Revelation 2:20

τὴν γυναῖκα. AB2 Primas[103] read τὴν γυναῖκά σου.

[103] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.

ἡ λέγουσα. With א*AC; אcP 1 Text. Rec[104] read τὴν λέγουσαν; B2 And[105] ἣ λέγει.

[104] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.
[105] Andreas Archbishop of Caesarea.

20. ἔχω κατὰ σοῦ, ὅτι. “I have against thee, that,” as in Revelation 2:4. The reading of Text. Rec[116] (ἔχω κατὰ σοῦ ὀλίγα, ὅτι) is late and borrowed from Revelation 2:14.

[116] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

τὴν γυναῖκα Ἰεζάβελ. There is some authority for the reading τὴν γυναῖκά σου Ἰεζάβελ, and even if the possessive pronoun be not rightly inserted in the Greek text, it is a question whether the article ought not to be understood as equivalent to one; though in this book we should certainly expect the possessive pronoun to be expressed if this were the meaning. If the sense “thy wife Jezebel” be right, the allusion must be to 1 Kings 21:25 : there is some one (or something) at Thyatira who is, to the Angel of the Church, such a temptress as Jezebel was to Ahab. No doubt, if we suppose the Angel to be the bishop, it is probable that his actual wife is intended; but even then the name Jezebel must have this meaning.

As a plain matter of verbal exegesis, “thy wife Jezebel” seems, in this context, the more natural translation. But it has its own difficulties. What analogy is there between a faithful servant of Christ, culpably tolerant of a bad wife, but not sharing her faults himself, and Ahab, who “did sell himself to work wickedness,” and “did very abominably in following idols”? It may be added, that except in Jehu’s taunt (2 Kings 9:22), which need not be meant literally, there is no evidence whatever of Jezebel’s unchastity: her behaviour towards her husband, as well as her influence over him, makes it probable that she was a good wife, in her own way.

On the whole, the best editors decline to adopt the reading which would make the sense “thy wife” certain: and this being so, it seems better to translate as the A. V[117] (“that woman J.”). Who “Jezebel” was—whether a real woman, or a personification of a sect,—is almost equally doubtful on any view: but it seems simplest to suppose a real person.

[117] Authorised Version.

ἡ λέγουσα ἐαυτὴν προφῆτιν. Another nominative in irregular apposition. Possibly the participle with the article is regarded as equivalent to a relative with a finite verb.

τοὺς ἐμοὺς δούλους. This is the only instance in this book of a possessive pronoun: here St Epiphanius quotes τοὺς δούλους μου. ἐμὸς is used much oftener in the fourth Gospel than in the other three or indeed the whole Greek Testament, though in all the genitive is commoner. In the Gospel it is not possible to trace a distinction of meaning between ἐμὸς and μου: if there be a distinction in ordinary Greek the possessive pronoun is perhaps rather more emphatic than the enclitic genitive, meaning “the servants who belong to Me”; but this can hardly be pressed here.

πορνεῦσαι. In secular Greek an equivalent of either prostare or prostituere: it is to be taken literally; not (as so often in the Old Testament) as a metaphor for idolatry, since this is mentioned coordinately.