"But I have this against you: you

tolerate that woman Jezebel, who

calls herself a prophet and is

teaching and beguiling my servants

to practice fornication and to eat food

sacrificed to idols. ..." (Rev. 2:20)

Here Revelation refers to a prophet whom it calls "Jezebal". As is generally agreed,

"Jezebel" here is a derogatory nickname that recalls the idolatrous wife a king Ahab (1

Kings 16:31; 18:4,13; 19:1,2; 21:5,7,11,14,15,23,25; 2 Kings 9:7,10,22,30,36,37).

Another example of a derogatory nickname given to a prophetic figure, can be found in

the Talmud, which calls Simon Bar Kosiba "Bar Koziba", which means "the son of the

liar".

Elymas is another example of a prophet being named after an OT character.

Jezebel was a prophet and great significance was attached to the names of prophets in

the first century, as I have shown.

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