry and who caused a Godly prophet to flee. She is just as evil here.