Revelation 11
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · AD 68 – AD 96 · Late apostolic age · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
19 verses · 545 words · ~3 min read · ~4 min listen
The Two Witnesses
1Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there. 2But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. 3And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed. 6These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
The Witnesses Killed and Raised
7When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them. 8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified. 9For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb. 10And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.
11But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them. 12And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.
13And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly.
The Seventh Trumpet
15Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven:
16And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17saying:
19Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Footnotes (4)
- a v4 See Zechariah 4:14.
- b v17 TR includes and who is to come.
- c v18 See Psalms 2:1.
- d v18 See Daniel 12:2.
Study notes on this chapter · 4
The valley of dry bones
Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones come to life as God breathes on them, and God says the bones are the whole house of Israel, who will be brought back to their land. Readers have taken the vision as a picture of national restoration, of resurrection, or both, and Revelation echoes it in the raising of the two witnesses.
When: Ezekiel, c. 586–570 BC.
Ways people read this (4)
- Restoration of Israel from exile in Babylon (as the text itself explains).
- A picture that also points to the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.
- A future national restoration of Israel.
- The Spirit's renewal of the people of God in Christ, Jew and Gentile together.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
Nebuchadnezzar's statue and the four kingdoms
Daniel interprets the king's dream of a statue with a head of gold, chest of silver, belly of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay, struck by a stone cut without hands that becomes a mountain filling the earth. The head is Babylon; the identity of the other kingdoms and of the stone is debated.
When: Daniel, set c. 603 BC; proposed fulfillments run from the 6th century BC to Rome and beyond.
Ways people read this (4)
- Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome; the stone is Christ's kingdom, established at his first coming or in the church (traditional Christian reading, found in Jerome and Calvin).
- Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece; the stone is God's kingdom after Antiochus IV (the usual critical view, with a composition c. 165 BC).
- Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome; the feet of iron and clay are a future revived form of the Roman power, with the stone coming at Christ's return (common in premillennial readings).
- Jewish tradition (Rabbinic) often identifies the fourth kingdom with Rome and the stone with the messianic kingdom.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
A time, times and half a time
Daniel says the holy ones will be handed over to the little horn for 'a time, times and half a time', and Daniel 12 repeats the period. Revelation gives the same span as 1,260 days and 42 months. Interpreters disagree on whether it is three and a half literal years, a symbolic period, or a period of years.
When: Daniel; Revelation, c. AD 90s.
Ways people read this (4)
- Three and a half literal years, as in Antiochus IV's persecution (167–164 BC) or a future tribulation.
- A symbolic period for a limited time of persecution, symbolizing half of seven (incomplete, cut short).
- 1,260 years in some historicist readings, using the day-year principle.
- The period of the church's witness between Christ's first and second comings (some amillennial readings).
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The two witnesses
Revelation 11 describes two witnesses who prophesy for 1,260 days, have power like Elijah and Moses, are killed by the beast, lie in the street of the great city, and are raised after three and a half days. The two olive trees and two lampstands recall Zechariah's vision. Their identity is disputed.
When: Revelation, c. AD 90s.
Ways people read this (4)
- Two future prophets in a coming tribulation, sometimes identified with Moses and Elijah or Enoch and Elijah.
- The church as a witnessing community, as in the lampstands of Revelation 1 (idealist and amillennial).
- The Old and New Testaments, or the Law and the Prophets.
- Two historical figures or groups in the first century (preterist), such as James and Peter or Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.