THE TWO WITNESSES  

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Few subjects in the book of Revelation have caused as much speculation as the one mentioned in Rev 11:3 as part of the sixth trumpet of the seventh seal: the Two Witnesses.

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Some groups say that two people will emerge from among them and prophesy for 1260 days, while others believe that two prophets from the past will reappear for this same period of time, e.g. Moses and Elijah.

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On the other hand, many believe the prophecy covers a period of 1260 years. Using this interpretation method, various explanations have arisen. Some see the Two Witnesses as the Jewish and Gentile components of the church, others identify them as the true ministry going out in pairs to testify against the Church of Rome, while the Seventh Day Adventists teach that they refer to the Old and New Testaments.

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Is it possible that the true identity of the Two Witnesses can be brought to light from the Scriptures, historical facts and Bible chronology?

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What does this passage of Scripture in Rev 11 refer to?

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Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

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In verse one, John is told to “measure”, but what exactly is he meant to measure? 

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The Church is referred to in Scripture as a spiritual Temple. The Church escaped the destruction of Jerusalem and the physical Temple in 70AD, and its progress from there is foretold in the seven successive Church era messages of Revelation 2 and 3. However, as the specific delineations of these seven eras have not been given, they need to be "measured", i.e. carefully studied in the light of history, to work out their correct time periods. In these Church era messages, we have been given the criteria by which this measuring is to be done.

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However, as verse two of Revelation 11 shows, John is told that the time period involving the "court", i.e. the Temple Mount, and the "holy city", i.e. Jerusalem, is fixed and given. It does not need to be worked out by us. And, likewise, an identical fixed period is assigned to the time of the "two witnesses". We see that two periods of 1260 days (which I intend to show are two successive periods of 1260 years), foretell their exact time line.

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Most people in the Church of God are familiar with the “day for a year” principle of reckoning prophecy, a principle found in the Scriptures (Numbers 14, Ezekiel 4). In Rev 11:2, the text mentions 42 months and in Rev 11:3 it mentions 1260 days, but when applying the “day for a year” principle, they each denote 1260 years. As two consecutive periods of 1260 days are referred to here, together they comprise 2520 years or “seven times” (7 x 360 days which equals 2520 days or years). Please see the page "DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS AND TIMES" for a full explanation of how numbers in prophecies are to be understood.

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Seven times, or 2520 years, is the exact period of time the people of God were to be punished for not obeying His laws, according to Lev 26:18, 21, 24 and 28.

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Rev 11:2 says in regard to the court outside the temple, that “it is given unto the Gentiles”, but the literal Greek says "it was given unto the Gentiles". Young's Literal Translation here reads "was given". Green's Interlinear Bible also says "was given". The Companion Bible has a marginal note in this place saying "is = was".

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This raises the question: When was the Holy City given unto the Gentiles? The answer is simple: when the Babylonians captured it. All seven successive Gentile powers that captured Jerusalem: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, Rome and Mecca/Medina, came to power within the first 1260 year period, from 575BC (the correct, Scripturally derived date for the first capture of Jerusalem - download the chronological chart on the home page for proof of this) until 685AD, where Rev 11:3 picks up.

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Rev 11:3 says the Two Witnesses will prophesy, but what do they prophesy about?

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Looking back at how history has unfolded, we can see that the Witnesses were THEMSELVES the prophecy - a living fulfilment of the prophecy of Dan 7:24-25:

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Dan 7:24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

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"Saints" refers to those set apart by God. It can refer either to God's physical people or His spiritual people. Both were set apart by God and both are called "saints" in the Scriptures. The context has to bear out which is intended, and we can see that here the physical saints, Daniel's countrymen, are intended.

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​Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople in the early fourth century. The city of Rome speedily declined in significance from that point on, never to rise again as a military stronghold. However, as a spiritual centre, the city grew steadily under a long succession of men with the title "Bishop of Rome". These bishops of Rome, over time referred to as Popes, were appointed or confirmed by the emperor residing in Constantinople. In 684 however, Emperor Constantine IV waived the requirement of Papal confirmation by the emperor, allowing Rome from that time forward to select and install its Popes independently. The first Pope so elected was Pope John V in 685, making his first regnal year 686. From this point on the Papacy became an independent power, or in Bible language, a "horn".

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From 686 until 1945 there are 1260 inclusive years during which false Christianity, headed by the independent Papacy, persecuted Jews through various means: inquisitions, forced migrations, pogroms, crusades etc, reaching a crescendo in the Holocaust.

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These are the 1260 years prophesied in Dan 7:25, during which the Jews were to be given into the hands of the "pompous" little horn. They are the same 1260 years of Rev 11:3 where the "two witnesses" are described fulfilling the prophecy of Dan 7:25. The pompous little horn is also found in Rev 13:5, depicted as "a mouth", and clearly denotes the Papacy.

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Dan 7:25, Rev 11:3 and Rev 13:5 all describe the same 1260 year period, from 686 until 1945 inclusively.

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So now we can see why John is told in Rev 11:2 that the Holy City "was given"  unto the Gentiles for 1260 years, but that God "will give"  unto His two witnesses another 1260 years. From John's standpoint in history, in the first century AD, the first period had already started and had yet a long way to run, while the second period was, to John, still way off in the future.

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This is a greatly misunderstood prophecy in the Church of God.

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God is THE great mathematician.

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When He tells us to do things "in order" (I Cor 14:40), it's because that is exactly what He does. Everything He does is done with planning and precision.

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That includes the duration of the punishment of His people.

 

​As stated above, the first 1260 year period saw all seven successive Gentile powers, i.e. the seven heads of the "beasts" of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17, capture Jerusalem. These were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, Rome and Mecca/Medina (Islam).

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The second 1260 year period saw independent Papal rule from Rome, during the time when "ten horns" ruled over Jerusalem, all of which grew successively out of the 7th head of the Beast, Mecca/Medina, which captured Jerusalem in the year 638AD. See "DANIEL 2 - INTERPRETATION ERRORS" for more information on this.

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These ten horns were ten Islamic dynasties that ruled over Jerusalem, three of which were defeated by the "little horn" (Dan 7:8), i.e. Catholicism/Christianity, also described as the "eighth" head of the Beast (Rev 17:11). The little horn became the eighth head of the Beast when it first conquered Jerusalem in 1099, as the First Crusade succeeded in its mission. 

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The ten horns and the three manifestations of the little horn are:

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1) The Umayyad dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 661 till 750.

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2) The Abbassid dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 750 till 878 and 904 till 939.

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3) The Tulunid dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 878 till 904.

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4) The Ikhshidid dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 939 till 969.

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5) The Fatimid dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 969 till 1073 and 1098 till 1099.

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6) The Seljuq dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 1073 till 1098.

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While under Fatimid rule, Jerusalem was captured by the first Crusade, led by Godfrey de Bouillon, in 1099, starting the first period of rule over Jerusalem by the "little horn" of Daniel 7:8, which lasted until 1187.

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7) The Ayyubid dynasty, which ruled Jerusalem from 1187 till 1229 and 1244 till 1260. The Ayyubid ruler Saladin defeated the Crusaders in 1187.

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Ayyubid ruler Al-Kamil surrendered Jerusalem to the sixth Crusade under Frederick II in 1229, which was the second emergence of the "little horn". This period lasted till 1244.

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Ayyubid ruler As-Salih, with the help of the Kwarezmians, besieged and recaptured Jerusalem in 1244, ending Christian rule until 1917.

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8) The Mamluk dynasty, which ruled over Jerusalem from 1260 till 1516.

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9) The Ottoman Empire, which ruled Jerusalem from 1516 till 1831 and 1840 till 1917.

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10) Egyptian rule of Jerusalem, under Mohammed Ali, from 1831 till 1840.

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The Ottoman Empire was defeated in 1917 during WWI by the third emergence of the "little horn" known at the time as "the last Crusade", when a combine of British Empire forces re-established Christian rule over Jerusalem. The British remained there until May 1948.

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So what is the identity of the "two witnesses"?

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Clearly, history shows that they are the Jews. But how are the Jews two witnesses? The answer as usual is found in the Scriptures, which is where we are to "seek, and you will find".

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I Kings 11:26-36 provides the answer:

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I Kings 11:26 Then Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zereda, whose

mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also rebelled against the king.

27 And this is what caused him to rebel against the king: Solomon had built the Millo and repaired the damages to the City of David his father.

28 The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, made him the officer over all the labor force of the house of Joseph.

29 Now it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah

the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field.

30 Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.

31 And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you

32 (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem,

the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel),

33 because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians,

Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David.

34 However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler

all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes.

35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you - ten tribes.

36 And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me

in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there.

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Israel was composed originally of twelve tribes. The tribe of Joseph split into two, making thirteen tribes, but the tribe of Levi was set apart by God for His service. Therefore, when dividing up the land, in Joshua's time, only twelve tribes received land. Levi was given towns to live in, within the territory of the other twelve tribes.

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At the time of the fulfilment of Ahijah's prophecy, Jeroboam was to receive ten of the tribes. Solomon's son Rehoboam was to receive one tribe in addition to the one of which he already was the leader. 

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If there are twelve pieces in total and one king is to receive ten, obviously the other will have two.

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Which two is made abundantly clear in verse 36:

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For David to "always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem", one of the two tribes would have to be Judah, for David is of Judah.

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For this to happen in Jerusalem the other tribe would have to be Benjamin, because Jerusalem is in the territory of Benjamin (Josh 18:21-28).

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There is the simple Biblical answer:

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The Two Witnesses are the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, also known as the Jews.

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After King Solomon's death, Ahijah's prophecy came to pass. Solomon's son Rehoboam made himself so unpopular that ten of the twelve tribes broke away from him to form the Kingdom of Israel, with Jeroboam as their first king. Rehoboam was left with just the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, together called the Kingdom of Judah. Over time, many people from the tribe of Levi joined them, as did some people from the other tribes. At their core however, they were the people of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, located in their allotted territories.

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The account of the division of the nation of Israel into the ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel and the two tribes of the Kingdom of Judah can be found in I Kings 12 and II Chron 11. In I Kings 12:20 it says that initially only the people of the tribe of Judah followed Rehoboam, but the very next verse and the remainder of the chapter show that the tribe of Benjamin joined them.

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I Kings 12:21-24 states "When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, ‘Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your kinsmen the people of Israel. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.’”​

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II Chron 11:11-12 adds that Rehoboam "made the fortresses strong, and put commanders in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. And he put shields and spears in all the cities, and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin".

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With all this information in mind, let’s go over Rev 11:1-14.

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Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed (a rod) like unto a rod (a scepter): and the angel stood, saying, rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein (the true worshippers, i.e. the Church).

2 But the court which is without the temple (the Temple Mount) leave out, and measure it not; for it is (it was) given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city (Jerusalem) shall they tread under foot forty and two months (1260 years, from 575BC until 685AD, during which all seven Gentile powers, the seven heads of the Beast, came on the scene to rule Jerusalem).

3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses (Judah and Benjamin - "the Jews"), and they shall prophesy (they shall fulfil the prophecy of Dan 7:24-25, being "given into the hand" of the little horn) one thousand two hundred and threescore days (1260 years, from 686BC until 1945AD, making 2520 years together with verse 2), clothed in sackcloth (a time of mourning from suffering the worst of persecutions, like the innumerable banishments, the murderous Inquisitions, the Crusades and the Holocaust. The website biblebelievers.org.au lists 109 regions and countries where the Jews have historically been persecuted and expelled from, more than a hundred of these being during this 1260 year period. See the list here.

4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

(All Israel was God's olive tree (Jer 11:16) and was meant to supply the oil to be a light unto the world. As 12 tribes they were symbolically 12 olive trees. Zechariah speaks of two olive trees in Zech 4. This identifies the two, because by his time the 10 northern tribes had long been removed from Israel. A remnant of the two southern tribes, however, had returned from Babylon and it is these that Zechariah is speaking to. At the same time in history, Ezra 4:1 and 10:9 both mention "Judah and Benjamin" as being the people then living in the land. The people of Levi are described as "divisions" living among them (Neh 11:36). These together became "the Jews", witnesses of God to the world, preserving God's Word and fulfilling its prophecies, clearly revealing the existence of our Creator).

5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth (God's punishment comes on those who persecute His people, as foretold by the mouths of His prophets), and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

(This is highly figurative language, but history shows that those who persecute God's people and their holy city are themselves cursed. Rev 17:15 shows that "waters" refers to Gentile nations).

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For example, Babylon was punished for the destruction it caused to Jerusalem, as foretold in Jer 25:12.

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Also, Catholic/Christian Europe, which was guilty of the most abominable persecutions, was struck by the Black Death in the mid 1300s. This was foretold and warned about in the Thyatiran Church message found in Revelation 2. "Jezebel", who targeted both Christians and Jews, took no notice and paid the price. (See the page "THE TRUE CHURCH ERAS").

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In more recent times, when nearing the end of their 2520 years of punishment, the greatest atrocities against the Jews were perpetrated by Germany. The result? The number of German WWII deaths exceeded the number of Jews killed by the Germans.

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Some quotes from Scripture in regard to God's punishment of the enemies of His people:

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“I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it”. (Zech 12:3).

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“Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey” (Jer 30:16).

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“Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish” (Isa 41:11).

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Many more Scriptures testify that those who have come against God’s people or God’s city have paid a heavy price.

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7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them (nearly six million Jews were killed in World War II, at which time they "finished their testimony" in regard to the 1260 period of Dan 7:25 and Rev 11:3, their time of being in "sackcloth" (v3) having come to an end. It is noteworthy that the Muslim occupiers of Jerusalem from very early times made the Jews wear distinctive clothing. Likewise, towards the end of this 1260 year period, the Jews were wearing distinctive insignia and clothing once again, both in civilian life and in German concentration camps).

8 And their dead bodies (the surviving Jews) shall lie in the street (many streets) of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where (whereby) also our Lord was crucified (the former Roman Empire. Hundreds of thousands of surviving Jews were stranded all over the (Roman Catholic/Christian) European continent, many of them unable to return to their pre-war homes).

9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations (the people of the world, or as Scripture says, those depicted by "waters" or the sea - Rev 17:15) shall see their dead bodies (being cut off from the Holy Land figuratively means they are "dead" as a nation - see the contrast with verse 11) three days and an half (between 1945 and 1948), and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves (many people did not wish these survivors of the Holocaust to have a place of rest or a homeland anywhere in the world).

10 And (but) they that dwell upon the earth (the earth of Israel or "eretz Yisrael", as the Jews say; contrasted here with the people of the "sea" in verse 9) shall rejoice over them, and make merry (no one else was particularly happy to take in Jews, but their fellow Jews already in the Holy Land were overjoyed to bring them "home"), and shall send gifts one to another (ships, crew, organisers, money, etc. were sent from Israel to ports all over Europe to facilitate this 20th century exodus as foretold in Isa 11:11-16; the returning Jews were a "gift" in themselves, providing much needed labourers, men of fighting age, as well as capital, to Israel); because (so that) these two prophets tormented them (tormented the Arabs and the British, the latter of whom were in charge of "Palestine" at this time) that (also) dwelt on the earth (the British violently tried to prevent the Jews from reaching the Holy Land in large numbers, but when the "torment" of years of fighting Jewish resistance groups, with all the loss of life involved, became too much for them, they withdrew from the land).

11 And after three days (WWII ended in Europe in May 1945; the State of Israel was declared in May 1948, precipitating Israel's War of Independence) and an half (In November 1948, the war in Jerusalem having come to an end, Moshe Dayan, Israeli commander, and Abdullah el-Tell, the Jordanian commander, met in an abandoned house in Jerusalem. These two officers drew a map which outlined the boundaries of the ceasefire in Jerusalem) the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them (miraculously, three years after their 2520 years of punishment ended, following their utter defeat by means of the Holocaust, the Jews were on their feet again as a nation, and in possession of much of Israel; half a year later they also possessed the greater part of the city of Jerusalem, to the utter amazement of their enemies).

12 And (for) they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither (to Jerusalem). And they ascended up to heaven (i.e. heaven on Earth: God's dwelling place on Earth) in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (In 1950 the Jewish parliament (the Knesset), having been established in Jerusalem, issued the "Law of Return", allowing all Jews to return to their homeland, Israel. "Those who fulfilled this sacred Jewish aspiration by reaching its shores were termed olim - 'people who had gone up' " - quoted from "Second Exodus" by Venia Hadari, p. xiv). The Hebrew noun describing this practice is Aliyah. Quoted from the United Israel Appeal website: "Aliyah is a Hebrew word that means to 'go up'. While originally it referred to ascending to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Feasts, today it has come to mean the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel. Aliyah is simply the immigration of Jews back to their ancestral homeland".

13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake (i.e. a war - see for instance Joel 2:9-10), and the tenth part of the city fell (after the 1948-49 War of Independence, the Jordanian controlled part of Jerusalem was estimated at 11.5% of the total city of Jerusalem), and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand (Jewish deaths in the War of Independence were approximately 6400, but in the decades leading up to this point, hundreds more Jews lost their lives in their struggle to regain the Holy Land. This included Haganah, Irgun and Lehi resistance fighters in ongoing battles against the British occupiers of the land, and also many Jewish civilians killed in clashes with Arabs. The Wikipedia page "List of killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine" mentions 415 Jews killed during the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt): and the remnant (a small number of those who remained) were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly (The second woe ended in 1950 with the proclamation of the Law of Return. Remarkably, this agrees perfectly with Dan 12:7 which describes a 1260 year period concluding "when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end" (RSV). Dan 12:11 describes the starting point of this period as when "the abomination that makes desolate is set up". If we go back 1260 years from 1950, counting inclusively, we come to 691AD, the year of the construction of the Dome of the Rock, the ultimate long term desecration of Jerusalem. Dan 12:11 also states that this "abomination of desolation" would be set up when "the daily sacrifice shall be taken away". Since the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, daily prayers had replaced physical animal sacrifices. When the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock and made the Temple Mount an Islamic "holy" site, non-Muslims were banned from praying there. This ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is the removal of "the daily sacrifice". This is the main reason why to this day Jews can be seen praying at the Wailing Wall, rather than on the Temple Mount. See the concluding comments of the page "Bible Chronology" for more on this).