Two witnesses

The two witnesses, as depicted in the Bamberg Apocalypse, an 11th-century illuminated manuscript.

The two witnesses are two of God's prophets who are seen in a vision by John of Patmos, who appear during the Second woe in the Book of Revelation 11:1-14. To understand the two witnesses one would have had to look carefully at the structure of the Book of Revelation as the interpretation of this passage is directly related to understanding the structure, i.e. this passage appears virtually at the end of the first Act (Ch 1-11) before the 7th (and last) trumpet sounds. When that is understood the two witnesses can only be Moses and Elijah who both had to contend with the Secular World System that threatened the faith community. Moses faced the might of Egypt and triumphed and Elijah faced the might of Ahab and Jezebel in that cataclysmic battle on Mount Carmel. The World System saturated by idolatry in each case challenged these "witnesses". The water into blood and the plagues are linked to Moses and the shutting up of the sky refers to what Elijah did. But Moses represented the LAW since he received it from God on the two stone tablets and Elijah represents the Prophets which means the two witnesses to truth would be the LAW and the PROPHETS. This was the Word of God, the Bible, that John had on the Island of Patmos -before the New Testament was canonised. So the two witnesses represent the Word of God and Jesus is revealed to us as the Word of God by the very same John in the Gospel and his letters.

When you look at the time frame discussed in this passage you will find that it matches the treatment the Lord Jesus received when He "witnessed" the salvation God wrought by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. The 42 months is 3 1/2 years equaling the time Jesus spent ministering on earth from the time of His baptism till his death. 3 1/2 days would then refer to the time He was arrested, given an unfair trial and flogged until he was crucified. He then rose again exactly as it is set out in this passage happening to the two witnesses. At the tranfiguration it was Moses and Elijah that appeared with Christ to illustrate that He was now emerging as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. So these two witnesses are combined as the Word of God in Christ. It would be better to let the text speak for itself rather that to approach it with a preconcieved eschatology needing to be imposed on the text. Then we read into the text rather than letting the text explain itself.

The two witnesses have been variously identified by theologians as two individuals, as 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.

Biblical narrative

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. Both are able to devour their enemies with fire that flows out of their mouths. Also, they 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 the two witnesses. This strikes fear on everyone witnessing their revival and the two witnesses ascend to heaven. In the next hour, a great earthquake occurs and kills 7000 men, destroying a tenth of the city.[1]

Textual analysis

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. Revelation 11:4

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.[2] Their description as "two olive trees and two lampstands" may be symbolism, allegory, or literal.[3]

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 reincarnation; 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;[4] Mercy and Grace).

Enoch, Moses or Elijah

Early Christians, such as Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Hippolytus of Rome, have concluded that the two witnesses would be Enoch and Elijah, prophets who did not die because God "took" them. Others have proposed Moses as one of the witnesses, for his ability to turn water into blood and the power to plague the earth.[5]

Modern theologians, such as John Walvoord, have furthered the point of individualism 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 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 interpretation that the two witnesses are two people.[6] The personification of the two witnesses in Revelation, is so prevalent that according to theologian William Barclay, the passage seems to refer to definite persons.[7]

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 interpretation that the two witnesses will appear in the Last days.[8][9]

Christianity

The two witnesses have been interpreted as representing the Church or a similar concept. The 1599 Geneva Study Bible has asserted that the two witnesses are the exclusive purview of the church.[10] Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible gives one church interpretation as consisting of believing Jews and that of the Gentiles.[11] John Wesley in his commentary on Revelation 11 suggests a more spiritual, almost ambiguous, application.[12] John Gill's Exposition of the Bible interprets the two witnesses as the true Church in counterdistinction to the antichrist system of Roman Catholicism.[13] 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.[14] 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." Revelation 2:1 refers to the churches as golden lampstands.

It has also been proposed that the two witnesses are the witnessing church, because Jesus sent out his disciples "two by two",[15]

Original Manuscripts

According to Codex Alexandrinus (A), Codex Vaticanus, Codex Ephraemi (C), as the oldest manuscripts, as well as early church theologians such as Arethas of Caesarea, the original Greek text of Revelation 11:8 uses the word 'body' instead of 'bodies', whereas later the text switches back to using the plural form 'bodies' in verse 9. The plural v. singular ambiguity is reinforced in Rev. 11:5 where the original Greek text of the oldest manuscripts uses the term 'mouth' in the singular instead of 'mouths' in the plural. Therefore, verse 11:5 reads: "If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies," and verse 11:8 reads "And their dead body shall lie in the street of the great city." Some authors have suggested that this grammar is the strongest clue to identifying who this end time prophets (or prophet) are, such as Leon G. Van Wert is his book The Jewish Popes: The Two Harbingers of the End Times,[16] who elucidates how it is possible, based on the grammatical interpretation of the text, that the two witnesses be represented by just one person who would be a Jewish Pope, since the text requires that the "two" witnesses have one common i.e. shared mouth, and one shared body, and therefore "they" have to be a single person. However, others have suggested to use the scriptural definition of the meaning of one body from Genesis 2:24, where a husband and a wife are united to form one flesh. In Mark 10:8 Jesus emphasizes that after marriage a husband and a wife "are no longer two, but one flesh." There are many Bible readers and theologians who share this view, and they have pointed out that this fact of the possibility of an end-time female prophet should be allowed to surface to greater public awareness in spite of fears due to alleged accusations of a deeply rooted misogynistic attitude at certain echelons in Church and theological organizations.

Other views

In the Seventh-day Adventist interpretation, Uriah Smith and Ellen G. White considered the two witnesses to be the Old and New Testaments.[17][18][19] They believed that the French Revolution was the time when the "two witnesses" were killed.[20][21] Other Historicist consider the Two Witnesses also this way.[22][23]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the two witnesses would be two prophets on a mission to the Jews in the modern nation of Israel,[24][25] possibly two members of their Quorum of the Twelve or their First Presidency,[26] who are considered to be prophets by the church.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Revelation 11:1-13
  2. ↑ Revelation 11:4-6
  3. ↑ "Bible Commentaries". Precept Austin. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
  4. ↑ Hitchcock 1999, p. 120
  5. ↑ Hitchcock 1999, pp. 121–2
  6. ↑ Hitchcock 1999, p. 121
  7. ↑ Barclay 2004, p. 80
  8. ↑ Walvoord 1999, p. 574
  9. ↑ Hitchcock 1999, p. 122
  10. ↑ "Revelation 11". Geneva Study Bible.
  11. ↑ Matthew Henry. "Revelation 11".
  12. ↑ John Wesley. "Revelation 11".
  13. ↑ John Gill. "Revelation 11:3".
  14. ↑ Bullinger, E. W. (2001) [1921]. Number in Scripture: Its Supernatural Design and Spiritual Significance (4th ed. rev. ed.). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (Bible Warehouse). Retrieved 2007-12-24.
  15. ↑ Taylor, R A (2000-03-17). "Revelation: A Reference Commentary" (PDF). pp. 111–112. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  16. ↑ Van Wert, Leon G. The Jewish Popes: The Two Harbingers of the End Times. United States of America: Tate Publishing, LLC. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
  17. ↑ "If I Were Told the Future — Lesson 57: The Two Witnesses". Cyberspace Ministry. 2002. Archived from the original on 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  18. ↑ The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, p.276 - "The two witnesses represent the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament."
  19. ↑ The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith, p.534 - "These declarations and considerations are sufficient to sustain the conclusion that the Old and New Testaments are Christ's two witnesses"
  20. ↑ Smith, p.539 - "But 'the triumphing of the wicked is short;' so was it in France, for their war on the Bible and Christianity had well-nigh swallowed them all up. They set out to destroy Christ's 'two witnesses,' but they filled France with blood and horror, so that they were horror-struck at the result of their wicked deeds, and were glad to remove their impious hands from the Bible"
  21. ↑ White, p.265. "The war against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in France, culminated in the scenes of the Revolution."
  22. ↑ The Seventh Vial, Dr J. A. Wylie, p.105
  23. ↑ Thirteen Lectures on the Apocalypse, Robert Roberts
  24. ↑ http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/77.15#14
  25. ↑ Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 16:329
  26. ↑ http://www.lds.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-student-manual/section-69-80/section-77-questions-and-answers-on-the-book-of-revelation?lang=eng: "No doubt they will be members of the Council of the Twelve or of the First Presidency of the Church," Bruce R. McConkie

References

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