One of the most debated parts of the book of Revelation—along with the beasts, Babylon, and the “millennium”—is the identity of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1-14). To say that there has been wild speculation about the identity of these two figures is putting it mildly. For example, the popular Left Behind books and movies depict them as two fire-breathing prophets who will appear during “The Great Tribulation” in Jerusalem. More recently, people have been using AI to generate “biblically accurate” pictures of the two witnesses that make them look like characters out of Dune or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
To discover the identity of the two witnesses we need to begin by understanding what the book of Revelation is. First and foremost, Revelation is a book of the Bible, and must be read as such. It is the culmination of biblical prophecy1Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993); see also Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, New Testament Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). and the canonical capstone of Christian Scripture.2Brian Tabb, All Things New: Revelation as Canonical Capstone, ed. D. A. Carson, vol. 48, New Studies in Biblical Theology (England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2019). Second, Revelation is a book written to churches facing persecution and pressures to compromise. John is shown what would “soon take place” in the 1st century to encourage the church throughout all the ages to persevere in faithful witness and to have hope in the reign of the risen Lord Jesus.
In chapter 11 John sees a vision of the temple and the ministry of two witnesses. When read in light of the rest of Scripture it becomes evident that this chapter is painting a picture of the church’s faithful and successful witness to Jesus despite opposition.
The Measuring of the Temple and the Trampling of the City
Just as Zechariah saw Jerusalem measured (Zech. 2), and Ezekiel saw God’s temple measured (Ezek. 40), so John sees the temple measured. This symbolizes spiritual protection and preservation of God’s people, just like the “sealing” of God’s people (Rev. 7:3; Ezek. 9:4). Because of the resurrection of Christ (and the Spirit, the church was now the true temple, the place where God now lived through his Spirit (John 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 3:16, 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:11-22; 1 Pet. 2:4-5. Christians, Jew and Gentile, are living stones and priests, who enter the holy places of the heavenly temple by the blood of Jesus, behind the torn veil. With the arrival of Jesus, something greater than the temple had truly arrived (Matt. 12:6). Despite the fact that the physical temple was still standing, it had been left desolate (Matt. 23:38). Thus, the comforting image of the church being protected also serves as an indictment on the physical temple and the old covenant order, which was passing away between 30-70 AD, when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed.
The court outside the temple that is “left out” (literally “cast out”, Rev. 11:2) is best understood as those who rejected Jesus, killed him, and persecuted the saints. In the first century this was unbelieving Israel, the generation that rejected Jesus, but it represents all those who follow in their footsteps throughout the ages. They’re in the outer court because they have not drawn near by the blood of Jesus. Interestingly, the argument for the outer court as unbelieving Israel is strengthened by what Paul says in Galatians 4:21-32. Paul says the “present Jerusalem” is like Hagar, the slave woman who was “cast out” and does not inherit the promises, while the church corresponds to Sarah and the heavenly Jerusalem, those who are born of the Spirit.
The point of Rev. 11:1-2 is that the saints as “the holy city” may be trampled underfoot, they may be killed for their testimony, but ultimately, they are safe, secure, and sealed for the day of redemption. Every believer is assessed and accounted for by God; and they are under God’s care and control.
The Identity of the Witnesses
This measuring of the temple is followed by a story of God’s “two witnesses” who are granted authority to prophesy for 1,260 days (Rev. 11:3-4). Despite the wild theories about these two witnesses, they are best seen as symbolic of the church for several reasons.
First, Jesus is the faithful witness (1:5), so too are his people (Lk. 24:48; Acts 1:8). The saints conquer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their prophetic testimony (Rev. 12:11), which is the same word for “witness,” and where we get our word “martyr.” Throughout Revelation it is the entire community of believers who testify/witness to Jesus (6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4).
Second, the time of their witness (1,260 days) overlaps with the trampling of the city (42 months). The use days and months offers two perspectives on the same time period. The trampling matches the time the beast makes war on the saints (Rev. 13:5-7). The prophesying matches the woman’s time in the wilderness nourished by God (Rev. 12:6). In other words, for 42 Months the church is persecuted, but for 1,260 days the church is protected as their bear prophetic witnesses to Christ. The witnesses prophesying for the same time as the city is trampled helps explain the purpose of measuring. God protects his people to ensure “the effectiveness of [their] prophetic witness.”3G. K. Beale and David H. Campbell, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary (Eerdmans, 2015), 220.
Third, the two witnesses are called “the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (v4). The churches in Revelation have already been identified as lampstands (Rev. 1:12-2:5), so it’s safe to assume that these two witnesses as lampstands refer to the church. This is where Zechariah’s imagery of the two olive trees and the lampstand comes into play as well, which is a vision of God’s people being empowered and sustained by God’s Spirit through his word. The difference is that now the imagery is merged. The two witnesses are the lampstands and the olive trees because God’s people are a kingdom of priests and prophets, all filled with the Spirit.
Fourth, Revelation 11:7 says the beast makes war against the two witnesses and conquers them, but in Revelation 13:7 is says the beast makes war on the saints and conquers them, which are both a reference to Daniel 7, where a little horn makes war on the saints and conquers them. This is because Revelation 11 is a preview of what happens in chapters 12-16. The witnesses slain by the beast (11:7) are the saints slain by the beast (13:7), and the saints slain by the beast are the 144,000 firstfruit martyrs (14:1-5).4See Peter J. Leithart, Revelation, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain, vol. 1, ITC (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), 429.
So if the two witnesses represent God’s people, the church, the question then is why two witnesses? Like all the other numbers in Revelation, this is symbolic. The law required two witnesses to confirm the truth or establish a charge (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6). This is why Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs (Lk. 10) and why two angels testified to the resurrection and 2nd coming (Lk. 24:4; Acts 1:10-11). The Father sent his Son (the Word) and Spirit to testify to the gospel, forming a double witness (Mk. 3:28-29). Most persuasively, the two witnesses match the prominent idea in the New Testament that the church is comprised of Jew and Gentile. Thus, we can say that the church (Jew + Gentile) forms a double witness against their persecutors who reject Christ.5Leithart, Revelation. It is in response to this double witnesses to Jesus that the dragon forms his own double-team against the church, with the beasts from the sea (Rome) and the land (Jews).
The Ministry of the Witnesses
Another reason we can identify the two witnesses as the church is based on how their ministry is described (Rev. 11:3-6). The Scripture-saturated reader will instantly realize that these witnesses are a mashup of all the biblical prophets. “As figures that stand for the faithful generally, the two witnesses encompass the traits of individuals from many periods in the history of God’s people.6Craig R. Koester, Revelation and the End of All Things, Second Edition (Eerdmans, 2018), 110.
Like the prophet Daniel, they are dressed in sackcloth (Dan. 9:3) as. Like the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, they are the olive trees, the “sons of oil”, that stand before the Lord of the earth (Zech. 4:14).
Like Jeremiah, their pour fire from their mouths. God tells Jeremiah, “I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them” (Jer. 5:14). This is symbolic language; their words of judgment are fire, and the people are wood. Reading this literally, expecting two individuals to breathe fire from their mouths, is a complete failure to understand how this imagery is used in Scripture. No one reading the book of Jeremiah would have understood in such a literalistic manner. Interestingly, when the disciples want to literally be like Elijah and call down fire on Samaritans, Jesus rebukes them (Luke 9:51-56). But in the next chapter he sends them out in pairs to preach the gospel and the judgment of God! They would call down “fire” as they preached the gospel. “Likewise, the two witnesses…declare the judgment of God not by calling down literal fire, a practice no longer suitable in the gospel age, but by declaring the gospel and the consequences of disobeying it.”7Beale, Revelation, 225
Like Moses and Elijah, the witnesses perform mighty signs (Rev. 11:6). The powers of these prophets is attributed to both witnesses, not divided between them, as if these witnesses are literally Moses and Elijah reincarnate. Rather, Smalley says it best when he says that the church, being filled with the Spirit, “[possesses] gifts and resources which are just as great as those which were available to Moses and Elijah.”8Stephen S. Smalley, The Revelation to John: A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Apocalypse (SPCK, 2005), 280. These signs, like the fire from Jeremiah’s mouth, and Jesus telling his disciples they can throw a mountain into the sea (Mark 11:23), are a picture of their prophetic ministry being empowered by God, effective and unhindered, until they have finished their testimony.
Finally, like their Lord, they are killed for their testimony, but vindicated and raised to life (spiritually at first). Their ministry of 1,260 roughly matches the length of Jesus’ ministry. Interestingly, the Greek text of Rev. 11:8 says their dead body, not “bodies.” Understanding the witnesses as double witness of the Jew-Gentile church, the one body of Christ, makes the most sense of this perplexing detail. Additionally, it says the witnesses received the breath of life from God and stood on their feet (Rev. 11:11). This is an allusion to Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, which symbolically depicts the spiritual restoration and resurrection of God’s people, not just a few individuals. Just as their prophetic ministry is symbolic, so is their martyrdom and ascent. The point is that God’s people will be rescued, resurrected, and vindicated.
Understanding the symbolism and identifying the scriptural allusions here provides great encouragement to the church. We find ourselves in the company of God’s prophets throughout the ages. We are sealed, protected, and empowered to carry out our ministry of witnessing to the gospel of Jesus.
The Vindication of the Witnesses
After the two witnesses are raised, there was an earthquake, just like when Jesus died (Matt. 27:51-54), and John is told, “a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Rev. 11:13). Here we find the vindication of the witnesses and the outcome of their prophetic ministry. But in order to understand the outcome of their witness, and the significance of these symbolic numbers we must turn, once again, to the Old Testament.
As with all the numbers in Revelation, these numbers here cannot be literal because this would mean that the great city—which is usually identified as Jerusalem or Rome—only had 70,000 people in it. The significance of these symbolic numbers comes from the Old Testament prophets. As for the “tenth,” The prophets Isaiah and Amos both warned that only a tenth of the people would survive God’s coming judgment and be left in the city (Isa. 6:13; Amos 5:3). As for the “seven thousand,” God told Elijah that he would leave “seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal (1 Kgs. 19:18). In each case, the tenth and the seven thousand, there is only a faithful remnant left standing after God’s judgments are unleashed.
Now John sees the reverse! Now, John is told only a tenth of the city falls under judgment, and only seven thousand are killed while the rest give glory to God. The numbers are reversed from how they are used in the OT. Earlier in Revelation we learn that “the rest of mankind” not killed by the trumpet judgments “did not repent” of their idolatry and immorality (Rev. 9:20-21.) But now, with the witness of the church, it seems that they do! In other words, the church’s witnesses is successful. Wright concludes, “The martyr-witness of the church…will succeed where the plagues have failed. This is how the nations will come to glorify their creator. This is how ‘the kingdom of the world’ will become the kingdom of ‘our Lord and his Messiah’—which is precisely the point that follows immediately in verse 15.”9Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone, For Everyone Bible Study Guides (Westminster John Knox, 2011), 100
When we understand the two witnesses in Revelation 11 as part of Scripture we have a glorious picture of the church’s work and witness in the world. God not only ensures his presence with his people and their spiritual protection as they prophesy, but he also ensures their effective witness, their vindication, and the judgment of their oppressors. This was true in the first century, when the church was persecuted while bearing witness to Jesus, and is still true today.
