Vita Moses I.48–55; Josephus, Antiquities IV.126). He understood both “Balaam” and “Jezebel” to be foreigners who seduced Israel into idolatry. John chooses these figurative names not from xenophobia but to represent them as not belonging to the People of God, as being agents of the foreign religion. It may be that the “Nicolaitans” were named for a real historical figure, their leader Nicolas; but if so, we know nothing else about him, though later Christian legend identified him with the Nicolaus