The little scroll, the measured temple and the two witnesses

Chapters 10 and 11 form an interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets, as chapter 7 did between the sixth and seventh seals. After the terrors of the trumpets, and the failure of the survivors to repent (9:20-21), John is recommissioned to prophesy. The interlude gives the church's role in the period of the trumpets: it witnesses, it is protected and it suffers.

The chapters draw heavily on the prophets. Ezekiel was told to eat a scroll that tasted sweet as honey and to speak to Israel (Ezekiel 2:8 to 3:3). Daniel's final vision describes a man who swears by the one who lives forever that the end will come after 'a time, times and half a time' (Daniel 12:5-7), and Daniel is told to seal up the words. Zechariah saw a man with a measuring line for Jerusalem (Zechariah 2:1-5) and two olive trees by a lampstand (Zechariah 4). For first-century Christians, the temple at Jerusalem had been central to the world the earliest believers came from. If the book is dated after AD 70 the temple had been destroyed, and if it is dated before, it was standing. This is one of the main reasons the date matters in chapter 11.

This passage divides interpreters more than almost any other in the book, because three of its images could refer to a literal temple, literal time and literal persons, or to symbols.

• The first rule is to notice how John builds symbols: the lampstand has already been identified as a church (1:20), the number 42 months equals 1,260 days equals 'a time, times and half a time' (Daniel 7:25; 12:7), and the beast, Sodom and Egypt are named in terms that suit a moral reading as much as a geographical one.
• The second is to compare with Daniel and Zechariah, which John uses nearly line by line.

Preterists, such as Kenneth Gentry and David Chilton, hold that the temple is the Jerusalem temple before AD 70, that the 42 months is the time of the Jewish War or Nero's persecution, and that the 'great city' is Jerusalem. Their strongest argument is the plain statement that the Lord was crucified there and the apparent standing of the temple. Historicists, such as Edward Bishop Elliott, read the 1,260 days as 1,260 years of the church's witness under the pressure of the papacy, counting each day as a year, and identified the witnesses with faithful opponents of that power. Their strongest argument is that prophecy in Daniel can use days for years and that the length of the period is the same each time. Idealists and eclectic interpreters, such as William Hendriksen and G. K. Beale, read the temple as the church, the 42 months as the whole age of the church's witness, and the two witnesses as the church as a witnessing community. Their strongest argument is that John calls the witnesses lampstands (11:4), and that the church is the temple elsewhere in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21). Futurists divide. Dispensational interpreters, such as John Walvoord, expect a rebuilt temple, a literal three and a half years and two actual prophets. Historic premillennialists, such as George Eldon Ladd, take the temple as the church, protected spiritually while suffering physically, but see a future final period. Their strongest argument is that the numbers are set in Daniel in a context of the last days.

The millennial views bear on the seventh trumpet in 11:15. Amillennialists, such as Anthony Hoekema, take it as the end of the age, with the kingdom handed to Christ in its fullness, and place the millennium of chapter 20 as a view of the present age from another angle. Premillennialists, such as Ladd and Walvoord, take it as the announcement that precedes a future earthly reign. Postmillennialists take it as the goal toward which the gospel moves through history. Our understanding is that the witnesses are called lampstands, a word the book has already used for churches (1:20), so the passage at least presents the church's witnessing calling. Whether it also describes one final period of witness and opposition is the point on which the readings divide, and the exegesis below keeps both possibilities open.

Chapter 10, verses 1 to 7. A 'mighty angel' comes down from heaven wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, a face like the sun and legs like pillars of fire. These features echo Christ in 1:15-16 and the cloud and fire of the Exodus (Exodus 13:21). Some interpreters identify him with Christ. Most take him as an angel, since he swears by God. He puts one foot on the sea and one on the land, claiming the whole world, and cries like a lion. The seven thunders speak, but John is told to seal up what they said. Even a prophet is not given everything (Daniel 8:26; 12:4; compare 2 Corinthians 12:4). The angel's oath, with raised hand (Daniel 12:7), declares 'There will be no more delay!' The Greek says chronos, 'time', and the older rendering 'time shall be no more' is now widely regarded as misleading: the meaning is that the waiting is over. When the seventh angel sounds, 'the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as He proclaimed to His servants the prophets'.

Verses 8 to 11. The scroll is small (biblaridion) and open, in contrast to the sealed scroll of chapter 5. Some take it as the same scroll now open, others as a distinct message. John eats it. It is 'sweet as honey' in the mouth, as in Ezekiel 3:3, because God's word is sweet (Psalm 19:10; Jeremiah 15:16), and bitter in the stomach, because its content is judgment and suffering. He is told, 'You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,' and the commission widens to the nations.

Chapter 11, verses 1 and 2. John is given a measuring rod and told to measure the temple, the altar and the worshippers, but to exclude the outer court, which is 'given over to the nations', who will 'trample the holy city for 42 months'. Measuring in Ezekiel and Zechariah signals protection or restoration. The inner temple is preserved, and the outer court is open to trampling. Luke 21:24 uses the same verb for Jerusalem trodden down by the Gentiles. The period of 42 months, three and a half years, is Daniel's half-week, and the desecration of the sanctuary under Antiochus IV in the second century BC lasted about this length.

Verses 3 to 6. The two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days in sackcloth. They are 'the two olive trees and the two lampstands', language from Zechariah 4, where the olive trees are the anointed Joshua and Zerubbabel, priest and king. The lampstand is already the church in 1:20. Their powers are those of Elijah, who shut the sky (1 Kings 17), and Moses, who turned water to blood and struck Egypt with plagues. Fire from their mouths recalls Elijah (2 Kings 1) and Jeremiah 5:14. Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration. Two witnesses also fit the legal requirement of Deuteronomy 19:15. Many futurists expect two literal prophets, and some early writers thought of Enoch and Elijah. Idealists read the two as the church's witness, which has the law-and-prophets character of Moses and Elijah.

Verses 7 to 13. When their testimony is complete, 'the beast that comes up from the Abyss' kills them. This is the first mention of the beast, who appears fully in chapter 13. Their bodies lie in 'the great city', which is 'figuratively called Sodom and Egypt' and is where 'their Lord was also crucified'. The last phrase points to Jerusalem to most readers, and the description of the city as Sodom and Egypt is a moral judgment: it has become the oppressor and the corrupter. Beale and others take Jerusalem as representing the world city in opposition to God. Refusal of burial for three and a half days is the worst disgrace (Psalm 79:2-3). The earth-dwellers celebrate. Then 'the breath of life from God entered' the witnesses, the language of Ezekiel 37:10, and they are called up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watch. A great earthquake kills seven thousand and the rest 'gave glory to the God of heaven', whether in conversion or in forced acknowledgement is debated. The witnesses repeat the path of Christ: death in the city where he was crucified, vindication after three and a half days, and ascension.

Verses 15 to 19. The seventh trumpet sounds, and heavenly voices proclaim, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.' This is the fulfilment of Psalm 2 and Daniel 7:14 and 27. The elders give thanks that God has 'begun to reign', and list the coming events: the nations' rage, God's wrath, judgment of the dead, reward of the saints and destruction of those who destroy the earth. The temple in heaven opens, and the ark of the covenant appears, with the storm signs of Sinai.

All the main readings agree on the heart of this passage. The church is called to witness, and the witness is costly. It is protected in its essential life even when it is exposed in its public life. It is opposed by a power from the Abyss that seems for a time to prevail. Death is not the last word, since God's breath raises the witnesses and they are vindicated before their enemies. The kingdom of the world does become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ, and he reigns forever. Judgment of the dead and reward of the servants of God are set at the sounding of the last trumpet. Preterists, historicists, idealists and futurists, and all the millennial schools, say these things.

The passage contributes to the biblical understanding of the end in three ways.

• First, it shows the 'already and not yet' in the form of witness. The witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, a period marked by limited time (42 months), and the temple is both measured (safe) and trampled (exposed).
• Second, it shows that the pattern of Christ's own path, suffering and then vindication, is the pattern of those who follow him. The path of the witnesses repeats the cross and ascension.
• Third, it states the goal in 11:15: the transfer of the kingdom of the world to God and his Christ. That sentence states the Bible's hope in brief, and Christians of every school confess it.

What is debated is whether the temple, the witnesses and the periods are symbols for the church's experience across the age or specific persons, places and times, whether in the first century or in a final period. The text uses both literal and figurative language, and interpreters agree that Revelation is not purely one or the other. A reasonable summary is that the passage invites the church of every period to see itself in the witnesses, while those who hold that it also describes a particular final conflict find support in Daniel's links between the half-week and the last days. The question can be asked of each image in turn, and the more important agreement is on the shape of the message: witness, opposition, vindication, the kingdom.

The strongest Christological element is the pattern of the witnesses. They prophesy, are killed by the beast in the city where their Lord was crucified, lie unburied for three and a half days, and are raised and taken up in a cloud. This follows Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:9). The church's path follows the Lord's path, and the Lord who was crucified is explicitly called 'their Lord' (11:8). Jesus said that the disciple is not above the teacher (Matthew 10:24-25) and that his followers would be hated, killed and vindicated.

The mighty angel with the features of 1:15-16 is read by some as Christ. Others take the features as reflected glory, since an angel who swears by God and receives instructions from heaven is not the Lord himself. The announcement 'the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ' uses the title 'Christ' (Messiah), which links the verse to Psalm 2, where the nations rage and the LORD's anointed is installed. The scroll that is sweet and bitter is the gospel of the crucified, sweet because it is good news and bitter because it brings suffering. The ark of the covenant in the heavenly temple (11:19) was in the Old Testament the place of atonement, where blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat (Leviticus 16:14-15). Hebrews 9 presents Christ as entering the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood. The ark's appearance, with the flashes of Sinai, shows the covenant faithfulness of God made visible.