Abstract

The present analysis contends that in Revelation the message to the Church in Thyatira has a concentric composition whose axis is at verse 2,23b: kai gnôsontai pasai ai ekklèsiai oti egô eimi... . From this structure flows an exegesis which values preeminently the central role of Christ who discerns the inner motivation of each one's works in order to remunerate justly. Accordingly the message progresses from a present judgment on Jezabel, whose traits resemble roughly those of Babylon and the beast, to a cosmic and kingdom-centered representation of those Church members who go on resisting evil and who ultimately prevail over both interior and exterior pressures and deceptions. Such a carefully constructed «letter» presents Christ, Jezabel and the loyal faithful with some typical characteristics of the second part of Revelation of which it may well function as its programmatic anticipation.