We will now take an in-depth look at the letter to Thyatira in order to fully understand the principles we just introduced. In this first part, we’ll be studying the cultural context of Thyatira to understand the cultural relevance of the letter. In part two, we’ll look at where John is getting his material and the brilliant way he is using Old Testament Text to preach a sermon within the letter to Thyatira.
So first, we need a little background on Thyatira.
By far the smallest of the seven church cities, Thyatira was estimated to be around 25,000 to 30,000 people. The city sat on the main road and was founded by Seleucus I around 300 BC (or Humenes I around 250 BC, depending on who you ask) as a military outpost. Very much unlike places such as Smyrna, Thyatira was very “blue collar” and unsophisticated in its demographic. Thyatira was a hard-working city full of labor guilds. In fact, we found a list of the registered guilds in Thyatira and its one of the longest lists we’ve ever uncovered. The guilds in the city included leatherworkers, wool workers, weavers, bakers, tailors, dyers, candlemakers, cobblers, potters, bronze smiths, blacksmiths, slave merchants, dyers of purple cloth, and stonecutters. For a city the size of Thyatira, that list is very long, and the jobs are for hard workers.
One of the leading guilds of Thyatira was an extensive network of bronze smiths. They specialized in a very famous kind of bronze that we know as “burnished bronze.” In a world that didn’t have the glass technology of today, burnished bronze was the material used to produce the closest thing to mirrors they had. The Greek word for this special bronze was chalkolibanos.
What little we know about Thyatira comes mostly from coins and currency circulated through the area. The one thing we know about the worship of Thyatira was that their chief god was Tyrimnos, son of Zeus. Scholars have always found this quite perplexing, as Tyrimnos is certainly not a major player in the Greco-Roman Olympiad of gods. Why choose such an obscure god to worship? Some have suggested it's because such a blue collar city would have wanted to root for the underdog. Others have pointed to an obscure reference to the honor of a very young son of Domitian who passed away while still an infant. One inscription was found where the late son was being held by Domitian and the child held the seven stars of the Roman zodiac in his right hand. Could the choice to worship Tyrimnos be a pointed reference to the song of Domitian? It’s a possibility.
One last point of interest about Thyatira is the presence of a Jewish prophetess that operated at a Sybil shrine by the name of Sambathe. Sybil shrines were like minor league oracles and dealt in pagan witchcraft (you might remember our discussion about oracles here). Apparently, from what we can gather from the little information we have, Sambathe was a big proponent of the Roman labor system and the many guilds that not only powered the local labor force, but also — if you remember — would be steeped in pagan idolatry and sexual immorality.
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| Inside the oracle temple at Didyma |
Now, let’s look at the letter of Thyatira and keep our eyes peeled for culture.
“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
“These are the words of the Son of God …” This is the only reference to “Son of God” in all the letters to the seven churches. Why here? Is it because their worship centered on the son of Zeus and the son of Domitian? Fitting that the reference would be found here and nowhere else.
“… feet are like burnished bronze.” Here we see that special export that Thyatira specialized in.
“… your service and perseverance …” This is a fitting reference for such a hard-working, military town.
“You tolerate that woman Jezebel …” Here we have an obvious reference to Sambathe, the Sybil oracle.
“… she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” This points to the ever-present temptation to engage in guild feasts as would have been widely available in a city like Thyatira.
“So I will cast her on a bed of suffering …” The actual reference in the Greek is to the word cline (where we get the word “recliner”), which is the same word used to reference a “guild couch.” This is where sexual immorality happens at a guild feast.
“I will strike her children dead.” This is a possible reference to the dead child of Domitian.
“… Satan’s so-called deep secrets…” These secrets are a reference to the underworld oracles proclaimed by the Sybil oracle Sambathe.
“… iron scepter … pottery …” These are some of the guilds present in Thyatira — particularly the potter’s guild and the blacksmith’s guild.
“I will also give that one the morning star.” And finally we have the son of Domitian who held the stars in his hand.
Every line of this letter to Thyatira came directly from the immediate culture of the city; the letter is stunning in its clever, cultural relevance. But now, let’s ask the question of what the source for John’s material would be…
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