Who were the Nicolaitans and Balaamists of the Book of Revelation?

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Who were the Nicolaitans and Balaamists of the Book of Revelation?

Sunday, April 13, 2008 by Taylor Marshall | E-mail this post

In the book of Revelation, our Lord Jesus Christ speaks of "hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans" (Rev 2:6, 15). Christ commends the church in Ephesus for resisting the "Nicolaitans" while he upbraids the church in Pergamos for tolerating the "Nicolaitans".

Who were these "Nicolaitans"? St. Hippolytus of Rome identifies them as apostate followers of Nicholas the Deacon (Philosph., 7, 26). I think this isn't quite correct. Clement of Alexandria claims that certain Christians misinterpreted the Nicholas the Deacon's proposal that another man take his wife since Nicholas himself was resolved to live a celibate life. This appears to be a concocted theory to exonerate the deacon.

I am convinced that the term "Nicolaitans" is an allegorical tag, typical of the book of Revelation. The name means "conqueror of the people". The somewhat kooky Preterist authority David Chilton has noted that the Greek term "Nicolaitans" as "conqueror of the people" corresponds to the Hebrew "Balaam" meaning "lord or destroyer of the people".

The "Nicolaitans" and those "who hold the teaching of Balaam" (Rev 2:14) seem to be the same people. They are heretics destroying the people of God. They are the same people that "tolerate the woman Jezebel" (Rev 2:20). They are Gnostic heretics who allow sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to demons (idols).

The figures of Balak the king and Balaam the false prophet at Baal Peor become the prototypes for the wicked Sea Beast (the emperor) and the wicked Land Beast (false prophet) of Revelation 13. Jezebel is the prototype of the Scarlet Whore of Babylon who rides upon the Beast.

Labels: Eschatology, Heresy, New Testament, Scripture