Thyatira (Continual Sacrifice) - Background

Thyatira (Continual Sacrifice)

Background

Thyatira was a city of the province of Lydia in Western Asia Minor situated on the road from Pergamos to Sardis. The city was on the southern bank of the Lycus River, a branch of the Hermus River.

Thyatira was founded by one of Alexander the Great’s successors, Seleucus, as a military outpost guarding the north-south road. It later changed hands and came under the rule of Lysimachus, who ruled Pergamum.

Thyatira’s main industry was the production of wool and dyed goods (especially purple goods, dyed with purple dye extracted from the madder root – Acts 16:14), but inscriptions also mention guilds for linen workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave dealers, and bronze smiths.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of many trade guilds and unions here. Membership in these trade guilds, necessary for financial and social success, often involved pagan customs and practices such as superstitious worship, union feasts using food sacrificed to pagan idols, and loose sexual morality.

The primary god worshipped by the Thyatirans was the Greek sun god, Apollo. Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.

The book of revelation refers to a certain woman known as “Jezebel” who taught and beguiled the Christians at Thyatira to conform to the paganism and sexual immorality of their surroundings (Revelation 1:11; 2:18-29).

©2012 Kenute P. Curry. All rights reserved.