The Two Witnesses of Revelation

In the 11th chapter of Revelation we read of two mysterious prophets whose identities have been a matter of debate among all major interpretations of Revelation.

Reve 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall
prophesy 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.


Among futurists, these witnesses have been variously identified as Enoch & Elijah, or Moses & Elijah, or simply two future Jewish-Christian converts.

For the preterist, though, the identity of the two witnesses can be a little more troubling. According to the preterist interpretation of Revelation (both partial and full preterism), the vision of the two witnesses has already taken place. They must be identified within the period from 30 – 70 AD, that is, between the ascension of Jesus Christ to the fall of Jerusalem forty years later.

Although many excellent suggestions have been made for the identity of the two witnesses, most interpretations come short of explaining all the criteria required by the vision. The number of criteria is obviously subjective, but the chart below gives a reasonable breakdown of the vision.

Obviously no one from the first century meets all the requirements of the vision. If the text can be taken as figuratively or symbolically, though, some individuals do come close.

To resolve this problem, the two witnesses are often understood to be symbolic, representing either a body of people (for example the body of witnessing Christians) or possibly a relative duality (The Law & The Prophets, The Old & New Testaments).

Moses Stuart does an excellent job of summarizing many of the interpretations of the two witnesses up to his time [A Commentary on the Apocalypse, p.219-240]. (My comments in italics)

A) “Conjecture”
1) The Old and New Testament
2) Preachers instructed by
the Law & the Prophets
3) Jesus Christ & John the Baptist
4) Several individuals identified by the Historicist interpretation
5) Jewish and Gentile Christians

Although Moses Stuart classifies the identity of the two witnesses as Jesus and his forerunner John the Baptist “incongruous & irrelevant,” there are actually several parallels between the two pairs.

John the Baptist was said to come in the spirit of Elijah (Luke 1:17) and was said to fulfill the prophecy that Elijah “must first come [before the day of the Lord]” (Malachi 4:5; Matthew 17:10-13). John the Baptist wore sackcloth as part of his ministry (Matthew 3:4). He was also murdered at the end of his ministry by Herod (Matthew 14). The daughter of Herodias gave the head of John the Baptist to her mother as a present.

Jesus Christ’s ministry, like those of the two witnesses’, lasted about 3 ½ years (see Jack Finegan’s Handbook of Biblical Chronology). He was murdered at the end of his testimony in Jerusalem. He lied in the grave 3 days and was resurrected (Matthew 28, Mark 16). At his resurrection as well as his death, there was an earthquake (Matt 27:51; Matt 28:2). The Roman guards who saw him at his resurrection cowered in fear (Matthew 27:54; Matthew 28:4). After his resurrection he ascended to heaven in cloud (Acts 1:9). Although only his disciples witnessed his ascension, even his enemies will see him at his return (Revelation 19:11-15).

Moses Stuart continues with what he calls "better claim(s)" for the identity of the two witnesses.

B) “A Better Claim”
1) Ananus & Joshua. (Herder &
Eichhorn, see Moses Stuart – A Commentary on the Apocalypse, p 220)

Ananus was a former high priest and leader [TJW 2.20.3] in Jerusalem during the time of the Roman-Jewish war. Joshua was an acting high priest during this same period. Both promoted peace and vied for the safety of Jerusalem in direct opposition to the Zealots who promoted rebellion and war. Their life and deaths closely parallel the vision of the two witnesses both figuratively and literally.

For example, Revelation 11:4 makes a direct reference to a prophecy by Zechariah (Zech 4) which most scholars acknowledge refers to Joshua, the High Priest, and Zerubbabel the Davidic Governor who led the Israelites back from captivity from Babylon in the sixth century B.C. Since Ananus and Joshua also represented civil and religious authority, they certainly can be said to fulfill this portion of the prophecy.

More literally, the record of their deaths makes a striking parallel to those of the two witnesses in Revelation (excerpts from The Jewish War, Josephus).

[TJW 4.4.5] For there broke out a great storm in the night, with the
utmost violence, and very strong winds, with…rain, with continued lightnings,
terrible thunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowing of the earth, that
was in an earthquake.

[TJW 4.5.1] And that day, as it came on, they saw 8,500 dead bodies there.

[TJW 4.5.2] But the rage of the Idumeans was not satiated by these slaughters…but they sought for the high priests..and as soon as they caught them they killed them, and standing upon their dead bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to the people, and Joshua with his speech made to them…Nay, they proceeded to that degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead bodies without
burial.

[TJW 4.5.2] I should not make a mistake if I said that the
death of Ananus was the beginning of the destruction of the city…

Before proceeding, I should make comment regarding Moses Stuart’s argument against Ananus and Joshua as the two witnesses. According to Josephus, this same Ananus orchestrated the death of James the brother of Christ. This would, in fact, make it very difficult to accept him as one of the two witnesses. It seems likely, though, that this “record” was nothing more than a redaction by a Christian redactor since it is unlikely that Josephus, a staunch Jew, would acknowledge Jesus as the Christ in his writings [JA 20.9.1].

Shown below is how closely the ministry of Ananus and Joshua parallel the vision of Revelation 11. I have included “Yes” for Revelation 11:3 even though the earthquake recorded by Josephus occurred BEFORE the deaths of Ananus and Joshua. Recapitulation is common literary device within the visions of Revelation, so the order of the events is not as critical as the events themselves. The number of deaths is different, but very close. John’s record of 7000 may simply be a symbolic rounding of the higher number 8500. Although a tenth of the city did not literally fall, when the Idumeans breached the walls of the temple, it could be said that roughly a tenth of the city figuratively fell.

Stuart futher continues with one of the oldest claims to the identity of the two witnesses:

2) Moses & Elijah

That Moses & Elijah are the two witnesses is a commonly held belief among Futurists. The miracles performed by the two witnesses closely parallel those performed by the two Old Testament prophets. Elijah’s prayers caused drought for over three years (1Kings 17:1, James 5:17). The final two miracles of turning water to blood and striking the earth with plagues recalls the miracle of Moses and the ten plagues. Both men called fire from heaven to slay their enemies (Moses - Exodus 9:23; Elijah - 2Kings 1).

In addition, Elijah was said to were sackcloth (2Kings 1:8), had a showdown with his enemies after a period of roughly 3 ½ years (James 5:17, 1Kings 18), and ascended to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Moses was the leader of the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt, fulfilling in part Revelation 11:4.

Besides their similarity to the two witnesses, Elijah was said to come before the “day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5; Matthew 17:10, 11). These same two same prophets also appeared together with Jesus Christ on the day of his transfiguration (Matthew 17:3).

Moses Stuart finally concludes his list with another ancient conjecture and of course his own analysis.

3) Elijah & Enoch

This pair was also a popular solution to the identity of the two witnesses, primarily because neither saw death (Genesis 5:24; 2Kings 2:11) making them the only ones ‘in heaven’ who could come back and die. This is a weak conjecture since the vision never says that the witnesses came from heaven. Jude also identifies Enoch as a prophet who predicted the final return of the Lord with 10,000 saints (Jude 1:14, 15).

4) Christian witnesses during the Roman-Jewish war (p 226, A Commentary on
the Apocalypse)

“God would raise faithful and well endowed preachers among the Jews, at the
period when the nation was ready to perish; that those preachers would be
persecuted and destroyed; and after all, that the Christian cause would be
triumphant.”

This ultimately was the opinion held by the great Moses Stuart.

Besides Moses Stuart, Stuart Russell offers yet another possibility:

1) Peter & James the brother of Christ

I can find little evidence that Peter and James meet the requirements of the vision besides being murdered by their enemies. Although James was probably murdered in Jerusalem, Peter probably was not.

The proposals for the identity of the two witnesses are myriad, and I do not justice to them here. I will, though, turn my attention to one interpretation, namely the one by David Chilton in The Days of Vengeance, I believe comes the closest to properly identifying these two witnesses.

Chilton, unlike Moses Stuart, recognizes that the similarities between the two prophets and Moses/Elijah (p274-278), John the Baptist (p276, 280), and Joshua/Zerubbabel (p276-277) are by no means coincidental, but critical to the interpretation. Chilton concludes

“the two Witnesses, therefore, summarize all the witnesses of the Old Covenant,
culminating in the witness of John [the Baptist].” (p 282)

Many interpreters like Moses Stuart and Stuart Russell force the identity of the two witnesses to be (only) Christian witnesses, which completely misses the Old Testament analogies woven into the vision.

Chilton also recognizes that the analogies do not end at references to Old Testament saints. He correctly surmises that the ministry of Jesus Christ draws a much closer parallel to the several passages regarding the two witnesses, especially those near the end of the vision (e.g.: their death, resurrection, and ascension; see also the chart at the beginning of this article).

It is here that Chilton sides with Moses Stuart with his final conclusion that the two witnesses (p284) are Christian witnesses:

“The story of the Two Witnesses is therefore the story of the witnessing
Church…”

“Through the resurrection of Christ, the Church and her Testimony
become unstoppable.”

How can the Two Witnesses be both Old Covenant saints as well as the witnessing Church? Chilton explains this later in his interpretation of the Woman in Revelation 12, for she is

“the Church in the form of Old Covenant Israel.”

In other words, Chilton saw the Woman and the Two Witnesses as embodying both Old Covenant Israel and the Church, since, of course, the Church and Christ himself came out of Old Covenant Israel. I personally disagree with his final conclusions here on both the Woman and the Two Witnesses (how can the Woman be both the mother and the child’s soon to be wife?). This may be influenced by my dispensationalist background, but I believe a much clearer and consistent interpretation can be made.

Chilton makes three errors in his interpretation. First he fails to recognize the parallels between the two Witnesses and the high priests Ananus and Joshua who were persecuted and killed during the Roman-Jewish war (see above). My final conclusions are not dependent on this argument (in other words, one can make the same conclusion using sola scriptura) but by including these martyrs along side John the Baptist/Jesus, Moses/Elijah, and Zerubabbel/Joshua, the vision becomes simpler to interpret.

After all, Ananus and Joshua died over 30 years after the death of John the Baptist. So Chilton’s conclusion that the Two Witnesses summarized

“all the witnesses of the Old Covenant, culminating in the witness of John [the
Baptist].”

does not hold. More correctly the Two Witnesses were the Old Covenant witnesses during the period between Christ’s death and second coming, as opposed to the Church which was Chilton's conclusion.

One may justifiably question how we can place Ananus and Joshua beside so great a “cloud of witnesses” as Moses and Elijah? As already explained, Ananus and Joshua were high priests who defended the Temple, their city, and their people to their deaths. It is their role as priests, as religious and civil leaders, and ultimately as martyrs that makes them perfect representatives of the two witnesses alongside the others.

I should also draw close attention to the duality seen in everyone of these examples. It is a duality seen throughout scripture, both the Old and New Testament. It is of course seen in the Two Witnesses. It is seen in John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ, and his cousin Jesus Christ. It is seen in Moses and Elijah, who also represent the Law and the Prophets. It is seen in Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Zerubbabel, and others. So it is fitting that we find TWO Old Covenant witnesses, Ananus and Joshua, would give their lives for their cause during this time period.

Utilizing all the analogies (John/Jesus, Moses/Elijah, Joshua/Zerubbabel, Ananus/Joshua) we see that ALL the original requirements of the vision as laid out in the beginning of this article are fulfilled.

The vision of the Two Witnesses embodies each of these pair of witnesses, justifying the conclusion that the witnesses are Old Covenant saints. Obviously Jesus Christ should be included in New Covenant saints, and will be explained below, but it is the duality here that is of importance.

The second error of Chilton’s is that he sees the Two Witnesses as the ultimately “the story of the church.” He interprets the Woman in Revelation 12 also as the Church in the form of Old Covenant Israel. It is completely unnecessary to require that the Two Witnesses or the Woman are both of these entities, even though the two are obviously related. How then should this vision be understood?

One of the keys to understanding the book of Revelation is to recognize that the entire book is about the transition from the Old Covenant to the New. The same key is needed to understand the vision of the Two Witnesses…that it describes the transition from the Old Covenant to the New.

But it is also the relationship between the Old & New Covenants that is critical, for BOTH Covenants were in effect simultaneously during the period between the ascension of Jesus Christ and his return. In other words, there were two methods of approaching God the Father, through the sacrificial system of the Israelites, or through faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, the first was nothing more than a shadow of the second, and was soon to pass away. In fact, as the writer of Hebrews states,

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is
obsolete and aging will soon disappear. [Hebrews 8:13, NIV]

How does this apply to the two witnesses? The two witnesses are OLD COVENANT SAINTS, the saints of the Most High (Dan 7:25), and they are righteous Israel. The Old Covenant was aging and passing away to allow the complete and perfect establishment of the New. To do so, all the Old Covenant systems and establishments must also pass away including the Temple and the system of the priests and altar sacrifices (see also Hebrews 9:8). As predicted by Daniel (Dan 7:25, etc), the saints of God would also be persecuted and martyred. This is perfectly illustrated in the deaths of Ananus and Joshua near the beginning of the Roman-Jewish war.

But what of the analogy of the vision to Jesus Christ? The resurrection of the Two Witnesses is better interpreted as the resurrection of the Old Covenant people who died under the Old Covenant, but were resurrected under the victory and establishment of the New Covenant. It is through the death, resurrection and RETURN of Jesus Christ that this occurred. In other words, their resurrection was at the end of the Roman-Jewish war at the Parousia of Jesus Christ. This further confirmed by the fact that the enemies of the Two Witnesses beheld them in the heavens. At the ascension of Jesus and Elijah, only their friends beheld them (the disciples and Elisha, respectively). It is only at Christ’s RETURN that his enemies are said to see him (see above).

The vision of the Two Witnesses, in the same manner as the entire book of Revelation, tells us the story of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. The Two Witnesses are Old Covenant saints, symbolized by references to Moses & Elijah, Joshua & Zerubbabel as well as John the Baptist, during the period between the ascension of the Jesus Christ and his return. The saints who died under the Old Covenant during this period were resurrected under the promise of the New Covenant at the second appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.