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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 11

1 Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me, and I was told, “Get up and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the ones who worship there. 2 But do not measure the outer courtyard of the temple; leave it out because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months.⁠ 3 And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy⁠ for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.” 4 (These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.)⁠ 5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and completely consumes their enemies. If anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way. 6 These two have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying. They have power to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want. 7 When they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them. 8 Their corpses will lie in the street of the great city that is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 9 For three and a half days those from every people, tribe, nation, and language will look at their corpses because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb. 10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. 11 But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized those who were watching them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them. 13 Just then a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14 The second woe has come and gone; the third is coming quickly. 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”⁠ 16 Then the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and worshiped God 17 with these words: “We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 18 The nations were enraged, but your wrath has come, and the time has come for the dead to be judged, and the time has come to give to your servants, the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints and to those who revere your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened,⁠ and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple.⁠ And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Revelation 11:3 and Apocalypse of Peter 1:8

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

Revelation describes two unnamed witnesses who prophesy against the beast and are martyred. The Apocalypse of Peter is the earliest text to identify them as Enoch and Elijah, sent to expose the deceiver before the world.

Passages

Revelation 11:3

New Testament
2 But do not measure the outer courtyard of the temple; leave it out because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.” 4 (These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.) 5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and completely consumes their enemies. If anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

Apocalypse of Peter 1:8

Early Christian · Revelation of Peter
8 The Lord answered and said to me: Do you not understand that the fig tree is the house of Israel? It is like a man who planted a fig tree in his garden, and it bore no fruit. He sought its fruit for many years, and when he found none, he said to the keeper of his garden: Pull up this fig tree, so it does not make our ground unfruitful. And the gardener said to God: Let us rid it of weeds, dig the ground around it, and water it. If then it bears no fruit, we will at once remove its roots from the garden and plant another in its place. Have you not understood that the fig tree is the house of Israel? Truly I tell you, when its twigs have sprouted in the last days, false Christs will come and stir up expectation, saying: I am the Christ, who has now come into the world. And when Israel perceives the wickedness of their deeds, they will turn away from them and deny him, even the first Christ whom they crucified, and in this they sinned a great sin. But this deceiver is not the Christ. And when they reject him, he will slay with the sword, and there will be many martyrs. Then the twigs of the fig tree, that is, the house of Israel, will sprout forth: many will become martyrs at his hand. Enoch and Elijah will be sent to teach them that this is the deceiver who must come into the world and do signs and wonders to deceive. Therefore those who die at his hand will be martyrs, and will be counted among the good and righteous martyrs who have pleased God in their life.
100–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Peter

References

“... Probably the first testimony of the identification of the two witnesses with Enoch and Elijah is contained in the Apocalypse of Peter (2nd century): ‘Enoch and Elijah will be sent to instruct them that this is the deceiver who must come into the world and do signs and wonders to deceive. And on account of this those who died by his hand will be martyrs (...).’ (2:11-13). In the beginning of the third century, Tertullian likewise mentions these two figures together, proving that death is the fate of all men: ‘Enoch was translated, and so was Elijah; nor did they experience death. It was postponed (and only postponed,) most certainly; they are reserved for the suffering of death, that by their blood they may extinguish Antichrist’ (A Treatise on the Soul 50). This is the first text that unambiguously denies what was held both in early Christianity and pre-Christian Judaism: that Enoch and Elijah did not die ...”
Marcel Poorthuis in Saints and Role Models in Judaism and Christianity, ed. Joshua Schwartz and Marcel Poorthuis, JCPS 7 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 105–106.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Revelation 11:3 and Apocalypse of Peter 1:8

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