Thyatira
VIEW:20 DATA:01-04-2020
a perfume; sacrifice of labor
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
THYATIRA.There is a long valley extending northward and southward and connecting the valleys of the Hermus and Caicus. Down this valley a stream flows southwards, and on the left bank of this stream was Thyatira. An important road also ran along this valley, the direct route between Constantinople and Smyrna, and the railway takes this route now. Thyatira was also in the 1st cent. a.d. a station on the Imperial Post Road (overland route) from Brundislum and Dyrrhachium by Thessalonica, Neapolis (for Philippi), Troas, Pergamum, Philadelphia to Tarsus, Syrian Antioch, Cæsarea of Palestine, and Alexandria. In its connexion with Pergamum this road had always a great importance. Thyatira was built (in the middle of the valley, with a slight rising ground for an acropolis) by Seleucus, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, whose vast kingdom extended from W. Asia Minor to the Himalayas. The city was founded between b.c. 300 and 282 as a defence against Lysimachus, whose kingdom bordered that of Seleucus on the N. and W., and the colonists were Macedonian soldiers. In 282, Philetærus revolted from Lysimachus and founded the kingdom of Pergamum. After the death of Lysimachus, Thyatira was a useful garrison to hold the road, in the interests first of the Seleucids and afterwards of the Pergamenians. The latter were safe from the former if they were in possession of Thyatira. The relation between Pergamum and Thyatira was thus of the closest. The city, though weak in position, was a garrison city, and had to be carefully fortified, and everything was done to foster the military spirit. The character of the citys religion is illustrated by the hero Tyrimnos, who is figured on its coins. He is on horseback and has a battle-axe on his shoulder. This hero is closely related to the protecting god of the city, whose temple was in front of the city. He was considered the divine ancestor of the city and its leading families, and was identified with the sun-god. He also had the title Pythian Apollo, thus illustrating the strange mixture of Anatolian and Greek ideas and names which is so common a feature in the ancient religions of Asia Minor. In conformity with this, he was represented as wearing a cloak fastened by a brooch, carrying a battle-axe, and with a laurel branch in his right hand, symbolizing his purifying power. (It is certain that the place was inhabited before the time of Seleucus, but merely as a village with a temple.) The city had Pythian games on the model of those in Greece proper, and in the 3rd cent. a.d. the Emperor Elagabalus was associated with the god in the worship connected with them, showing the closer relation which had been effected between the popular and the Imperial religion. It is probable that Seleucus i. had settled Jews in Thyatira, as he certainly did in some of the cities of Asia. Lydia of Thyatira (Act_16:14) had come within the circle of the synagogue, possibly in her native place.
Little is known of the history of the city. It surrendered to the Romans in b.c. 190. It was occupied by Aristonicus during his revolt in b.c. 1332. It must have suffered severely and repeatedly during the fighting between Arabs and Christians, and Turks and Christians, in the Middle Ages. Its situation demands that it be captured and re-fortified by every ruling power. In Roman times it had been a great trading city, dating its greatest period of prosperity from about the time when the Seven Letters were written. There is evidence of more trade-guilds there than in any other Asian city: wool-workers, linen-workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather-workers, tanners, bronze-smiths, etc. Lydia probably belonged to one of those guilds. The purple in which Lydia dealt must have been a product of the region of Thyatira, and the well-known Turkey-red must therefore be meant. It is obtained from madder-root, which grows abundantly in that region. The name purple had a much wider meaning among the ancients than among us. The bronze work of Thyatira was also remarkably fine (cf. Rev_2:18).
The letter addressed to the Church at Thyatira (Rev_2:18-29) is the most obscure and difficult of all the seven, as we know so little of local conditions. It is remarkable that the city, which was the least of all the seven (with perhaps the exception of Philadelphia), should be promised strength and power. The exact nature of the Nicolaitans with their prophetess cannot be precisely determined. The principles they represented were regarded by the author as subversive of true Christianity.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
(Lydia, the probable agent of carrying the gospel to her native town.) (See LYDIA.) Thyatira lay a little to the left of the road from Pergamos to Sardis (Strabo 13:4, who calls it "a Macedonian colony"); on the Lycus, a little to the S. of the Hyllus, at the N. end of the valley between Mount Tmolus and the southern ridge of Tetanus. Founded by Seleucus Nicator. On the confines of Mysia and Ionia. A corporate guild of dyers is mentioned in three inscriptions of the times of the Roman empire between Vespasian and Caracalla. To it probably belonged Lydia, the seller of purple (i.e. scarlet, for the ancients called many bright red colors "purple") stuffs (Act_16:14). The waters are so suited for dyeing that nowhere is the scarlet of fezzes thought to be so brilliant and permanent as that made here. Modern Thyatira contains a population of 17,000.
In Rev_2:18-25, "the Son of God who hath eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass," stands in contrast to the sun god. Tyrimnas, the tutelary god of Thyatira, represented with flaming rays and feet of burnished brass. Christ commends Thyatira's works, charity, service, faith, and patience. Thyatira's "last works were more than the first," realizing 1Th_4:1, instead of retrograding from "first love and first works" as Ephesus (Rev_2:4-5); the converse of Mat_12:45; 2Pe_2:20. Yet Thyatira "suffered that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." (See JEZEBEL.) Some self-styled prophetess, or collection of prophets (the feminine in Hebrew idiom expressing a multitude), closely attached to and influencing the Thyatira church and its presiding bishop or "angel" (the Alexandrinus and Vaticanus manuscripts read "thy wife" for "that woman") as Jezebel did her weak husband Ahab.
The presiding angel ought to have exercised his authority over the prophetess or prophets so-called, who seduced many into the libertinism of the Balaamites and Nicolaitans of Thyatira's more powerful neighbour Pergamos (Rev_2:6; Rev_2:14; Rev_2:16). (See BALAAMITES; NICOLAITANS.) The Lord encourages the faithful section at Thyatira. "Unto you (omit 'and' with the Alexandrinus and the Vaticanus manuscripts, the Sinaiticus manuscript reads: 'among ') the rest in Thyatira I say, ... I will put upon you none other burden (save abstinence from and protestation against these abominations: this the seducers regarded as an intolerable burden, see Mat_11:30); but that which ye have hold fast until I come." A shrine outside Thyatira walls was sacred to the sibyl Sambatha, a Jewess or Chaldaean, in an enclosure called "the Chaldaean court."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Thyati'ra. A city on the Lycus, founded by Seleucus Nicator, lay to the left of the road from Pergamos to Sardis, 27 miles from the latter city, and on the very confines of Mysia and Ionia, so as to be sometimes reckoned, within the one and, sometimes, within the other. Dyeing apparently formed an important part of the industrial activity of Thyatira, as it did of that of Colossae and Laodicea. It is first mentioned in connection with Lydia, "a seller of purple." Act_16:14. One of the Seven Churches of Asia was established here. Rev_2:18-29.
The principal deity of the city was Apollo; but there was another superstition, of an extremely curious nature, which seems to have been brought thither, by some of the corrupted Jews of the dispersed tribes. A fane stood outside the walls, dedicated to Sambatha ? the name of the sibyl who is sometimes called Chaldean, sometimes Jewish, sometimes Persian ? in the midst of an enclosure designated "the Chaldaeans' court."
This seems to lend an illustration to the obscure passage in Rev_2:20-21, which some interpret of the wife of the bishop. Now, there is evidence to show that in Thyatira, there was a great amalgamation of races. If the sibyl Sambatha was in reality a Jewess, lending her aid to the amalgamation of different religions, and not discountenanced by the authorities of the Judeo-Christian Church at Thyatira, both the censure and its qualification become easy of explanation. (The present name of the city is ak-Hissar, ("white castle"). It has a reputation for the manufacture of scarlet cloth. Its present population is 15,000 to 20,000. There are nine mosques. ? Editor).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a city of Lydia, in Asia Minor, and the seat of one of the seven churches in Asia. It was situated nearly midway between Pergamos and Sardis, and is still a tolerable town, considering that it is in the hands of the Turks, and enjoys some trade, chiefly in cottons. It is called by that people Ak-hisar, or White Castle.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
Thyatira was an important manufacturing centre in the Roman province of Asia (present-day Turkey). It had factories for the manufacture of clothing, dyes, pottery and brasswork (Act_16:14; Rev_2:18).
Towards the end of the first century, the church in Thyatira was troubled by a woman who was encouraging the Christians to join in idolatrous feasts and their accompanying immoral practices. The apostle John wrote to the church to warn the woman and her followers of the judgment for which they were heading, and to encourage the true Christians to remain faithful to God (Rev_2:19-29).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
thı̄-a-tı̄?ra (Θυάτειρα, Thuáteira): Thyatira was a wealthy town in the northern part of Lydia of the Roman province of Asia, on the river Lycus. It stood so near to the borders of Mysia, that some of the early writers have regarded it as belonging to that country. Its early history is not well known, for until it was refounded by Seleucus Nicator (301-281 BC) it was a small, insignificant town. It stood on none of the Greek trade routes, but upon the lesser road between Pergamos and Sardis, and derived its wealth from the Lycus valley in which it rapidly became a commercial center, but never a metropolis. The name ?Thyatira? means ?the castle of Thya.? Other names which it has borne are Pelopia and Semiramis. Before the time of Nicator the place was regarded as a holy city, for there stood the temple of the ancient Lydian sun-god, Tyrimnos; about it games were held in his honor. Upon the early coins of Thyatira this Asiatic god is represented as a horseman, bearing a double-headed battle-ax, similar to those represented on the sculptures of the Hittites. A goddess associated with him was Boreatene, a deity of less importance. Another temple at Thyatira was dedicated to Sambethe, and at this shrine was a prophetess, by some supposed to represent the Jezebel of Rev_2:20, who uttered the sayings which this deity would impart to the worshippers.
Thyatira was specially noted for the trade guilds which were probably more completely organized there than in any other ancient city. Every artisan belonged to a guild, and every guild, which was an incorporated organization, possessed property in its own name, made contracts for great constructions, and wielded a wide influence. Powerful among them was the guild of coppersmiths; another was the guild of the dyers, who, it is believed, made use of the madder-root instead of shell-fish for making the purple dyestuffs. A member of this guild seems to have been Lydia of Thyatira, who, according to Act_16:14, sold her dyes in Philippi. The color obtained by the use of this dye is now called Turkish red. The guilds were closely connected with the Asiatic religion of the place. Pagan feasts, with which immoral practices were associated, were held, and therefore the nature of the guilds was such that they were opposed to Christianity. According to Act_19:10, Paul may have preached there while he was living at Ephesus, but this is uncertain; yet Christianity reached there at an early time. It was taught by many of the early church that no Christian might belong to one of the guilds, and thus the greatest opposition to Christianity was presented.
Thyatira is now represented by the modern town of Ak-Hissar on a branch line of the Manisa-Soma Railroad, and on the old Rom road 9 hours from Sardis. Ak-Hissar is Turkish for ?white castle,? and near the modern town may be seen the ruins of the castle from which the name was derived. The village is of considerable size; most of the houses are of mud, but several of the buildings erected by Caracalla are still standing, yet none of them are perfect. In the higher part of the town are the ruins of one of the pagan temples, and in the walls of the houses are broken columns and sarcophagi and inscribed stones. The population of 20,000 is largely Greek and Armenian, yet a few Jews live among them. Before the town is a large marsh, fever-laden, and especially unhealthful in the summer time, formed by the Lycus, which the Turks now call Geurdeuk Chai. The chief modern industry is rug-making.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Thyati?ra, a city on the northern border of Lydia, about twenty-seven miles from Sardis, the seat of one of the seven Apocalyptic churches (Rev_1:11; Rev_2:18). Its modern name is Ak-hissar, or the white castle. According to Pliny, it was known in earlier times by the names Pelopia and Euhippa (Hist. Nat. v. 29). Strabo asserts that it was a Macedonian colony (xiii. p. 928). The Roman road from Pergamus to Sardis passed through it. It was noted for the art of dyeing, as appears from Act_16:14. It still maintains its reputation for this manufacture, and large quantities of scarlet cloth are sent weekly to Smyrna. The town consists of about two thousand houses, for which taxes are paid to the government, besides two or three hundred small huts; of the former 300 are inhabited by Greeks, 30 by Armenians, and the rest by Turks. The common language of all classes is the Turkish; but in writing it, the Greeks use the Greek, and the Armenians the Armenian characters. There are nine mosques and one Greek church.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
(θυατείρα ῾τὰ], Vulg. civitas Thyatirenorum), a city in Asia Minor, the seat of one of the seven Apocalyptic churches (Rev_1:11; Rev_2:18). It was situated on the confines of Mysia and Ionia, a little to the south of the river Hyllus, and at the northern extremity of the valley between Mount Timolus and the southern ridge of Temnus. It was founded by Seleucus Nicator, and was regarded as a Macedonian colony (Strabo, 13:928), from the strong Macedonian element in its population, it being one of the many Macedonian colonies established in Asia Minor, in the sequel of the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander. The original inhabitants had probably been distributed in hamlets round about when Thyatira was founded. Two of these, the inhabitants of which are termed Areni and Nagdemi, are noticed in an inscription of the Roman times. According to Pliny, it was known in earlier times by the names Pelopia and Euhippia (Hist. Nat. 5, 29). The Roman road from Pergamos to Sardis passed through it. The resources of the neighboring region may be inferred both from the name Euhippia and from the magnitude of the booty which was carried off in a foray, conducted jointly by Eumenes of Pergamos and a force detached by the Roman admiral from Canae, during the war against Antiochus. During the campaign of B.C. 190, Thyatira formed the base of the king's operations; and after his defeat, which took place only a few miles to the south of the city, it submitted, at the same time with its neighbor Magnesiaon-Sipylus, to the Romans, and was included in the territory made over by them to their ally the Pergamene sovereign.
During the continuance of the Attalic dynasty, Thyatira scarcely appears in history; and of the various inscriptions which have been found on the site, not one unequivocally belongs to earlier times than those of the Roman empire. The prosperity of the city seems to have received a new impulse under Vespasian, whose acquaintance with the East, previously to mounting the imperial throne, may have directed his attention to the development of the resources of the Asiatic cities. A bilingual inscription, in Greek and Latin, belonging to the latter part of his reign, shows him to have restored the roads in the domain of Thyatira. From others, between this time and that of Caracalla, there is evidence of the existence of many corporate guilds in the city. Bakers, potters, tanners, weavers, robe makers, and dyers (οἱ βαφεῖς) are specially mentioned. Of these last there is a notice in no less than three inscriptions, so that dyeing apparently formed an important part of the industrial activity of Thyatira, as it did of that of Colossse and Laodicea. With this guild there can be no doubt that Lydia, the seller of purple stuffs (πορφυρόπωλις), from whom Paul met with so favorable a reception at Philippi (Act_16:14), was connected. The country around this city is fertile and well watered, abounding in oaks and acacias, and in its numberless streamlets are found the leeches used in medicine throughout Austria and the east of Europe in general. The mode of taking them is curious; a number of children are sent to walk barefooted among the brooks, and come back to their employers with their feet covered with leeches. The waters here are said to be so well adapted for dyeing that in no place can the scarlet cloth out of which fezzes are made be so brilliantly or so permanently dyed as here. The place still maintains its reputation for this manufacture, and large quantities of scarlet cloth are sent weekly to Smyrna.
Thyatira is at present a populous and flourishing town; its inhabitants amount to eight thousand, and they are on the increase. Its modern name is Akhissar, or the white castle. The town consists of about two thousand houses, for which taxes are paid to the government, besides two or three hundred small huts; of the former, three hundred are inhabited by Greeks, thirty by Armenians, and the rest by Turks. The common language of all classes is the Turkish; but in writing it the Greeks use the Greek, and the Armenians the Armenian characters. There are nine mosques and one Greek church. It exhibits few remains of antiquity, save fragments built into the walls of houses. There is, indeed, an ancient building in a very ruinous condition at a little distance from the city, to which tradition has given the name of the Palace of the Caesars; it is impossible to determine either its date or its purpose. But though there is little that can be identified, yet for miles around Thyatira are precious relics in the form of sarcophagi, capitals of columns, and similar fragments, used as troughs, coverings for wells, and such purposes.
Thyatira was never a place of paramount political importance, and hence her history is less interesting to the classical student than those of Ephesus, Sardis, and Pergamos, which were the capitals of great kingdoms. Her chief hold on our consideration is that at Thyatira was seated one of those churches to which the Spirit sent prophetic messages by the beloved apostle. The message itself is one of peculiar interest, but presenting at the same time a remarkable difficulty. After much commendation on the virtues and progress of the Church or the elder, pastor, bishop, or angel-the epistle continues, Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman (or as the correct text has it, thy wife) Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols (Rev_2:20). This is followed by threats of judgment upon herself, her lovers, and her children. The question naturally arises, What party is represented by this Jezebel? To understand this message rightly, it will have to be borne in mind that Thyatira was very near Pergamos and that the latter was by far the more important city, and probably possessed the more numerous Church; the influence and example of Pergamos would be likely to have a great influence on the smaller city and Church.. SEE PERGAMOS.
Now, at Pergamos, the Balaamites, who taught precisely the doctrine here attributed to Jezebel, were numerous, as well as the Nicolaitans (q.v.); We are not, therefore, at all to be surprised at finding a party espousing and endeavoring to propagate similar sentiments in Thyatira; but it would be a miserable literalism, and contrary to the whole genius of the Apocalyptic imagery, to suppose the leader of this heretical sect to be a woman of the name of Jezebel. We can only understand by this a person holding substantially the same relation to the official head of the Church in Thyatira which Jezebel of old did to the king of Israel; that is, a party that ought to have been in subjection usurping it, for wicked purposes, over the proper ruler. For this the leader is severely rebuked, and the heaviest judgments threatened both against him and the usurping party unless they repent. There was still, however, a faithful portion who stood aloof from the licentious teaching which was propagated. To them the Lord turns with words of encouragement, and exhorts them to hold fast what they had received. There is a small error also in the text at the commencement of this address. It should be But unto you I say, the rest in Thyatira; those, namely, who resisted the pollution. The received text confuses the meaning by putting it, But unto you I say, and to the rest, as if both parties were alike called to continue steadfast. SEE JEZEBEL.
The principal deity of the city was Apollo, worshipped as the sun-god under the surname Tyrimnas. He was no doubt introduced by the Macedonian colonists, for the name is Macedonian. One of the three mythical kings of Macedonia, whom the genealogists placed before Perdiccas the first of the Temenidse that Herodotus and Thuicydides recognize is so called; the other two being Carants and Ccenus, manifestly impersonations of the chief and the tribe. The inscriptions of Thyatira give Tyrimnas the titles of πρόπολις and προπάτωρ θεός, and a special priesthood was attached to his service. A priestess of Artemis is also mentioned, probably the administratrix of a cult derived from the earlier times of the city, and similar in its nature to that of the Ephesian Artemis. Another superstition of an extremely curious nature which existed at Thyatira, seems to have been brought thither by some of the corrupted Jews of the dispersed tribes. A fane Stood outside the walls dedicated to Sambatha the name of the sibyl who is sometimes called Chaldean, sometimes Jewish, sometimes Persian in the midst of an enclosure designated the Chaldaeans court (τοῦ Χαλδαίου περίβολος).
This lends an additional illustration to the above passage (Rev_2:20-21), which seems to imply a form of religion that had become condemnable from the admixture of foreign alloy, rather than one idolatrous ab initio. Now there is evidence to show that in Thyatira there was a. great amalgamation of races. Latin inscriptions are frequent, indicating a considerable influx of Italian immigrants; and in some Greek inscriptions many Latin words are introduced. Latin and Greek names, too, are found accumulated on the same individuals, such as Titus Antonius Alfeus Arignotus and Julia Severina Stratonicis. But amalgamation of different races in pagan nations always went together with a syncretism of different religions, every relation of life having its religious sanction. If the sibyl Sambatha was really a Jewess, lending her aid to this proceeding, and not discountenanced by the authorities of the Judaeo-Christian Church at Thyatira, both the censure and its qualification become easy of explanation. It seems also not improbable that the imagery of the description in Rev_2:18, ὁ ἔχων τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ ώς φλόγα, καὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτοῦ ὅμοιοι χαλκολιβάνῳ , may have been suggested by the current pagan representations of the tutelary deity of the city. . See a parallel case at Smyrna (q.v.). Besides the cults which have been mentioned, there is evidence of a deification of Rome, of Hadrian, and of the imperial family. Games were celebrated in honor of Tyrimnas, of Hercules, and of the reigning emperor. On the coins before the imperial times, the heads of Bacchus, of Athena, and of Cybele are also found; but the inscriptions only indicate a cult of the last of these.
See Strabo, 13:4; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 5, 31; Livy, 37:8, 21, 44; Polybius, 16:1; 32:25; Elian, Var. Hist. 12:35; Bbckh, Inscript. Graec. Thyatir., especially Nos. 3484-3499; Jablonski, De Ecclesia Thyatirensi (Francof. ad V. 1739); Stosch, Antiq. Thyatiren. (Zwoll. 1763); Hoffmann, Griechenland, 2, 1714; Svoboda, Seven Churches of Asia Minor, p. 48 sq.; Barber, Patmos and Seven Churches (Bridgeport, 1851), p. 187 sq.; and the works cited under SEE ASIA MINOR and SEE REVELATION.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
THYATIRA.There is a long valley extending northward and southward and connecting the valleys of the Hermus and Caicus. Down this valley a stream flows southwards, and on the left bank of this stream was Thyatira. An important road also ran along this valley, the direct route between Constantinople and Smyrna, and the railway takes this route now. Thyatira was also in the 1st cent. a.d. a station on the Imperial Post Road (overland route) from Brundislum and Dyrrhachium by Thessalonica, Neapolis (for Philippi), Troas, Pergamum, Philadelphia to Tarsus, Syrian Antioch, Cæsarea of Palestine, and Alexandria. In its connexion with Pergamum this road had always a great importance. Thyatira was built (in the middle of the valley, with a slight rising ground for an acropolis) by Seleucus, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, whose vast kingdom extended from W. Asia Minor to the Himalayas. The city was founded between b.c. 300 and 282 as a defence against Lysimachus, whose kingdom bordered that of Seleucus on the N. and W., and the colonists were Macedonian soldiers. In 282, Philetærus revolted from Lysimachus and founded the kingdom of Pergamum. After the death of Lysimachus, Thyatira was a useful garrison to hold the road, in the interests first of the Seleucids and afterwards of the Pergamenians. The latter were safe from the former if they were in possession of Thyatira. The relation between Pergamum and Thyatira was thus of the closest. The city, though weak in position, was a garrison city, and had to be carefully fortified, and everything was done to foster the military spirit. The character of the citys religion is illustrated by the hero Tyrimnos, who is figured on its coins. He is on horseback and has a battle-axe on his shoulder. This hero is closely related to the protecting god of the city, whose temple was in front of the city. He was considered the divine ancestor of the city and its leading families, and was identified with the sun-god. He also had the title Pythian Apollo, thus illustrating the strange mixture of Anatolian and Greek ideas and names which is so common a feature in the ancient religions of Asia Minor. In conformity with this, he was represented as wearing a cloak fastened by a brooch, carrying a battle-axe, and with a laurel branch in his right hand, symbolizing his purifying power. (It is certain that the place was inhabited before the time of Seleucus, but merely as a village with a temple.) The city had Pythian games on the model of those in Greece proper, and in the 3rd cent. a.d. the Emperor Elagabalus was associated with the god in the worship connected with them, showing the closer relation which had been effected between the popular and the Imperial religion. It is probable that Seleucus i. had settled Jews in Thyatira, as he certainly did in some of the cities of Asia. Lydia of Thyatira (Act_16:14) had come within the circle of the synagogue, possibly in her native place.
Little is known of the history of the city. It surrendered to the Romans in b.c. 190. It was occupied by Aristonicus during his revolt in b.c. 1332. It must have suffered severely and repeatedly during the fighting between Arabs and Christians, and Turks and Christians, in the Middle Ages. Its situation demands that it be captured and re-fortified by every ruling power. In Roman times it had been a great trading city, dating its greatest period of prosperity from about the time when the Seven Letters were written. There is evidence of more trade-guilds there than in any other Asian city: wool-workers, linen-workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather-workers, tanners, bronze-smiths, etc. Lydia probably belonged to one of those guilds. The purple in which Lydia dealt must have been a product of the region of Thyatira, and the well-known Turkey-red must therefore be meant. It is obtained from madder-root, which grows abundantly in that region. The name purple had a much wider meaning among the ancients than among us. The bronze work of Thyatira was also remarkably fine (cf. Rev_2:18).
The letter addressed to the Church at Thyatira (Rev_2:18-29) is the most obscure and difficult of all the seven, as we know so little of local conditions. It is remarkable that the city, which was the least of all the seven (with perhaps the exception of Philadelphia), should be promised strength and power. The exact nature of the Nicolaitans with their prophetess cannot be precisely determined. The principles they represented were regarded by the author as subversive of true Christianity.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
(Lydia, the probable agent of carrying the gospel to her native town.) (See LYDIA.) Thyatira lay a little to the left of the road from Pergamos to Sardis (Strabo 13:4, who calls it "a Macedonian colony"); on the Lycus, a little to the S. of the Hyllus, at the N. end of the valley between Mount Tmolus and the southern ridge of Tetanus. Founded by Seleucus Nicator. On the confines of Mysia and Ionia. A corporate guild of dyers is mentioned in three inscriptions of the times of the Roman empire between Vespasian and Caracalla. To it probably belonged Lydia, the seller of purple (i.e. scarlet, for the ancients called many bright red colors "purple") stuffs (Act_16:14). The waters are so suited for dyeing that nowhere is the scarlet of fezzes thought to be so brilliant and permanent as that made here. Modern Thyatira contains a population of 17,000.
In Rev_2:18-25, "the Son of God who hath eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass," stands in contrast to the sun god. Tyrimnas, the tutelary god of Thyatira, represented with flaming rays and feet of burnished brass. Christ commends Thyatira's works, charity, service, faith, and patience. Thyatira's "last works were more than the first," realizing 1Th_4:1, instead of retrograding from "first love and first works" as Ephesus (Rev_2:4-5); the converse of Mat_12:45; 2Pe_2:20. Yet Thyatira "suffered that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." (See JEZEBEL.) Some self-styled prophetess, or collection of prophets (the feminine in Hebrew idiom expressing a multitude), closely attached to and influencing the Thyatira church and its presiding bishop or "angel" (the Alexandrinus and Vaticanus manuscripts read "thy wife" for "that woman") as Jezebel did her weak husband Ahab.
The presiding angel ought to have exercised his authority over the prophetess or prophets so-called, who seduced many into the libertinism of the Balaamites and Nicolaitans of Thyatira's more powerful neighbour Pergamos (Rev_2:6; Rev_2:14; Rev_2:16). (See BALAAMITES; NICOLAITANS.) The Lord encourages the faithful section at Thyatira. "Unto you (omit 'and' with the Alexandrinus and the Vaticanus manuscripts, the Sinaiticus manuscript reads: 'among ') the rest in Thyatira I say, ... I will put upon you none other burden (save abstinence from and protestation against these abominations: this the seducers regarded as an intolerable burden, see Mat_11:30); but that which ye have hold fast until I come." A shrine outside Thyatira walls was sacred to the sibyl Sambatha, a Jewess or Chaldaean, in an enclosure called "the Chaldaean court."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Thyati'ra. A city on the Lycus, founded by Seleucus Nicator, lay to the left of the road from Pergamos to Sardis, 27 miles from the latter city, and on the very confines of Mysia and Ionia, so as to be sometimes reckoned, within the one and, sometimes, within the other. Dyeing apparently formed an important part of the industrial activity of Thyatira, as it did of that of Colossae and Laodicea. It is first mentioned in connection with Lydia, "a seller of purple." Act_16:14. One of the Seven Churches of Asia was established here. Rev_2:18-29.
The principal deity of the city was Apollo; but there was another superstition, of an extremely curious nature, which seems to have been brought thither, by some of the corrupted Jews of the dispersed tribes. A fane stood outside the walls, dedicated to Sambatha ? the name of the sibyl who is sometimes called Chaldean, sometimes Jewish, sometimes Persian ? in the midst of an enclosure designated "the Chaldaeans' court."
This seems to lend an illustration to the obscure passage in Rev_2:20-21, which some interpret of the wife of the bishop. Now, there is evidence to show that in Thyatira, there was a great amalgamation of races. If the sibyl Sambatha was in reality a Jewess, lending her aid to the amalgamation of different religions, and not discountenanced by the authorities of the Judeo-Christian Church at Thyatira, both the censure and its qualification become easy of explanation. (The present name of the city is ak-Hissar, ("white castle"). It has a reputation for the manufacture of scarlet cloth. Its present population is 15,000 to 20,000. There are nine mosques. ? Editor).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a city of Lydia, in Asia Minor, and the seat of one of the seven churches in Asia. It was situated nearly midway between Pergamos and Sardis, and is still a tolerable town, considering that it is in the hands of the Turks, and enjoys some trade, chiefly in cottons. It is called by that people Ak-hisar, or White Castle.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
Thyatira was an important manufacturing centre in the Roman province of Asia (present-day Turkey). It had factories for the manufacture of clothing, dyes, pottery and brasswork (Act_16:14; Rev_2:18).
Towards the end of the first century, the church in Thyatira was troubled by a woman who was encouraging the Christians to join in idolatrous feasts and their accompanying immoral practices. The apostle John wrote to the church to warn the woman and her followers of the judgment for which they were heading, and to encourage the true Christians to remain faithful to God (Rev_2:19-29).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
thı̄-a-tı̄?ra (Θυάτειρα, Thuáteira): Thyatira was a wealthy town in the northern part of Lydia of the Roman province of Asia, on the river Lycus. It stood so near to the borders of Mysia, that some of the early writers have regarded it as belonging to that country. Its early history is not well known, for until it was refounded by Seleucus Nicator (301-281 BC) it was a small, insignificant town. It stood on none of the Greek trade routes, but upon the lesser road between Pergamos and Sardis, and derived its wealth from the Lycus valley in which it rapidly became a commercial center, but never a metropolis. The name ?Thyatira? means ?the castle of Thya.? Other names which it has borne are Pelopia and Semiramis. Before the time of Nicator the place was regarded as a holy city, for there stood the temple of the ancient Lydian sun-god, Tyrimnos; about it games were held in his honor. Upon the early coins of Thyatira this Asiatic god is represented as a horseman, bearing a double-headed battle-ax, similar to those represented on the sculptures of the Hittites. A goddess associated with him was Boreatene, a deity of less importance. Another temple at Thyatira was dedicated to Sambethe, and at this shrine was a prophetess, by some supposed to represent the Jezebel of Rev_2:20, who uttered the sayings which this deity would impart to the worshippers.
Thyatira was specially noted for the trade guilds which were probably more completely organized there than in any other ancient city. Every artisan belonged to a guild, and every guild, which was an incorporated organization, possessed property in its own name, made contracts for great constructions, and wielded a wide influence. Powerful among them was the guild of coppersmiths; another was the guild of the dyers, who, it is believed, made use of the madder-root instead of shell-fish for making the purple dyestuffs. A member of this guild seems to have been Lydia of Thyatira, who, according to Act_16:14, sold her dyes in Philippi. The color obtained by the use of this dye is now called Turkish red. The guilds were closely connected with the Asiatic religion of the place. Pagan feasts, with which immoral practices were associated, were held, and therefore the nature of the guilds was such that they were opposed to Christianity. According to Act_19:10, Paul may have preached there while he was living at Ephesus, but this is uncertain; yet Christianity reached there at an early time. It was taught by many of the early church that no Christian might belong to one of the guilds, and thus the greatest opposition to Christianity was presented.
Thyatira is now represented by the modern town of Ak-Hissar on a branch line of the Manisa-Soma Railroad, and on the old Rom road 9 hours from Sardis. Ak-Hissar is Turkish for ?white castle,? and near the modern town may be seen the ruins of the castle from which the name was derived. The village is of considerable size; most of the houses are of mud, but several of the buildings erected by Caracalla are still standing, yet none of them are perfect. In the higher part of the town are the ruins of one of the pagan temples, and in the walls of the houses are broken columns and sarcophagi and inscribed stones. The population of 20,000 is largely Greek and Armenian, yet a few Jews live among them. Before the town is a large marsh, fever-laden, and especially unhealthful in the summer time, formed by the Lycus, which the Turks now call Geurdeuk Chai. The chief modern industry is rug-making.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Thyati?ra, a city on the northern border of Lydia, about twenty-seven miles from Sardis, the seat of one of the seven Apocalyptic churches (Rev_1:11; Rev_2:18). Its modern name is Ak-hissar, or the white castle. According to Pliny, it was known in earlier times by the names Pelopia and Euhippa (Hist. Nat. v. 29). Strabo asserts that it was a Macedonian colony (xiii. p. 928). The Roman road from Pergamus to Sardis passed through it. It was noted for the art of dyeing, as appears from Act_16:14. It still maintains its reputation for this manufacture, and large quantities of scarlet cloth are sent weekly to Smyrna. The town consists of about two thousand houses, for which taxes are paid to the government, besides two or three hundred small huts; of the former 300 are inhabited by Greeks, 30 by Armenians, and the rest by Turks. The common language of all classes is the Turkish; but in writing it, the Greeks use the Greek, and the Armenians the Armenian characters. There are nine mosques and one Greek church.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
(θυατείρα ῾τὰ], Vulg. civitas Thyatirenorum), a city in Asia Minor, the seat of one of the seven Apocalyptic churches (Rev_1:11; Rev_2:18). It was situated on the confines of Mysia and Ionia, a little to the south of the river Hyllus, and at the northern extremity of the valley between Mount Timolus and the southern ridge of Temnus. It was founded by Seleucus Nicator, and was regarded as a Macedonian colony (Strabo, 13:928), from the strong Macedonian element in its population, it being one of the many Macedonian colonies established in Asia Minor, in the sequel of the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander. The original inhabitants had probably been distributed in hamlets round about when Thyatira was founded. Two of these, the inhabitants of which are termed Areni and Nagdemi, are noticed in an inscription of the Roman times. According to Pliny, it was known in earlier times by the names Pelopia and Euhippia (Hist. Nat. 5, 29). The Roman road from Pergamos to Sardis passed through it. The resources of the neighboring region may be inferred both from the name Euhippia and from the magnitude of the booty which was carried off in a foray, conducted jointly by Eumenes of Pergamos and a force detached by the Roman admiral from Canae, during the war against Antiochus. During the campaign of B.C. 190, Thyatira formed the base of the king's operations; and after his defeat, which took place only a few miles to the south of the city, it submitted, at the same time with its neighbor Magnesiaon-Sipylus, to the Romans, and was included in the territory made over by them to their ally the Pergamene sovereign.
During the continuance of the Attalic dynasty, Thyatira scarcely appears in history; and of the various inscriptions which have been found on the site, not one unequivocally belongs to earlier times than those of the Roman empire. The prosperity of the city seems to have received a new impulse under Vespasian, whose acquaintance with the East, previously to mounting the imperial throne, may have directed his attention to the development of the resources of the Asiatic cities. A bilingual inscription, in Greek and Latin, belonging to the latter part of his reign, shows him to have restored the roads in the domain of Thyatira. From others, between this time and that of Caracalla, there is evidence of the existence of many corporate guilds in the city. Bakers, potters, tanners, weavers, robe makers, and dyers (οἱ βαφεῖς) are specially mentioned. Of these last there is a notice in no less than three inscriptions, so that dyeing apparently formed an important part of the industrial activity of Thyatira, as it did of that of Colossse and Laodicea. With this guild there can be no doubt that Lydia, the seller of purple stuffs (πορφυρόπωλις), from whom Paul met with so favorable a reception at Philippi (Act_16:14), was connected. The country around this city is fertile and well watered, abounding in oaks and acacias, and in its numberless streamlets are found the leeches used in medicine throughout Austria and the east of Europe in general. The mode of taking them is curious; a number of children are sent to walk barefooted among the brooks, and come back to their employers with their feet covered with leeches. The waters here are said to be so well adapted for dyeing that in no place can the scarlet cloth out of which fezzes are made be so brilliantly or so permanently dyed as here. The place still maintains its reputation for this manufacture, and large quantities of scarlet cloth are sent weekly to Smyrna.
Thyatira is at present a populous and flourishing town; its inhabitants amount to eight thousand, and they are on the increase. Its modern name is Akhissar, or the white castle. The town consists of about two thousand houses, for which taxes are paid to the government, besides two or three hundred small huts; of the former, three hundred are inhabited by Greeks, thirty by Armenians, and the rest by Turks. The common language of all classes is the Turkish; but in writing it the Greeks use the Greek, and the Armenians the Armenian characters. There are nine mosques and one Greek church. It exhibits few remains of antiquity, save fragments built into the walls of houses. There is, indeed, an ancient building in a very ruinous condition at a little distance from the city, to which tradition has given the name of the Palace of the Caesars; it is impossible to determine either its date or its purpose. But though there is little that can be identified, yet for miles around Thyatira are precious relics in the form of sarcophagi, capitals of columns, and similar fragments, used as troughs, coverings for wells, and such purposes.
Thyatira was never a place of paramount political importance, and hence her history is less interesting to the classical student than those of Ephesus, Sardis, and Pergamos, which were the capitals of great kingdoms. Her chief hold on our consideration is that at Thyatira was seated one of those churches to which the Spirit sent prophetic messages by the beloved apostle. The message itself is one of peculiar interest, but presenting at the same time a remarkable difficulty. After much commendation on the virtues and progress of the Church or the elder, pastor, bishop, or angel-the epistle continues, Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman (or as the correct text has it, thy wife) Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols (Rev_2:20). This is followed by threats of judgment upon herself, her lovers, and her children. The question naturally arises, What party is represented by this Jezebel? To understand this message rightly, it will have to be borne in mind that Thyatira was very near Pergamos and that the latter was by far the more important city, and probably possessed the more numerous Church; the influence and example of Pergamos would be likely to have a great influence on the smaller city and Church.. SEE PERGAMOS.
Now, at Pergamos, the Balaamites, who taught precisely the doctrine here attributed to Jezebel, were numerous, as well as the Nicolaitans (q.v.); We are not, therefore, at all to be surprised at finding a party espousing and endeavoring to propagate similar sentiments in Thyatira; but it would be a miserable literalism, and contrary to the whole genius of the Apocalyptic imagery, to suppose the leader of this heretical sect to be a woman of the name of Jezebel. We can only understand by this a person holding substantially the same relation to the official head of the Church in Thyatira which Jezebel of old did to the king of Israel; that is, a party that ought to have been in subjection usurping it, for wicked purposes, over the proper ruler. For this the leader is severely rebuked, and the heaviest judgments threatened both against him and the usurping party unless they repent. There was still, however, a faithful portion who stood aloof from the licentious teaching which was propagated. To them the Lord turns with words of encouragement, and exhorts them to hold fast what they had received. There is a small error also in the text at the commencement of this address. It should be But unto you I say, the rest in Thyatira; those, namely, who resisted the pollution. The received text confuses the meaning by putting it, But unto you I say, and to the rest, as if both parties were alike called to continue steadfast. SEE JEZEBEL.
The principal deity of the city was Apollo, worshipped as the sun-god under the surname Tyrimnas. He was no doubt introduced by the Macedonian colonists, for the name is Macedonian. One of the three mythical kings of Macedonia, whom the genealogists placed before Perdiccas the first of the Temenidse that Herodotus and Thuicydides recognize is so called; the other two being Carants and Ccenus, manifestly impersonations of the chief and the tribe. The inscriptions of Thyatira give Tyrimnas the titles of πρόπολις and προπάτωρ θεός, and a special priesthood was attached to his service. A priestess of Artemis is also mentioned, probably the administratrix of a cult derived from the earlier times of the city, and similar in its nature to that of the Ephesian Artemis. Another superstition of an extremely curious nature which existed at Thyatira, seems to have been brought thither by some of the corrupted Jews of the dispersed tribes. A fane Stood outside the walls dedicated to Sambatha the name of the sibyl who is sometimes called Chaldean, sometimes Jewish, sometimes Persian in the midst of an enclosure designated the Chaldaeans court (τοῦ Χαλδαίου περίβολος).
This lends an additional illustration to the above passage (Rev_2:20-21), which seems to imply a form of religion that had become condemnable from the admixture of foreign alloy, rather than one idolatrous ab initio. Now there is evidence to show that in Thyatira there was a. great amalgamation of races. Latin inscriptions are frequent, indicating a considerable influx of Italian immigrants; and in some Greek inscriptions many Latin words are introduced. Latin and Greek names, too, are found accumulated on the same individuals, such as Titus Antonius Alfeus Arignotus and Julia Severina Stratonicis. But amalgamation of different races in pagan nations always went together with a syncretism of different religions, every relation of life having its religious sanction. If the sibyl Sambatha was really a Jewess, lending her aid to this proceeding, and not discountenanced by the authorities of the Judaeo-Christian Church at Thyatira, both the censure and its qualification become easy of explanation. It seems also not improbable that the imagery of the description in Rev_2:18, ὁ ἔχων τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ ώς φλόγα, καὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτοῦ ὅμοιοι χαλκολιβάνῳ , may have been suggested by the current pagan representations of the tutelary deity of the city. . See a parallel case at Smyrna (q.v.). Besides the cults which have been mentioned, there is evidence of a deification of Rome, of Hadrian, and of the imperial family. Games were celebrated in honor of Tyrimnas, of Hercules, and of the reigning emperor. On the coins before the imperial times, the heads of Bacchus, of Athena, and of Cybele are also found; but the inscriptions only indicate a cult of the last of these.
See Strabo, 13:4; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 5, 31; Livy, 37:8, 21, 44; Polybius, 16:1; 32:25; Elian, Var. Hist. 12:35; Bbckh, Inscript. Graec. Thyatir., especially Nos. 3484-3499; Jablonski, De Ecclesia Thyatirensi (Francof. ad V. 1739); Stosch, Antiq. Thyatiren. (Zwoll. 1763); Hoffmann, Griechenland, 2, 1714; Svoboda, Seven Churches of Asia Minor, p. 48 sq.; Barber, Patmos and Seven Churches (Bridgeport, 1851), p. 187 sq.; and the works cited under SEE ASIA MINOR and SEE REVELATION.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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