Revelation 2:20

a few things Should be omitted: it has come in from Revelation 2:14, while the real construction is as in Revelation 2:4, "I have [somewhat] against thee, because …," or better, "I have [this] against thee, that.…"

that woman Jezebel There is some authority for the reading "thy wife Jezebel," 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. 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. 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.

to teach and to seduce Literally, according to the right reading, and she teacheth and seduceth.

my servants The possessive pronoun is emphatic she leads those who belong to Me to act as do those in slavery to devils.

to commit fornication No doubt to be taken literally, not (as so often in the O. T.) as a metaphor for idolatry: since this is mentioned coordinately.