Two Witnesses
Encyclopedia
John of Patmos
John of Patmos is the name given, in the Book of Revelation, as the author of the apocalyptic text that is traditionally cannonized in the New Testament...
, who appear during the Second woe in the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
11:1-14.
John is told that the court of God's temple would be trampled on by the nations for 42 months. During that period for 1,260 days (or 42 months, or 3½ years), two witnesses would be granted authority to prophesy. They are described as two olive trees and two lampstands who stand before the Lord of the earth. They are able to devour their enemies with fire that flows out of their mouths. They also have power over the sky and waters, and are able to strike the earth with plague. After their testimony, the Beast overcomes the two witnesses and kills them. For three and a half days, the people of the earth celebrate the death of the two witnesses who have tormented them for three and a half years. Then God resurrects
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
the two witnesses. This strikes fear on everyone witnessing their revival and the two witnesses ascend to heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
. In the next hour, a great earthquake occurs and kills 7000 people, destroying a tenth of the city.
The two witnesses have been identified by various theologian
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
s as real individuals, two groups of people, or as two concepts. Dispensationalist Christians believe that the events described in the Book of Revelation will occur before and during the Second Coming of Christ and attempt to associate references in the Book of Revelation with historical or current happenings and people.
Textual analysis
The Apocalypse of John is considered by most Christian theologians to be the apostolic writings that incorporate more Hebrew (i.e., Old Testament) Scriptures into the text than any other book of the New Testament. The images, symbolism, and allegorical language used throughout the Revelation are impossible to fathom or interpret without a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the original "Testament". The purpose and destiny of the two witnesses is to decry the reign of the Antichrist-BeastThe Beast (Bible)
The Beast of Revelation, may refer to two beasts in the apocalyptic visions by John of Patmos, as written in the Book of Revelation. The first beast comes from "out of the sea". The second beast comes from "out of the earth" and directs all peoples of the earth to worship the first. This first...
, and to attest against that “Great City”—Babylon the Great
Whore of Babylon
The Whore of Babylon or "Babylon the great" is a Christian allegorical figure of evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Her full title is given as "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth." -Symbolism:...
.
According to the text, the two witnesses are symbolised as the "two olive trees and the two lampstands" that have the power to destroy their enemies, control the weather and cause plagues. Their description as "two olive trees and two lampstands" may be symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ism, allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
, or literal
Literal
Literal may refer to:*Literal and figurative language, taken in a non-figurative sense*Literal translation, the close adherence to the forms of a source language text...
. Some theologians believe that the two olive branches represent the peace that the witnesses try to bring to the sinful Earth, and the two lampstands represent the light that they shine for Christ.
Identity
In attempting to exegete Revelation 11, commentators who hold to a premillennial eschatology generally interpret the two witnesses in one of three ways: (1) as individuals either manifested in some form of reincarnationReincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
; or “in the spirit” of Biblical prophets who once appeared in Bible history; or simply as two individuals newly arrived on the earth; (2) as corporate in nature (human) standing for the Church only or for Israel only; or both Israel and the Church; or for both Jewish and Gentiles believers in Jesus; or (3) as symbolism or an expression of biblical concepts (i.e., the Old and New Testaments; the Law and the Prophets; Mercy and Grace).
As individuals
Early Christians, such as TertullianTertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, Irenaeus
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
, and Hippolytus, have concluded that the two witnesses would be Enoch
Enoch (ancestor of Noah)
Enoch is a figure in the Generations of Adam. Enoch is described as Adam's greatx4 grandson , the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and the great-grandfather of Noah...
and Elijah, prophets who who did not die because God "took" them. Others have proposed Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
as one of the witnesses, for their ability to turn water into blood and the power to plague the earth as they desire.
Modern theologians, such as John Walvoord
John Walvoord
John F. Walvoord was a Christian theologian, pastor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary from 1952 to 1986. He was the author of over 30 books, focusing primarily on eschatology and theology including The Rapture Question, and was co-editor of The Bible Knowledge Commentary with Roy B....
, have furthered the point of indivisualism by comparing the "two lampstands" and the "two olive trees" of Revelation 11 to the two golden pipes and two olive trees/branches of Zechariah
Book of Zechariah
The Book of Zechariah is the penultimate book of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew and Christian Bible, attributed to the prophet Zechariah.-Historical context:...
4. By the identification of the two olive branches as "two anointed ones" or "two sons of the oil", in Zechariah, this reinforces the literalist view that the two witnesses are two people. The personification of the two witnesses in Revelation, is so prevelant that according to theologian William Barclay
William Barclay (theologian)
William Barclay was an author, radio and television presenter, Church of Scotland minister, and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow.-Life:...
, the passage seems to refer to definite persons.
Walvoord pointed out that because the Revelation passage does not specifically identify who the two witnesses are, it would be safer to conclude that they are not related to any previous historical character. The literalist typically has a dispensationalist or futurist view that the two witnesses will appear in the Last days
Last Days
Last Days may refer to:* End time, the time period described by the eschatology of various religions-Books:*The Last Days , a 2003 novel by Joel C...
.
The Baha'i Faith has a historicist view of the two witnesses as being Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
and Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the two witnesses would be two prophets would be on a mission to the Jews in the modern nation of Israel, possibly comprising of their Quorum of the Twelve or their First Presidency
First Presidency (LDS Church)
The First Presidency is the presiding or governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It is composed of the President of the Church and his counselors. The First Presidency currently consists of President Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors, Henry B...
, who are considered to be prophets by the church.
As the church
The two witnesses have been interpreted as representing the Church or a similar concept. The 1599 Geneva Study BibleGeneva Bible
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into the English language, preceding the King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of the 16th century Protestant movement and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John...
has asserted that the two witnesses are the exclusive purvue of the church. Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry was an English commentator on the Bible and Presbyterian minister.-Life:He was born at Broad Oak, a farmhouse on the borders of Flintshire and Shropshire. His father, Philip Henry, had just been ejected under the Act of Uniformity 1662...
's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible gives one church interpretation as comprising of believing Jews and that of the Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
s. John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
in his commentary on Revelation 11 suggests a more spiritual, almost ambiguous, application. John Gill's
John Gill (theologian)
John Gill was an English Baptist pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian who held to a firm Calvinistic soteriology. Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, he attended Kettering Grammar School where he mastered the Latin classics and learned Greek by age 11...
Exposition of the Bible interprets the two witnesses as the true Church in counterdistinction to the antichrist system of Roman Catholicism. Ross Taylor's Verse by Verse Commentary on Revelation clearly defines the Church as the "two olive trees and the two lampstands."
Similarly, the two witnesses have been identified as Israel and the Christian Church. The number two has been associated with the witness of Israel to the Gentile nations during the 70th Week of Daniel's prophecy
Prophecy of Seventy Weeks
The Prophecy of Seventy Septets appears in the angel Gabriel's reply to Daniel, beginning with verse 22 and ending with verse 27 in the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel, a work included in both the Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Bible; as well as the Septuagint...
. The olive tree in the Scripture signifies Israel. The "witness of the Church" is signified by the two lampstands, whose identity was disclosed by the seven golden lampstands (i.e., candlesticks) revealed in Revelation 2-3 as the “churches.”
It has also been proposed that the two witnesses are the witnessing church
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
, because Jesus sent out his disciples "two by two",
As symbolic
In the Seventh-day Adventist view, Uriah SmithUriah Smith
Uriah Smith was a Seventh-day Adventist author and editor who worked for the Review and Herald for 50 years....
and Ellen G. White
Ellen G. White
Ellen Gould White was a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She, along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, would form what is now known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.Ellen White reported to her fellow believers her...
considered the two witnesses to be the Old
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
s. They believed that the French Revolution was the time when the "two witnesses" were killed.
See also
- Events of Revelation (Chapter 11)
- Great Tribulation
- Prophecy of Seventy WeeksProphecy of Seventy WeeksThe Prophecy of Seventy Septets appears in the angel Gabriel's reply to Daniel, beginning with verse 22 and ending with verse 27 in the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel, a work included in both the Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Bible; as well as the Septuagint...
- 2300 day prophecy
- Day-year principleDay-year principleThe day-year principle, year-day principle or year-for-a-day principle is a method of interpretation of Bible prophecy in which the word day in apocalyptic prophecy is symbolic for a year of actual time. It is used principally by the historicist school of prophetic interpretation...