This chapter is a big deal, and has connection points with a lot of modern debates about scripture including: who are the two witnesses, who's the beast, are the timelines literal, and is a temple going to get rebuilt in Jerusalem before the world ends.
All the juicy stuff.
Rev 11:
1 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles (or - the Nations). They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”4 They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”[a] 5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6 They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
7 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.8 Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified.9 For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
11 But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
The Seventh Trumpet
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their facesand worshiped God, 17 saying:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
18 The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.
To summarize, this chapter highlights God's worshippers and witnesses, and it also points out God's opponents. Then it concludes with the epic, open heaven Day of the Lord.
1 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers.
God has his eye on His worshippers. They're in the temple near Him. They're in His presence. People who worship God draw near to Him in reverence, and we interact with Him how He has instructed.
The altar mentioned in this verse likely refers to the altar in the outer part of the temple - the brazen alter where regular non-priest Israelites could make offerings.
As far as who's giving the instructions in verse 1; it might be the voice of Jesus - you can refer to the episode on Rev 10 for a discussion on that.
A little history reminder: in 70 AD the main temple got destroyed by the Romans (this was the second temple that had been built cause the first was one destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 bcBC so either Rev was written before 70 AD, OR as John is writing, there is no physical temple in Jerusalem.
Present day, there's currently the just temple mount and remaining western wall and stuff. there hasnt been a third rebuild.
In fact in today's times, I've been told that Muslims control the temple mount and Jewish people aren't allowed to worship there. But there are some Jewish people talking about a rebuild nonetheless.
(This is different than synagogues, there are like 300 synagogues in modern Jerusalem right now, and 50 Christian churches, and 33 Muslim mosques, and probably some other stuff).
Some scholars and teachers believe that a significant holy temple is going to get rebuilt before some end times events (like the "man of lawlessness" taking a seat in the temple in 2 Thes 2. Daniel 9 talks about a rebuild as well and many people think thats related. and Ezekiel also describes a vision of a temple that seems like it's futuristic; this is in Ezekiel 40-48 - if you take Ezekiel's detailed measurements and descriptions literally, you conclude it hasn't happened yet. People in this camp often suspect it might get rebuilt in the 1,000 year reign that we're going to see described in Rev chapter 20).
So we see that this part of Rev 11 is modeled after some OT prophetic texts as per usual - Ez 40-48 and also Zech 2:1-5, where there's a lot of similarity including the prophet being told to measure and then the act of measuring not being carried out or at least not logged in the writing as being carried out.
Why would they write the text like that? Some scholars have a theory that measuring often had to do with preparation of a place either for preparation or for destruction, so maybe there's an implication that the time isn't right quite yet.
There are also additional measuring examples in extra Biblical texts like Dead Sea scrolls and Enoch and stuff. A lot of them seem to have an angel of preservation present / involved. And spoiler alert, in Rev 20 a bunch of demonically inspired non-followers surround Jerusalem to destroy it and fire from Heaven devours them so they cant (another of many examples in the Bible of when a specific wickedness is plotted, it gets boomeranged back onto the plotters instead, and the would-be victims are spared).
So God seems to be preparing or preserving the place of worship, where His worshippers are. Make sense? What we see about the character of God is: He's got you. You're His. Even in hard times He hasn't forgotten you. Everything is measured out, He's intentional in His care and His plan for His people.
2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.
When I read verses 1 and 2, it feels to me like another reiteration of the Revelatory theme of a preservation for God's followers, and an exclusion for the wicked. Verse 2 deals with God's opponents.
The Life App Study Bible says "Those worshipping inside the Temple will be protected spiritually, but those outside will face suffering. This is a way of saying true believers will be protected, even through persecution, but those who refuse to believe will be destroyed"
So they're taking the temple here to be more symbolic that physical, which is another common view - that the temple in rev 11 is a symbol of the church. People who hold this view often point to Rev 21:22 where, spoiler alert, there will be no temple in the New Jerusalem.
And also, we see here a sense that some non-jewish non-believers are going to bring more oppression in Jerusalem. They'll "trample the holy city" (which is another phrase in here that makes me suspect that John indeed is writing this after the temple gets physically trampled - but that's just me).
42 months = 3.5 years. Which is a length of time often described in scripture by the phrase "times, time and half a time" and shows up multiple times throughout scripture. Or as I like to say it : a half note, a quarter note and and eight note.
Jesus addressed the topic of the temple getting trampled in His sermons during His ministry. In Luke 21 Jesus talks about the destruction of the temple and the end times - some events He mentions seem like they might have already happened, and some seem like they haven’t yet.
Luke 21:21-24 "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. .. There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
So it's like John's pointing to Jesus' sermons that he heard in the past, when he writes that a group of non-Jews are going to trample the city of Jerusalem at some point.
Personally, I hold space for the possibility that John wrote Rev around 90 ad, that the temple in Jerusalem had been recently destroyed, but that even still his reference to measuring it in verse 1 was still about it. I don't think that's too much of a stretch; John seems to have great faith for restoration of a lot of things, and see them even when they're not exactly existing in the natural quite yet. and time and history is all trippy and non linear in this book anyway.
3 (The voice that might be Jesus is still talking) And I will appoint (grant authority to) my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Guess how long that is, yep - 3.5 years. Interestingly the same amount of time we will see in rev 13 that the beast is given. The idea is, it's a divinely restricted amount of time. A "limited period of eschatological tribulation" commentator David Aune calls it.
(btw John is alluding to Daniel 7 and Daniel 12 where this time designation comes from. There's a whole rabbit hole on sussing out the time periods from Daniel; if you'd like to hear a discussion on that, check out the Naked Bible Podcast episode about Rev 11. In short, there were multiple calendars used - lunar, solar, Zadokite... the Essenes used what some Bible nerds claim is the perfect calendar which was the solar plus 5 days... long story short, it's debated, but many scholars conclude that the bk of Daniel refers to two calendars, which possibly implies two authors contributing at two different dates. My apologies to the fundamentalists out there).
Here's what the Life App study Bible says about this three and a half year bit: "In the bk of Rev, numbers are likely to have symbolic rather than literal meanings... As half the perfect number, 3.5 can indicate incompletion, imperfection, or even evil. Notice the events predicted [using] this time period: there is trouble (Dan 12), the holy city is trampled (here in rev 11), ... the devil-inspired beast exercises his authority (rev 13).. [and] some commentators also liken 3.5 yrs with the period of famine in the days of Elijah (see Luke 4 and James 5).... It is possible of course that the 3.5 yrs are literal... Whether symbolic or literal, they indicate that evil's reign will have a definite end." So that's kinda what's up with the 3.5 yrs.
We're looking at God's witnesses here, and they're wearing sackcloth. (Sackcloth is coarse fabric hemp or goat hair, often used historically as a garment worn during mourning or as a sign of penitence. It's associated with humility, grief, fasting and repentance). So sackcloth means you're mourning, often mourning sin done by yourself or your people.
I like what Bible teacher Kim Cash Tate says about the witnesses in her youtube video on chapter 11: "Demons that have been chained for centuries have been let loose and they are killing a third of mankind. Terror is at every turn and yet we're told that those who were not killed did not repent. So here is a gracious God sending two witnesses to let people know why they are experiencing the wrath and judgement of God. They will prophesy that this has been foretold - they will point to what we're reading and other passages in the Bible. They will tell people to repent, and that salvation can only come through Jesus Christ. The gospel will be preached during this horrific time bc God is faithful; He does not want people to perish. The mission is so important that God divinely enables and protects these two witnesses.
They have supernatural abilities - fire flows from their mouths to devour their enemies. They have the power to shut up the skies so that it doesn't rain. Power over the waters to turn them into blood. And they can strike the earth with every plague."
You may be wondering, who are these two witnesses? There's been a LOT of conversation about that over the yrs, and - guess what I'm about to say - it's debated.
There's the camp that believes this is Moses and Elijah. The two well-known figures from the Hebrew scriptures that appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration (Mt 17).
and certainly John seems to be at least comparing the witnesses to them if not identifying them as them. We'll talk about those specific comparisons in a sec when we get to verses 5-6.
Other scholars assert that rather than two literal ppl, these two witnesses are an avatar for the church. If that's the case, we have access to some pretty awesome powers! it says the witnesses can combat evil, influence weather, influence water, and insight plague.
which is why a third group of interpreters think these witnesses might be non human spiritual beings. Let's keep reading about the witnesses and you can decide what you think.
4 They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”
of course we've seen lamp stands earlier in the book and it was a metaphor for God's church.
We know these are God's servants in one form or another - John hears specifically that they are olive trees and lamp stands. Where do those metaphors / avatars come from in the OT?
Zecheriah 4:11-12: Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?”
Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?” He replied, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I said. So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”
aka these are the "sons of oil" and according to Michael Heiser: "The two sons of oil represent the redeemed ppl of God."
This is the same chapter in Zech that mentions SEVEN lamp stands as well, which John talked about near the beginning of Rev.
Bible commentator Cyril says: "The golden candlestick is the Church, as being honored in the world, most bright in virtues, raised on high exceedingly by the doctrines of the true knowledge of God. But there are seven lamps, having light, not of their own, but brought to them from without, and nourished by the supplies through the olive tree. These signify the holy apostles, evangelists, and those who, each in their season, were teachers of the churches, receiving, like lamps, into their mind and heart the illumination from Christ, which is nourished by the supplies of the Spirit, casting forth light to those who are in the house." Interesting take on it.
Another commentator I found said something similar, that the two witnesses are graces and gifts from God to his ppl; then he says "others [think the witnesses are] Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the anointed One, or son of oil, being anointed with the Holy Ghost to the office of Prophet, Priest, and King; and with which oil he has supplied his candlestick, the church, in all ages. The Holy Spirit is the oil of gladness, and that anointing which teacheth all things. And this is the sense of Capellus, as has been observed on Zechariah 4:2. And the learned and judicious Pemble makes a "query" of it, whether Christ and the Comforter; or Christ in his two natures; or Christ in his two offices of King and Priest of his church; or how else the words are to be understood: and this was the sense of Origen long ago... [Both] Christ and the Spirit communicate by the word and the ordinances, administered by the faithful dispensers of the word; hence those witnesses of Christ, in all ages, may with propriety enough be called two anointed ones, and "the two olive trees", as they are in Revelation 11:4 where there is a plain allusion to this passage. The Targum renders the words, "these are the two sons of princes", or "great men". Some Jewish writers interpret them of their two Messiahs... Some interpreters understand by them Enoch and Elias; others Peter and Paul; others..., Joshua and Zerubbabel, the one anointed for the priesthood, and the other for the kingdom; of which two offices Jarchi interprets them; and others the two churches, Jewish and Christian.
That stand by the Lord of the whole earth; the Creator and Governor of the universe: ministers of the word are on his side, abide by his truths and ordinances, and are faithful to his cause and interest...."
That was a tap into the past few centuries' discussion on the identity of the two witnesses.
And like I mentioned, many other scholars say these two witnesses are SYMBOLS. That they indeed are avatars - of God's people.
Then why are there TWO- people who argue the witnesses are the church would point to the OT requirement of at least two witnesses to establish a testimony in court.
Beale says "... judgement is inaugurated through the witnesses themselves... Even as the lampstands stood in God's presence in the tabernacle and the temple, so the witnesses stand before the Lord of the Earth, emphasizing that, in spite of their position on earth, they stand spiritually in God's presence and in His Heavenly courtroom. Though the prophetic witnesses live in a world of danger, they are never far from their Lord's sovereign presence..."
We also see here in Rev 11 God's people are delivered and kept safe during this tribulationy time period in ways that reflect and are similar to the stories of the plagues in Egypt. Yet another throwback to the judgement plagues.
lets read v5
5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6 They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want
So then these are mega prophets. Fire from the mouth is a well known image in scripture (good and bad speakers breathe fire; there's holy and unholy fire)
The ability to shut off weather is a known prophet thing.
Turning water to blood, Inducing plagues - you can see why scholars are questioning whether they're just 2 humans, or are they divine, or are they symbolic...
If they are human, we can see how they map onto Moses who in a sense called down plagues, and Elijah who called down fire, and also influenced the weather along with God.
(Unless you read different interpretations that say one of them is Enoch and the other is Elijah, or other ppl who say it's Enoch and Moses).
Whatever their exact nature, this is a mercy from God - there's always a message coming our way, if we choose to hear and accept it
7 Now when they have FINISHED their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.
that word Finished is important; they finished their testimony. They persevered in their calling till it was complete. Remember all the letters at the beginning of Rev, imploring the church to endure to the end? remember the faithful martyr souls beneath the altar in chap 6 - there because of the WITNESS THEY'D MAINTAINED? They bore witness till the whole ordeal was finished, they were faithful to the end. Same with these two witnesses, they didnt stop early, even being so hated and opposed.
This similarity / parallel is one major reason that G. K. Beale, in his commentary on Rev, asserts that this section we're reading - this interlude - this parenthesis - between the 6th and 7th trumpets is a retelling of the story of the trumpet and seal judgements (which he would submit are two visions of the same set of events) from another angle - and that the two witnesses are the Church finishing their testimony at basically the end of history.
So Beale and many other studiers of the book are saying, this is us ya'll. In the time frame between Christ's resurrection and His return, we are the witnesses about Him to a sometimes hostile world, and we don't stop.
Here another famous character appears - another avatar if you will - the beast.
God's protection is lifted (in a way) and the witnesses are killed by a supernatural opponent of God: the beast, who could be satan himself or an agent thereof. Notice he comes up out of that same abyss we've talked about in past episodes.
v7 says "the beast ... will attack them, and overpower and kill them." That phrasing is from Daniel 7 where Daniel has a vision of beasts coming against God's people (which at that time in history was mostly just Israelite people). 7:21 ..."waging war against the holy people and defeating them."
Here's a quote from Beale about the beast: "The phrase 'the beast that comes up out of the abyss' does not mean that the beast is only active at the end of the age, but rather that at the end of the age his activity will come out manifestly into the open. That is, his spirit has stood behind the earthly persecutors during the course of history, but at the end he manifests himself openly in order to finally defeat the church... The beast in Daniel 7 represents an evil king and kingdom which persecute the saints, and so likewise the persecuting activity in Rev 11:7 begins to take place through antagonistic earthly authorities. The same series of events (the final onslaught of the beast followed by his own demise) is described in Rev 17:8, where the beast comes out of the abyss only to go to his destruction, and again in Rev 20:7..."
8 Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified.
The great city is what? Some ppl say it's Jerusalem; if so John is describing it critically / negatively by comparing it to sodom (known for its wickedness) and Egypt (known for oppressing the people of God).
Jerusalem becomes enemy territory - it's now evil like Sodom, and like Egypt was at one pt in Hebraic history. makes sense bc John's likely writing this bk after the Romans take over and maybe even after they destroy Jerusalem. About a million Jews were killed in that takeover. And any and all treasure that was in the temple would have been taken to Rome.
Some people say it's just another way of saying evil empire - that it's not one location but includes many iterations - Babylon, Rome, Jerusalem in its fallen state, other wicked cities...
Whatever you think the great city is, we see that wicked people rejoice when righteous people die or are silenced.
9 For three and a half days SOME from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.
The fact that they're not buried is meant to be a disgrace but it's about to come in handy bc God's about to bring them back to life.
10-11 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.
This resurrection of the witnesses is modeled after Ezekiel chapters 36-38 where God breathes life into a valley of dry bones.
12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
Similar to Jesus' ascension.
God gives ultimate victory to His faithful ones
Some ppl sat this verse is about the church being raptured, which i guess would be a post trib take on a literal rapture
Other people say it's about the church being commissioned to proclaim the message of God, since the same "come up here" wording is in John's prophetic vision and commissioning in chapter 10
And still others say it's a vindication of their message - God showing approval by providing His cloud presence which might make more sense considering where this is in the timeline
13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Oh finally we see some people acknowledging God and giving some credit / accurately understanding what's going on during the tribulation!
An earthquake shows up in chapter 6, here in 11, and in 16. Looking at the book of Revelation as cyclical, these three descriptions of this earthquake all have to do with the end. the last part of all history.
An earthquake is predicted in Ezekiel 38:19 - that's likely on John's mind here.
when i first read this verse i was like... a tenth of the city collapsed and only 7,000 people died from that? That's pretty good. I mean right now Jerusalem's population is almost a million so you'd think if a 10th of the structures collapsed there would be like 70 or 80 thousand ppl dead. Or maybe the population has already been lowered quite a bit at this pt in the future, idk.
We've now reached the end of the parenthesis, the pause in the action that is chap 10:1 - 11:13. We're diving back in to the trumpet judgements now.
14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
Reminder that the 5th, 6th and 7th trumpet blasts are also known as the three woes or the three terrors.
Now we're going to read the seventh trumpet blast which is the final terror, which is the capitol-D Day of the Lord
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
Since this is the third woe, or terror, some scholars assert that now judgement will not be partial/measured but complete.
There is a kingdom ownership transfer being completed here in this moment.
Elsewhere in scripture we learn that satan has been the ruler of this world, and now in Rev, reign and authority is being completely transferred back to YHWH
The 7th trumpet proclaims the eternal reign of Christ! It's a terrible judgement in a way but it's also super dope in another way.
this moment can be seen as the beginning of God's end times reign.
16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. (this is from Psalm 2 btw - the nations raged, but Your wrath came) The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
God destroys those who destroy (that's God's justice). And He rewards those who do things His way. The end of verse 18 there, that the time has come for judging the dead, rewarding the prophets and ppl of God, and destroying the destructive - That's the last woe - the final judgement. That's judgement day, the day of the Lord.
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake (yep there are two earthquakes in a single chapter) and a severe hailstorm.
Verse one talked about the temple on earth, according to some scholars, and verse 19 talks about the one in heaven. OR Both verses are about the heavenly one - that gets argued about.
This is the heavenly temple of which the earthly temple that was built was a copy/prototype.
When John sees it, there's a lot of imagery from OT Sinai: thunder and lightning etc. So God is bringing His people out of oppression like back in Exodus, but this time in a complete, total, final way.
The ark of the covenant is seen - this was the most sacred treasure the historic Israelite tribes possessed, and it housed the PRESENCE OF GOD.
So during this seventh trumpet God is very much undeniable and un-ignorable. His power is on display here.
And that's how the chapter ends.
In this chapter we've learned about God's witnesses and worshippers, seen the involvement of God's opponents, and we've read about the vindication and victory of YHWH and His people in the final day. We learn there's going to be a moment that the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and that He will reign forever!
Not sure if there's anything that's a bigger deal than that.