Prophecy · The Scroll's Structure
The Two Witnesses
In the middle of Revelation’s judgments, two figures appear whom nothing on earth can touch: prophets in sackcloth, preaching for exactly 1,260 days, with fire at their word, the sky shut like Elijah’s, the waters struck like Moses’s. Then the sentence that turns the whole scene: when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast overcomes them — and their bodies lie in the street of the city “where also our Lord was crucified,” until, after three days and a half, they stand up in front of the cameras of the whole earth and are called home the way their Lord was.
The Ministry
— Revelation 11:3-13 — down, down, dead; then upThe commission
the two olive trees and two candlesticks of Zechariah 4, standing before the Lord of the earth
The powers
Elijah's drought and Moses's plagues — the two ministries the powers deliberately echo
The death
untouchable until “they shall have finished their testimony” — then, and only then, the beast prevails; the world exchanges gifts over the bodies
The rising
their Lord's own pattern — a public death, a short grave, a rising their enemies watch
The Two Olive Trees
— Revelation 11:4 — Zechariah's picture, reusedJohn identifies the witnesses with a five-century-old picture: Zechariah’s two olive trees feeding oil into the lampstand — figures who “stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” In Zechariah they were Zerubbabel and Joshua, crown and priesthood; the definite article in Revelation (“thetwo olive trees”) deliberately reaches back to them. Whatever else the witnesses are, they are that: anointed suppliers of light in a dark hour, standing in the Lord’s own presence while they work.
And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”the picture's first home — 'the two anointed ones.'
The phrase alludes to Zec 4:10, 14, "the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth." The article "the" marks this allusion. They are "the two candlesticks," not that they are the Church, the one candlestick, but as its representative light-bearers (Greek, "phosteres," Php 2:15), and ministering for its encouragement in a time of apostasy.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Rev 11:4
These are the two olive trees - Mentioned Zec 4:14, which there represent Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. The whole account seems taken from Zec 4:1-14. Whether the prophet and the apostle mean the same things by these emblems, we know not.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Rev 11:4
Who They Are
— the readings — a debate as old as the commentariesTheir powers are a double signature — Elijah’s shut sky, Moses’s bloodied waters — and readers have been matching names to the signature since the second century. Victorinus’s note below is the debate itself, preserved: some said Moses or Elisha with Elijah; his own elders said Jeremiah. No verdict is rendered here; the readings, and who holds each, are laid out.
If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed. These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish."If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies." That fire proceedeth out of the mouth of those prophets against the adversaries, bespeaks the power of the world. For all afflictions, however many there are, shall be sent by their messengers in their word. Many think that there is Elisha, or Moses, with Elijah; but both of these died; while the death of Elijah is not heard of, with whom all our ancients have believed that it was Jeremiah.
Victorinus of Pettau· Commentary on the Apocalypse (c. 304), on Rev 11:5 — the ancient WHO debate, already running
It is a matter of course that His forerunners must appear first, as He says by Malachi and the angel, "I will send to you Elias the Tishbite before the day of the Lord, the great and notable day, comes; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come and smite the earth utterly."
Hippolytus of Rome· Dogmatical and Historical Fragments (c. 235), on Rev 11:4
The candidates, and why each is proposednamed readings, no verdict
Moses and Elijah:the majority reading across the centuries — the powers match exactly (plagues and drought); the pair already stood together with Christ at the transfiguration; and Malachi promised Elijah’s return before the great day (Mal 4:5), which Hippolytus above takes at face value.
Enoch and Elijah:the early church’s other favorite, on the argument that these two alone never died (Gen 5:24; 2 Kgs 2:11) and so remain, as it were, available for a death scene. Victorinus records a third ancient candidate — Jeremiah, whose death Scripture never narrates.
A corporate symbol:much of the amillennial and historicist tradition reads the pair as the witnessing church (or the Scriptures’ two Testaments) in its prophetic office — two being the number of valid testimony (Deut 19:15), the sackcloth its penitential preaching.
What every reading shares: the witnesses are God’s answer to the beast’s hour — the testimony does not go silent even at the darkest point of the story, and it cannot be stopped one day earlier than its completion.
Finished, Killed, Raised
— Revelation 11:7-13 — the pattern of their LordThe scene’s theology hangs on one participle: when they shall have finished. Until the testimony is complete, the witnesses are untouchable; the moment it is complete, the beast is permitted his hour — and the world celebrates Christmas over the corpses, “because these two prophets tormented them.” Then the Spirit of life enters them, they stand, and a voice says “come up hither.” The city that watched has one recorded response, unique among Revelation’s judgment scenes: the remnant, terrified, gave glory to the God of heaven.
When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them. And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.And when they shall have finished their testimony - Prof. Stuart renders this, And whenever they shall have finished their testimony. The reference is undoubtedly to a period when they should have faithfully borne the testimony which they were appointed to bear. The word rendered here shall have finished - τελέσωσιν telesōsin, from τελέω teleō means properly to end, to finish, to complete, to accomplish.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Rev 11:7
It is a proof of the unity that pervades all Scripture. make war against them--alluding to Da 7:21, where the same is said of the little horn that sprang up among the ten horns on the fourth beast.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Rev 11:7
"And their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt." But He calls Jerusalem Sodom and Egypt, since it had become the heaping up of the persecuting people. Therefore it behoves us diligently, and with the utmost care, to follow the prophetic announcement, and to understand what the Spirit from the Father both announces and anticipates, and how, when He has gone forward to the last times, He again repeats the former ones.
Victorinus of Pettau· Commentary on the Apocalypse (c. 304), on Rev 11:8
The great city - Some say Rome, which may be spiritually called Sodom for its abominations, Egypt for its tyrannous cruelty, and the place where our Lord was crucified, because of its persecution of the members of Christ; but Jerusalem itself may be intended. All these things I must leave to others.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Rev 11:8
And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.the one revival inside the judgment chapters.
Where It Points
— testimony that cannot be silenced earlyWhoever the witnesses prove to be, their story is the gospel’s shape stamped on the end times: a commissioned testimony, a permitted death, a watching world, a rising. The church has always seen her own vocation in them — and her own security: no witness of God dies before the testimony is finished.
Closing
Two lamps that cannot be blown out early; two bodies in a street; two prophets standing up on the third-and-a-half day. The beast gets his hour, and it buys him a resurrection broadcast to his whole kingdom.