"Thyatira"

I mean, it wasn’t on a high hill like Pergamum—and although a Roman garrison was stationed in Thyatira—that garrison’s job was not to defend Thyatira but just to fight a delaying action against any invaders—fighting long enough for Pergamum, the capital up the road to get prepared for the coming attack. In short, Thyatira was thought of as DISPENSABLE in the military economy of the day.

In fact, many scholars have noted that ironically this, the LONGEST of the seven letters, was written to the smallest and least important of the seven cities.

this town wasn’t a bright spot on the map back then—and to help you understand it’s insignificance...I would point out that there’s a lot of things that Thyatira was NOT:

• It was not a city of political importance. It wasn’t the capitol of a province.

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• It was not a city of particular religious importance in the 1st century. Unlike Pergamum, it was not a center of either the worship of Greek gods—or of the worship of the emperor.

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• Thyatira had no glorious past. No famous figure was born there. George Washington did NOT sleep there.

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• Finally, it was not a cultural—academic center. It had no harbor or library—and as far as I know, it had no theater.

So Thyatira was pretty much a “plain Jane on the plain” kind of town.

Thyatira did have ONE claim to fame

located on a major trade route which led it to become well-known for its TRADE GUILDS.

Thyatira had more guilds than any other town of its size.

There were guilds—or trade unions—for carpenters, bronze workers, cobblers, potters, tanners, weavers, tent makers, etc. all making a living from their trade along this trade route.

And perhaps the most famous guilds were the dyers guilds—people who’s career was dying clothe certain colors—especially PURPLE.

You see the purple die came from the madder root—and that root grew all around Thyatira.

As Acts 16 tells us, LYDIA, the trader in purple cloth that lived in Philippi and helped start the church there—LYDIA was from Thyatira.

Many believe that she eventually returned to her “plain Jane on the plain” home town and started this church.

Thyatira was pretty much a “blue collar” town.

So if you were to have a job you had to be a tradesman and to make any money you had to join one of these guilds.

Now—the members of these trade guilds were expected to share a common meal on a regular basis but it was much more than a covered dish supper.

You see the meal was eaten in a pagan temple—and the food you ate was meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan god.

Each guild had its own god—sort of a “heavenly mascot...” and all guild members were expected to participate.

These trade guild meals were infamous for degrading into evenings filled with drunkenness and sexual immorality

we’ll come back to the implications of all this guild stuff later.