Revelation 2:18

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like unto burnished brass:

THYATIRA

Some twenty miles east of Pergamum on the road to Sardis was Thyatira, a name which means "castle of Thya,"[77] and which is probably retained in the modern Ak-Hissar (white castle), a Turkish town on a fertile plain, being the center of the cotton industry, and a relatively important town of 30,156 (1955).[78] In New Testament times, the dye industry was important, Lydia having been from Thyatira (Acts 16:14). It was also the home of many influential trade guilds, having their own deities, temples, and guild halls, where feasts, tending to obscenity, and all kinds of immoralities were practices. Politically, Thyatira was a kind of buffer state between Pergamum on the west and Seleucus (Syria) on the east, evidently changing hands a number of times between the two states in pre-Christian history.[79] "Apollo the sun god, was the principal deity,"[80] probably leading to the reference to the Son of God and the morning star in this message, as a contrast.

[77] E. J. Banks, op. cit., p. 2977.

[78] Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 1, p. 482.

[79] E. M. Blaiklock, op. cit., p. 108.

[80] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 64.