Revelation 2:21-23

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Revelation 2:18-29

The form of each epistle is very much the same; and in this, as the rest, we have to consider the inscription, contents, and conclusion. I. The inscription, telling us, 1. To whom it is directed: To the angel of the church of Thyatira, a city of the proconsular Asia, bordering upon Mysia on the north and Lydia on the south, a town of trade, whence came the woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, who, being at Philippi in Macedonia, probably about the business of her calling, heard Paul preach... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Revelation 2:18-29

2:18-29 And to the angel of the Church in Thyatira write: These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like beaten brass. I know your works--I mean your love and your loyalty and your service and your steadfast endurance; and I know that your last works are more than your first. But I hold it against you that you make no effort to deal with the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and whose misleading teaching causes... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 2:21

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication ,.... Of idolatry. This may have respect to the time of the witnesses, the Waldenses, and others, who bore a testimony against the Romish idolatry, and reproved for it, and denounced the judgment of God in case of impenitence; and as these things were repeated time after time, this may be called a space given to repent in; just as Jezebel had a space given her to repent in, from the time that Elijah declared the word of the Lord, that the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 2:22

Behold, I will cast her into a bed ,.... Of sickness and languishing; and which denotes the sickly, pining, and languishing state of the church of Rome, as a just retaliation for her bed of luxury and deliciousness, adultery and idolatry, she had indulged herself in; this was threatened, and was yet to come, and began at the time of the Reformation, signified by the next church state; and, ever since, the whore of Rome has been visibly sickening and decaying. The Alexandrian copy reads,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 2:23

And I will kill her children with death ,.... Her popes, cardinals, priests, Jesuits, monks, friars, and all that join in the Romish apostasy, they shall be killed with death; there shall be an utter extirpation of them in God's own time; or they shall be killed with the second death: מותנא , when used alone, or as distinct from any other kind of death, signifies the plague; compare with this 2 Kings 9:24 , and all the churches : that shall be in being at the time of Rome's... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 2:21

I gave her space to repent - " This alludes to the history of Jezebel. God first sent Elijah to Ahab to pronounce a severe judgment upon him; upon which Ahab showed tokens of repentance, and so God put off his punishment. By these means the like punishment pronounced against Jezebel was also put off. Thus God gave her time to repent, which she did not, but instead of that seduced her sons to the same sins. See 1 Kings 21:1-29. According to the Mosaical law, the punishment of idolatrous... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 2:22

Behold, I will cast her into a bed - " This again alludes to the same history. Ahaziah, son of Ahab and Jezebel, by his mother's ill instruction and example, followed her ways. God punished him by making him fall down, as is supposed, from the top of the terrace over his house, and so to be bedridden for a long time under great anguish, designing thereby to give him time to repent; but when, instead of that, he sent to consult Baalzebub, Elijah was sent to pronounce a final doom against his... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 2:23

And I will kill her children with death - " That is, I will certainly destroy her offspring and memory, and thereby ruin her designs. Jezebel's two sons, being both kings were both slain; and after that, all the seventy sons of Ahab; ( 2 Kings 10:1 ;); in all which the hand of God was very visible. In the same manner God predicts the destruction of the heretics and heresies referred to; see Revelation 2:16 . It should seem by the expression, I am he which searcheth the reins and the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 2:18-29

The epistle to the Church at Thyatira. The circuit now turns southwards. From Ephesus to Smyrna, and from Smyrna to Pergamum, was movement almost due north. Thyatira is on the Lycus, close to the Roman road between Pergamum and Sardis. It was refounded and named Thyatira by Seleucus Nicator, after the conquest of Persia by Alexander. It was strongly Macedonian in population; and it is worth noting that it is in Philippi, a city of Macedonia, that Lydia of Thyatira is found ( Acts 16:14 ).... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 2:18-29

Thyatira: victors for Christ reigning with him. In some respects this letter is very similar to the last. In one respect it is unique. Its similarity arises from the fact that in Thyatira, as in Pergamos, there was much that was excellent clogged with much that was impure; that the Saviour stood before the Church as a heart-searching Saviour; that unless the evil were put away the Church would be severely judged, as a lesson and warning to the Churches round about; that the evil ones... read more

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