Revelation 11:7-10 meaning

With the promise that “there will be delay no longer,” we are waiting with anticipation for the seventh trumpet and the fulfillment of all things (Revelation 10:6). The sixth trumpet has sounded and John ate the little book (Revelation 9:13, 10:9). John’s eating of the little book precipitated a proclamation that he would prophesy concerning the peoples and governments of the earth (Revelation 10:11).

Two witnesses have been given the power to prophesy and to harm those who might try to stop them from doing so (Revelation 11:1-6). Their time to prophesy will last for twelve hundred and sixty days, or three-and-a-half years (Revelation 11:3). This period is likely the time of “great tribulation” spoken of by Jesus (Matthew 24:21) and the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel (Daniel 9:24).

The seventy weeks of Daniel is a period of seventy sevens, or seventy seven-year periods. The first sixty-nine-week period ended when the Messiah was “cut off” (Daniel 9:24-25). The last seven-year period will begin with the signing of a treaty with the beast (Daniel 9:27). Now it seems that the twelve-hundred-and-sixty-day period has ended because the two witnesses are said to have finished their testimony:

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them (v. 7).

The Greek word translated testimony is “martyria” from which we get the English word “martyr.” The witnesses (“martys”) were faithful in their testimony (“martyria”), making them an example of one who gains the blessing promised for those who heed the words of this prophecy (Revelation 1:3). They are also an example of one who overcomes as Jesus overcame (Revelation 3:21). The time of the twelve hundred and sixty days will now end, and a beast will come up out of the abyss and kill them. 

The beast of Revelation is the ultimate and final antichrist. He is the “prince who is to come,” who leads the “people of the prince who is to come” spoken of in Daniel 9:26. The beast in verse 7 comes up out of the abyss. The Greek word translated abyss is “abyssos.” It can also be translated “bottomless” or “bottomless pit.”

In Luke 8:31, a legion of demons begged Jesus to not be thrown into the abyss (also “abyssos”). So apparently the abyss is a place where demons are held against their will. In Revelation 9:11, we saw that the abyss has a demon-king that rules over them.

This could be Satan. If so, it would seem that at this point in history, up to Revelation 11, Satan has permission to enter heaven, walk on earth, as well as rule the abyss (Job 1:6-7). In the next chapter, Satan will lose his privilege to enter heaven (Revelation 12:9) and will be furious as a result. In Revelation 9:2, it seems Satan was given authorization to open the abyss and release some of the demonic forces contained therein.

We can infer from these passages that God has authorized the release of this beast who comes up out of the abyss. This could mean that the beast is a demon in human form. However, it seems to better fit the broader context to consider that the beast is a human who has either permitted or sought to be possessed by a satanic spirit who ascends from the pit.

The word here translated as finished in the phrase they (the witnesses) have finished their testimony is the Greek word “teleo.” This carries with it a connotation of being fulfilled. It is not just that the witness’s allotted time for prophesying is up; that the clock ran out. It is more that the two witnesses have accomplished God’s purpose for them, which is to complete their testimony.

Thus, we see in the two witnesses an example to all believers of what it means to be an “overcomer.” As we saw in Revelation 1:3, a great blessing is promised to any believer who reads, understands, then keeps or does the admonitions in this prophetic book. The overriding exhortation in Revelation is for each believer to be a faithful witness all the way to the end. To finish their race, to complete their allotted time on earth just as Jesus completed His time. To those who overcome as Jesus overcame He has promised the amazing reward of sharing in His kingdom administration (Revelation 3:21).

Believers in Jesus are called to be “overcomers,” which translates the Greek word “nikeao.” “Nikeao” is taken from “Nike” the greek goddess of victory (Revelation 3:21). It can also be rendered as “prevail,” “conquer,” or “victory.” The two witnesses overcame rejection and loss and were faithful unto death. Thus, they are examples of what it means to overcome in a good way, a way that leads to the great rewards promised by Jesus (Revelation 1:3, 3:21).

However, the word “nikeao” here describes the beast that ascends from the abyss overcoming the two witnesses and killing them. Thus, “nikeao” requires context to discern who is overcoming what. The “nikeao” that describes Jesus overcoming and gaining a great reward from His Father is the same word used here to say that the beast would overcome the two witnesses and kill them. 

It is worth recalling that up until the point in time when the beast was released from the abyss the two witnesses were able to call down fire from heaven and defeat their enemies (Revelation 11:5). Satan gains a victory (“nikeao”) at this point in time. But that is not the final result or the end of the story. Soon the two witnesses will be raised. But first their dead bodies will be displayed,

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified (v. 8).

Satan will momentarily gain victory and kill the witnesses, and lay their dead bodies in a place named after Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 

Sodom is an ancient city that God destroyed because of its immorality (Genesis 19). And Egypt was a major world power in the Old Testament, which enslaved the Israelites (Exodus 1), and which the Israelites were told not to be like (Leviticus 18:3). The place where their Lord was crucified is Golgotha, just outside of Jerusalem. Golgotha means “Place of a Skull” (Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22).

Jerusalem, Sodom, and Egypt are three separate places, but they are being mystically tied together in the great city which is Jerusalem. At this point in Revelation, Jerusalem has been overrun by the Gentile nations who are said to “tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months” (Revelation 11:2). It would seem that during this time, Jerusalem has become a center of wickedness.

Now the entire world joins in a celebration that the two witnesses are dead:

Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth (vs. 9-10).

We can presume that the reason for the glee over the death of these two prophets relates to the description in Revelation 11:6, that the two prophets had the power to bring plagues upon the earth. We can infer from the fact that the earth will rejoice and celebrate their dead bodies that the two witnesses did, in fact, bring many plagues upon the earth.

Since the two witnesses prophesy for three-and-a-half years, it follows that they would be connected with the plagues we have witnessed thus far. The plagues would seem to come during the three-and-a-half-year period that is the “great tribulation” predicted by Jesus (Matthew 24:21).

We can also infer from this that the progression of visions in the seals and trumpets are prophetic but not chronological. It would follow then that the two witnesses are likely the instruments God uses in the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom to the entire earth spoken of in Revelation 14:6-7.

At the end of Chapter 9, we were told that “the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands” (Revelation 9:20). Instead, their hearts were hard, even in the midst of great tribulation, and continued in their evil and immoral deeds. We now see their rebellion continued here when those from the people and tribes and tongues and nations…rejoice over them and celebrate the death of the prophets who were delivering the news to them that could have redeemed them.

But instead of hearing the prophets’ words as good news, it seemed to those who dwell on the earth as if the prophets had tormented them. They only wanted to be left alone to pursue their own ways. We will see in Chapter 18 that these are highly exploitative ways, including the buying and selling of human lives (Revelation 18:9, 13).

In these days of modern technology, it is not hard to consider how all the peoples of the earth could see the spectacle of the two witnesses’ bodies being displayed. Footage of their dead bodies could possibly be televised or circulated on the internet. This is an example of how something that might have seemed impossible in prophecy in an earlier era was later fulfilled through obvious means.

The celebration that these two witnesses are dead will not last. God works all things together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28). The death of the two witnesses is not a true defeat, but will prove to be part of God’s will in revealing His glory to the sinful world.