The Danielic Imperative, Episode 24

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I do a podcast. I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone.

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When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield, exposing the air and combating the air.

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We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so, the next few statements that I'm going to make,

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I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.

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We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style. I would first say that to characterize what we do as bashing is itself bashing.

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It's not hate. It's history. It's not bashing. It's the Bible. Jesus said,

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Woe to you when men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

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As opposed to, Blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is on.

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We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle. Hello, this is

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Timothy F. Kaufman, your host of the Danielic Imperative. Welcome to episode 24.

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This is a podcast in which we examine the eschatology of God's holy people in the light of the timeline revealed to us by the prophet

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Daniel. Through the prophet Daniel, the Lord revealed to us a timeline of the future of his people.

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And six centuries later, Jesus and his apostles revealed the future using explicitly and implicitly

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Danielic language. It is imperative that Christians understand that timeline as the foundational construct of God's revelation to us about the future of his church.

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In previous episodes, we demonstrated again why that foundational principle is so important to our studies of the

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Gospels and Revelation. As we analyze the sign, Jesus said would indicate that it is time to flee

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Judea. And in this episode, we'll be talking about the 1260 -day prophetic ministry of the two witnesses of Revelation 11, the identity of the two witnesses, and the 42 -month period when

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Jerusalem is trampled by the Gentiles. We will show that these time periods are literal and that they have already happened.

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And we will show from the Scriptures why the 1260 -day period and the 42 -month period cannot be the same period, even though all commentaries assume that they are.

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According to Revelation 11, there is a 1260 -day period, followed by a three -and -a -half -day period when the two witnesses are murdered and lie unburied in the streets until they are resurrected.

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And after that 1260 three -and -a -half -day period, there would follow a 42 -month period when the city of Jerusalem is trampled by the

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Gentiles. So basically, we need to establish first that there is a three -and -a -half -year period when the witnesses testify, followed by a three -and -a -half -day period when they lie unburied in the streets, and then a 42 -month period when

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Jerusalem is trampled by the Gentiles. In other words, Revelation 11 deals with a seven -year period from 63

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A .D. to 70 A .D., culminating in the sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple.

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Today we are simply going to evaluate five mistakes we Christians have made historically that have caused us to miss that time frame for the two witnesses, as well as the historical evidence that the witnesses did in fact prophesy during that time, basically from the

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Festival of Booths in 63 A .D. until the Passover season of 67

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A .D., and were killed and ascended into heaven three -and -a -half days later. And yes, the evidence for their ministry is in the historical record, but first we have to address the question of why this has been missed, and then in the next episode we'll provide that historical evidence.

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But first, a recap of our previous episode. To summarize episode 23, we have historically approached the text of Luke 21 -20, that is, when ye shall see

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Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh, by assuming it must refer to the

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Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 A .D. It is therefore understood at the outset to be referring to the five -month siege of Jerusalem by the

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Romans, and because the parallel passages of Matthew 24 -15 and Mark 13 -14 indicate that the sign to flee

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Judea is the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel, standing in a holy place where it ought not be, we tend to scour the history of the siege of Jerusalem in 70

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A .D., looking for the abomination to appear in the temple, as a sign that it was time for people to leave.

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Using that approach, all we can find is armies standing on the Temple Mount after the sack of Jerusalem, and therefore conclude that the armies themselves, or their standard, must be the abomination

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Daniel had foretold. But that approach is hermeneutically unviable, because the abomination of desolation was supposed to be the sign to the

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Jews to leave Jerusalem before it was too late, and the Roman armies weren't standing on the

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Temple Mount until after it was already too late to leave. Everyone was already dead or in captivity by then.

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What we should do instead is discover the identity of the abomination from the Old Testament Scriptures, and then find out when that abomination was placed in a holy place.

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As we have shown in previous episodes, the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24 -15 and Mark 13 -14 refers to the statue of Jupiter foretold by Daniel to be placed in the temple under the reign of Antiochus IV in 167

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B .C. The statue of Jupiter is what Antiochus IV set up in the temple, as foretold by Daniel in chapters 8, 9, 11, and 12, and thus the statue of Jupiter is the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel.

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That's what Jesus was saying. The same statue that fulfilled Daniel's prophecy in 167

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B .C. would return to Israel as a harbinger of Jerusalem's destruction, and would do so within one generation.

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As we noted in the previous episode, the text does not say the abomination would stand in the holy place, in reference to the temple, but rather would stand in a holy place, which could be any holy place at all.

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And, as Josephus testified, the statue of Jupiter was set up in the synagogue at Doris in 41

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A .D., just ten years after Jesus said it would return. And that leads us to the other sign that it was time to leave

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Judea. The Greek text of Luke 21 -20 actually says, when you see Jerusalem encompassed with encampments, rather than by armies, as is traditionally assumed, encampments, that was to be the sign according to Luke 21 -20.

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And about the same time a statue of Jupiter was set up in the synagogue at Doris in 41 A .D., highway and byway robbers basically took over and destroyed the civil order of Judea, setting up encampments, or places of strength, as Josephus calls them, throughout

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Judea, up and down the country, such that all of Judea was drawn into the madness and overrun with the robberies.

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And, of course, Jerusalem is at the very center of Judea. And thus, Jerusalem was surrounded by encampments in the early 40s

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A .D., at the same time the statue of Jupiter, the abomination of desolation that had been foretold by Daniel, was set up in the synagogue at Doris in 41

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A .D. And thus, all three gospel accounts establish the same time frame, in the early 40s

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A .D., for the sign that it was time to leave Judea. And importantly, those were signs that were actually useful, helpful warning signs that were given before it was too late to leave

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Judea safely. The traditional interpretation of the passages has the sign to depart from Judea occurring after Judea has already been subjugated by the

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Romans and Jerusalem has already been destroyed and it is too late to leave Judea, which hardly makes sense.

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But giving the sign in the 40s A .D. gives people plenty of time to leave

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Judea before Jerusalem had been sacked by the Romans and the famines and the earthquakes and the murders and the pestilence make it nearly impossible to leave.

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Okay, so that's our recap of episode 23. Now let's proceed with episode 24.

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We have now arrived at the topic of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 who prophesy before the city is destroyed.

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According to the Apostle John, there are two witnesses who testify against the Jews in the great city for 1 ,260 days.

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That's Revelation 11 verses 3 and 8. And there is a three and a half day period while they lay in the streets and are raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, followed by a 42 month period when the city is trampled by the

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Gentiles, according to Revelation 11 too. As we have discussed in previous episodes, the 1 ,260 day ministry of the two witnesses cannot be the same 42 month period because 1 ,260 days is actually 43 months, not 42.

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What is more, the 1 ,260 days takes place prior to the 42 months and the 42 months trampling itself must have occurred before the sack of 70

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A .D. Therefore, when you put those two time periods nearly end to end with a three and a half day period between them, we are looking at a nearly seven year period in which the two witnesses testify, are killed, are raised from the dead, and then the city is trampled for 42 months and then sacked by the

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Romans. So we are looking at events that could have started no later than 63

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A .D. And incidentally, since the book of Revelation foresaw these events as future events,

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John's vision must have been received prior to 63 A .D., more likely sometime between 60 and 62

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A .D. But we'll get to that shortly. Before we can get to the dating of the book of Revelation, or to the 1 ,263 and a half days when the witnesses prophesy and are murdered and raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, and before we can identify the 42 month trampling of the city, we first have to address five mistakes, one historical, three exegetical, and one translational, that prevent us from seeing in history what

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John plainly foresaw to occur in the roughly seven years before Jerusalem's destruction, and indeed, what plainly occurred in that period.

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So, to start, let's begin with the prophetic ministry of the two witnesses. It is depicted for us in Revelation chapter 11.

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So, let's read the whole narrative, which is only 13 verses long. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood, saying,

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Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the

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Gentiles. And the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

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

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

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And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies.

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And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters, to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

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And when they 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.

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And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called

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Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

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And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

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And after three days and an half, the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

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And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them.

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And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the

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God of heaven. That's Revelation 11 verses 1 to 13, the narrative of the two witnesses.

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So when did this happen? There are five obstacles to answering that question.

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First, the varying opinions about when the book of Revelation was written, which of course leads to varying opinions about the identity of the two witnesses.

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Second, in some schools of thought, the 1 ,260 days and the 42 months refer to the same time period, which in turn leads people to look for the wrong duration for the narrative of Revelation 11.

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For example, in most schools of thought, not only are the 1 ,260 days and the 42 months of Revelation assumed to refer to the same time period, but they are also assumed to be the same time period as the 1 ,260 days of the woman's flight to the wilderness in Revelation 12 .6

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and the 42 months of Revelation 13 .5, which refers to the civil dominion of Antichrist.

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In other words, many interpretations assume that the ministry of the two witnesses is concurrent with the flood of error in Revelation 12 and the reign of Antichrist in Revelation 13.

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That is not the case, as we will show from the text. Third, the narrative of chapter 11 appears to suggest that the two witnesses are killed by the

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Antichrist because Revelation 11 .7 says, "...the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them."

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And that sure sounds like they are killed by the beast in Revelation 17 .8, which says, "...the beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition," which refers to the beast after which the whole world wanders.

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But, as we will show, a little knowledge of scriptures and the Danielic timeline clears up and corrects that assumption.

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Fourth, the testimony of the two witnesses appears to occur between the sixth and seventh trumpets.

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In fact, the way John writes and describes the trumpets, the last three trumpets are three woes, and it almost sounds like the testimony of the two witnesses is part of the second woe, which is to say, part of the sixth trumpet.

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That is not true either, as we will show from the text of scriptures. Fifth, while the witnesses are numerically two, it appears from the text of scripture that they are physically one.

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I want to make clear what I'm saying here, because it is important. According to the text, the witnesses are numerically two, but they are physically one.

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The scriptures point to that fact, as we will show. One of the reasons it has been so hard to identify the two witnesses historically is that we have always looked for witnesses that are physically two people, and a large part of that is caused by intentional mistranslations of Revelation 11 to pluralize the singular references to the individual, who is in fact two prophets.

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According to the text, the two witnesses have a single mouth, a single body, and had they been buried, they would have been buried in a single tomb, which by definition is only intended to hold a single body.

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There is more to this than meets the eye, and the intentional mispluralizations of Revelation 11 don't help.

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So, we'll wrap up today's episode on that point, and then in the next episode, we'll walk through the historical evidence showing that the events of Revelation 11 verses 1 to 13 all took place between 63 and 70

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AD. So, let's walk through the five hindrances to properly understanding the when and the who of the two witnesses of Revelation 11, and then we'll get to the fulfillment itself.

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Okay, let's start with the first issue, which is the dating of the book of Revelation. We won't spend a lot of time on this, but anyone who wants to hear our position on this can go back to episode 19.

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We point out that Irenaeus, in Against Heresies book 5, chapter 30, paragraph 3, and Jerome, in Against Jovinianus book 1, chapter 26, both place the writing of the book of Revelation under the reign of Emperor Domitian, or toward the end of his reign, which places the writing sometime between 81 and 96

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AD. But there are other writers who place the apocalypse prior to Paul's epistles, under Emperors Claudius from 41 to 54

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AD, or Nero from 54 to 68 AD. In other words, the typical date of 95

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AD is not authoritative at all. It is just traditional, and there is other evidence for an earlier writing.

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Due to the preponderance of opinions on when it was written, there is no good reason simply to defer to Jerome and Irenaeus.

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We ought rather to rely on internal evidence from the scriptures, which means we discover the dating of the book of Revelation by what

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John himself says about when he is writing it. More on this later, but if John foresaw the testimony of the two witnesses occurring before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70

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AD, then Revelation must have been written many years before 70 AD. We'll demonstrate why that must be the case at the conclusion of the discussion on the two witnesses.

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The second issue is the 1 ,260 days of the ministry of the two witnesses, and the 42 months of the trampling of Jerusalem in Revelation 11, and the 1 ,260 days of the doctrinal persecution occurring in Revelation 12, and the 42 -month civil dominion of the

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Beast of Revelation 13. If all those refer to the same time period, then it would seem that the two witnesses must testify during the reign of Antichrist, who, as we have shown, does not and cannot arise until the 13 -way division of the

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Roman Empire at the end of the 4th century. However, as we have already shown in multiple previous episodes, based on the principle of intercalation in the

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Hebrew lunisolar calendar, the 1 ,260 days of Revelation 11 cannot possibly be the same time period as the 42 months of the same chapter, because they both must be literal, and in real, literal solar time, 1 ,260 days is never 42 months.

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We won't go into the details here, but listeners who want to understand why 1 ,260 days and 42 months cannot possibly refer to the same time period in Revelation 11 can go to episodes 20 and 21, the days, weeks, months, and years of prophecy, parts 1 and 2.

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The short story is that the trampling of Jerusalem by the Gentiles, Revelation 11 -2, is said by Christ to occur within one generation, that's

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Luke 21 -24, and therefore must be a literal 42 months. And, the 1 ,260 day ministry of the two witnesses must precede the 42 months, and thus the 1 ,260 days must be literal as well.

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And together, they comprise a period that is nearly seven years from 63 AD to the end of Jerusalem in 70

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AD. Okay, the third issue that we must address is the fact that the two witnesses are supposed to be killed by the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.

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That's from Revelation 11 -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.

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Again, that's Revelation 11 -7. The commentaries universally assume that the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit to kill the two witnesses in Revelation 11 must be the sea beast of Revelation 13, or the

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Antichrist, as he is commonly known. But that is an unwarranted and unsubstantiated assumption based on a mistranslation.

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What is translated as bottomless pit into English is actually one word, abyss, that can either refer to the sea or to the abode of demons, which is why familiarity with the

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Danielic timeline is so important. In reality, the beast that kills the two witnesses comes up from the abyss, or the sea.

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And our particular point here is that all the empires of Daniel's visions come up out of the sea.

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The Babylonian Empire came up out of the sea, the Medo -Persian Empire came up out of the sea, the

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Greek Empire came up out of the sea, and the Roman Empire came up out of the sea, as stated explicitly in Daniel 7.

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And the sea is also called the deep or the abyss. And thus, in the context of Revelation, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss can refer either to the

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Roman Empire or to its successor, Roman Catholicism. This can be seen in how the scriptures use the words sea, deep, and abyss.

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By way of comparison, in Revelation 9 .1, John is describing the fifth trumpet, and he writes,

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I saw a star fall from heaven unto earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

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In that verse, what is translated as bottomless pit is actually two words, abyssos and phryar.

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As noted, abyssos can refer to the deep or the sea, and phryar is simply an artificial well, a hole in the ground.

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When they occur together, they can, and here they do, mean bottomless pit. A deep well.

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And in Revelation 9 .1, the smoke that comes up out of the bottomless pit is like the smoke of a great furnace.

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It is clear that hell is in mind here, and the locusts that come up out of the bottomless pit are demonic, which we will address in more detail when we get to the seven trumpets.

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So, what is translated as bottomless pit in Revelation 9 is two words, abyssos and phryar.

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That together means a deep well or bottomless pit. But what is translated as bottomless pit in Revelation 11, the chapter we're examining today, is actually only one word in Greek, abyssos, which on its own may refer to the deep, as in the abode of demons, or the abode of the dead.

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But it may also refer to the sea. An interesting example of this is when Paul uses the word abyssos in Romans 10 .7,

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that is, or who shall descend into the deep. Paul is writing in Greek, but quoting from Deuteronomy 30, verse 13, which is actually a reference to the sea.

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As in, neither is it beyond the sea that thou should say, who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us.

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Our point here is simply that when abyssos occurs on its own, we cannot assume that it means bottomless pit, as the translators historically have done.

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It might just mean abyss, or sea, or deep, or sheol, for example.

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Context has to bear that out. We know of at least one point when Paul translated an

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Old Testament reference to sea as abyss, and we know that the Danielic beasts come up out of the sea, and thus the fact that the two witnesses are killed by a beast that comes up out of the abyss does not mean necessarily that they have been killed by a beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit.

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We find the same issue in Revelation 17, where a beast is described as having seven heads and ten horns, and is obviously being described in a

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Danielic context, referring, of course, to the aggregation of the four beasts of Daniel 7, the lion, the bear, the four -headed leopard, and the ten -horned beast.

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In Revelation 17 .8, in English, says the beast shall ascend out of the bottomless pit.

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But again, what is rendered as bottomless pit in English is just one word in Greek, abyss.

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Given the Danielic context of the passage, and the context of Daniel 7 in which four beasts in succession come up out of the sea, and the fact that the abyss can and does mean sea in some contexts, the rendering bottomless pit is unwarranted.

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In a Danielic context, as the succession of empires is described in Daniel 7, a beast coming up out of the sea is simply a description of an earthly empire that has risen to a position of earthly dominion.

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And as we have elsewhere discussed, the beast of Revelation 13 also comes up out of the sea. But that beast of Revelation 13,

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Roman Catholicism, is simply the fifth earthly empire in succession. And therefore, it too comes up out of the sea.

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The Babylonian lion came up out of the sea, the Medo -Persian bear came up out of the sea, the Greek leopard came up out of the sea, the

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Roman beast came up out of the sea, and in Revelation 13, the Roman Catholic beast comes up out of the sea.

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A succession of empires, each of which comes up out of the sea. So what is our point?

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Our point is simply that every one of these empires in succession is a beast that comes up out of the sea.

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And in the case of the two witnesses of Revelation 11, the text says that they were killed by the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss, or the sea, which, in its context, is simply a reference to the

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Roman Empire, one of the empires that came up out of the sea in Daniel's visions. And that brings us back to the two witnesses being killed by the beast that comes up out of the abyss.

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As we mentioned in episode 21, because of the insurrections and robberies, Roman soldiers frequently set upon the population of Jerusalem to attack them and often to kill them.

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The listener may recall Josephus' description of Geseus Flores, who was procurator of Judea from 64 to 66

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AD. He sent his soldiers to the upper marketplace in Jerusalem to kill any person that they came across.

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That's from Josephus' Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 14, Paragraphs 8 to 9. Since the

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Roman procurators from 40 AD onward grew progressively more and more lawless, it is not difficult to imagine that Marcus Antonius Julianus, the next procurator after Flores, was just as bad as Flores, or worse, although his actions are almost completely lost to the historical record.

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In any case, it was a common occurrence at the time for Roman soldiers to be sent into the city to kill people to intimidate the population, especially those who were causing disturbances.

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And what is more, it was also common in the commotion of the Tribulation for dead bodies to lay in the street of the city, as Josephus describes in Wars of the

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Jews, Book 2, Chapter 18, Paragraph 3. Now citing

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Josephus, It was then common to see cities filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied, and those of old men mixed with infants, all dead and scattered about together.

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Women also lay amongst them, without any covering for their nakedness. You might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities.

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Again, Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 18, Paragraph 3. And what is more, it was not uncommon for procurators and Jews to exchange presents to celebrate their alliances.

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That's from Josephus, Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 9, Paragraph 2. So yes, the two witnesses are killed by the beast that ascends from the abyss, or from the sea, which in this case is a reference to the

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Roman Empire. And it was common in those days for Roman soldiers to enter the city and kill people, and it was not uncommon for dead bodies to lay in the street unburied for days at a time, and for the ruling class in Jerusalem to exchange gifts, all of which are alluded to in Revelation 11, verses 7 to 10, which reads,

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And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war with them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

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And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our

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Lord was crucified. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations shall see their dead bodies three and a half days, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

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And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

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Again, Revelation 11, verses 7 to 10. Everything being described here about the testimony and death of the two witnesses is consistent with the culture in occupied

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Israel in the years leading up to the war with Rome before the destruction of Jerusalem. And to our point, we cannot assume, as the commentaries do universally, that the beast that comes up from the abyss to kill the two witnesses in Revelation 11 must be the sea beast of Revelation 13, or the

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Antichrist. It is, in fact, a reference to the Roman Empire that, like all Danielic beasts, came up out of the sea.

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Okay, the fourth issue we want to address today is that the testimony of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 appears to occur between the 6th trumpet of Revelation 9 and the 7th trumpet of Revelation 11.

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At the 6th trumpet, the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates are loosed, according to Revelation 9 .14.

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And at the 7th trumpet, it is the time of the dead that they should be judged, according to Revelation 11 .18.

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On a first reading, it appears that the two witnesses must testify between the 6th and 7th trumpets.

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However, it must be pointed out that in the book of Revelation, the author always places an interlude between the 6th and 7th seal, trumpet, or vial judgment.

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Between the 6th and 7th seal, there is an intermission, the entire chapter of Revelation 7, when the elect are sealed against the

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Day of Wrath. And, to our point, the seal narrative pauses at Revelation 6 .17

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and picks back up at Revelation 8 .1. And the chapter between them is not one of the seals.

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Likewise, between the 6th and 7th vial judgment, there is a brief side discussion about the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet gathering the kings of the whole world together for battle against the

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Lord. That's Revelation 16, verses 13 -16. And, to our point, the vial judgment's narrative pauses at Revelation 16 .12

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and picks back up at Revelation 16 .17. And the verses between them are not one of the vials.

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Just read through chapter 16 a few times and you'll see that it is an odd intermission between the 6th and 7th vial judgment.

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In the same way, as you read the narrative of the trumpet judgments between the 6th and 7th trumpet, there is a lengthy intermission, that is

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Revelation 10 .1 -11 .13, as John is told to record

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God's judgment against the temple. And, to our point, the trumpet narrative pauses at Revelation 9 .21

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and picks back up at Revelation 11 .14. And the whole of chapter 10 and chapter 11, verses 1 -13, are not part of the trumpet narrative.

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We invite the listener to inspect Revelation 9 -13 and see that the narrative on the trumpets is interrupted between the 6th and 7th trumpet for an intermission regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the ministry of the two witnesses.

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The narrative of the 5th, 6th, and 7th judgments is also described as the three woes, according to Revelation 8 .13.

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The first woe is the 5th trumpet, which is the locusts, and when it is complete, Revelation 9 .12

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says, And then there is the 6th trumpet, which is the loosing of the four angels, which are bound in the great river

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Euphrates, according to Revelation 9 .14. The narrative of the 6th trumpet ends at Revelation 9 .21,

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which concludes the second woe. And then the narrative of the trumpets does not resume again until after the two witnesses have testified and died and rose from the dead, at which point

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Revelation 11 .14 says, And then the 7th trumpet, or the third woe, ensues, at which point the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our

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Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. That's Revelation 11 .15,

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and that is the third woe. Because the narrative of the trumpets skips from Revelation 9 .21,

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which actually concludes the second woe, and does not pick up again until Revelation 11 .14, which says the second woe is passed, it gives the impression that the ministry of the two witnesses is part of the second woe, which is to say, part of the 6th trumpet.

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And since the trumpets themselves are chronological, it would seem to place the ministry of the two witnesses in the distant future, between the 6th and 7th trumpet.

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However, when we see that there is always an interlude between the 6th and 7th seal, trumpet, or vial, it is clear that the narrative of the two witnesses is simply part of that interlude, and is not part of the trumpet judgments.

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This becomes obvious when we look at the conclusion of the 6th trumpet, during which the third part of men was killed.

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That's Revelation 9 .18. And of those that remained, neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

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That's Revelation 9 .21. Then John proceeds into the interlude, starting at 10 .1,

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which says, And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven. This is obviously not part of the trumpet narrative, because up till now, each trumpet begins with The angel sounded.

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Revelation 8 .7 The first angel sounded. Revelation 8 .8 And the second angel sounded.

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Revelation 8 .10 And the third angel sounded. Revelation 8 .12 And the fourth angel sounded.

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Revelation 9 .1 And the fifth angel sounded. Revelation 9 .13 And the sixth angel sounded.

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Revelation 11 .15 And the seventh angel sounded. The mighty angel coming down from heaven at Revelation 10 .1

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is clearly not one of the angels of the trumpet narrative. It is a separate narrative, not one of the trumpets.

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And of course, we'll come back to the seals, trumpets, and vials in a future episode. But our point here is that the intermissions between the 6th and 7th seals, trumpets, or vials are not part of the chronologies of the respective seal, trumpet, and vial judgments, but rather are separate narratives.

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So the narrative of the two witnesses is not chronologically between the 6th and 7th trumpet, even though it is described between them.

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And based on Jesus' statement in Luke 21, the trampling of Jerusalem by the Gentiles must have happened within one generation.

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Therefore, we know that the witnesses must have preached within one generation, and certainly before the destruction of Jerusalem.

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Okay, so that brings us to the fifth and last thing we wanted to cover today, which is that the text of Scripture indeed appears to affirm two witnesses and two prophets.

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And we'll show that those two witnesses are the law and the prophets, but the two prophets themselves are only one person.

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Yes, it's true, the Scripture actually says that, and it is probably one of the most fascinating aspects of the whole account, that there would be two witnesses, but only one person testifying.

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Yes, very interesting indeed. It's one of the reasons this part of eschatological history has been overlooked. Because of the assumptions that we have read into the text, we have trained our eyes to search for two individuals or groups of people to fulfill the prophecy.

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But according to the text, we should have been expecting only one person. The message of Revelation 11 is one of singular plurality.

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It's not a paradox or a contradiction. It is simply revelational, and it points us to something profound in the

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New Testament. First, notice that the witnesses testify in one city that is called by two different names, the great city, which spiritually is called

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Sodom and Egypt. That's Revelation 11 .8. On its own, maybe that's not really a big deal, but there are repeated references to singular plurality.

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Notice that the text also refers to two olive trees and two candlesticks. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the

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God of the earth. That's Revelation 11 .4. This is a reference to Zechariah 4, but in Zechariah 4, there are two olive trees and only one candlestick.

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In Zechariah 4 .11, the text says, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

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The angel responds that the two olive trees are the two anointed ones, or literally, the two sons of oil that stand by the

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Lord of the whole earth. Again, that's Zechariah 4 .14. And in Revelation 11,

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John is told that the two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the

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God of the earth. That's Revelation 11 .4. Those two sons of oil are two olive trees and they are two candlesticks, but in another way, they are one candlestick.

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So, two candlesticks of Revelation 11 are the one candlestick of Zechariah 4.

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But there's more. In the text of Scripture, while it clearly points to there being two witnesses, it also suggests that there are two prophets who are a single person.

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Or perhaps, to put it another way, there are two prophets who are two persons in one body.

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That is, the two prophets were actually a single individual. The English translations have largely attempted to correct that oddity in the

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Scriptures by pluralizing the references, but the singularity is plain, and it's there in the Greek.

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So, let me first read Revelation 11 verses 5, 8, and 9 in English.

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And then let's talk about what the text actually says in Greek. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouths, plural.

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And their dead bodies, plural, shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called

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Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations shall see their dead bodies, plural, three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies, plural, to be put in graves, plural.

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Again, that's Revelation 11 verses 5, 8, and 9. So, that sounds like there are two mouths, two bodies laying in the street, and two graves that they ought to have been buried in.

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But the Greek text, as it has come down to us, tells a slightly different story. The greater testimony of the text reads as if there was only one mouth, one body, and one tomb, singular.

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Here's what the text indicates. Immediately after saying that the beast from the abyss shall overcome them and kill them, the text says their dead body, singular, shall lie in the street, and the people will see their dead body, singular, lying in the street, and won't even bother to provide a tomb, singular.

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Because there are two witnesses, the translations have largely accommodated that by pluralizing the references.

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But given the fact that the two witnesses testify in one city with two names, and are two candlesticks that are in reality one candlestick, we cannot simply overlook the singular references to the mouth, the body, and the tomb, and we certainly cannot simply translate the text to make it say something different than what it says.

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There is something going on in the passage about singular plurality. Now, having said that, there is one plural reference in there in the

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Greek, and you'll hear it now that we are rendering the words in English as they are in Greek. But four of the five plural references in English are actually singular in the original

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Greek. Here is what Revelation 11, 5, and 8 -9 actually says, referring to the

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Greek form of the noun each time. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, singular.

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And their dead body, singular, shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called

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Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead body, singular, three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies, plural, to be put in a tomb, singular.

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In those verses, Revelation 11, verses 5 -9, out of five references, four indicate singularity rather than plurality.

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Their dead bodies shall lie in the street, and the people shall see their dead body three and a half days, and not even bother putting their dead body in a tomb.

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A tomb, by definition, is a place to bury a body. You do not put multiple bodies in a tomb.

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But because the grammatical inconsistency is so glaring, so puzzling, and so odd, the vast majority of English translations have simply pluralized the references to make sense of it.

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A single reference to their mouth is pluralized to mouths in NIV, and two references to a body are pluralized into bodies in the

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King James, and one reference to a tomb is pluralized into tombs, or graves.

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But the weight of the evidence falls on the side of singularity, not plurality. But what about that one plural reference in NIV?

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Potomata. Bodies. Plural. Shouldn't that serve to correct the other four singular references?

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Sure, there might be a singular reference to a mouth in NIV, a singular reference to a body in NIV, and another singular reference to a body in NIV, and another singular reference to a tomb in NIV, but there's also that one plural reference to bodies in NIV, so why not just let that be the correcting factor and let the rest of the text be corrected to make it plural?

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And the grammatical problem goes away. First, yes, it would be easy to do that if we did not have all the other contextual evidence.

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Two candlesticks are one candlestick. Sodom and Egypt are one city. Second, it is easy to assume that the singular references to a mouth, a body, and a tomb may simply be variants here, and that they must be slips of the copious hand, or idiosyncrasies of the original

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Greek. But there's evidence to suggest that the one plural reference to bodies in NIV might itself actually be the textual variant, not found in the original autograph.

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Johann of Bengal, who lived from 1687 to 1752, was a Lutheran Greek scholar who was known for his commentaries on the

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New Testament. At Revelation 11 .8, in his exegetical annotations on the New Testament from 1742, he notices the singular first reference to body, and then the second singular reference to body in Revelation 11 .9,

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and then points out that in one manuscript, minuscule 69, or the Codex Listerensis, the third reference to a body is also singular.

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Indeed, there may well be a reason for the singular reference to the two witnesses having one mouth, one body, one tomb, as evidenced by the immediate context of Revelation 11.

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At the very least, we can say that four of the five references that ought to have been plural are actually singular in the text, and the one plural reference may itself be the variant.

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And that is why we cannot simply make this problem go away by pluralizing the singularities and moving on.

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It is not a scribal error. It is the Lord Himself telling us in His Word that the two witnesses are one person, one mouth, one body, and if their detractors had buried them, one tomb, one city that is two places, one candlestick that is two candlesticks, one prophet that is two prophets.

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We can't just ignore this and content ourselves with looking for the two witnesses to be two individuals. The challenge before us, therefore, is to discover a single person who is actually two persons.

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And as always, the answer is in the Scripture. And the text will show us the identity of the two prophets, the one man who is actually two persons.

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In fact, Jesus has already identified him for us in the Scriptures. Let's start by noticing that the two witnesses represent the law and the prophets.

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We can see this through a careful reading of the text as the angel walks John through the narrative.

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By reading Zechariah 4 .14 in the light of Revelation 11 .4, we see that the two candlesticks are two sons of oil, as the angel describes in Zechariah 4.

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Sons of oil, in this case, is a reference to people who bear oil or use it in their ministration.

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Prophets bear oil to anoint kings, as in 1 Samuel 16 .13, when the prophet

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Samuel anointed David to be king. And priests bear oil to anoint the sons of Aaron to perform the services of the law, as in Exodus 28 .41.

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So both the law and the prophets are in view here. Okay, the next verse, Revelation 11 .5

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says, And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies. And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

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Well, fire coming out of their mouth is obviously a reference to the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people would, and it shall devour them.

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That's Jeremiah 5 .14. But this is also a reference to the law, which requires equitable punishment for various offenses, as in He that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.

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That's Leviticus 24 .17. So both the law and the prophets are in view here. The next verse says,

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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.

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That's Revelation 11 .6. The first half is a clear reference to Elijah, who shot up heaven for three years according to 1

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Kings 17 .1, and the second half is a clear reference to Moses, who had the power to turn water into blood in the first plague.

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So both the law and the prophets are in view here. Additionally, Revelation 11 .13

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says, When the witnesses ascended to heaven in a cloud, at the same hour was there a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell.

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And in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the

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God of heaven. As we noted in a previous episode, the tenth part of the city is a reference to Leviticus 27 .32,

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when Moses writes that the tenth shall be holy to the Lord. And the part about seven thousand men is a reference to 1

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Kings 19, when Elijah complained that he was the only one left, and the Lord responded in verse 18,

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Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto

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Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. Here the Lord took his own word from the law and the prophets, and uses it to say

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Israel is no longer holy to the Lord, in that the tenth part of the city has fallen, and he has none left in Israel, in that seven thousand men died.

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So again, both the law and the prophets are in view here. And finally, the two prophets testify in Jerusalem, which is spiritually

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Sodom and Egypt. We note that the Lord said through Jeremiah that the prophets of Jerusalem were unto me as Sodom, that's

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Jeremiah 23 .14, and Paul interprets the words of Moses to mean that Hagar, the

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Egyptian servant, figuratively refers to earthly Jerusalem. That's Galatians 4 .25.

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So again, the law and the prophets testify against Jerusalem. So that leads us up to the big question, who were the two prophets?

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They are two prophets, two candlesticks, two sons of oil, standing before the Lord of all the earth, representing both the law and the prophets, testifying against two cities.

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But at the same time, they are one candlestick, with one mouth, one body, testifying against one city, and had they been buried, they would have been buried in one tomb.

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Who on earth is this one person who is two persons, representing both the law and the prophets? Well, can you think of a person in the

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Scriptures who came to us both according to the priesthood of Aaron, that is, according to the law, but is explicitly identified as a prophet?

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Can anyone think of a person in Scriptures who is one person, but is also identified as being a completely different person?

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Well, here's a hint. John the Baptist was born of a priest according to the order of Aaron, that's

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Luke 1 .5, but is called the greatest prophet who ever lived, that's Luke 7 .28. Likewise, John the

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Baptist denied being Elijah, that's John 1 .21, but nevertheless is repeatedly and explicitly confirmed in the

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Scriptures to be Elijah. Luke 1 .17 says, John shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.

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And Jesus repeatedly insists that John is actually Elijah. Matthew 11 .13 -14 says,

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For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if he will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come, or literally, who is to come.

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And Matthew 17 .12 -13 says, But I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.

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Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake to them of John the

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Baptist. Yes, John the Baptist is two people, or rather he is two people in at least one sense.

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The Lord promised to send Elijah, that's Malachi 4 .5, to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, that's

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Malachi 4 .6. And the promise was fulfilled in John the Baptist who came in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, that's

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Luke 1 .17. John the Baptist was the firstborn son of a priest of the order of Abijah according to the law,

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Luke 1 .8, but came in the spirit and power of Elijah, the prophet. Yes, John the Baptist, he denied being

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Elijah, which of course was true, since he was John. But Jesus confirmed that he was

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Elijah, which was true, of course, for Elijah was the one who is to come. John would return as Elijah in a way that was hidden to John at the time.

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Keep in mind the Lord promised to send Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And even after John the

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Baptist was already dead, Jesus says Elijah doth indeed come first and shall restore all things.

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And to our point, John is one man who is, in at least one way, two people.

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And thus, the two prophets of Revelation 11, who have one mouth and one body, even though they are two, the two prophets are

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John the Baptist and Elijah the prophet. And a simple review of the scriptures shows that John had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to fulfill the prophecy of Revelation chapter 11.

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John the Baptist had the means to be the two witnesses, in that he was born John, but came in the spirit and power of Elijah, according to Luke 1 .17.

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And Jesus actually said he was Elijah. So, he had the means to be two people. He had the motive, in that he demanded to know of the

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Jews who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. That's Matthew 3 .7 and Luke 3 .7.

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Clearly, he had the motive to warn the Jews of the wrath that was coming upon them. And here's what is most interesting.

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He had the opportunity. John the Baptist died when his head was cut off, according to Matthew 14,

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Mark 6, and Luke 9. But given the chance, John the Baptist is the one character after Jesus who could have been voted most likely to be raised from the dead.

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Remember when Herod met Jesus? He assumed John must have been risen from the dead. That's Matthew 14 .2.

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And notice how Mark and Luke record the same event when people assumed that Jesus was so powerful that he must either be

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Elijah returned or John risen from the dead. That's Mark 6, verses 14 -15 and Luke 9, verses 7 -8.

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And let's not forget that when Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn in two, the earth shook, rocks were broken, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints arose from the dead and went to Jerusalem.

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And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

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That's Matthew 27, verses 51 -53. Although the scriptures do not testify that John was one of those who rose from the dead that day,

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Jesus nevertheless spoke of Elijah as coming in the future, and the disciples understood that he was referring to John the

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Baptist, who was already dead at the time. And thus, we are informed by Revelation 11 of the fact that the two prophets are one person representing both the law and the prophets, and the rest falls into place.

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The two prophets are one person with one mouth, one body. Or to put it another way, they are one candlestick, but actually two candlesticks.

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Two sons of oil representing the law and the prophets testifying against Jerusalem. Elijah who returned, and John risen from the dead.

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And thus, instead of looking for two individuals, or two groups who are witnesses, the scriptures indicate that we should have been looking for one individual who was in fact two witnesses whose full ministry lasted 1 ,263 and a half days from their testimony all the way through their resurrection.

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And we have evidence from the historical record that there was just such a one preaching in Jerusalem for 1 ,260 days.

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And we have evidence from the historical record that it was common for Roman soldiers to go into Jerusalem under the procurator

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Florus and kill people in Jerusalem. And we have evidence from the historical record that it was common for dead bodies to lay in the streets unburied.

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And we have evidence from the historical record that it was common for public officials and civic leaders to exchange gifts to celebrate.

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What is more, we have evidence from the historical record of an earthquake and a voice from heaven exactly 1 ,263 and a half days after a strange man started wandering the streets of Jerusalem testifying against it.

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And that evidence includes a bright cloud so that those two prophets may be seen by their enemies when they ascended in the evening long after sunset.

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It is simply the most interesting 1 ,263 and a half day period in all of recorded history.

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And according to the book of Revelation we should have expected it before the fall of Jerusalem. Yes, and even before the 42 month period when

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Jerusalem was trampled by the Gentiles. Okay, so that's where we'll wrap up today. What we needed to do today is address one historical mistake, three exegetical mistakes, and one translation mistake that have typically prevented us from seeing in history what

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John plainly foresaw to occur in the roughly seven years leading up to the sack of Jerusalem. First, the historical estimates on the date of the book of Revelation vary wildly between the 40s and the 90s

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AD. But by evaluating the internal evidence we can see that the book of Revelation must have been written prior to 63

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AD because John foresaw seven years of events that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70

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AD. Second, in some schools of thought the 1 ,260 days and the 42 months in Revelation 11 and the 42 month reign of the beast in Revelation 13 all refer to the same time period, which in turn leads people to look for the fulfillment of the two witnesses at the wrong place in history.

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However, based on the text and the principle of intercalation it is clear that the 1 ,260 day ministry of the two witnesses and the three and a half days they lay in the street must precede the 42 month trampling of the city and neither time frame occurs during the reign of the beast of Revelation 13.

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Third, the two witnesses are not killed by a beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit, but rather are killed by a beast that comes out of the abyss or the sea, which is simply a reference to the

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Roman Empire, one of the beasts that comes up out of the sea in Daniel's visions. Fourth, the testimony of the two witnesses does not occur between the 6th and 7th trumpets, but is simply described between them and is an interlude that John uses as a literary tool, just as he does between the 6th and 7th seals and between the 6th and 7th vial judgments.

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And finally, the two prophets of Revelation bring the law and the prophets to bear on Jerusalem, but are in fact one person, the very person the scriptures identify as two people,

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John the Baptist who was also Elijah. The conclusion we draw from all of this is that we should not be looking for the two witnesses after 95

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AD, the traditional dating of the book of Revelation, and we should not be looking for them to testify during a 42 -month trampling of Jerusalem by the

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Gentiles, which is traditionally assumed. And we should not look for the two witnesses to be slain by the beast of Revelation 13, as is also assumed traditionally.

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And we should not look for the two witnesses to be slain between the 6th and 7th trumpets, and we should not even be looking for two persons at all.

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But we should expect to see one person starting a prophetic ministry about 7 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, which would place the beginning of the ministry in 63

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AD, and thus proving that the book of Revelation must have been written in 63 AD or earlier.

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And that's where we'll pick up when we find the ministry of the two witnesses right there in the historical record, exactly where we would have expected to find it, doing exactly what

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John had foreseen, including a 1 ,263 -and -a -half day public ministry and a very public ascension into heaven in 67

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AD, followed by 42 months of Jerusalem being trampled by the Gentiles, culminating in the sack of Jerusalem in 70

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AD. And that's what we'll talk about next time in episode 25. This is