Revelation 2:20

But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

The woman Jezebel ... This verse is one of the most interesting in the New Testament, because here there well could have been an example of female leadership having been accepted in a church of Christ. The very fact of this character's having been allowed to teach, with the sufferance of the whole church, and of her also claiming the gift of prophecy strongly suggest it. Moreover, the prominence which Lydia doubtless had in bringing the gospel to the place could have created a favorable atmosphere for the development of just such an aberration. However that may be, there is a clear case here of a dissolute woman having usurped the principal authority of a church. The word Jezebel "is not a figurative term for a party or a movement; it designates an actual person (Revelation 2:2f), her followers being distinguished from her."[81] Whatever her actual name might have been, the Lord called her "Jezebel," after the "wicked queen of that name who tried to establish an idolatrous cult in the place of the worship of Yahweh and was herself accused of whoredom and witchcraft (2 Kings 9:22)."[82] Some have sought to identify her with the Chaldean Sibyl, a pagan religious establishment that stood outside the walls of Thyatira; but, as Lenski said, "The woman of this letter cannot be such a sibyl; she is a pretending prophetess who operates right in the Christian Church as one of its members."[83]

To commit fornication ... eat things sacrificed to idols ... This identification of the sins of Jezebel identifies her and her followers with the followers of Balaam and with the Nicolaitans, there being no difference whatever in the sins cited. It is quite evident, therefore, that in the three churches of Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira, the problem was the same, that being the type of wickedness described here; and that the principal thrust of the messages regards the progression of this evil from: (1) the conduct of a few at Ephesus; to (2) the justification of it by a body of teaching at Pergamum; to (3) the leadership of the church, in the person of Jezebel, having been thoroughly corrupted by it.

[81] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 466.

[82] G. R. Beasley-Murray, op. cit., p. 1285.

[83] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 115.