2:19. I know thy works.—The Lord remembers that Peter Waldo was the first to translate His Word into a modern language.
And charity, [and service,] and faith, and [thy] patience, and thy works.—The Lord remembers that Peter Waldo literally “sold all that he had and gave to the [Lord's] poor.”
[And] thy last works to be more than the first.—(Diaglott.) “So general and widespread became the so-called heresy that Innocent III determined to crush it out—‘exterminate the whole pestilential race’ was the language of which he made use. The commission he gave to the authorities was to burn the chief of the Vaudois (Waldenses), to scatter the heretics themselves, confiscating their property, and consigning to perdition every soul who dared to oppose the pope. Joined with ‘His Holiness’ in his relentless persecution of the Waldenses was Dominic, the father of the Inquisition. Such has been the history of the Waldenses all through the ages—subject to untold suffering from persecution; then enjoying, in the quiet valleys of Piedmont, comparative tranquility for a time; then assailed by their ever-relentless foe, the Roman Catholic Church, which has spared no pains, by fire and slaughter, and the horrors of the Inquisition, to put an end to the unfortunate victims of their violence.” (McC.) How evident it is that the followers of Peter Waldo have given a larger witness by their sufferings (their “last works”) than they did by the first works (the translation of the Gospel into French)!
2:20. Notwithstanding I have [Because] THAT thou sufferest that woman Jezebel.—The Roman Catholic Church, as shown in parallel below:
| “Elijah was persecuted for fidelity to truth and righteousness. | “The Church was persecuted for fidelity to truth and righteousness. |
| “His principal persecutor was Jezebel, the wicked queen of Israel, who is mentioned by name as the type of the enemy of the saints.—Rev. 2:20; 2 Kings 9:7. | “The principal persecutor was the apostate Church of Rome, which claims to be a ‘queen’ and ruler over Spiritual Israel.—Rev. 18:7. |
| “Jezebel's persecuting power was exercised through her husband, Ahab, the king.—1 Kings 21:25. | “Papacy's persecuting power was exercised through the Roman Empire, to which she was joined. |
| “Elijah fled from Jezebel and Ahab into the wilderness, to a place prepared of God, where he was miraculously nourished.—1 Kings 17:5-9. | “The true Church fled into the symbolic wilderness—or condition of isolation—to her place, prepared of God, where she was sustained.—Rev. 12:6, 16. |
| “Elijah was ‘three years and six months’ in the wilderness, and during that time there was no rain, and a great famine was in the land.—James 5:17; 1 Kings 17:7; 18:2. | “The Church was three and a half symbolic years (a day for a year—1260 literal years) in the wilderness condition, during which there was a spiritual famine because of the lack of Truth—the living water.—Rev. 12:6; 11:3; Amos 8:11. |
| “After the three and a half years, 1260 days, when Elijah returned from the wilderness, the errors of Jezebel's priests were manifested, the true God was honored, and copious rains followed.—1 Kings 18:41-45. | “At the end of the 1260 years the power of the Truth and its witnesses was manifested (A. D. 1799); and since then the Truth has flowed at the rate of millions of Bibles every year, refreshing the world and bringing forth fruit.”—B. 256. |
Which [calleth herself] SAITH SHE IS a prophetess.—Claims to be an infallible teacher, but really has no right to teach at all—“I suffer not a woman nor to usurp authority over the man [Christ].” (1 Tim. 2:12; 1 Cor. 14:34; F. 270.) “False prophecy, fornication and idolatry are symbolized by the woman Jezebel.” (Cook.) Jezebel was a prophetess of Baal.—1 Ki. 16:31-33; 21:25.
[To teach and to seduce] AND TEACHETH AND SEDUCETH My servants to commit fornication.—Union of church and state.—Rev. 2:14; 2 Ki. 9:22; 1 Cor. 14:34.
And to eat things sacrificed unto idols.—Reverence the creed-idols set up by the various ecumenical councils.—Rev. 2:14.
2:21. And I gave her space.—Chronos, a “time,” 360 years. As noted in comments on 2:20, the prophetic “time, times and a half a time,” or three and a half times, or three and a half years, or forty and two months, or 1260 days, represent 1260 years. A single chronos or “time,” therefore, represents 360 years.