The Two Witnesses of Revelation 11:3-13 are one of the most mysterious and debated components of the end times narrative. Who are they? What do they do? When do they appear? How do they fit into the larger narrative of the end times? Perhaps the Literal Timeline, the Olivet Rapture, and a Mutualist framework can give us some new insights into these verses.
Most futurist views see these figures as two literal individuals who appear sometime during the 70th week, but I think that the weight of the text actually points away from individual identity and toward a corporate understanding: the witnesses are the Church.
Before we explore this possibility, take a moment to consider that when Revelation speaks directly about any specific figure or group, it introduces that entity with a symbolic referent. Once deployed, the symbolic title almost always remains the reference used, even if it is specifically interpreted or identified.
There are a few minor exceptions to this symbolic rule: the identifications in the prologue and greeting introducing the book (which is technically not part of the vision), instances of reported speech (e.g., the dictated letters from Christ, the shout of the martyrs in heaven, etc.), and the naming of the angel Michael in chapter 12.
The following list is intentionally long and comprehensive (feel free to skim). It is included to convey that symbolic referents aren’t just incidental in Revelation, they are the structural backbone of the entire vision. The Two Witnesses are effectively the only place in Revelation where the majority of futurist interpreters strongly resist reading the referent symbolically.
Why does Revelation follow this pattern? It is similar to Jesus’ use of parables throughout the gospels; rather than just a surface-level identification, a symbolic representation can convey a deeper understanding of the nature, structure, and/or purpose of the entities involved. This, in turn, leads to a much deeper and nuanced understanding of the vision.
Note: Some of the specific identifications made above can certainly be debated, but the broader point remains: Revelation consistently presents entities through symbolic referents.
I would also point out that there are places where identification can get a little messy. For example, I believe that Revelation 21:9-27 shows a convergence of the Church and Israel into a single people of God in the new creation. It combines clearly Jewish imagery — the city named as Jerusalem, the gates named after the twelve tribes, the jewels of the priestly breastplate — with clear Church imagery — the city named as the Bride of the Lamb, the foundations of the walls named after the twelve apostles. Messy though it may be, this does provide an example of the power and flexibility of symbolic reference.
Of all of these identities, two must be called out specifically. First, there is the 144,000, the identity of which people take to opposite extremes. They either insist on a literal remnant of 144,000 specific virgin males, or they over-spiritualize in an attempt to remove the clear association with national/ethnic Israel altogether. Worse still, some attempt to do both. Revelation 7 is unambiguously and unequivocally speaking of Israel; the symbolic understanding is only one of scale and character.
Note: The identification of the 144,000 as all of Israel at the moment of restoration will be the topic of my next paper (stay tuned!).
The second referent — which I omitted above — is that of the Two Witnesses. Let us tackle the issue of their identification to see if they really do break the established pattern of Revelation.
The most straightforward reading of Revelation 11 is that the two witnesses are two individuals who appear during the Tribulation, prophesy for 1,260 days, perform powerful miracles, get killed, lie in the street for three and a half days while the world celebrates, then get resurrected and ascend to heaven. This plain reading of the text is, in fact, the most common view amongst futurist interpretations.
The miracles presented — shutting the sky, turning waters to blood — foster the overwhelming and obvious connections to the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Moses who performed those exact miracles. Some hold that these will be literally Moses and Elijah returned to earth. Others hold that they will be two future prophets, symbolic of Moses and Elijah, who have the same anointing and power. Either way, they are two representatives of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) preaching hellfire and brimstone like two superpowered apocalyptic street preachers shouting “the end is near!” with miracles to back up their claims.
The literal interpretation, though, begins to stretch when you look past the two obvious miracles. The addition of “fire from the mouth” that consumes anyone who tries to harm them doesn’t align with the typical understanding of Moses and Elijah. Most often, an attempt is made to associate this detail with Elijah who called fire down from heaven 1 Kings 18:24, but that isn’t the same as fire from the mouth. This miracle more closely matches Jeremiah 5:14 where God says to the prophet Jeremiah: “Because these people have spoken like this, I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire. And I will make this people like wood, which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.”
This means that, if we are going to draw Old Testament comparisons, there are really three Old Testament prophets that can be associated with Revelation 11 — which begins raising questions about the fundamental assumptions of the de facto literal view of Moses and Elijah.
Finally, John ends his list of miracles with the statement that they can “strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.” This reframes the list entirely. Rather than referring to specific miracles pointing to specific prophets, we are being shown a representative list meant to evoke the office of prophet across the entire Old Testament canon. The literal interpretation generally points this statement toward Moses, citing the multiple plagues of the Exodus, but the wording here is too vague for this association to be anything other than personal opinion.
Supporters of the literal view are quick to point to Malachi 4:5 as evidence of the bodily return of two literal prophets of old, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” What they never mention is this: Elijah is the only prophet that God promised to send. Nowhere does the Old Testament promise Moses, Jeremiah, or anyone else. Nowhere does it even mention a return of two prophets in even a general sense. This verse in Malachi, which only mentions Elijah, is all there is.
As if that weren’t enough, we are told, in no uncertain terms, that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of that prophecy. We are no longer waiting for the return of the promised Elijah, he already came.
Matthew 11:12-14
12From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
Matthew 17:10-13
10And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” 11He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. 12But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” 13Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
From a linguistic perspective, the text itself contains some noteworthy clues. These are not ironclad in and of themselves, but add to the cumulative weight of evidence pointing toward a corporate rather than individual understanding.
There are three collective singular nouns in the text referring to the attributes of the witnesses themselves. These are formed when the grammar calls for a plural but a singular is used instead treating the plural referent as a singular or collective entity. These collective singulars exist in the Greek, but are frequently pluralized by translators as way to smooth out the awkward construction.
Of these, the singular testimony is perhaps the easiest to digest. After all, there is only one testimony of the Spirit. I would push back lightly, though, to point out that if this truly were a broad reference to the common testimony of all believers, it should more naturally read, “when they have finished the testimony.” Instead, the text implies a singular testimony unique to the plural witnesses. Certainly possible, but that just underscores a collective reading regardless of whether that collective is comprised of two members or millions.
The harder ones to reconcile are the physical attributes. Two literal humans don’t share a single mouth. You can view this metaphorically as the shared testimony of the prophets, but in doing so you have conceded the point on a literal interpretation. The idea of the death of two literal men resulting in a singular body is even harder to accommodate in any literal sense.
Taken as a whole, it is worth observing that at no point does the text treat the two witnesses as separable individuals — neither in action, nor effect, nor purpose, nor experience. They prophesy together, they are given authority together, the Beast makes war on them together, they are killed together, their body (singular) lies in the street, they are resurrected together, they ascend together. The text never treats the two as distinct. This lack of differentiation is more noteworthy if these individuals are supposed to be the literal return of famed prophets of old. Even though many identify them as Elijah and Moses, nothing in the text seems to bear out those identifications in any meaningful way.
Verse 4 contains two distinct cross-references. The first is unmistakable: John refers to the Two Witnesses as “the two olive trees … that stand before the Lord of the earth.” This is a direct allusion to Zechariah 4, and John’s audience — steeped in the Hebrew scriptures — would have recognized it immediately (more on this later). The passage shows two olive trees on either side of a menorah supplying it with oil. The olive trees are then identified as “the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole earth.”
The second is embedded in the first when John also calls the Two Witnesses “the two lampstands.” Here, the definite article signals that John isn’t establishing a new symbol but pointing back to an existing one. The only other reference to “lampstands” (Greek: lychniai) in a prophetic context is found in the first two chapters of Revelation. Revelation 1:20 gives us the direct meaning: “the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Envisioning the Two Witnesses as specific individuals requires a new symbolic referent where none is provided, breaking the symbolism that John already established.
Some may read Zechariah 4 and be tempted to associate the Two Witnesses with both the olive trees and the lampstand found there, but this is a logical impossibility. The trees are dual, and they are separate figures that feed the lampstand. The lampstand is singular and fed by the two olive trees. They cannot be pointing to the same entity/entities. This rules out Zechariah 4’s lampstand as the antecedent, leaving only Revelation 1:20’s plural “lampstands” as a symbolic match for the Two Witnesses.
The idea of two literal figures witnessing in sackcloth becomes more of a snag than you might realize when you are forced to ask just how literal this detail is. Naturally, a literal reading here aligns best with the view that these are ancient prophets returned — it’s harder to imagine contemporary figures wearing literal sackcloth. If we want to be pedantic, we could ask just how far we should take the literalism: do they wear the same robes for what amounts to nearly three and a half years?
On the other hand, if these are contemporary figures coming in the spirit of Moses and Elijah, then we are already treading into symbolic territory, in which case “sackcloth” itself could be some type of modern equivalent of mourning garb — or perhaps it’s entirely symbolic of the attitude of mourning in which they come. In that case, we are back on equal footing with a collective view which can just as easily envision the state of the heart rather than literal clothing.
Then there is the question of why these two are even dressed in sackcloth to begin with. For the entirety of their nearly 3.5-year ministry, no harm is allowed to come to them; they aren’t portrayed as suffering in any way that reflects an attitude of grief and sorrow. At best, it can be stated that they are grieving on behalf of another group, but that just raises questions that the text never answers:
The text never makes or even implies connections with any of these groups, especially since, in the literal view, this is the only text we have regarding these two super-prophets, and by itself, it doesn’t tie their fate to any other group or event.
Some point the sackcloth being the standard garb of the Old Testament prophets, but this contention is unsupported by the textual evidence. Out of all the Old Testament prophets, the Bible only indicates Daniel and Isaiah wearing sackcloth. Daniel 9:3Isaiah 20:2
When you examine more closely the use of sackcloth as clothing throughout the Old Testament, you see that in all cases sackcloth is an outward symbol for an inward reality — grief, anguish, and contrition. There are more examples of sackcloth as symbolism for the attitude of a group than of literal usage, especially in prophetic texts. In the places where individuals are shown literally wearing sackcloth (most often a group of individuals), the wearers were part of the afflicted community, personally experiencing grief, and the sackcloth represented personal as well as corporate mourning.
Daniel in particular, being a part of the community under God’s judgement, put on sackcloth to interceded with lamentations on behalf of himself and his countrymen as one already in exile under judgement with his people.
In Isaiah’s case, God commands him to remove his sackcloth and prophesy naked for three years; showing that sackcloth, even in its literal usage, wasn’t a uniform, but a symbol to be used (or not used in this case) as the situation demanded it.
The literal reading leaves the Two Witnesses narratively isolated in a way that nothing else in Revelation is. These two unnamed super-prophets arrive on the scene with a purpose — for the Church, Israel, and/or the world — that is left entirely inferential. The Beast fights them on a second front separate from the saints. After their deaths are celebrated, they experience their own mid-tribulation resurrection disconnected from both the rapture and the resurrection of Revelation 20. The whole sequence simply happens with no discernible cause or effect within the larger narrative. Is this possible? Perhaps. But in a book as precisely constructed and intertextual as Revelation, a sequence that floats entirely free of the broader scope of prophecy should be a red flag.
With his wording of Revelation 11:7, John is forming a very clear cross-reference regarding the Beast and his activity to not one but two different passages, Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. In both of those parallel passages the identity of those who the Beast wages war on and conquers is explicitly stated: the saints.
Daniel 7:3, 21
3And four great beasts came up out of the sea … 21this horn [on the 4th beast] made war with the saints and prevailed over them
Revelation 11:7
7the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war on [the two witnesses], conquer them, and kill them.
Revelation 13:1, 7
1And I saw a beast rising out of the sea … 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.
Note: Some may point out the distinction between the “sea” and the “abyss,” but these two terms are known to overlap in symbolic/prophetic passages.
Those are the most direct parallels, but we also see the Dragon, Satan, acting through the Beast — infered from Revelation 13 — “waging war” on the Woman’s offspring who “hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus.” Then consider the symbolism shown above regarding the Two Witnesses as lampstands representing “Churches” per Revelation 1. Finally, the link to the Two Olive Trees of Zechariah 4 can further be linked to the Two Olive Branches of Romans 11 (more on this below), a metaphor for the Church.
All told, there are two rock-solid parallels, and one could reasonably consider as many as three more, all clearly identifying the Two Witnesses as the Church itself. Considering one of the most fundamental tenets of good hermeneutics is to allow scripture to interpret scripture, I can think of no other place in the text where a clear intertextual identification is so thoroughly ignored.
The weight of the textual evidence, especially the symbolism involved, points strongly toward identifying the Church itself as the Two Witnesses. As such, we must ask the question: is the nature of the Church presented across the New Testament consistent with Revelation 11’s role of these witness-prophets? The answer to that question is a resounding yes.
When it comes to the witness of the Church, the New Testament is crystal clear: the Church, collectively, is Christ’s witness to the world. It is through the Church that the message of salvation is proclaimed, the gospel is preached, and the kingdom of God is advanced. The Church is the body of Christ on earth, and as such, it is the primary means through which Christ’s witness is made manifest in the world.
The first to be called witnesses were the apostles and disciples, direct eyewitnesses to the crucifixion and resurrection. We see this label applied to them beginning just before the crucifixion, and then extensively throughout the book of Acts.
Luke 24:48
48You are witnesses of these things.
John 15:27
27And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Acts 1:22
22[the replacement for Judas] must become with us a witness to his resurrection.
Acts 2:32
32This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
Acts 4:33
33And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
Acts 5:32
32And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
Acts 10:39-42
39And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
Acts 13:31
31and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
In the second half of Acts, we see the role of witness expand beyond just the eyewitnesses to include Paul, who never mentions seeing the crucifixion, but was an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ.
Acts 22:15
15for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
Acts 26:16
16But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you
1 Corinthians 15:15
15… we testified about God that he raised Christ …
Over time, we can see the role of witness expand even further through the power of the Holy Spirit to encompass, not just the apostles, disciples, or even eyewitnesses, but to everyone who believed. Because of the nature of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Church continues to serve as a witness and testimony to the power of God still acting within the world through his followers. In the epistles, we see the clear teaching that those who have received the gospel are to, in turn, teach others and continue the witness that the apostles began.
1 Corinthians 15:1, 11
1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand … 11Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed
2 Timothy 1:8
8Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God
2 Timothy 2:1-2
1You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
1 Peter 2:9
9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 3:15
15but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect
1 Peter 5:1
1So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed
We also observe that the Church’s witness is not just a verbal relay of information. The very existence of the Church, the lives of its constituents, are themselves a testimony to the transformative power of the gospel. In a very real sense, the Church as a whole is the very embodiment of the power of the resurrection of Christ and the issuing forth of the kingdom of God.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
2You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 5:20
20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Philippians 1:27-28
27nly let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
Philippians 2:15
15that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world
Ephesians 3:10
10so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
1 Thessalonians 1:6-8
6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
1 Peter 3:16
16having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
1 John 5:10
10Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. …
Throughout the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is shown as the one who empowers the Church and is the source of their witness. Indeed, the Church acts as a living conduit for the Spirit’s activity in the world, and it is through the Church that the Spirit’s witness is made manifest. This is why the witnessing role of the apostles did not begin until the Holy Spirit was poured out on them at Pentecost, and why the Church’s continued witness is so closely tied to the presence and power of the Spirit himself — the Church doesn’t generate the testimony, rather, the testimony originates from the Holy Spirit and flows through the Church.
Matthew 10:19-20
19When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
John 14:26
26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 15:26
26But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
John 16:13-15
13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Acts 1:8
8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Hebrews 10:15
15And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us
1 Peter 1:12
12… the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven …
1 John 5:6
6… And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
What we often see as being separate roles — witness and prophet — the Bible consistently presents as a single activity. We must adjust our understanding of the term “prophecy” to mean not necessarily “future-telling” and perhaps not even, strictly speaking, to mean “talking to man on God’s behalf.” Rather, in its broadest application, prophecy is “being a witness” on behelf of God in the court of divine justice — speaking to what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. The activity is centered in the courtroom more than the pulpit. God issues His testimony so that, on the day of judgement, all are without excuse.
We see this idea directly reflected in the parable of the dead rich man and Lazarus: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Luke 16:31 The purpose of the Old Testament prophets, and indeed all those who followed Yahweh, was to bear witness. This concept is the core point put forth in the book of Hebrews which contains an extensive list of faithful Old Testament figures labeling them a “cloud of witnesses.”
Acts 10:43
43To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Acts 3:18, 24
18But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. … 24And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.
Romans 3:21
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it
Hebrews 12:1
1therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Revelation 19:10
10… Worship God, because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Even with this idea of prophecy-as-testimony, the Bible still clearly teaches that the Church will not just bear witness but prophesy (in the “visions and portents” sense) in the name of the Lord. The Old Testament prophets were empowered by the Holy Spirit, therefore, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the members of the Church are similarly empowered.
One of the first links between the Spirit and prophecy is given by Moses in Numbers 11:29: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Much later, the prophet Joel more explicitely ties the indwelling of the Spirit directly to prophetic activity. Importantly, Joel saw that this indwelling empowerment would eventually apply to all of God’s people not just the few specially called to be prophets by trade — the young, the old, even the servants, would experience the direct power of the Holy Spirit. Joel 2:28-29
The apostle Peter then quotes Joel’s prophecy as being fulfilled in the moment the Spirit is poured out on Shavuot (Pentecost). In other words, the promised prophetic role of the Church began with the Church. Prophecy is an intrinsic property of the Church, not some power reserved exclusively for some future, end-times period. Indeed, as we continue to read through Acts and the Epistles, we see the office of prophet, the gift of prophecy, and acts of miracles all shown being applied and exercised by the Church beyond just the activities of the apostles themselves.
Acts 2:4
4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:14, 16-18
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. … 16But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy.
Acts 13:1
1Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers …
Acts 21:8-10
8On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. 10While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
Ephesians 3:4-5
4When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:11
11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers
1 Corinthians 12:28
28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:1
1Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
1 Corinthians 14:24-25
24But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-20
19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies
It is not only the message and miracles that show that the Church has taken on a distributed role of “prophet,” but the suffering as well. The abuse and killing of the Old Testament prophets is mirrored in the promise of the persecution of the Church. Tertulian in 197 AD perhaps said it best: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” A statement that has only proven itself increasingly true over the last 2000 years.
What follows are just a small sampling of the Church’s persecution and its link to the persecution of the Old Testament prophets.
Matthew 5:11-12
11Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 23:29-30, 34
29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ … 34Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town
Hebrews 11:35-37
35… Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated
Revelation strongly reinforces all that we have discussed regarding the nature of the Church and its mission. It consistently portrays the Church itself as the witness of Messiah — through its message, through its actions, and, soberingly, through its suffering. The letters of Revelation in particular — whether you believe them to be historical, pastoral, apocalyptic, or all of the above — reveal a Church that is suffering hardships, affliction, poverty, slander, imprisonment, and even death.
Revelation 1:9
9I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 6:9
9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
Revelation 12:10-11
10And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11And [our brothers] have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Revelation 20:4
4… Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God …
Earlier, we asked if the roles of witness and prophet aligned with the nature of the Church. The weight of evidence compelled us to acknowledge that the very heart of the Church’s identity is that of witness, and that the testimony of that witness, given on behalf of God, is prophecy by definition. We also explored the many issues that a literal interpretation must contend with and showed that representative symbolism is the normal mode of identification throughout Revelation.
Combined, these all point to a single conclusion: identifying the Two Witnesses as the collective Church is not just plausible, it is the more likely option.
This collective identification is almost as old as the text itself, but the symbolic interpretation, as mentioned earlier, is almost entirely disregarded in futurist eschatological frameworks. Those who hold to a literal future fulfillment of Revelation see the symbolic reading of the Two Witnesses as somehow softening, over-spiritualizing, trivializing, or even ignoring the text. Thus, this view is rarely, if ever, even entertained by futurists. The late Dr. Michael Heiser was an exception, but as far as I can tell, he left the nuances of this topic largely unexplored.
So then, let us put on this unique lens, symbolic identity with a literal future fulfillment, and take a deep dive through Revelation 11.
If the role of Church has always been that of witness and prophet, then what distinguishes this very specific period of time within Daniel’s 70th week? The answer, I believe, lies in the text’s qualifier. It’s not any random 1,260 days, it’s 1,260 days dressed in sackcloth.
Throughout its history as the prophetic witness of Messiah — whose response to tribulation is the testimony they offer — there have always been pockets and communities of believers that were experiencing varying degrees of persecution, repentance, and/or revival, but it won’t be until the last days, namely the Great Tribulation, that the entirety of the Church body will experience persecution on a global scale. In the ancient Near East, being clothed in sackcloth symbolized lowliness and humility brought on by grief, guilt, or disaster. It was an outward symbol of an inward reality. During the final 1,260 days before Messiah returns, the whole Church will be symbolically dressed for the time that Jesus himself describes in Matthew 24:21 as “great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.”
The overwhelming majority of sackcloth imagery across all Old Testament prophecy refers to a whole group’s collective attitude of contrition and mourning rather than literal garb. This is entirely consistent with the image of the corporate Church “dressed in sackcloth” — a symbol of the spiritual reality of the overwhelming distress under the tribulation of the Beast. Such a state will be inevitable when the Church faces the greatest persecution (and greatest apostasy) in its existence.
The Hebrew Revelation of verse 3 reveals additional distinctions worth pointing out.
In the Greek, the Two Witnesses are in the dative, they are the recipients of the act of giving, but the object of the action, what is being given, is omitted entirely. This looks like: “I will give [ ? ] to my Two Witnesses, and they will prophesy …” Most English translations smooth over this awkward construction by supplying an object, usually “authority” or “power.” In Greek this is not ungrammatical, and it carries a sense of both permission and commission which perhaps makes “authority” or “power” a reasonable choice to insert as an object.
In the Hebrew, the Two Witnesses themselves are the direct object: “I am giving my two witnesses, and they will prophesy…” They themselves are what is being given by God. (Note that Hebrew does not include an explicit future tense, so the present active action reflects the common construct for future actions in prophetic passages.) This “giving” language is an established idiomatic construction for deployment/appointment found in the Old Testament prophets, e.g., “I will give you as a covenant for the people” Isaiah 42:6.
The Hebrew here also contains yet another collective singular (in addition to the three already noted above). Where the Greek describes the two witnesses being dressed in sackcloth, using the nominative plural participle to agree with two witnesses, the Hebrew uses the singular passive participle. Directionally, no Hebrew translator would have introduced this grammatical mismatch not present in the Greek. A Greek translator working from Hebrew, however, would be naturally compelled to smooth over the awkwardness by pluralizing the participle to align with the plural subject.
The differences between the Greek and Hebrew may seem subtle at first, but they carry some meaningful weight. The Greek implies authority to prophesy is not granted until one particular future period — easier to reconcile with two specific individuals awaiting their earthly assignment rather than with the active Church across 2000 years of history. The Hebrew pictures an existing, already-empowered, collective body being deployed for a specific mission. The Greek can still get you there, but the Hebrew is far more explicit.
By calling the Two Witnesses both “olive trees” and “lampstands,” John is fusing the identity of the Church to the two olive trees of Zechariah 4. By doing this, he shows that Zechariah’s vision was not just of Israel’s return from captivity, but of the end-times roles of the Church and Israel. Rereading Zechariah 4 with this new perspective will lead us down some rabbit trails, but the payoff is worth it.
Zechariah 4:2-3, 5-6, 10-14
2… I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” … 5Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. … 10… These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth. 11Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” 12And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” 13He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
God has always intended the nation of Israel to be a light in the world, to be a nation of priests that would bring about the blessing and restoration of the Gentile nations. Israel was the mechanism by which God’s light would shine, and they are represented here by the menorah. The two olive trees represented Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, heir of King David — two godly men who would lead the captives back to the promised land and restore proper worship to Yahweh.
But God is clear in the vision, the restoration, the source of the light, is not the two men themselves. It is the oil — the Holy Spirit flowing through them — that allows God’s light to shine: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
Shifting to our new understanding, the symbolism of the Church as the olive trees is surprisingly tight. The Church’s fundamental identity is that of conduit for the Holy Spirit — His indwelling of believers and outward expression through them to the earth. The Church was born the moment the Holy Spirit was poured out on Shavuot, and the title given to the two trees, “anointed ones,” is literally “sons of fresh oil” in the Hebrew.
Furthermore, these trees “stand before the Lord of the whole earth.” In the original context, the trees were the leaders, the mediators, between God and His people. Since the atonement, a human mediator is no longer required. All the people of God, collectively, the Church, may now approach the Lord of the whole earth with boldness. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” — Hebrews 4:16
Strikingly, Zechariah’s vision begins with two olive trees but then shifts to refer to two olive branches. This creates a strong tie to Romans 11 and Paul’s teaching about the relationship between Jews and Gentiles:
Romans 11:17, 24
17But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree … 24For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
The shift to branches in Zechariah 4 points us to Romans 11, and in it we can see that Romans 11 by utilizing two types of trees in its imagery — cultivated (Jewish) and wild (Gentile) — points us right back to Zechariah 4. Thus, the two trees/branches feeding the menorah represent both Jewish and Gentile believers. If these trees/branches are the Church specifically, then that means that one tree represents the Messianic Jewish community while the other tree represents the Gentile Church.
For those that may be tempted to see only the Gentile Church representing both trees, I will point out that Romans 11 refers to the wild branch in the singular. As such, the wild branch can only refer to one of the branches of Zechariah 4. Furthermore, Paul isn’t describing how believing Jews and Gentiles get collapsed down into one indistinguishable body, but rather how both groups retain their distinctiveness while still being connected to the unifying root. The two branch structure isn’t incidental to Paul’s argument; it is Paul’s argument.
In that light, Ephesians 2:18 — speaking specifically to Jews and Gentiles as distinct groups — is an incredible alignment of all that we have mapped out so far: “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”
If one of the trees represents Jewish believers, then how are we to understand the meaning of the menorah being fed by the trees which we identified earlier as Israel? Once again, we can look to Romans 11 to infer the answer. Paul writes that only some of the natural branches are cut off. This creates a further distinction between different branches (plural) of the cultivated olive tree: branches that are cut off and those that remain connected.
Messianic Jews, then, represent the cultivated branches that are still connected to the root. The cut off branches then align with ethnic/national Israel as a whole and the existing menorah identification. The symbolic referent in Zechariah doesn’t change, it still refers to national Israel being fed by conduits of the Holy Spirit, preparing for a future restoration. God promises to graft these branches back in by making them jealous through the salvation of the Gentiles. In other words, it is through the Church by the action of the Holy Spirit — the trees feeding oil to the menorah — that God will restore Israel. The cut off branches are the current reality. The lit menorah is the future destination.
Just as the vision to Zechariah showed Israel’s light return through the power of the Holy Spirit (oil) fed by the two trees (Zerubbabel and Joshua), so too in the end times will all of Israel be restored by the Holy Spirit’s witness through the Church. The Church doesn’t replace Israel, it is the mechanism by which Israel will be restored to full relationship with God as fellow heirs with Messiah.
This imagery — the two olive trees feeding the menorah — lies at the very heart and soul of Mutualist ecclesiology. Mutualism holds that the Church and Israel are not competitors, not replacements for one another, and not two peoples running parallel courses to separate destinations. They are brothers, distinct but being pulled into unity with Yeshua, each indispensable to the destiny of the other. Israel is the root from which the Church draws its life, its Scriptures, its Messiah. The Church is the conduit through which Israel will be restored to Yahweh. Neither reaches its appointed end without the other.
This is not new theology. It is ancient architecture. It has been the plan all along.
This imagery provides strong corroboration to the identification put forth in the Timeline Walkthrough: the Two Witnesses are the Two Wings given to the Woman in Revelation 12.
We can see that there’s an alignment in identity, number, and purpose across both images. The Two Trees act as the conduit for the Holy Spirit’s provision to the menorah (Israel). Likewise, the Two Wings act as God’s means of flight and nourishment for the Woman (Israel). See the linked article for a more thorough discussion of this connection.
Leviticus 24:2
2Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly.
For the menorah in the Tabernacle, there was only one type of oil that was allowed: beaten olive oil. This was the captured oil that flowed freely when olives were crushed, and it was the most expensive and the purest form of olive oil that burned without smoke or impurities. Given all of our identifications, the symbolism should be obvious. It is tribulation — the crushing — of the Church (the “sons of fresh oil) that generates the testimony empowering God’s activity. Christianity isn’t meant to spare believers from persecution. Persecution is the very mechanism by which God uses the Church to light the world. Persecution is at the heart of the Church’s function and identity, and it is persecution that drives the purest expression of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the faithful.
Philippians 1:29
29For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake
Deuteronomy 19:15
15A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
This legal mandate in Torah gives us an explicit reason for having two witnesses rather than just one. It is not just the Gentile Church whose witness pleads with Israel for restoration, but the additional testimony of our Messianic Jewish brothers that makes the strongest case. It is not just the message of grace that comes through the gentiles that reaches the world, it is the very words of God given through the nation of Israel that shows us why we need it. And on a darker note, it is not just the blood of Christians that will condemn the Beast and his armies, but the persecution of Israel as well.
But God doesn’t stop at two witnesses. He strengthens His testimony with the addition of the third witness that Deuteronomy hints at. As we have seen woven throughout all of this, the Holy Spirit Himself acts as the third witness. He will feed national Israel through the Church until her light is restored. He testifies through Tanakh of God’s justice and mercy. He reveals all truth.
Mark 13:9-11
9”But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.”
This is peripheral to the identification of the Two Witnesses, but worthy of some attention. Zechariah 4 tells us what the seven lights on the menorah are: they are “the eyes of the Lord which range through the whole earth.” This light is fueled by the olive oil flowing through the olive trees to the menorah. Examining this imagery ties in a whole web of additional verses, but let’s focus on one in particular:
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
This passage gives us the most explicit description not just of what the “seven lights” or “seven eyes” of God are, but what they actually do. They support those with “blameless hearts,” but what does it mean to have a heart that is blameless before God? The New Testament is clear that this can only be accomplished by grace through faith in Christ and not through works. In other words, the eyes of the Lord give strong support to those who put their trust in Christ. This brings us full circle back to the Church and Revelation 1:20 showing that the relationship between the Church and God’s empowering is reciprocal.
The lampstands release oil through persecution. The oil fuels the light to the world. The light empowers the lampstands to endure persecution.
I believe that John’s designation in Revelation 11 reveals a multi-layered trajectory of Zechariah’s vision of two olive trees.
When it was first given, the trees represented two individuals: Zerubbabel and Joshua — the king and the high priest. These two, by the power of the Spirit, fed and guided the nation until they could be restored.
With his atonement, Christ expanded these roles out from individuals to two faith communities: Jews and Gentiles. Messianic Jews are the priests, the keepers of Tanakh, whose entire identity has been cultivated by God — farmers rooted to the land and the faith. Gentile Christians are the wild olive branch, the leading edge of God’s grace — fishers going forth and casting nets. Both of these communities are connected to the single root: Meshiach, Christ, the great high priest, the king of kings, the ruler of both.
In the millennium, both of these communities will see their ultimate fulfillment. Israel, fully restored to the promised land, will serve as a nation of priests alongside Yeshua reigning from his throne in Jerusalem. The Church, glorified and restored, will rule and judge with Jesus in His righteous millennial kingdom. Below are just some of the many verses that reveal this millennial reality.
Revelation 5:9-10
9And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Israel
Isaiah 61:5-6
5Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; 6but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.
Zechariah 8:20-23
20”Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ 22Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. 23Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
Church
1 Corinthians 6:2-3
2Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Revelation 20:4
4Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
It’s not pivotal to my argument, but I find it interesting that in the Hebrew Revelation the word for lampstand in Revelation 1 and 11 is not the seven-branched “menorah” but the more general term “avukot” (torches).
Indeed, this is perhaps a subtle clue to the possible authenticity of this Hebrew line of manuscripts. Any distinction between the two would be collapsed if going from Hebrew to Greek since the Greek doesn’t have a separate word for a menorah. Furthermore, all Hebrew texts known to be translations from the Greek (such as the Orthodox Jewish Hebrew Bible) universally choose “menorot” in Revelation 1:20 and 11:4. They see the parallel to Zechariah 4, and choose the same word for lampstand found there.
As discussed, though, Revelation’s lampstands and Zechariah’s menorah cannot be the same, but in the Greek, this distinction is strictly interpretive since Greek is incapable of reflecting the difference via straight vocabulary. In this Hebrew manuscript, though, the difference is explicit through the use of different nouns.
In the Hebrew, the symbolism leaps off the page. God’s witness to the world is represented by the seven lights. The tribes of Israel who grew from a single common ancestor, Abraham, are symbolized by a menorah — a single base branching into seven lamps carrying God’s light. The Church, comprised of many disparate nations, is shown as seven distinct lampstands, together displaying the seven-fold light of God.
What I want to draw attention to is that we find here two independent sections referring to the miracles of the Two Witnesses. The first, the fire from the mouth, perhaps the most textually difficult part of the entire passage, is distinct from the listing of the plagues.
The fire from the mouth of the witnesses describes an event of finality and judgement: those intending harm to the witnesses are consumed by fire. There’s no second chance, no recovering.
The construction of the first sentence in verse 5 is slightly odd. Grammatically, the Two Witnesses are not the subject of the sentence, the fire is. It does not read, “The two witnesses pour fire from their mouth.” Instead, the fire is the grammatical agent — it pours itself so to speak. To be sure, the fire still comes out of the mouth of the Two Witnesses, but syntactically, there is a distancing from the fire that is unlike the direct causation found throughout verse 6.
The structure of the second sentence in verse 5 is equally odd, as it weakens the immediacy of death as a direct consequence of intent to harm. Instead of “they are killed,” it is “they must be killed” — not physical consequence, but moral imperative. It evokes the capital punishment edicts found in the Old Testament where not just execution, but the manner of execution is mandated. The clearest parallel can be found in Leviticus 20:14, “If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire.” No one would presume that being burned with fire is a direct result of the sexual impropriety, but rather the legal requirement of a later punitive action.
The second section, verse 6, forms a representative list of plagues that lack the finality of the fire: drought, water to blood, the earth struck with every kind of plague. These form a strong parallel to the various judgements found in the Old Testament prophets, especially those brought upon Egypt before the Exodus. Just as much as judgements, these plagues in the Old Testament served as earnest appeals to repentance — despite the wicked hardening their rebelliousness. Time and again God pleads with recipients of his wrath to repent so that he might relent from his destruction.
Another strikingly strong distinction between verses 5 and 6 is that when it comes to the plagues, authority is explicitly stated, not implied. Not only that, but this authority is not given or granted. It is indicated simply as a property inherent to the Two Witnesses, they “have authority” to close the sky. They “have power” to perform the plagues.
Ultimately, once you break down the actual text of verses 5 and 6, it makes more sense to treat them independently rather than lumping them together. Verse 5 can be understood as referencing the ultimate destruction of the enemies of God through fiery judgment at the end of the age. The testimony of the martyrs in the final court is what condemns the wicked to destruction in the lake of fire — their words “pour from their mouth” directly resulting in the destruction by fire. Verse 6 depicts the Two Witnesses exercising the authority and power that they already have in pursuit of the mission they were called to in verse 3. Both of these images align far more with the identity of the Church rather than two individuals.
It is all the people of God whose testimony cries out for judgement:
Jeremiah 5:14
14Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: “Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
1 Corinthians 6:2-3
2Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? … 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels? …
Revelation 6:10
10They cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, the one who is holy and true, how long until you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”
Revelation 20:12, 15
12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. … 15And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
As we have already seen, it is the Church as a whole that carries on the testimony of the prophets along with the accompanying authority and power to perform miracles:
Acts 5:12
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles …
1 Corinthians 12:28
28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
Verse 5 of the Hebrew Revelation is much simpler and less problematic than the Greek. It reads: “And if one wants to do them evil, fire comes and burns them.” The fire remains the active agent, but is completely decoupled from the Two Witnesses themselves. This is a much more direct way to convey the principle drawn out above: the eventual fate of God’s enemies will be fiery destruction.
Here, the directionality of translation is less clear, and a case could be made for the primacy of either. It is, perhaps, possible that the omission of the “from the mouth” detail in a Hebrew translation could arise as a result of scribal error, although the grammar of the Hebrew doesn’t seem to suggest missing content.
It’s equally possible that a Greek translator, seeing the obvious parallels to Elijah and Moses, sought to draw out another parallel linking to Jeremiah 5:14. Hebrew primacy would also explain the indirect structure of verse 5’s fire. In Hebrew the fire is completely decoupled from the witnesses, and the Greek still retains the hint of that disassociation.
As noted above, this reference to the Beast and his activity creates a tight correlation between the Two Witnesses and “the saints” via the exact same “make war and overcome” language found in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. If the Two Witnesses are indeed the saints, then we must also recognize the connection to the Woman’s offspring (the Church) in Revelation 12.
Revelation 12:17
17Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
This verse introduces a key timing detail that we must account for in our understanding. In the prophetic context, the sea represents the Gentile nations, and the earth represents the nation of Israel. For example, when John sees one Beast rising from the sea in Revelation 13, he is telling us that this will be a Gentile power. The second Beast of Revelation 13, however, rises from the earth — this figure will come from, or appear to be a part of, the nation of Israel. Therefore, when the Dragon here is seen “standing on the sand of the sea” as it begins its war against the Woman’s offspring (the Church), we can infer that this is the moment when the Beast stands at the intersection of both realms, Jew and Gentile. His war begins at the same moment that the Beast is given 42 months of authority over all the nations — the midpoint of the 70th week.
At first glance, the timing may seem difficult to reconcile. To fully comprehend, let us first lay out all the pieces of the puzzle.
First, let us treat the phrase “wage war and overcome,” always speaking of the Beast’s actions, as a single semantic unit with a short, intense duration — something in English more like “battle and overpower.” Then, let us treat the Dragon’s actions, simply “war,” as a broader term encompassing a longer period of multifaceted — primarily spiritual — opposition.
Can we justify this distinction? As noted, the underlying Greek and Aramaic are flexible enough to fit either reading. Importantly, though, the distinction between the actors, Dragon and Beast, can be called upon to further justify the nuance here. The Dragon represents the spiritual entity of Satan making it more natural to see his opposition as primarily spiritual in nature — although spiritual conflict can and does spill over to the physical realm. The Beast, as the physical representation of the Dragon’s kingdom on earth, naturally lends itself to a more physicial conflict with the saints.
With this nuance in hand, we can construct the following timeline:
The timing — in particular the sequence required by Revelation 11 — seems to place the vast majority of martyrdom at the very end of the Church’s witness. The time that the Two Witnesses “lie dead” is only 3.5 days which means that the death itself must be enacted in a very short amount of time — hours perhaps. This, no doubt, contributes to the literal interpretation, but it is not in conflict with the corporate view if that death is a single, global massacre. To be sure, this is a horrifying scenario and a departure from the typical understanding, but one that aligns with the text — and is frighteningly plausible once you think through the implications.
The letters to the Churches found in Revelation 2-3 are, I believe, a sequential narrative of the second half of Daniel’s 70th week (see my article: Revelation’s Letters for a thorough examination of this idea). The narrative they form conveys a picture of increasing compromise, heresy, and apostasy in the professing Church. External temptations work their way into the Church’s teachings. Licentiousness, idolatry, and compromise grow and expand. The saints experience slander, poverty, imprisonment, and ridicule. A nearly identical narrative is presented in 2 Peter 2-3 as it discusses the time leading to the Jesus’ return.
What is notably absent from both of these narratives is mention of death — 2 Peter contains none and Revelation’s letters contain only two. In the second letter, to Smyrna, imprisoned believers are encouraged to remain faithful even to the point of death. This shows that, while martyrdom does occur, as it has throughout Church history, it is not the primary means of persecution — at least at that point. In the third letter, to Pergamum, Antipas — who was executed by Rome for refusal to participate in state-mandated idolatry — is raised as an example. This ties some martyrdom to state-sanctioned execution, but the reference to Antipas is overshadowed by talk of Balaam (spiritual compromise) and Nicolaitans (licentiousness).
The next question we must ask is if Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are compatible with this understanding. Revelation 13 shows the Beast “uttering boasts and blasphemies,” “speaking blasphemies against God,” and blaspheming “his name and his dwelling — those who dwell in heaven.” Daniel 7 gives more details; he “speaks great things,” he will “speak words against the Most High,” he will “wear out the saints,” he will “change times and the law,” and the saints “will be given into his hand.” All of these can be aligned to the spiritual warfare active during the Great Tribulation, and all of them precede the indicaton of the Beast “waging war and overcoming.”
Note: We must recognize that the Second Beast of Revelation 13, the False Prophet, establishes an image of the Beast that will “cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” In theory, this should indicate an increase in martyrdom after the rise of the False Prophet in the middle of the Great Tribulation, but no such increase is reflected in any of the sequences we have examined.
Perhaps an increase does occur, but if so, its absence in the above sequence is notable. As to why, we can only speculate. I suspect that the establishment of the Image as a threat of death acts primarily, at least at first, as another means of coercion more than mass execution.
All combined, there is a stark image that the war waged by the Dragon has the primary goal of making Satan the ruler of this world — of twisting and reinterpreting scripture, generating compromise, idolatry, and licentiousness in the Church — all of it leading to apostasy which is, after all, far worse than death. A Christian genocide committed at the very end of such a campaign snaps starkly into focus.
The Beast — the kingdom of Satan — wages a campaign of conversion over the span of years. Christians are coaxed, coerced, deceived, and intimidated into leaving their faith. Those who refuse to compromise are increasingly slandered and despised, portrayed as enemies of the community — selfish, bigoted, phobic, you name it — with a hatred and intolerance that grows to a homicidal level.
We saw the same attitude develop during COVID amongst mask and vaccine proponents towards anyone who disobeyed or even questioned the mandates with a surprising number of people calling for the denial of medical care and even calls by some to euthanize the non-compliant. Depending on who you talk to, this may still be a controversial and sore subject, nonetheless, it still proves the mechanism on a near-global scale.
All of this pressure can only produce diminishing returns. At some point, anyone who is going to abandon their faith will have already done so, and the only professing Christians left are those who would rather die than capitulate. When the primary tactic of conversion is no longer effective, only the secondary option of execution remains. It is under these conditions that I believe this final massacre will take place.
At the end of the 1,260 days some trigger — perhaps a direct call to action from one of the Beasts, or perhaps some other catalyzing event — pushes the pent-up rage of the anti-Christians past the tipping point. Mob mentality takes over, and perhaps in a single night, Christians are hunted and killed across the globe. Sadly, this exact scenario also has plenty of precedent in history:
As I proposed in the Timeline Walkthrough article, the “midnight cry” found in the Parable of the 10 Virgins Matthew 25:1-13 is best understood to correlate with the death of the Two Witnesses. This idea is further bolstered under the view of a final, intense massacre of Christians occurring at the end of the 1,260 days — and the calendrical alignment of the literal 1,260 days places this end, literally, in the middle of the night.
Matthew 25:6
6But at midnight there was a shout, “Look, the bridegroom is here! Come out to meet him.”
Most read the text of Matthew 25:6 and envision the “shout” (sometimes translated as “cry”) as one of joyful announcment of the coming groom, but the underlying Greek word, krauge, is not typically positive, and there are several other options that Matthew could have chosen instead. Rather, it signals, at the very least, urgency and intensity if not outright emergency and distress. There are five other uses of this word in the New Testament, variously translated throughout, and only one usage can be considered positive.
This understanding of a loud, distressed cry certainly aligns with the image of a sudden, genocidal massacre. This type of event, more than anything I can think of, will serve as a profound wake-up call. Those who have been exercising their faith until this point — those with oil (the Holy Spirit) — will have the ability to shine through this final persecution as God’s witness. Those without — who only have a superficial profession without true faith — will certainly face a crisis of belief, perhaps too late with the return of Christ only 3.5 days away.
In the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew the word for “shout” is tza’akah which carries an even stronger negative connotation. Throughout the Old Testament it is the standard word used for people crying out under oppression or in desperate need of rescue (e.g., Exodus 2:23, 3:7-9Judges 4:31 Samuel 9:16). Likewise, there are several other choices that Matthew could have made in Hebrew that would have been far more appropriate for a joyful announcement.
Among the major futurist systems, the Pre-Wrath Rapture view is the only one that assigns internal, event-specific timing to most of the seals. Other futurist views generally place the seals broadly in the first half, second half, or across the entire 70th week, but do not tie individual seals to specific identifiable events. This internal alignment is a feature shared with the Olivet Rapture view — the view exposited in this series — although they diverge on the placement of the fourth and fifth seals.
Pre-Wrath places the opening of the fourth seal roughly at the midpoint and sees the riding out of Death as the initiator of the Great Tribulation and the martyrdom of the saints. They then see the martyrs pictured at the opening of the fifth seal as proof of the ongoing persecution at the hands of the Antichrist, placing it sometime during the Great Tribulation.
A full breakdown of the seals within the Olivet Rapture framework is beyond the scope here and deserves its own paper (someday, hopefully soon), but for now I will make a quick counter-argument to Pre-Wrath’s timing of the fourth and fifth seals which is directly relevant to the topic at hand.
Revelation 6:7-8
7When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:9-11
9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
First, identifying the fourth seal as the initiator of the Great Tribulation at the midpoint is a poor match for the text itself. This timing subtly shifts the nature and understanding of the fourth horseman disconnecting it from the first three despite the clear connection between them. Death and Hades are permitted to kill by the sword, yes, but also famine, pestilence, and wild beasts which is incongruous with a targeted persecution. There is no indication of any human agency (the Beast) involved in the killing. It is better to understand all four of the horsemen as riding out prior to the midpoint, related in character, and cumulative in effect.
This is particularly relevant to our discussion of the Two Witnesses since we have observed that there is a conspicuous absence of the mention of death during their 1,260-day testimony, and if this is the case, the implications are quite insidious. It would mean that the Beast takes power at the end of a span of massive global death and upheaval, essentially leading the world into a time of restoration and possibly even prosperity. He may very well be welcomed by many as someone coming to help bring stability and peace to a reeling world, and any nations who might wish to oppose his authority at that time would likely be greatly weakened after the horsemen. This makes the resistance of Christians to his power and influence all the more offensive to those placing their hope in him.
The fifth seal in the view of the Olivet Rapture doesn’t just fall sometime within the Great Tribulation, but almost certainly would align with the massacre moment at the end — the midnight cry of urgency on earth mirrored at that same moment with the martyrs’ desperate cry for justice in heaven. With mere days before Yeshua’s return, the sudden appearance of these martyrs in heaven paired with the words spoken to them becomes incredibly poignant: “rest a little longer.”
There also exists in the description of the scene in heaven perhaps a small nod to the sequence in Revelation 11. The martyrs are described as having been “slain for the witness they had borne” — past tense. If we view these martyrs as the majority of the Church itself, then this detail aligns perfectly with the timeline we extracted above — they died after the testimony was complete, at the end of the 1,260 days.
In the literal view, two individuals in Jerusalem “torment” the whole earth for nearly 3.5 years, somehow, until the Beast is finally able to kill them. Then the whole earth celebrates their death. Even with seeming super powers, any day-to-day effect the two might have on the whole earth is questionable, let alone one that could be described as “torment.” As such, even if their death would be welcomed, it still strains to visualize the instantiation of a new, global, gift-giving celebration. It’s a story that lacks much real-world credibility.
Contrast that with the above scenario. The Church — with believers present throughout the world — spends years bucking the system, creating friction, refusing to conform, calling out sin, and generally being a thorn in the side of every degraded and compromised community they are a part of. Then the world collectively snaps and participates in the mass slaughter of Christians. They not only get to see the removal of the “undesirables” that created strife for them personally, perhaps on a daily basis, but the catharsis of removing the thorn will come from their own hands. This creates a very psychologically understandable, visceral, and disturbing cause for celebration across the planet. This, too, has plenty of real world examples:
We are told the body (singular) of the Two Witnesses will lie in the street of the “Great City” — an idiom in John’s day that often referred to Jerusalem. It certainly wasn’t the only “Great City” in the ancient world, but contextually, that is the place John is referring to here. This is made apparent when John later adds that it is the city “where also their Lord was crucified.”
But why not just write “Jerusalem?” Some argue that a parallel is being drawn to Babylon which Revelation also calls “the great city” eight times across chapters 14, 16, 17, and 18, but there are problems with this identification.
There is a mismatch of geographic identity. The name Babylon (Babel) itself refers back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 and the city where it was built. The Tower incident long predates Jerusalem and takes place in a different location. We see at Babylon’s destruction that all the seafaring men stand far off watching and lamenting the smoke of her destruction. This points to a coastal location with heavy trans-oceanic trade, another mismatch for Jerusalem.
There is a mismatch in prophetic destiny. The destruction of the city is likened to the total irreversable destruction of Sodom where the “smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” This cannot be Jerusalem. God has promised to restore Israel as his seat of power, not annihilate it permanently. Thus, the parallel to Babylon, if one even exists, should be recognized only in symbolic terms as to the nature of the place. This idea aligns with the immediately following designations where Jerusalem is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt.
Under this view, we can apply Revelation 17’s description of Babylon as being “drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.” This description aligns perfectly with Sodom and Egypt where the people of God were oppressed and killed. Jerusalem here is not literally Sodom. Nor is it Egypt or Babylon. John explicitly states that these are figurative identifications of “the place where the oppression of God’s people happens.” The inclusion of Jerusalem in this archetype is warranted by the words of Jesus himself:
Matthew 23:37
37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! …
Luke 13:33-34
33Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. 34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! …
It should be noted that Sodom and Egypt shared another trait: both of these are places that suffered divine judgement as a result of their wickedness and stubbornness. Sodom was utterly destroyed with fire and brimstone. Egypt suffered the ten plagues of the Exodus. In a way, John is using these examples to telegraph the coming wrath that will be poured out on the whole world — the Trumpets and Bowls of God’s judgement.
It is highly likely that, in addition to all the symbolism, John is layering in a very literal picture of dead bodies lying in the street. By making the location symbolic, John places bodies in the street everywhere that prophets were killed for their testimony — in this case, all over the planet.
There is, likely, a third reason for John to zero in on Jerusalem: it will be the site of Christ’s return and the locus of the Rapture of the Church that accompanies it. By zooming in at the moment of death, John places us in the best vantage point to witness the events of the resurrection in the following verses.
In this passage, there are two differences in the Hebrew Revelation worth mentioning.
First, where the Greek leans into the corporate identity with its 3rd collective singular, “their corpse,” the Hebrew here shifts to a plural, “their corpses.” This strengthens the idea that the death of the Church will involve the literal death of individual believers rather than just a collective symbolic or spiritual death which would still warrant the collective singular.
As an aside, it is worth noting that while the Hebrew uses the plural “corpses”, it contains an earlier collective singular not found in the Greek: “dressed in sackcloth.” Unlike English, both Greek and Hebrew participles harmonize with the plurality of the nouns they modify; “dressed” should be plural to harmonize with the Two Witnesses. In the Hebrew Revelation, however, it is singular. This is grammatically much more awkward than the collective singular nouns and could point to a Hebrew origin where a Greek translator smoothed over the ungrammatical construction.
Secondly, instead of referring to Jerusalem as the “great city,” the reference in Hebrew is the “holy city.” A slightly different reference to the same city, but it breaks any connection to Babylon. This is further evidence that any link to Babylon that may be drawn from this verse should be understood purely as figurative archetype rather than a hard identification throughout the book of Revelation.
While the previous section is the most layered, nuanced, and difficult to comprehend, this section is likely the easiest. If the Two Witnesses are the Church, then the resurrection of the Church is, by definition, the rapture. It provides the most satisfying answer to a common concern: “Why do we not see the rapture pictured in the book of Revelation?” The answer, “We do!” And as one would hope, the description aligns perfectly with other rapture passages.
Acts 1:9-11
9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Further contradicting a direct reversal of the ascension, Pre-Wrath, and indeed most futurist frameworks, envision Christ descending through the clouds, gathering the elect, then immediately returning to Heaven without actually coming all the way to earth — a “U-Turn” view of the rapture.
While many expositors I have seen get hung up on the word for “caught up” (harpazo) in 1 Thessalonians, rightly arguing for the rapture itself, they often fail to recognize the arguably more important word that follows: when believers “meet” (apantesis) the Lord in the air. This Greek word is used to describe a greeting party going out to join an arriving delegation and escort them the remainder of the way to their destination. The same word, apantesis, is used twice in the parable of the 10 virgins (discussed above) when they go out to “meet” the groom. The text of the definitive rapture passage and the definitive rapture parable both inherently refute the “U-Turn view.”
Note: For a clear, non-eschatological example of how the word apantesis is used, see Acts 28:15 where Paul is invited to Rome, is “met” (apantesis) by the brothers there “as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns,” and escorted by them for the remainder of his journey to Rome.
Most frameworks tie the Olivet touchdown of Zechariah 14 to Revelation 19 and Jesus riding out of heaven for the battle of armageddon, but this is a clear misalignment of the imagery evoked in the description of the ascension. At the ascension Jesus was on foot, clothed normally, and ascended through the clouds as his disciples gazed upward. At the end of the wedding feast in Heaven, Jesus comes riding on a horse for battle, with many diadems on his head and robes dipped in blood. Both envision Christ earthbound from Heaven, but the rapture language is a far more direct parallel to the ascension than the rider on the white horse.
Zechariah 14:4
4On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
Once we realize that Jesus completes his trip to earth at his second coming, that the Olivet touchdown occurs immediately after the rapture — the gathering of saints in the air at His descent — then the seemingly irrelevant detail of the earthquake in Revelation 11:13 gains great significance. Zechariah 14 tells us that the Mount of Olives will split in two creating a new valley through which captive Jews will escape. This is the exact seismic upheaval we see in Revelation 11:13 in the same hour that the Church is taken up. John’s “inconsequential” description of an overlooked earthquake, as it turns out, actually gives us one of the best temporal markers for understanding the sequence of Christ’s return to earth.
Note: The Olivet Rapture section in the Timeline Walkthrough paper gives a more detailed breakdown of the sequence of events at Christ’s return including the possible significance of the 7,000 killed in the quake.
The view we have exposited here of the Two Witnesses carries some profound ramifications regarding our relationship to the world, to other believers, to the nation of Israel, and to suffering. I encourage you to prayerfully draw your own conclusions. The following are just some of my final thoughts and observations.
Your core identity as a Christian is that of witness. The Church, and that includes every believer, is the inheritor of the mission of the Old Testament prophets: carry God’s message to the earth which is the same as it always has been: repent and seek Him.
Suffering is one of the core mechanisms of our testimony, not an obstacle or an inconvenience to it. It’s not something we should seek to escape, but an honor that God promises to sustain us through. If the identity of the Church really is the Two Olive Trees, then it is our primary function to serve as a conduit of the Holy Spirit which is produced through suffering — the beaten olive oil is what is called for to light the lampstands and see God’s light shine into this world. Christ never promised we would escape persecution, in fact, He promised His followers that we will be persecuted and killed just as the prophets of old were.
Jewish-Gentile unity in the Church is essential. Gentile Christians did not replace Israel, nor are they absorbed into her. Jewish Christians should embrace the freedom of worship granted to through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Gentile believers should not expect Jewish Christians to be any less “Jewish” — each branch has their own unique purpose and witness. When we push to homogenize our communities, we violate the spirit of Deuteronomy 19:15, “a single witness shall not suffice.” God will fulfill all of His promises to the nation of Israel, and He will use the dual witness of Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews to bring about their restoration. We should yearn, as Paul did, as Jesus does, for the grafting back in of the natural branches.
The Church will have a very real stake and a very real ministry in the end times. We won’t be on the sidelines waiting for and then watching two super-prophets do all the heavy lifting while we try to avoid notice. We are the ones that will be called upon to live out the testimony of Christ under extreme conditions and with dire consequences for both us and for those seeing the testimony of our lives and words.