This post deals with the “two witnesses” John describes in Revelation 11. We are publishing it on Oct. 31, 2017. This day marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. This act started the Protestant Reformation.
We will recognize this historic occasion by reporting that one commentator identified Luther and his predecessor in reformation, John Hus, as the “two witnesses.”1
We beg to differ with this identification. The two reformers were not in Jerusalem during the “great tribulation” in Jesus’s generation (Rev. 7:14; cp. Matt. 24:21, 34).2
With one possibility eliminated, we will continue our study of Revelation’s third vision, that of the seven trumpets (Rev. 8:2–11:19), and provide a tentative identification of the witnesses.3
Our last post (here) began our discussion of Rev. 11:3–13, the period between the sixth and seventh trumpets. We saw that Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 are the only passages in the Bible that combine the two-olive-tree and candlestick images. The “two witnesses” must fit into this symbolic context.
We also attempted to “see” the prophet’s picture and showed one possible arrangement of his images. Our tentative proposal was that Zechariah’s vision was of the Trinity in heaven supplying everything needed for his servants to sustain their Temple-based worship on earth. Zerubbabel would build the second Temple despite all opposition. Supplies of grace would flow through the vision’s golden pipes to ensure his success.
John applies these images to his historical situation. In doing so, he follows Zechariah’s example of associating them with the history of the Temple. The destruction of the second Temple, constructed in Zechariah’s day, was in John’s near future.4
The identity of the two witnesses
We will first state our proposal, then explain our reasoning: the two witnesses are Israel as organized and constituted in the Mosaic and the Messianic ages.
As we have seen (here), the “nation” of Israel is God’s church kingdom in both ages. The Old and New Testaments both refer to this nation thus constituted as an individual man, as God’s witness, as an olive tree, and as a candlestick. Scripture applies this combination of symbols to no other entity.
Confirmation from commentators
Some readers may balk at this proposal. To show it is within the mainstream of conservative Christian interpretation, we offer the following quotes. A. R. Fausset says, “As two candlesticks are mentioned in Rev 11:4, but only one in Zec 4:2, I think the twofold Church, Jewish and Gentile, may be meant by the two candlesticks represented by the two witnesses.”5
Christopher Wordsworth suggests the two candlesticks represent the church “under the Two dispensations, the Law and the Gospel, as being therein the divinely-constituted Guardian, Keeper, and Interpreter of the Word of God.”6 Simon J. Kistemaker proposes a similar “symbolic interpretation.”7
None of these writers agrees with inmillennialism in full, but their explanations of the “two witnesses” resemble ours.
Even though they were not the two witnesses, Martin Luther and John Hus would insist we not rely on commentators to validate our proposal. They would insist on an appeal to the Scriptures.
Confirmation from Scripture
In both the Mosaic and Messianic Ages, the Scriptures refer to the entire nation of God’s people as an individual. In the Old Testament God says, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). He addreses the multitude as a single person. The same is true in the New. For example, Paul says God has created “one new man” (Eph. 2:15) made up of many persons.
This opens the way for our proposal. John refers to the “two witnesses” as individuals (Rev. 11:2). Scripture refers to Israel in both ages—our proposed “two witnesses”—in just this way. A “witness” like this can be an entire nation.
Scripture also represents these “individuals” as God’s witnesses. God says to Mosaic-Age Israel: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen” (Isa. 43:10; emphasis added).
In the New Testament, Jesus told the apostles
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24:47–49)
This “witness” in the “city of Jerusalem” affects our interpretation of Revelation 11. This was the city of the Temple John measured for destruction (Rev. 11:1–3), the city “where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8), the city in whose streets the “two witnesses” died (Rev. 11:8), and the city shaken by “a great earthquake” (Rev. 11:13).
Israel was a “person” who served as God’s “witnesses” in both ages.
The two witnesses as olive trees
Besides “witnesses,” Scripture also refers to Israel in both ages as an “olive tree.” Jeremiah told Israel: “The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit” (Jer. 11:16).
The New Testament applies this imagery to Messianic-Age Israel. Paul says, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree (Rom. 11:17; emphasis added)
Our purpose here is not to explore the many implications of this imagery, but to show the Bible applies the olive tree imagery of Revelation 11 to Israel in both the Mosaic and Messianic ages.
The two witnesses as candlesticks
The same is true for the “candlestick” imagery. We discussed this imagery in Zechariah’s vision in our last post (here). It assured Zerubbabel he would rebuild the Temple.
In Revelation, John has used this imagery in a Messianic-Age connection. A candlestick represents each of the seven churches in his first vision (Rev. 1:9–3:22). The word “church” can represent both an individual congregation and—as a collective noun—all churches (e.g., Matt. 16:18). Just so, a “candlestick” can represent an individual church or all the churches.
Earl Palmer integrates the candlestick and olive tree images with the two witnesses in a manner similar to ours:
The witnesses are described as “two olive trees” and “the two lampstands.” We know from earlier references in this book that the lampstand image has referred to the Christian churches. Now what is added to that lampstand symbol for the church is the olive tree symbol, placed in poetic parallelism to it.8
The two witnesses’ death
We must compress our explanation of the death, resurrection, and ascension of the two witnesses (Rev. 11:7–12). Some of our statements will rely on previous posts. Others will, of necessity, find support in future entries.
First, John’s field of prophetic vision is Jerusalem. He is writing about the soon-coming fulfillment of Jesus’s prophecy in the Olivet Discourse (Luke 21:20–24). The two prophecies—the Olivet Discourse and Revelation—are speaking of events in Jesus’s generation (Luke 21:32). We agree with Kenneth Gentry, “Revelation 11 is based on Luke 21:24.”9 John is not speaking of planet earth at the end of history.
Second, the two witnesses’ defenses are those of Israel’s former prophets. Elijah called fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:35–38) and shut heaven that it rained not (1 Kings 17:1). Moses turned water to blood and produced plagues (Exod. 7:14–12:29). Israel’s representatives performed these acts against enemies, whether external or internal.
Jesus prohibited Israel’s new age prophets—the apostles—from calling down literal fire on the apostate Jews (Luke 9:54–56). We understand this defense imagery applied to them as a metaphor, as when “God told Jeremiah that his words would be a fire in the prophet’s mouth (Jer. 5:14; 23:29).”10 We have seen (here) how the apostles would cast down the Temple mount by their witnessing.
Thus the “two witnesses” had sufficient defenses to “finish their testimony” (Rev. 11:7) to the apostate Jews. [These apostates were not “of Israel” (Rom. 9:6) and, therefore, not God’s witnesses. They were internal enemies.] The apostles “tormented” them, cutting them to the heart (Acts 2:37; 5:22, 28; 7:54; 22:22). They did so until just before the end of the Mosaic Age. James,11 the Lord’s brother, witnessed in Jerusalem until the apostates murdered him in AD 69.12
Third, “the beast” is the Roman Empire or its representative(s). We will defend this view in future posts. This “beast” persecuted the church—Messianic-Age Israel—for about 42 months under Nero, then destroyed Mosaic-Age Israel during the 42 months of the Jewish wars.
By the fall of AD 70, both witnesses had “died” in the streets of Jerusalem. Death and contempt for the bodies of the slain are fitting images for how “the children of the flesh . . . [who were] not the children of God” (Rom. 9:8) treated God’s “two witnesses”—the faithful Israel of both ages.
Fourth, the resurrection John sees is figurative. Beasely-Murray says,
The church is crushed by its enemies for three and a half days, a deliberate play on the three and a half years of the tribulation, which, however, is also the period of the powerful ministry of the witnesses. . . . The statement that a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, cites Ezk. 37:10, which refers to the spiritual quickening of the nation Israel.13
Jesus used this imagery to describe something other than physical resurrection (John 5:24–27). Taking it as a metaphor is not a drastic step.
At the end of the vision, the “two witnesses” live in heaven and Jerusalem falls.
Imagery update from Zechariah to Revelation
We can now update our diagram of Zechariah’s vision with the new elements in Revelation. The Olive Trees remain in heaven because, in Zechariah’s vision, they were the source of oil for the candlestick. They must perform this function, we think, in John’s vision, too.
John also sees two olive trees in the “Jerusalem which now is” (cp. Gal. 4:25). These olive trees are “two prophets” (Rev. 11:10) who have power with which to defend themselves (Rev. 11:5–6). They have bodies capable of death and desecration (Rev. 11:7–9).
As we mentioned above, Zechariah saw one candlestick but John sees two. Combining these new elements with our identification of the “two witnesses” results in the following diagram:
Since the primary purpose of Zechariah’s vision was to encourage the rebuilding of the Mosaic-Age Temple,14 that encouragement occupies the central place in his vision as shown here:
John’s theme in Revelation includes events that move God’s people from the Mosaic Age into the Messianic age: from the Temple on earth to the one in heaven. His sequence emphasizes this movement:
Conclusion
John’s imagery expands Zechariah’s vision and creates a memorable impression. As the trumpets sound, God’s two witnesses—also seen as olive trees and candlesticks—testify in Jerusalem. When the trumpet vision is complete, John has measured the Temple in Jerusalem for destruction, God has removed his witnesses from Jerusalem, the city has suffered an earthquake, and the Temple in heaven is open. The Mosaic Age is past and the Messianic Age is ahead. In it, “the kingdoms of this world (Gk. kosmos) are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
The “last days” of the Mosaic Age (Heb. 1:2) was the only time in history when two candlesticks within two Temples—both ordained by God—will exist on earth. God removed them both from Jerusalem when he destroyed that city.
Mosaic-Age Israel and Messianic-Age Israel are now united in heaven. God will never again divide them so they can testify on earth as “two witnesses.”
Messianic-Age Israel, now based in heaven (Eph. 1:3; 2:6), sends ambassadors in Christ’s name to the nations, commanding them to repent and believe the gospel of the kingdom (Acts 17:30). That nation has embassies on earth (i.e., churches) that serve as centers for this missionary activity (e.g., 1 Thess. 1:8).
All God’s saints now have access to the Temple’s inner sanctum. Through the images of the trumpet vision, the Holy Spirit was “signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present” (Heb. 9:8–9). The “first tabernacle”—the Temple in Jerusalem—no longer stands as a “figure” as it did during the Mosaic Age. The reality of that “figure” has now come: the “holiest of all” in heaven is open through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus it will be throughout the Messianic Age.
With one last nod to Luther, we pray the churches on earth may be reformed and always reforming in the knowledge of Christ. May God’s candlestick shine brighter and brighter in this age.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Footnotes
- Namely, Horzoff, per Moses Stuart, A Commentary on the Apocalypse, (Andover: Allen, Morrill and Wardwell, 1845), 219.
- The picture above is an illustration in a Bible. An unknown artist drew it around 1255–1260 AD. It is now at the Getty Center. The digital file (here) is in the public domain (PD-1923). Notice how the details match the Olivet Discourse: the fall of Jerusalem, the vultures (Matt. 24:28), etc.
- For an outline of Revelation, see Mapping God’s Highway in Revelation.
- Jesus said it would occur in his generation. That generation was almost over. This accounts for Revelation’s bookend time stamps we discussed here.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental and Practical on the Old and New Testaments, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976), 3:3:689. Emphasis his.
- Christopher Wordsworth, Lectures on the Apocalypse: Critical Expository, and Practical, (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1852), 55.
- Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Book of Revelation, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 329.
- Earl F. Palmer and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, 1, 2 & 3 John / Revelation, Vol. 35, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 185.
- Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation, (Atlanta: American Vision, 1998), xlix.
- Kistemaker, Revelation, 330.
- He is mentioned in Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3; Acts 12:17; 15:13; Gal. 1:19; 2:9, 12; James 1:1; and Jude 1. A few of these may refer to another James.
- Philip Schaff, History of the Apostolic Church With a General Introduction to Church History, (New York: Charles Scribner, 1853), 381.
- George R. Beasley-Murray, “Revelation,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 440.
- Commentators often refer to the new edifice as the “second Temple.”
