This is pretty much a brain dump as I didn’t have time to make this presentable. The main reason I posted this is because it has a lot more supporting concepts/Scripture behind the interpretation I favor of this chapter. As always, I welcome your input.  God embedded believers in the church to protect us from being washed away by false doctrine; as such, I believe free and honest dialogue is God’s plan for protecting his people from apostasy. God bless your study.

 

Context:

• • • This is still in the interlude between the last two trumpets (Rev 11:14).
    • Seems to be continuing the idea of the church witnessing to the world. Here, there are two specific witnesses that occur during the 42 months/1260 days/3.45 years/times, times and half a time the nations will trample the holy city.
    • On first blush, deciphering this story feels pretty overwhelming. I think the timing is the most overwhelming part for me. The story itself, in a way is pretty straightforward if you can figure out where it fits in the end-times timeline. The correlation with the account in Zech 4 of the olive trees seems obvious, but I’m still not sure what the interpretation is.
    • This is the first reference to exact times.
    • The beast is introduced
    • The great city is introduced (or is this different from Babylon).
    • Following the earthquake, the earth-dwellers for the first time in Revelations give glory to God.

Measuring the City

There are several common ways to interpret this passage. I was feeling stressed out because I thought I was going to have to pick one to teach the class. However, the thing that is interesting to me is that almost all of them take this symbolically with a very similar end interpretation, namely that picture represents the persecution of believers by the Beast’s kingdom.  We can still argue, if you wish, if the church is still present on earth at this time, in which case, the believers are the 144,000 Jewish remnant who were sealed in chapter 7 (dispensationalism).

 

• • • What is the significance of measuring the city?
      • Clear recreation of Ezekiel’s vision (Eze 40-42).  Osborne says measuring the temple as it occurs in Ezekiel signifies God’s ownership and protection of his people; and, the stress is on the preservation of the saints spiritually in the coming great persecution (Osborne, Kindle Location 9186).  In other words, the church will be protected as God’s own (c.f. sealing of God’s people before the judgments).
      • What 3 thing is John told to measure? (Temple of God, Altar, Worshippers in it)
      • Note: no note of the actual measurement is recorded. I don’t think the point was the size of the temple or physical features.
    • Is this an earthly temple or the heavenly one?
      • Temple must be the heavenly one, not an earthly one.  Fits context of Ezekiel’s eschatological temple. Specifically, this is the church (c.f. 1 Cor 3:16-17, 2 Cor 6:16).
    • What is the symbolism of the inner and outer court? Why not measure the outer court?
      • Outer court signifies persecution of church by the beast’s kingdom. This is contrasted with chapter 21 where everything is measured in the New Jerusalem.
      • Bauckham (1993b: 266– 73; also Fekkes 1994: 175– 76) notes the influence of Dan. 8: 11– 14 on the image of God “giving” the outer court over to those who “trample” it.[ 8] In Daniel’s vision, the “little horn” “tramples” the “host of heaven” (probably God’s followers, Dan. 8: 9– 10), and then due to Israel’s rebellion, God “gives” the sanctuary and the sacrifice over to it (8: 11– 12), followed by a “how long” question similar to 12: 6 (8: 13– 14). Osborne, Kindle Locations 9269-9273). Also Zech 12:3, Luke 21:24, Dan 7:25 (saints handed over to kingdom of beast). Also parallels nicely with concept of the bitterness of the scroll being the persecution of the church.
      • Alternatively (dispensationalist), the outer court is the earthly Jerusalem.
  • • What is the deal with the 42 months thingy?
      • Alternately 1260 days (idealized based on 30 day months), 1290 days (Daniel, exact count), 3 1/2 years, time/times/half a time.
      • Osborne says probably alludes to 3.5 years drought in time of Elijah (divine judgment), and 42 encampments of Israelites in wilderness (tribulation/judgment).
      • Using the uses of Daniel, Osborne defines the 42 months as a limited time in which God allows the Antichrist and his followers to triumph, and the people of God to be persecuted and martyred (Kindle location 9273).
      • It is also linked to the last half of the 70th 7 (week), in which Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed pigs in the temple as well the final destruction of Jerusalem. This is a proleptic anticipation of the last days as well.

Summary:  In other words, God will protect them spiritually but allow the forces of evil to persecute and kill them, similar to Jesus’ promise in Mark 10: 30 that God would repay every sacrifice “a hundred times” but would allow “persecution.” The key to understanding the message for the church today is the basic hermeneutical perspective of this commentary: a futuristic perspective for the story itself and a secondary preterist/ idealist interpretation of its significance for the church in John’s day and in our day. In other words, while John intended this as a description of events in the future, there was still a message for the seven churches, namely, that throughout their persecutions, God was watching over them and would vindicate them for all their suffering (cf. 6: 9– 11). (Osborne, Kindle Location 9305).  Note: as described above, this is one viewpoint for explaining this passage. I find it has a lot of explanatory power and is cohesive with the rest of Scripture. I don’t mean to be throwing out a more dispensational view, but I am unprepared to defend it from Scripture.

The 2 witnesses:

The story itself is relatively straightforward…but then there are all these prophetic terms/allusions that we need to explain in order to actually understand what is being told here.  Let’s try to get a list here of prophetic terms that we need to decipher:

• • • 2 olive trees/lampstands
    • 42 months
    • Fire pouring from their mouth/plagues
    • The Beast
    • Bottomless pit
    • Make war/conquer
    • Kill them
    • Dead bodies/not buried
    • Great city: Sodom/Egypt/where their Lord was crucified
    • Feasting
    • 3 1/2 days
    • Resurrection/heavenly voice
    • Earthquake
    • 7,000 people killed
    • Gave glory to God

 

The many interpretations of the two witnesses make this one of the most debated passages in the book and indicate its importance. At the outset we must note how closely 11: 3– 13 are tied to 11: 1– 2. In 11: 2b we are told “God gave [the outer court] to the Gentiles,” while 11: 3 begins with “and I will give power to my two witnesses.” The second episode flows out of the first, and it is natural to suppose that if the church is symbolized in 11: 1– 2, it will also be central in 11: 3– 13. Court (1979: 85) points out that there are “shared allusions to time (42 months = 1260 days) and place (Jerusalem).” In fact, all three episodes in this interlude are woven together. In 10: 1– 11 the church is told it must suffer terribly (the bitter) and yet will emerge triumphant (the sweet), and in 11: 1– 2 the church is told that it belongs to God and will be protected by him (the measuring of the sanctuary = the church in 11: 1) but that God will allow the nations to “trample” the people of God for a short time (11: 2). We see this combination of victory and defeat acted out in the ministry of the two witnesses in 11: 3– 13. Osborne, Grant R.. Revelation (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 9331-9339). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Throughout the book, the idea of “witness” builds on the model of Jesus as the “faithful witness” (1: 5; 3: 14) and the church as witnessing both verbally (12: 11; 17: 6) and by persevering in the midst of hard times (6: 9; 20: 4). Third, there are two witnesses because of the Deuteronomic demand for two (Deut. 17: 6; 19: 15; cf. Num. 35: 30). Thus, theirs is a legal ministry proving the guilt of the world before God (paralleling the forensic ministry of the Spirit in John 16: 8– 11). Osborne, Grant R.. Revelation (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 9395-9400). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

John further identifies them (11: 4) with imagery drawn from Zech. 4: 2– 6, where Zechariah is shown a vision of “a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. Also, there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on the left” (4: 2– 3). In Zechariah’s vision, the lampstand is the temple, and the seven lights on it are “the eyes of the LORD, which range throughout the earth” (4: 10, on the basis of v. 4 [“ not by might nor by power but by my spirit”], probably a reference to the Spirit of God); and the two olive trees refer to “the two who are anointed to serve the LORD of all the earth” (4: 14), namely Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor. The message of the whole was that God was in charge of rebuilding the temple, and his Spirit would overcome their opponents (through Zerubbabel the Spirit would “level” the “mighty mountain,” 4: 7, probably the opposition described in Ezra 4– 5) and guide the two leaders in the completion of the task. Thus, here too John wants the reader to draw from the Zechariah background the theme that the Holy Spirit as the “eyes of the Lord” stands over the two witnesses/ church and that the opponents will be “leveled” (see 11: 5– 6 below). Note that Zech. 4: 2– 3 was earlier significant in the interpretation of the “seven spirits” (Rev. 1: 4; 3: 1; 4: 5; 5: 6) as the “sevenfold Spirit of God.” Therefore, the implicit presence of the Holy Spirit here is likely.  Osborne, Grant R.. Revelation (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 9415-9426). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The plagues are part of the lex talionis concept predominant in Revelation, where those who reject God are being paid back for their evil. Says it is decreed that those who try to hurt the witnesses must be killed (so God is decreeing it). The plagues mirror the seals and Egyptian plagues which shows again God’s judgment and his power over the earth and human’s false gods.

42 months/beast making war on the witnesses/saints seems to the same event Daniel talks about several times. [sorry, didn’t take time to enter references]

Refusing burial was a major insult in the ancient world

The Great City/Sodom/Egypt/Jerusalem: everywhere else in Revelation, the great city refers to Rome (Babylon the Great was a euphemism for Rome). However, this seems to be referring to Jerusalem (where Jesus was crucified, and city size is not size of Rome).  Possibly combined Rome and Jerusalem into a single, symbolic “great city” as capital of the beast’s kingdom.  Really, the great city is every city that rejects God and his witnesses.  Osborne points out that John used the term spiritually, not symbolically. Like Sodom in its depravity (e.g. Isa 1:9-10), and Egypt in its bondage and oppression of God’s people (the apostate Jerusalem).

Rejoicing: 3.5 days vs 3.5 years. Only allowed to rejoice a fraction of the time the witnesses were active.

Resurrected, and rose to heaven in a cloud. Primary OT uses of cloud was the pillar of cloud and the Shekinah glory. In the NT, a cloud is referred to in the parousia (Matt 24:30, Mark 14:62) and Christ’s ascension and return.  So possibly symbolizing the rapture of the church?? (timing isn’t quite right, so likely proleptic anticipation).  At any rate, a strong sense of the glory of God and the deliverance of his people (Osborne, Location 9635).

However, one must still question whether the resurrection of the two witnesses is to be seen as the resurrection of the church. The difficulty is in the timing. The resurrection of the witnesses does occur at the end of the three-and-a-half-year period but is still followed by the eschatological earthquake and the conversion of many spectators (11: 13). Yet it is clear in 19: 11– 12 that the parousia occurs at the end of history, with only the battle of Armageddon to follow, and the resurrection of the church clearly occurs at the return of Christ in the  NT (Mark 13: 24– 27 par.; 1 Thess. 4: 16– 17). Thus, it seems more likely that the resurrection of the witnesses is a proleptic anticipation of the “rapture” of the church rather than being the “rapture” itself. It does occur at the end of history, but the order seems to be the ascension of the witnesses, the eschatological earthquake, the conversion of many earth-dwellers, the return of Christ and rapture of the church, the final battle, and the aftermath (millennium, great white throne judgment, and the coming of the new heavens and new earth). The death and resurrection of the witnesses would be concurrent with the gathering of the armies for Armageddon (the sixth bowl, 16: 12– 14).[ 19]  Osborne, Grant R.. Revelation (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 9651-9660). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Results of the earthquake and the witness of the two lampstands: glory to God.  Some would argue strongly that this was legitimate repentance. At any rate, it is fascinating that the earth dwellers are finally giving God some glory.  Why didn’t they do this before with all the plagues? Maybe that is because of the witness.

The resurrection plus the earthquake that followed produce the one evangelistic victory in the book, as some among the nations are “filled with terror and glorify God” (cf. 14: 6– 7). This is at the heart of the mission theme in the Apocalypse. God does not send judgment just to punish the evildoers (though that is part of his intention) but also to call them to himself. Here we have the response of some, and it is a critical message to all who are persecuted today: Their suffering in reality is their triumph, and God will use that suffering to bring people to himself. Osborne, Grant R.. Revelation (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 9741-9745). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.