Code by Fab (21/March/2009) Nicolaitans I just found an amazing (imo) code about the Nicolaitans I wanted to share with you:   The term Nicolaitans is mentioned only twice in the Book of Revelation, in chapter 2 at verses 6 and 15:   Revelation 2:6: "Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, that I also hate."   Revelation 2:14: "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. 15  In this way you also have some who likewise hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans."   The only problem being that we are not told plainly what was their teaching, but some commentators have inferred from Revelation 2:15, its context, and extra biblical evidence (see below), that it was somewhat similar to that of Balaam mentioned at verse 14.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolationism   Several of the early church fathers, including Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Theodoret mentioned this group. Irenaeus[1] discusses them but adds nothing to the Apocalypse except that "they lead lives of unrestrained indulgence." Tertullian refers to them, but apparently knows only what is found in St. John[2]. Hippolytus of Rome based his narrative on Irenaeus, though he states that the deacon Nicolas was the author of the heresy and the sect (Philosph., VII, xxvi). Clement of Alexandria[3] exonerates Nicolas, and attributes the doctrine of promiscuity, which the sect claimed to have derived from him, to a malicious distortion of words harmless in themselves. Eusebius (H. E., III, xxix) said that the sect was short-lived. The common statement, that the Nicolaitanes held the antinomian heresy of Corinth, seems not to have been proved. Another opinion, favoured by a number of authors, is that, because of the allegorical character of the Apocalypse, the reference to the Nicolaitans is merely a symbolic manner of reference.[4] Cyrus Scofield, in his Notes on the Bible, following dispensationalist thought, suggests that the Seven Letters in Revelation foretell the various eras of Christian history, and that "Nicolaitans" "refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order, or 'clergy,' which later divided an equal brotherhood into 'priests' and 'laity.'" Barnes notes: "Vitringa supposes that the word is derived from νικος, victory, and λαος, people, and that thus it corresponds with the name Balaam, as meaning either lord of the people, or he destroyed the people; and that, as the same effect was produced by their doctrines as by those of Balaam, that the people were led to commit fornication and to join in idolatrous worship, they might be called Balaamites or Nicolaitanes --that is, corrupters of the people. So I decided to search for the best meeting of the terms "Nicolaitans" and "Balaam" (for the spellings, I used the Hebrew ones found in Franz Delitzsch translation: http://www.kirjasilta.net/ha-berit/Haz_ln.2.html) in the Tanakh and found this very significant matrix. The main term "Nicolaitans" didn't yield any interesting extension, but Balaam (shortest skip in the whole Tanakh = -1) could be extended to "they were taught the same as Balaam, He will cut them down", a 18 letter term with a skip of -1 then! Several things are interesting in this term, 1) its content is quite relevant, and 2) all the verbs are plural, like the main term.
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