by
Damien F. Mackey
‘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’.
Revelation
2:20-23
No doubt “Jezebel” here is meant
to be taken metaphorically, having in mind the original Jezebel, that notorious
queen of the Old Testament who was the wife of King Ahab of Israel. For, according to the
following testimony of commander Jehu to Jezebel’s son, King Jehoram - {Jehu would
oversee the death of this first Jezebel} - she was, just like her
‘re-incarnation’ in the Apocalypse, an idolatrous and immoral witch (2 Kings 9:21-22):
And Jehoram said, ‘Make ready’.
And his chariot was made ready. And Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of
Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and met
him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
And it came to pass, when Jehoram
saw Jehu, that he said, ‘Is it peace, Jehu?’ And he
answered, ‘What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her
witchcrafts are so many?’
This first Jezebel I have been able to identify
with - thanks to the benefits of a revised history and chronology - the famous
Queen Nefertiti herself.
For example, in my:
The Shattering Fall of Queen Nefertiti. Part One: Nefertiti as Jezebel
and:
Queen Nefertiti Sealed as Jezebel
giving her also an identification in the now contemporaneous El Amarna
correspondence:
Queen Jezebel in
the El Amarna Letters
The following article gives an outline of the two biblical Jezebels:
Bible Question: Who was Jezebel?
Bible Answer:
There are two Jezebels in the Bible. The first one is found in the Old
Testament, and the second one is found in the New Testament.
Jezebel - Old Testament. The first
time the name Jezebel occurs in the Bible is when she is getting married to
King Ahab in 1
Kings 16:31,
And Ahab the
son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before
him. And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk
in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the
daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and
worshiped him. 1
Kings 16:30-31 (NASB)
She was an
evil woman who killed many prophets of God while feeding and caring for the
prophets of two gods called Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18:1-19).
In 1 Kings
18:20-46 Ahab, Elijah and 450 prophets of Baal gather to see, "Who
is God?" Elijah puts it simply,
How long will
you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if
Baal, follow him. 1
Kings 18:21 (NASB)
What followed
was a one-sided contest. The followers of Baal prepared a sacrifice but Baal
never sent fire to consume the sacrifice even though the 450 prophets called
to Baal all day pleading, "O Baal, answer us." Then they even cut
themselves with swords and lances and still Baal did not answer. Baal never
responded. Finally, Elijah poured water on his sacrifice three times. After
Elijah prayed, God sent fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice. Elijah
killed the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:40).
Therefore, Jezebel sought to kill Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-2).
In 1 Kings 21:5-25
Jezebel had Naboth the Jezreelite killed so that her husband could own
Naboth's vineyard. What a wicked woman! Eventually, Jezebel was trampled to
death by horses (2
Kings 9:30-37). Then dogs ate her flesh, leaving only her skull and the
palms of her hands. What a horrible way to die. Jezebel was a wicked, evil,
adulterous woman who was fighting against God.
Jezebel - New Testament. The name
Jezebel is used for a woman once again in Revelation 2:18-29.
Here, Jezebel is described as a prophetess, a false teacher, an immoral woman
and idol worshipper. She attended a church at Thyatira. She encouraged those
who attended the church to engage in sexual sin and worship other gods.
But I have
this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a
prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they
commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her
time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Rev. 2:20-21 (NASB)
She was like
the Jezebel in the Old Testament. They share many of the same
characteristics. God warned this Jezebel that He would punish her if she did
not stop teaching this evil and repent. God not only warned Jezebel the
teacher, He also warned her followers to stop and repent (Rev. 2:22-23).
And I will
kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am
He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you
according to your deeds. Rev.
2:23 (NASB) ….
|
Who was Apocalypse’s
“Jezebel”?
“The theory that Simon [Magus] was
accustomed to borrow from paganism IS CORROBORATED by the assertion of the
Fathers that he and Helena were worshipped by their sect with the attributes of
ZEUS and ATHENE and received the cult-title 'Lord' and 'Lady' ….”.
There are those who think that
the “Jezebel” referred to by St. John the Evangelist in Revelation 2:20-23 was
likely the notorious Helena, wife of Simon Magus. Thus we read, for example,
at: http://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getmagazine&InfoID=1389529982
Prostitute Prophetess
First,
we notice that John says this "Jezebel" called herself a
"prophetess" (Rev.
2:20).
There must have been a particular false prophetess which had caused God's
servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. By
looking on this "Jezebel" as having been contemporaneous with all the
heresies of the other Churches — and that these heresies were in reality only
ONE false system which originated with Simon Magus — we can then easily see
that this "Jezebel" can be equated with the "Female
Principle" which Simon introduced into his "Christianity." None
other than Simon's Helen — the reclaimed temple prostitute from Tyre. Helen WAS
a prostitute — what better type of person is there who could so expertly
"teach" and "seduce My servants to commit fornication,"
literally as well as spiritually?
Simon Magus came in contact with a priestess of Tyre who had been a temple prostitute. The Samaritans worshiped SUCCOTH-BENOTH who was the goddess VENUS. Her devotees continually prostituted themselves. It was their religious duty to do so.
This woman was overawed by Simon's demonistic power and was persuaded to follow him — to live with him — to become the female principle, the necessary counterpart to his claim as being a type of male deity. Relative to this, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 25, p. 126, quoting from Justin [Martyr] states: "And almost all the Samaritans and a few among the other nations, acknowledge and adore him as the first god. And one Helen, who went about with him at the time, who before had had her stand in a brothel, they say was the First Thought that was brought into being by him."
This is interesting because Justin was himself a Samaritan — born and reared in the country. He certainly knew his people's native traditions and teachings. What he says agrees exactly with the New Testament revelation of how the Samaritans regarded Simon. They actually called him the "great power of God" (Acts 8:10). It is because of this that they believed him to have creative powers. He himself said he created Helen, his female companion whom he later elevated to a goddess.
"Irenaenus, Theodoret, and Epiphanius agree in identifying Simon with the Supreme God and Helena with ennoia, the first conception of his mind and his agent in creation" (Dict. of Religion of Ethics, vol. 11, p. 517).
What blasphemy!! But this is what he taught everywhere he went — and under the guise of Christianity.
Typically Pagan
There always had to be the Man
and Woman divinities in paganism. Or, to make it plain, Nimrod and Semiramis.
Now notice what the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics says about this teaching of Simon which he took to Rome and they accepted: "The original of Simon's Helena is the moon-goddess of Syria and Babylonia. In the Clementine Recognitions Helena is always translated 'Luna.' The theory that Simon was accustomed to borrow from paganism IS CORROBORATED by the assertion of the Fathers that he and Helena were worshipped by their sect with the attributes of ZEUS and ATHENE and received the cult-title 'Lord' and 'Lady' (i.e. our Lord and our Lady)" (ibid. p. 518).
As stated before, it was
Simon's plan to bring about a UNIVERSAL religion under the powerful name of
Christianity. Remember that Simon NEVER gave up the Christian name.
His followers were called Christians. In amalgamating the pagan Babylonian religious beliefs with Christianity, he placed himself at the head — the personification of the chief pagan gods of old, and Helena as his companion in creation, the personification of the female deities. The name Helena for his consort fit his plan exceptionally well.
His followers were called Christians. In amalgamating the pagan Babylonian religious beliefs with Christianity, he placed himself at the head — the personification of the chief pagan gods of old, and Helena as his companion in creation, the personification of the female deities. The name Helena for his consort fit his plan exceptionally well.
"There existed a
wide-spread cult of the moon goddess in Syria and Egypt under the name Helene;
she was identified with Aphrodite, Atargatis, and the Egyptian Isis, who was
after represented with Horns to betoken her relation to the moon. One feature of
the myth of Helen can be traced to the very ancient connection of the religion
of Osiris with Syria. According to legend, Isis spent ten years at a brothel in
Tyre during the course of her wanderings in search of the scattered limbs of
her husband. The imprisonment of Helen (Simon's Helen) is then only a variant
of the many myths relating the degradation of the Queen of Heaven"
(ibid.).
How important these observations are, for Osiris was clearly Nimrod and Isis was Semiramis. Thus, Simon Magus said that he had been the power that motivated Nimrod and that Helen was Semiramis — the Queen of Heaven.
Now let us carefully note that
Simon brought his "Female Principle" from the City of TYRE. And who
was the original Jezebel — the woman who seduced Israel to worship BAAL? She
was the daughter of the king of the Sidonians whose capital city was TYRE. (I Kings 16:31). The
original Jezebel was also from TYRE.
And not only that, Helen claimed herself to be the creation of Simon — that it was Simon who brought her into existence (Ency. Britannica, vol. 25, p. 126). She was, in a sense, the daughter of Simon. But, the original Jezebel WAS THE LITERAL DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF TYRE (I Kings 16:31).
“Jezebel” and the
scarlet “Woman”
“Then the angel carried me away
in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast
that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The
woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious
stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable
things and the filth of her adulteries”.
Revelation 17:3-4
Having checked up on the chiastic
structure of the Book of Revelation, I was not surprised to find that, at least
according to the article, “A Double
Chiasm in the Book of Revelation”, Chapter 2, which refers to “Jezebel”,
parallels Chapter 17, in which appears the adulteress “woman”. Here is the
proposed structure:
An Overall Structure of Revelation
Prologue (1:1-20)
Seven
Epistles (2:1-3:22)
Seven Seals
(4:1-8:1)
144,000 Saints and Seven Trumpets (7:1-111:19)
The Two Witnesses (11:1-13)
The Woman
Clothed with the Sun (12:1)
Dragon in
Heaven (12:4)
Women
Flees into the Wilderness (12:6)
Satan Cast Out (12:12)
Woman Fells into the Wilderness (12:14)
Dragon on Earth (12:15)
Woman’s
Seed Keeps God’s Commands (12:17)
The
Two Beasts (13:1-18)
144,000
Saints and Seven Angels (14:1-15:4)
Seven
Bowls (15:1, 5-16:21)
Seven
Angels: Whore of Babylon vs. New Jerusalem (17:1-22:5)
Epilogue (22:6-21)
Here is the full
text of Chapter 17 (vv. 1-18):
One of
the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will
show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters.
With her
the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth
were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”
Then the
angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman
sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had
seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was
glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her
hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name
written on her forehead was a mystery:
babylon the great
the mother of prostitutes
and of the abominations of the earth.
I saw
that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of
those who bore testimony to Jesus.
When I
saw her, I was greatly astonished. Then the angel said to me: “Why are you
astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she
rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast, which you saw, once
was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its
destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in
the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they
see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.
This
calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the
woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has
not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.
The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the
seven and is going to his destruction.
The ten
horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for
one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one
purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. They will wage
war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of
lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful
followers.”
Then the angel
said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples,
multitudes, nations and languages. The beast and the ten horns you saw will
hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will
eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to
accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal
authority, until God’s words are fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city
that rules over the kings of the earth.
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