Who are the two witnesses in Revelation 11?

Question 10030.

The two witnesses of Revelation 11 are among the most vivid figures in all of prophecy, two men clothed in sackcloth who prophesy in Jerusalem during the Tribulation, are struck down by the beast, and then rise from the dead before a watching world. I take the two witnesses to be two literal individuals, not symbols, and I want to walk through what Scripture actually says about them.

John gives us more detail about the two witnesses than about almost any other tribulation figures, and yet he never names them, which has left the church guessing for centuries. So let me set out first what is certain, then weigh the question of their identity with the humility the silence of Scripture requires.

What Scripture Says About the Two Witnesses

The two witnesses appear in the middle of the Tribulation, granted authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, that is three and a half years, clothed in sackcloth as a sign of mourning and repentance (Revelation 11:3-4). They are called two olive trees and two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth, an image drawn from Zechariah’s vision of divinely supplied servants.

Their ministry is marked by startling power. Fire pours from their mouths to consume their enemies, they can shut the sky so that no rain falls, and they can turn water to blood and strike the earth with plagues (Revelation 11:5-6). No one can harm them until their testimony is finished, for they are under the protection of God for the duration of their appointed work.

The Greek word John uses for them, martys, means witness, and it carries the sense of one who testifies even at the cost of his life; our word martyr grows from it. That is fitting, for the two witnesses will indeed seal their testimony with their blood before God vindicates them.

Their Death and Resurrection

When their testimony is complete, the beast that rises from the abyss is permitted to make war on the two witnesses and to kill them (Revelation 11:7-10). Their bodies lie unburied in the street of Jerusalem, and the peoples of the earth gaze at them and celebrate, exchanging gifts as though a great torment has been lifted. It is a grim picture of a world glad to be rid of the voice of God.

But the celebration is brief. After three and a half days the breath of life from God enters them, and they stand on their feet, and great fear falls on those who see them (Revelation 11:11-12). Then a loud voice from heaven calls, come up here, and they ascend in a cloud while their enemies look on. The mockers become mourners as God answers scorn with resurrection.

This public death and rising is one reason I take the two witnesses as literal men rather than as symbols of movements or institutions. You cannot kill a symbol, leave its corpse in a street, and raise it after three and a half days. The narrative reads as history written in advance, and I try to let it read that way.

Who Are the Two Witnesses?

Scripture does not name the two witnesses, so I hold my view with an open hand. The strongest candidate is Elijah, because Malachi promised that God would send Elijah before the great and awesome day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5), and because the two witnesses shut up the sky, exactly the sign of Elijah’s ministry in the days of Ahab.

The second witness is harder to name. Many suggest Moses, since the power to turn water to blood and strike the earth with plagues recalls the Egyptian judgements, and since Moses and Elijah appeared together with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Others propose Enoch, on the ground that he, like Elijah, never died, and that it is appointed for men to die once. I lean toward Moses and Elijah, but I do not make it a test of fellowship.

What I am confident of is that the two witnesses are two real prophets, empowered by God for a specific ministry in a specific time. Their exact names matter less than their message, which is a final, thunderous call to a rebellious world to repent while there is still time.

The Two Witnesses and the Ministry of Israel

The two witnesses belong to the Tribulation, the period when God resumes His dealings with Israel, and their ministry in Jerusalem fits that setting. They are part of a wider witness during those years, alongside the 144,000 sealed from the tribes of Israel, testifying to a world under judgement that God still calls sinners to Himself.

This is one reason I read the these witnesses within a framework that keeps Israel and the Church distinct. Their sackcloth, their location in Jerusalem, and their Old Testament powers all point to a season in which the spotlight returns to Israel, not to the Church, which I understand to have been caught up before these events. I set out that distinction in my article on Israel and the Church.

So the two prophets are not a curiosity detached from the rest of prophecy. They fit a coherent picture in which God, having gathered His Church, turns again to deal with the nation of Israel and to call the whole world to account through faithful, fearless testimony.

Why the This witnessing pair Encourage Me

I find the these witnesses strangely encouraging, and I will tell you why. In the darkest hour of human history, when the beast rules and the world worships him, God does not leave Himself without a testimony. He raises up voices that cannot be silenced until their work is done, and He guards them with fire until the last word is spoken.

That tells me something about how God works in every age. The truth is never finally suppressed, the witness of God is never wholly extinguished, and the servants He appoints are immortal until their task is complete. The two prophets are an extreme and glorious case of a principle that holds for every faithful believer.

And their resurrection is a promise in miniature. The world gloated over their corpses, and God raised them before every watching eye. That is the pattern of the gospel itself, and it is the sure hope of everyone who dies in the Lord. Scorn does not have the last word; resurrection does.

Reading Revelation With Confidence

Some readers find Revelation 11 bewildering and are tempted to give up on the details. I want to encourage the opposite. When we let the this witnessing pair be what the text says they are, two prophets with a mission, a death and a resurrection, the passage becomes clear and even thrilling rather than impossibly obscure.

The temptation is always to spiritualise the hard parts, to turn the these witnesses into the Old and New Testaments, or the law and the prophets, or the witnessing church. But such readings usually say more about our discomfort with the supernatural than about the text, which describes flesh-and-blood men who eat, prophesy, die and rise.

So I commend a straightforward reading. The two prophets are two men whom God will raise up in the Tribulation, and their story is meant to assure us that God reigns even when evil seems to triumph. Read it plainly, and let it strengthen your confidence in the God who always keeps a witness in the earth.

A Challenge to Our Own Witness

I cannot leave the this witnessing pair without turning the mirror on us. These men stood alone against a hostile planet, preached under a death sentence, and never softened the message to save their skins. Their courage rebukes the timid faith that trims the truth to avoid a frown. If they could testify boldly with the beast on the throne, what excuse have we in our comfort?

Their sackcloth is worth noticing too. It was the dress of mourning and repentance, and it tells me that their message was not entertainment or spectacle but a summons to turn from sin before judgement fell. A faithful witness in any age carries the same weight of concern for the lost, and the same refusal to make peace with the world’s rebellion.

So let the these witnesses provoke you as they provoke me. We are not called to call down fire or shut the sky, but we are called to speak the truth without fear and to leave the results with God. The world may despise the message, as it despised theirs, but God vindicates His servants in the end, and that is enough to keep us faithful.

So, now what?

Read Revelation 11 for yourself and watch the story unfold: two prophets, a fearless ministry, a public death, and a resurrection that terrifies a mocking world. Let the two prophets remind you that God is never left without a voice, even in the worst of times, and that scorn is always answered by resurrection in the end. If God guards His servants until their work is done, will you not trust Him to guard you until yours is finished too?

“And after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.” (Revelation 11:11, ESV)