Revelation — Chapter 11

Authorship & Background

Map & Geography

• Egypt (v.8): Land to the southwest; place of Israel's bondage and exodus.
• Sodom (v.8): City destroyed by God for its wickedness (Genesis 19).

Places on this map

• EgyptEgyptA ribbon of irrigated land along the Nile, ending in the Delta where Israel settled in Goshen. Rain-fed Canaan depended on weather; Egypt depended on a river that flooded on schedule, which made it the place everyone went when the harvest failed. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Deep Dive

Setting: This chapter finishes the interlude that began in chapter 10, between the sixth and seventh trumpets. John has just eaten the little scroll and been told he "must again prophesy" (10:11). Now he is given a measuring rod and shown two witnesses who prophesy, are killed, and are raised. Then the seventh trumpet finally sounds, and heaven announces that the kingdom of the world has become Christ's. The chapter ends the first half of Revelation. Chapter 12 starts again from a new angle, with the woman, the child and the dragon.

Few chapters are read more differently. The main questions are what the temple is, who the two witnesses are, which city is meant, and what the 42 months and 1,260 days stand for:

• Futurists (Guzik) see a literal rebuilt temple in Jerusalem in the last days, two real prophets who preach for three and a half years of the tribulation, and Jerusalem as the city where they die.
• Historicists like Henry read the temple as the true church, the witnesses as faithful believers who kept testifying through the long years when the church was corrupt, and the 1,260 days as 1,260 years of that corruption.
• Preterists often see the Jerusalem temple before its destruction in AD 70, with the Roman siege "trampling the holy city." This is one reason some date the book before AD 70.
• Idealists see the temple as God's people, kept safe in spirit while trampled outwardly. The two witnesses stand for the church's witness to the world through the whole age, suffering, apparently defeated, and finally vindicated.

All agree on the shape of the story: God's people bear witness, suffer, seem to lose, and are raised up by God, and the kingdom belongs to Christ.

The Two Witnesses (vv1–14)

• "I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, 'Rise and measure the temple of God'" (v1). This comes from Ezekiel 40–42, where an angel measures a new temple, and Zechariah 2:1–5, where a man measures Jerusalem to show God will protect it. To measure something in prophecy is to mark it as God's own and under his protection, like the sealing in chapter 7. "Temple" here is naos, the inner sanctuary, the building itself as opposed to the whole temple area. John measures "the altar and those who worship there", people as well as stones, which is one reason many read the temple as God's people (1 Cor 3:16; Eph 2:21).
• "Do not measure the court outside the temple… it is given over to the nations" (v2). Herod's temple had a large outer "Court of the Gentiles," fenced off from the inner courts by a stone barrier with warning signs. Gentiles who went further faced death. Two of those warning inscriptions have been found. What is measured is protected, and what is left out is exposed.
• "They will trample the holy city for forty-two months" (v2). Jesus said, "Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). Forty-two months is three and a half years. It equals the 1,260 days of v3 (at 30 days a month), and the "time, times, and half a time" of Daniel 7:25 and 12:7. It appears again in Revelation 12:6, 14 and 13:5. The period goes back to Daniel's seventieth "week" of years, broken in half (Dan 9:27). It also recalls the three and a half years of drought under Elijah (Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17). Readers understand it as: - A literal three and a half years, the second half of a coming seven-year tribulation. Guzik holds this. - The whole church age, a broken seven, the limited time when evil seems to rule. The Tyndale notes take this view. - 1,260 years by the "day for a year" method, the historicist reading of Henry's era. - The Jewish war, which lasted roughly three and a half years from AD 66 to the fall of Jerusalem in 70, in some preterist readings.
• "I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth" (v3). Two witnesses were needed for testimony to stand under the law (Deut 19:15), and Jesus sent his disciples out two by two (Luke 10:1). Sackcloth was rough cloth of goat's hair worn in mourning and repentance. Their message calls the world to repent, like Jonah's at Nineveh (Jonah 3:5–6).
• "These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth" (v4). This is from Zechariah 4. There two olive trees fed oil to a lampstand, and they stood for "the two anointed ones," Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, a king and a priest, who led the rebuilding of the temple. The lesson in Zechariah was "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit" (Zech 4:6). In Revelation, lampstands are churches (1:20). Two lampstands may stand for the church's royal and priestly witness (1:6), or the two churches of chapters 2–3 that receive no rebuke, Smyrna and Philadelphia.
• "Fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes" (v5). Elijah called down fire on the soldiers sent to arrest him (2 Kings 1:10–12). God told Jeremiah, "I am making my words in your mouth a fire" (Jer 5:14). Many read the fire as the power of their word. Futurists often read it as literal fire.
• "Power to shut the sky… power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague" (v6). Shutting the sky is Elijah (1 Kings 17:1). Water into blood and plagues are Moses (Exod 7–11). Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, stood with Jesus at the Transfiguration (Matt 17:3), and Malachi promised Elijah would come before the day of the Lord (Mal 4:5).
• Who are the two witnesses? The main views: - Moses and Elijah, returning. Their powers match. The Tyndale notes call them likely candidates. JFB leans this way. - Enoch and Elijah, the two men who never died (Gen 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11). This was the most common view in the early church, partly because "it is appointed for man to die once" (Heb 9:27). Henry reports it. - Two future prophets in the spirit of Moses and Elijah, as John the Baptist came "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17). - The witnessing church as a whole, pictured as two because two witnesses make testimony valid.

Guzik takes them as two real men and leans toward Elijah plus Moses or Enoch. He adds that since Scripture doesn't name them, their identity matters less than their message.

• "When they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them" (v7). No one can touch them until their work is done. Then God allows it. This is the first mention of "the beast," introduced as though the readers already know him. He will be described fully in chapters 13 and 17. "Make war… conquer… kill" comes from Daniel 7:21, where the horn "made war with the saints and prevailed over them." "Testimony" is martyria, the root of "martyr."
• "The great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified" (v8). "Symbolically" is literally "spiritually." Sodom stands for depravity (Isa 1:9–10 calls Jerusalem's rulers "rulers of Sodom"), and Egypt for slavery and oppression of God's people. "Where their Lord was crucified" points to Jerusalem. Yet everywhere else in Revelation, "the great city" is Babylon, the world power that persecutes the saints, which early readers would have connected with Rome (16:19; 17:18; 18:10). Many see John merging the two: the city that crucified Jesus and the world city that kills his followers are one in spirit.
• "For three and a half days… gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb" (v9). In the ancient world, refusing burial was the worst insult to the dead (1 Sam 31:10; Ps 79:2–3). Three and a half days of apparent defeat mirror the three and a half years of witness. "Peoples and tribes and languages and nations" watch, so the event is seen across the whole world.
• "Those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents" (v10). The world's celebration is a party over dead preachers. Sending gifts was part of feast days (Neh 8:10–12; Esth 9:19–22). It is a grim parody of a holiday. Their message had been "a torment" because it would not let people's consciences rest.
• "A breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet" (v11). This is almost word for word from Ezekiel 37:10, the valley of dry bones: "the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet." "Breath" and "spirit" are the same word in Greek (pneuma), as in Hebrew (ruach). Their resurrection after about three days echoes Jesus' own.
• "'Come up here!' And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them" (v12). This is the same call John heard in 4:1. Like Jesus, they ascend in a cloud (Acts 1:9), and like Elijah they are taken up in full view (2 Kings 2:11). Some futurists connect it with the rapture of the church (1 Thess 4:17). Most others see vindication: the world that mocked them sees God declare them right.
• "A great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed… and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven" (v13). For the first time in the trumpets, the response is different. Earlier, people "did not repent" (9:20–21). Here the survivors give glory to God, the phrase Revelation uses for true repentance (14:7; 16:9). Only a tenth falls and nine-tenths survive, reversing the old pattern of judgment where a remnant survives. In Elijah's day, God kept seven thousand who did not bow to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). Here seven thousand die and the rest turn. Whether this is real conversion or only terrified acknowledgment is debated. Guzik doubts it is true repentance. Many others see in it the witnesses' success at last.
• "The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come" (v14). The interlude is over. The third woe is the seventh trumpet, and what it holds unfolds in the chapters that follow.
• Commentators: Henry reads the temple as "the gospel church in general," and the witnesses' sackcloth as mourning "the low and distressed state of the churches." He reports that "Some think these two witnesses are Enoch and Elias, who are to return to the earth for a time." He reads the city as "spiritually called Sodom for monstrous wickedness, and Egypt for idolatry and tyranny." The earthquake he links to "the fall of a tenth part" of the antichristian empire, which he connects with the Reformation. JFB takes the temple more literally: "The measurement of the Holy place seems to me to stand parallel to the sealing of the elect of Israel." It says, "Many of the early Church thought the two witnesses to be Enoch and Elijah," but leans toward Moses and Elijah. On the beast: "This beast was not mentioned before, yet he is introduced as 'the beast.'" It sees the great city as Jerusalem with "an anticipatory reference to the mystical Babylon." Guzik argues that the temple is a real future temple, since the courts, altar and worshippers are too specific to be a symbol. He says the witnesses cannot be harmed until their testimony is finished. The Tyndale notes take the temple and the periods symbolically and say the witnesses' role matters more than their names.

The Seventh Trumpet (vv15–19)

• "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (v15). The seventh trumpet doesn't bring a new plague. It brings an announcement from heaven. "Kingdom" is singular: the world's whole system of power, all its rival kingdoms taken as one, now belongs to God. "His Christ" means "his Anointed," from Psalm 2:2, where the nations rage "against the LORD and against his Anointed." Daniel saw the same: God's kingdom "shall break in pieces all these kingdoms… and it shall stand forever" (Dan 2:44; 7:14, 27). "Has become" speaks of the future as already done, because it is certain. Handel set this verse in the "Hallelujah" chorus of Messiah.
• "The twenty-four elders… fell on their faces and worshiped God" (v16). The elders, who represent God's people (4:4), fall from their thrones to their faces.
• "Lord God Almighty, who is and who was" (v17). Earlier the title was "who is and who was and who is to come" (1:8; 4:8). Now the last phrase drops out. He has come. "Almighty" is pantokratōr, the ruler of all.
• "You have taken your great power and begun to reign" (v17). God has always been sovereign. What is new is that he now exercises his rule openly and fully, so no rival remains.
• "The nations raged, but your wrath came" (v18). This picks up Psalm 2:1, 5: "Why do the nations rage…? Then he will speak to them in his wrath." The verse lists everything still to come in the book: wrath, the judgment of the dead (20:11–15), rewards for God's servants (22:12), and the destruction of the destroyers.
• "For rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great" (v18). No believer is too small to be remembered. "Small and great" covers everyone from the least to the greatest (Ps 115:13).
• "For destroying the destroyers of the earth" (v18). God's justice fits the crime. Those who ruin his world will be ruined. Behind them stands the Destroyer, Apollyon (9:11). It is also a reminder that God cares about the earth he made.
• "God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple" (v19). The ark of the covenant was the gold-covered chest in the Holy of Holies, holding the tablets of the law, with the mercy seat on top. Only the high priest could see it, once a year (Lev 16). It disappeared when Babylon destroyed the temple in 586 BC, and the second temple's Holy of Holies stood empty. Now heaven's sanctuary stands open, and the ark is in full view. God's covenant presence is no longer hidden. The earthly ark was a copy of the heavenly reality (Exod 25:40; Heb 8:5). For a persecuted church, seeing the ark meant God had not forgotten his covenant.
• "Flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail" (v19). These are the Sinai signs again, as at the end of the seals (8:5), now stronger with hail added. They will come one more time, strongest of all, at the seventh bowl (16:18–21). Many see that repeated ending as a sign that the seals, trumpets and bowls each lead up to the same final day.
• Commentators: Henry quotes the announcement and gives the worship to "the saints and angels in heaven." As a historicist, he says that "during the power of antichrist, the temple of God seemed to be shut up". He reads the opening of the temple as the time when Scripture was opened to ordinary people again at the Reformation. On v19 he notes that "in this ark the tables of the law were kept." JFB explains: "The kingdoms of the world give way to the kingdom of (over) the world exercised by Christ," and notes "kingdom" is singular in the best manuscripts. It sees the heavenly ark as the true one, the sign of God's faithfulness to his covenant. Guzik compares heaven's announcement to an election result declared before the winner takes office. The victory is certain, though not yet fully carried out. He reads the closing signs as echoes of Sinai, and the ark as God's covenant faithfulness.

Pointing to Christ

The story of the two witnesses is the story of Jesus, told again in his people. They preach in sackcloth, are killed "where their Lord was crucified," lie in shame for three days while the world celebrates, and then rise and go up in a cloud. Christ's followers walk the road he walked, and they end where he ended: raised and vindicated. Then the seventh trumpet gives the answer to every taunt: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." The ark that once hid behind a curtain is now in full view, because the curtain was torn when Jesus died (Matt 27:51). God's covenant was kept in him.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers the temple measurement, the two witnesses' identity and ministry, their death and resurrection, and the seventh trumpet.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Revelation -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• Untouchable Until the Work Is Done (v.7) — The two witnesses can't be killed until they finish the testimony God gave them. Does this give you confidence that you're secure in your calling until God says your work is complete?
• The World Celebrates, God Has the Last Word (vv.10-11) — The world rejoices over the witnesses' death, but three and a half days later God raises them to their feet. When evil seems to be winning around you, how do you hold onto the certainty that God's answer isn't finished?
• The Kingdom Belongs to Christ (v.15) — The seventh trumpet announces that the kingdoms of this world already belong to the Lord and His Christ. Does this settled outcome give you confidence when the world around you feels chaotic or out of control?
• God Takes Up His Power (v.17) — The elders thank God for taking His great power and beginning to reign in full. Are you living now in light of that certain future reign, or as though this present world is all there is?