Who is Jezebel in Rev.2:20?
The church is called the bride of Christ. The wicked women in the Bible each represent some facet of false religion and spiritual harlotry to us. Jezebel is mentioned but she is no longer living in church history, she is an example from the Old testament of stumbling saints (2 Kings 9-10) It expresses a general principle seen in Jezebel (Revelation 2:20) The Jezebel in the days of Elijah teaches us something about the Jezebel in the church in the book of Revelation. Jezebel who married King Ahab introduced a new religious system to Israel, which brought them into false worship, idolatry. At one point in the prophet Elijahs ministry Elijah was discouraged and hid from Jezebel in a cave. So she chased the true prophets away. Rev.2:20 is speaking symbolically of a actual woman that calls herself a prophetess, a teacher; one of power and influence in Thyatira. the feminine in Hebrew often collectively expresses a multitude, a set of false prophets (from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Comment
