Revelation 11a
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The rod given to John was probably a reed like plant that grew in the Jordan valley and had a long hollow stalk that could be used as a walking stick and was often used for measuring. The same kind of reed was used by the angel in Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 40:3 .
The historicist view this as being the church in the time of the Reformation, as the temple of God throughout the New Testament is always the church and the distinction between the temple and the court outside the temple is the distinction between the true church and the outward and visible institution of the church. One historicist, Edward Bishop Elliott, sees this as Martin Luther, by way of John in the vision using the rod as a symbol of divine authority, he did not make the rod it was given to him, to measure or delineate the new forms of worship that would become a part of the evangelic church. The non-measured outer court represent the heathen-like, apostate practices like the worship of images, and the exclusion of the papal church itself. That they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months refer to the persecution of the true church by the papal powers, as if the holy city were in the hands of the Gentiles, a quote by Albert Barnes. The 42 months, or 1260 days or 3 and 1/2 years will come up again many times in this chapter and future chapters. The historicist seem to differ on when this begins and ends but they believe that this is 1260 years, using a year for a day principal in Ezekiel 4:6 “And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.” One historicist, Matthew Henry sees this as the reign of the Antichrist, which he views as the papal church, and it lasts until the end of the world but the beginning date is unknown.
The preterist view this as just like in the last chapter John ate the scroll which mirrored Ezekiel this also mirrors Ezekiel in measuring the temple and is to define the true spiritual temple in view of the impending destruction of the physical structure in Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in Ezekiel’s time and by the Romans in John’s. David S. Clark writes “Here is so plainly the destruction of Jerusalem that it could hardly be put into plainer words” There are several interpretations of the 42 months by the preterits as well, it may be the length of the Jewish War or Nero’s persecution of the saints, both were approximately that length. David Chilton finds the 42 months in Daniel 7:25 “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.” where it symbolizes a limited period during which the wicked are triumphant and also speaks of wrath and judgement due to apostasy, a reminder of the three and a half years of drought between Elijah’s first appearance and the defeat of Baal on Mount Carmel.
The purely symbolic or spiritual view is that the temple is a reference to the holy of holies and the reference in the passage as those who worship there, since only the high priest can enter the holy of holies in the earthly temple this is an indication that we here are presented with a vision of the true habitation of God. As the 144,000 were sealed for preservation, indicating God’s awareness of the exact number, so here the true church of God is measured for preservation, also an indication of God’s awareness of its precise membership. The court outside that is not measured are not genuine Christians and are trampled and overtaken by the world. The 42 months suggests a limited time time period and does not correlate to a literal time or time period of trampling of the holy city by the Gentiles or unbelievers.
Most Pre-Mil Pre-Tribulation rapture, or dispensationalists agree that the temple mentioned her is the temple that will be rebuilt during the time of the tribulations. There are five temples mentioned in the Bible, Solomon built the first, Zerubbabel built the second after the exile, Herod built the third during the time of Christ, The Lord himself will build the fifth during the Millennium and this one, the fourth is rebuilt under the patronage and protection of the Antichrist. The site of the temple is currently occupied by the Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock and is where Muslims believe it to be the place from which Muhammad ascended to heaven. This is one of the most sacred shrines in the Islamic world and would be a very difficult if not impossible tack to rebuild the temple on that site today. But with the protection of the Antichrist and the help of Satan guiding his false religions it will be rebuilt and the Jewish sacrificial system will be restored. John is told to measure the temple, the holy place and the holy of holies, indicating ownership and defining the parameters of God’s possessions, the true and faithful, but not the outer court of the Gentiles or false Christians and the world. While the temple may have been built by the Antichrist, the reinstitution of the temple worship will reawaken interest on the part of many Jews in the Messiah and many will realize that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:4. God will use this dissatisfaction to prepare their hearts for the day when he will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication, Zechariah 12. But the reawakening of interest in the true Messiah will provoke the insane jealousy of the false one, the Antichrist. At the midpoint of the Tribulation, he will halt their worship, desecrate the temple, the abomination of desolation from Daniel and Matthew 24:15, he then will set himself up as the only acceptable object of worship. The measuring of the temple is marking out the believing Jewish remnant that God will spare from judgement. The 42 months, three and one half years, that the outer temple will be tread underfoot, correspond to the overtly evil career of the Antichrist in the last half of the tribulation. That period will be the culmination of the “times of the Gentiles” from Luke 21:24 “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
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The historicist view of these two witnesses is that they are the true Christians who stood up to the papal power in the times leading up to the Reformation, the fire coming out of their mouths is not to be taken literally but echos the words of Jeremiah 5:14 “Therefore 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.” it is their testimony of the true church in this time. Their powers are the various plagues that fell upon the papacy from time to time and place to place when they were persecuting what they called heretics but were the true remnant of God’s church.
The preterist position says that the tale of the two witnesses presents a particularly difficult challenge to the interpreter, J. Stewart Russell saying that this passage represents “one of the most difficult problems contained in Scripture, and one that has exercised, we may even say baffled, the research and ingenuity of critics and commentators up to the present hour”. A few of the interpretations are that because of the mention of the two olive trees and the two lampstands, which seem to derive from Zechariah 4 and is generally connected to the high priest Joshua and the governor Zerubbabel or because of the miracles attributed to them they are reminiscent of Moses and Elijah. Those who see the correlation to Joshua and Zerubbabel see this as symbolizing the religious and civil leaders authorities power to restrain the evil passions and deeds of men. The Moses and Elijah correlation is that they represent the line of prophets, culminating in John the Baptist. David Chilton mentions that the wearing of sackcloth is a characteristic of Old Covenant privation rather than New Covenant fullness and that both Moses and Elijah were in a role preparatory to the coming of the Messiah, Moses predicted that “a Prophet like me” would be raised up after himself referring to Christ and Malachi predicted the coming of another Elijah prior to the Messiah’s appearance which was fulfilled in John the Baptist. Moses was succeeded by Joshua, the Hebrew from of the name Jesus, and Elijah was succeeded by one who had a greater anointing of the Spirit than he did himself, therefore the two witnesses summarize all the witnesses of the Old Covenant, culminating in the witness of John. One other different view from Russell is that these are two literal men in Jerusalem before the fall of the city and asserts “We have no hesitation in naming St. James and St. Peter as the persons indicated”
The spiritual or symbolic view is that the two witnesses represent the witnessing church throughout its entire time. Though the church is one, the symbol of the two witnesses supports the truthfulness of its testimony, since “the testimony of two is true” John 8:17 “In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.” Also, since Jesus sent His disciples to preach in twos, the number suggests the missionary thrust of the church. The duration of their ministry corresponds the the period during which the outer court and the holy city are trampled and represent the whole church age. That they are clothed in sackcloth is a symbol that the message is of repentance, the two olive trees are reminiscent of Zerubbabel and Joshua, who were God’s agents of restoration after the exile and symbolize the royal and priestly prerogatives of the church. The miracles performed by the witnesses recall those of Moses and Elijah, suggesting that the authority and power once vested in the Law and the Prophets is now given to Christ’s church.
The pre-mil view is that these two witnesses will be actual people during the tribulation, some say first half 3.5 years and some the second 3.5 years both being 1260 days or 42 months. Some believe, including John MacArthur that these two witnesses will be Moses and Elijah. Both Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration and would represent to the Jewish people the Law and the Prophets.. The miracles they will perform (destroying their enemies with fire, withholding the rain, turning water into blood, and striking the earth with plagues) are similar to the judgments inflicted in the Old Testament by Moses and Elijah for the purpose of stimulating repentance. Both the Old Testament and Jewish tradition expected Moses and Elijah to return in the future Malachi 4:5 ““Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” The Jews believed that God’s promise to raise up a prophet like Moses necessitated his return. Some others think that the two witnesses will be Elijah and Enoch as these were the only two men who never tasted death, and per Hebrews 9:27 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” these two men must return to fulfil their missed appointment with death. However if you hold to the pre-trib rapture belief this argument loses all validity when considering that the whole living church at the time of the rapture will go to heaven without dying. Some other pre-mil commentators like Robert Mounce does not see this as two actual men but they are a symbol of the witnessing church in the last days before the end of the age. The fire coming out of their mouths is not seen as literal fire but the truthfulness of the testimony they proclaim and no one will be able to harm them or keep them from their witness until their ministry is completed, when God says it is done not when man does.
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The historicist sees the death of the two witnesses to be the intensive effort made, beginning with Pope Innocent III in the twelfth century, to exterminate every trace of the resistance to the papal authority. That they were not to be buried is that Christian burial was denied to by papal decree to those who were regarded as heretics. In 1514 there was a decree saying that “There is an end of the resistance to the Papal rule and religion; opposers there exist no more.”, “The whole body of Christendom is now seen to be subjected to its head [the Pope]” after this decree and a statement by Pope Leo X there was much festivity made by the pope and others, the pope granting plenary papal indulgence. A plenary indulgence fully remits the penalty that must be paid for sins committed and confessed up to that time.
The preterist view of the witnesses being the prophets up to John the baptist is that they are over come and killed but not until they finish their testimony and this reaches its climax with the murder of Christ. At Christ’s death all manner of people rejoiced and mocked; the rulers, the priests, the Roman soldiers, all joined in celebrating his death. Pilate and Herod - who formerly had hated each other - were reconciled to each other with the death of Jesus. Luke 23:12 “And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.” The location of the witnesses’ death is the great city which is said to be Jerusalem, as most would understand the reference to where Jesus was crucified. Russell who sees the witnesses as James and Peter says that James was killed by the Sanhedrin in 69 AD and while Peter did die a martyr in Rome not Jerusalem his home was Jerusalem and in his case we may well say that the proverb would hold good “It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem”
The spiritual or symbolic view is that the beast representing the antichristian powers in the world which seek to silence the church’s witness will rise up and make war on the church and when their testimony is complete God permits the church to experience an apparent defeat. This defeat is measurable in days as apposed to the years of their ministry though. The antichristian world will rejoice at the apparent triumph of evil over the church and there will be much celebration.
Some of the pre-mil commentators see the beast coming out of the pit as Satan, John Walvoord says the beast out of the pit is Satan, the beast out of the sea is the world dictator and the beast out of the land is the false religious leader of that day, this unholy trinity is the satanic counterfeit of the divine Trinity. Others see him as someone empowered by Satan, as Satan is depicted as a dragon and this person is a ruler of the world often called the Antichrist who imitates the true Christ and rules over the people of the world and demands their worship, per MacArthur. MacArthur goes on to say that though he is a man, the beast is energized by the demonic presence and power coming from the abyss, the prison for certain demons. Whomever the beast is he is powerless to stop the testimony of the two witnesses until they are done, 1260 days or three and a half years. When this time is over though they will be killed and their dead bodies will be left out unburied for all the world to see and celebrate over. They will be in the great city, which is Jerusalem, now likened to Sodom and Egypt due to the wickedness now abundant there. Ironically, this mention of celebration is the only mention in Revelation of rejoicing. The worlds sinners will be happy because those who declared God’s judgments to them and tormented them with miracle power and messages condemning their sin are dead. This emotional response graphically reflects the extent and finality of their rejection of God.