Revelation 11:3–14

11:3 God has appointed two witnesses clothed in sackcloth to prophesy for 1,260 days. The identity of the two witnesses has been the subject of controversy. The activities described in the subsequent verses make us think of Moses and Elijah. Others think Enoch is one of the two in mind, and there are many other suggestions as well. But it is most probable that the two witnesses refer to the church as a whole, with the number two echoing the OT requirement for two witnesses to validate a claim (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). Several pieces of evidence support this conclusion. (1) The witnesses are persecuted by the beast (Rev. 11:7), as is the church as a whole (13:7). Daniel predicted that the people of God would be attacked by the fourth beast and its horn: “This horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them” (Dan. 7:21). (2) The entire world sees their suffering and triumph (Rev. 11:9–13), which fits most naturally with a reference to the entire church, a worldwide entity. (3). The 1,260 days refers to the entire period between Christ’s resurrection and second advent. The church witnesses to the world what God has done in Jesus Christ, declaring salvation to all who put their trust in him and judgment to those who refuse to repent and believe. The church, as the two witnesses, prophesies for 1,260 days, referring to the proclamation and declaration of God’s Word. In Revelation 11:10 the two witnesses are described as “two prophets.” Again, the number is symbolic, but the reference to prophecy both here and in verse 10 shows that the church has a particular responsibility to declare God’s message of salvation offered in Jesus Christ, while also warning about judgment to those who refuse him. We see in the NT that the church of Jesus Christ is a prophetic community empowered by the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28–32; Acts 2:17–21). The 1,260 days, as explained in my comment on Revelation 11:2 above, refers to the entire period between the first and second coming of Christ. The church’s task as it waits for the return of the Lord is to proclaim the gospel, yet it is clothed in sackcloth while doing so. Sackcloth is worn in mourning (Gen. 37:34; 2 Sam. 3:31) or when judgment arrives (1 Kings 21:27; Neh. 9:1; Isa. 3:24). The church is clothed with sackcloth because it proclaims the need to repent, warning of the judgment to come.

11:4 The two witnesses, i.e., the church of Jesus Christ, are also described as two olive trees and two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth. John here picks up on Zechariah 4, where Joshua the priest and Zerubbabel the governor are described as two olive trees (Zech. 4:3, 11, 12). The parallel to Zechariah 4:14 is also evident, for Joshua and Zerubbabel are identified as the “two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” Zerubbabel and Joshua were king and priest, and so by speaking of the two anointed ones and the two olive trees, John refers to the church as a kingdom of priests (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). As priests and kings they mediate God’s blessing and gracious rule over the world. Kings and priests were anointed by the Spirit (Ex. 28:41; 29:7; 1 Sam. 10:1; 16:12–13), and the anointing here suggests the church, as a kingdom of priests, is anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Significantly, the oil of the olives fills the lampstand so that it can yield its light (Zech. 4:11–12), suggesting the oil is the power of the Spirit enabling the two witnesses to prophesy by speaking forth the Word of the Lord (Zech. 4:6). The church is God’s lampstand, shining forth to the world in both word and deed (Matt. 5:16).

11:5 Those who desire to harm the two witnesses will themselves suffer harm. As explained above, the two witnesses symbolize believers who witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If people wish to injure them, fire will come from the mouth of the witnesses to consume their enemies. Certainly, this language is symbolic and apocalyptic, for it is quite unlikely that fire literally comes out of people’s mouths! The fire signifies judgment pronounced on those who refuse to heed the message. Elijah brought fire from heaven twice to consume the enemies of the Lord (2 Kings 1:10, 12), and in Jeremiah the Lord says, “I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them” (Jer. 5:14). In the same way, those who reject the gospel proclaimed by the church will be killed and will face God’s blazing judgment.

11:6 John continues to use symbolic language to describe the judgment poured out on the world by the church of Jesus Christ. The church is able to “shut the sky” so that it does not rain during the time of their proclamation, and it is able to turn water into blood and call down horrendous plagues on enemies. Again, some understand this literally, but just as fire doesn’t literally come out of the mouth of the church, so here too the judgments are symbolic. John picks up biblical language of judgment to depict judgment on the ungodly. Prevention of rain, of course, reminds us of Elijah, who prophesied there would be no rain except by his word (1 Kings 17:1). Turning water into blood echoes what Moses did during the exodus (Ex. 7:17–21), and Moses summoned forth many other plagues as well. These plagues and judgments anticipate the judgment to come, a judgment pronounced by the church of Jesus Christ against those who refuse to listen to its message.

11:7 When the two witnesses—the church—have finished their testimony, the beast from the pit will wage war, conquer, and kill the witnesses. Some interpreters see here a literal martyrdom of the two witnesses. Some have, therefore, seen a reference to Enoch and Elijah, for these two men did not die during their earthly lives, and these interpreters argue that they will die in the future. But it is very unlikely that Enoch and Elijah will return to earth and live their lives again! The apocalyptic genre tilts us instead to a symbolic reading. John teaches that the church will give testimony to Jesus Christ (cf. Rev. 1:2, 9; 19:10; 20:4), but this testimony will be contested and opposed. The beast rising from the abyss will stand against the church and its testimony. This is the first mention of the beast in Revelation, and he will receive particular attention in chapters 13 and 17 (cf. comments). In John’s context the beast was the Roman Empire, standing for totalitarian government opposed to God. The beast comes “from the bottomless pit” or “abyss” (cf. also Rev. 17:8). Demons come from the abyss (9:1–2), and Satan is locked in the abyss for a thousand years (20:1, 3). The beast, then, has a demonic origin (12:17–13:1). When the beast, the Roman Empire, comes on the scene, it makes war against the saints (12:17; 19:19) as it demands worship and destroys all competition. When John says the beast conquers the saints (cf. 13:7), he does not mean he overcomes them and causes apostasy (as in 2:7, 11, etc.). He means the beast takes their physical lives from them; he conquers the saints by putting them to death (cf. Dan. 7:21). But the beast does not win an ultimate victory, for in dying the saints actually triumph: they conquer by not “[loving] their lives . . . unto death” (Rev. 12:11). Once again, John is not teaching that all believers will be put to death; the church as a whole is characterized as a suffering church, a martyred church, but we should not read this as saying all believers will suffer actual martyrdom.

11:8 If one takes the two witnesses to be two individuals, it seems that John says the two witnesses will be killed and their corpses left to lie on the streets of Jerusalem. But it is more probable that the two witnesses refer to the church as a whole, proclaiming salvation and judgment to the world. The language here is apocalyptic and symbolic instead of literal. Hence, the point isn’t that the corpses of the two witnesses literally lie on the streets in Jerusalem. Instead, we see that the church of Jesus Christ is scorned, maligned, and dishonored by the world. Not to bury a corpse in the ancient world was a great indignity and shame (cf. Gen. 40:19; 1 Sam. 17:44, 46; 2 Kings 9:10; Tob. 2:3–8). The “great city” of the world mistreats and slays believers (cf. Jer. 22:8). John says the city that is treating believers in this way is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and thus is symbolic of the city of man, the world opposed to God. The reference to Sodom is not surprising, given its sordid history (cf. Genesis 18–19), and Sodom is often referenced as an example of a city that gave itself over to evil (Deut. 29:23; 32:32; Isa. 1:9–10; 3:9; Jer. 23:14; Lam. 4:6; Amos 4:11; Zeph. 2:9). On the other hand, the reference to Egypt is quite surprising since it is not a city but a country. John signals that the word “city” is not to be taken literally, but denotes the entire world in opposition to God. In other words, John refers to what Augustine called the “city of man” over against the “city of God.”

Finally, the city is identified as the place where Jesus was crucified, which was literally Jerusalem. We think of the places in the OT and NT where Jerusalem or Judah are called Sodom because of their wickedness (Isa. 1:9–10; 3:9; Jer. 23:14; Lam. 4:6; Amos 4:11; Matt. 10:15; 11:23–24; Luke 10:12; Rom. 9:29), or even are said to be worse than Sodom (Ezek. 16:46–56). John isn’t indicting Jerusalem per se, nor is he thinking particularly of Rome. Instead, what happened in Jerusalem (the Lord was crucified) takes place all over the world, for the city of man rejects and despises the city of God.

11:9 For three and a half days the peoples of the world leave the corpses on the streets and refuse to allow them to be buried. Again, the language is apocalyptic and symbolic, so that the three and a half days should not be interpreted literally. Instead, John uses the number to denote a limited period of time, showing that the defaming of the church is limited to this present evil age. The world universally dishonors the witness of the church by denying it a tomb. We see this sentiment reflected in the words of the psalmist: “They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them” (Ps. 79:2–3; cf. 2 Kings 9:10; Jer. 14:16). We see here that the world scorns and mistreats the church as it witnesses to the salvation available through Jesus Christ.

11:10 Reference to those who “dwell on the earth” is found twice in this verse and is a technical term in Revelation for unbelievers (cf. comment on Rev. 3:10). Unbelievers will be filled with joy at the killing of Christians and will celebrate with parties and gift exchanges (cf. John 16:20). They will rejoice because the “two prophets,” who tormented them in their unbelief, are dead—the church in its prophetic and witness-bearing role condemned the evil engaged in by the world, and the world cannot bear to be criticized in this way.

11:11 After the three and a half days elapse, the corpses suddenly stand on their feet when the “breath of life,” i.e., “the spirit of life” (pneuma zōēs), from God enters them. As a result, unbelievers are filled with fear. The three and one-half days should not be interpreted literally; they refer to what will happen at the end of history. John draws on the vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37, where God’s breath entered the dry bones and they lived and “stood on their feet” (Ezek. 37:5, 10; cf. also 37:9, 14). Ezekiel wrote of the revivifying and reuniting of Israel and Judah, but he locates its fulfillment at the resurrection. Similarly, John describes here the resurrection of the people of God, those who have witnessed to Jesus Christ. When unbelievers see their vindication, they will be gripped with fear (cf. Ex. 15:16; Ps. 105:38), knowing judgment is at hand.

11:12 When the witnesses come to life and stand on their feet, God summons them to heaven (cf. Rev. 4:1). They travel to heaven in a cloud, reminiscent of both Jesus’ ascension to heaven (Acts 1:9; cf. 1 Thess. 4:17) and Elijah’s being taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Their enemies recognize that the witnesses belong to God and have been vindicated by him. The text is not a narration of what will happen literally but is John’s way of saying the church of Jesus Christ will be vindicated publicly by God himself, to the consternation of its enemies. Some think this cannot refer to the resurrection of believers, for then it would not make sense for further events to follow the resurrection. But when we remember that Revelation isn’t always strictly chronological, the problem vanishes.

11:13 The ascension of the two witnesses is accompanied by a great earthquake, in which one-tenth of the city falls and seven thousand are killed. Those who survive are filled with fear and give glory to God. Earthquakes in Revelation regularly signify the final judgment, and that is true here (cf. 6:12; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18). The figures of one-tenth and seven thousand designate judgment on the city of man and destruction of unbelievers. Are those who are spared and give glory to God believers? The reference could be to believers, but a reference to unbelievers is more likely in context. Unbelievers will glorify God at the judgment by acknowledging him to be in the right, and hence many interpreters understand the giving of glory to God to refer to judgment (cf. 1 Sam. 6:5; Isa. 42:12). In Daniel 4 we see Nebuchadnezzar giving glory to God, but he is not saved (Dan. 4:34; cf. Rev. 15:4). As noted in the comment on 11:12, sorting out chronological matters is difficult here, but it seems the judgment of unbelievers does not provoke other unbelievers to turn to God. Instead they are hardened in their unbelief. Nowhere else in Revelation do we find an end-time conversion of many unbelievers.

11:14 The second woe and sixth trumpet were recorded in 9:13–19. The long interlude has ended and John is ready to convey the message of the third woe and seventh trumpet. The subsequent verses (11:15–19) represent the third woe and teach the final judgment of the wicked, when God’s kingdom is established.