Just curious. Two witnesses?

Question

The two witnesses mentioned in Revelation. Who do you think they are? Almost everyone thinks Elijah is one and i agree. Elijah was taken to heaven in the chariots of fire.

Now the other one I hear controversy. Most people think its Moses. Moses is mentioned a few times in the NT, one in particulary he appears with Elijah in the Garden of Gethsamene (sp?) Sorry I dont have a bible with me.

The Bible says that all men are to die once. Again no Bible with me so not sure exactly where it is. So Im thinking it is Enoch. He is mentioned in Genesis and he never did, just taken by God.

These are the only two people that hav never died, other than the people still living of course :)

Answer 1

No analysis of the "two witnesses" would be complete without mentioning Moses and Elijah. The visions of these two prophets were themselves symbolic when they appeared at Jesus' transfiguration"! That event pointed forward to the time when Christ would sit in glory on the throne of God's Kingdom, which Jehovah's Witnesses believe occurred late in 1914 (see references below).

(Matthew 17:2,3) [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone as the sun, and his outer garments became brilliant as the light. And, look! there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, conversing with him.

(Matthew 25:31) When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne


Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the symbolic "two witnesses" of Revelation 11:3,4 represents Jehovah's Witnesses themselves between 1914 and 1919. Anointed Christians among Jehovah's Witnesses preached despite terrible persecution for three and half years, their work seemed "dead" for a brief period, and then their preaching work re-activated larger than before!


The Scriptural passage which introduces the "two witnesses" mentions the "prophesying" or preaching and teaching work they perform for 42 months, and connects the "two witnesses" with lampstands and olive trees.

(Revelation 11:2-4) [The nations] will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. 3 And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth.” 4 These are symbolized by the two olive trees and the two lampstands and are standing before the Lord of the earth.


Jehovah's Witnesses note strikingly similar language from the bible book of Zechariah (compare with Rev 11:2-4):

(Zechariah 4:1-3,11-14) And the angel who was speaking with me ...said to me: "What are you seeing?” So I said: "I have seen, and, look! there is a lampstand... And there are two olive trees alongside it... And I proceeded to answer and say to him: "What do these two olive trees on the right side of the lampstand and on its left side mean?" ...Accordingly he said: "These are the two anointed ones who are standing alongside the Lord of the whole earth."

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that all (or most) Witnesses in the first few decades of their modern history were "anointed"; that is, these expected a heavenly resurrection at their deaths.


Jehovah's Witnesses also believe that the 42 months is a literal length of time, because the time period is repeated in another unit of measure as "1260 days" (42 months of 30 days). Jehovah's Witnesses believe that this same 42 month period of time is discussed as 'three and half years' in Daniel 7:25. (Note that 3.5 years = 42 months = 1260 days.)

(Daniel 7:25) [The "small horn"] will speak even words against the Most High, and he will harass continually the holy ones themselves of the Supreme One. And he will intend to change times and law, and [the holy ones] will be given into [the "small horn's"] hand for a time, and times and half a time [or literally, "one year and two years and half a year"]


The book of Daniel seems to use that "small horn" to represent the Anglo-American world power which has dominated the world scene since World War I (See "Pay Attention to Daniel's Prophecy" (page 141), published by Jehovah's Witnesses).
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How did these secular governments "harass continually the holy ones" (Dan 7:25)?

As WWI heated up, persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses accelerated because the preaching work tormented the secular governments. The 42 months (Rev 11:2) seems to have begun in December 1914 when the Witnesses were moved to chose as their 1915 year-text "Are ye able to drink of my cup - Matt 20:22, KJV". Over the next three and half years and amidst the war hysteria, anointed Christians among Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned and even tortured in Canada, Britain, and the United States. Witness publications were banned, and even in the United States certain Witness publications were deemed "illegal". The 42 months of preaching in the face of persecution seems to have culminated in June 1918 when the U.S. sentenced the president and directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society to long prison terms. With the Witness "leaders" imprisoned, political entities around the world thought Jehovah's Witnesses were dead.

(Revelation 11:7-10) And when [the two witnesses] have finished their witnessing, the wild beast [representing secular governments] kill them. And their corpses will be on the broad way... nations will look at their corpses for three and a half days, and they do not let their corpses be laid in a tomb. 10 ...these two prophets tormented those


These "two witnesses" must have been "dead" long enough to stink, and to seem really dead to the observations of their enemies and other onlookers (compare John 11:39). So too all of Christendom assumed Jehovah's Witnesses were gone permanently when their "leaders" were imprisoned. Yet what does history tell us?

(Revelation 11:11) And after the three and a half days spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet

On March 25, 1919 the president, officers, and directors of the Watch Tower Society were released from federal prison. By September 1919, Jehovah's Witnesses were again publicizing the hypocrisy of Christendom and the superiority of God's Kingdom over human governments. Jehovah's Witnesses, the "two witnesses" of Revelation 11, were again alive in preaching the Kingdom message despite the feelings of "the wild beast" and false religion (see Kingdom News #37).
http://watchtower.ca/e/kn37/

Learn more:
http://watchtower.ca/e/20040401/
http://watchtower.ca/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_09.htm
http://watchtower.ca/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_10.htm
http://watchtower.ca/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://watchtower.ca/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_02.htm

Answer 2

Revelation 11:3-4 “And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth. These are symbolized by the two olive trees and the two lampstands and are standing before the Lord of the earth.”

The designation of “two witnesses” signifies that they will have visibly witnessed the very presence of Christ, just as Peter, James and John visibly witnessed the transfiguration and John also witnessed Christ in the vision of Revelation.

The two witnesses of Revelation are symbolized by Moses and Elijah not only because Moses and Elijah both appeared in the transfiguration vision, but because Moses and Elijah had personal encounters with Jehovah when they were alive.

Significantly, Moses and Elijah both were forced to flee into the wilderness and it was in the wilderness that Jehovah spoke to them. Moses spoke to Jehovah at the burning bush and also talked to Jehovah face-to-face upon Mount Sinai. (In reality it was the manifestation of an angel)

Elijah lived in the wilderness for the duration of a three and one half year drought that came about at his order, during which time Jehovah miraculously fed the prophet by means of ravens that brought meat and bread twice a day.

This puts us in mind of the description of the two witnesses, who prophesy for 42 months and have authority to shut up the heavens so that it should not rain during the period of their prophesying. Later Elijah encountered Jehovah’s awe-inspiring manifestation when he was holed up in a cave in the wilderness.

Moses and Elijah have another experience in common: They were both taken by Jehovah. Moses was ordered by God to ascend Mount Nebo in order to view the Promised Land. But he would not descend. Moses was to die for acting “undutifully” towards God on one occasion.

The account says that even though he was 120 years old at the time Moses’ strength had not diminished and his eyesight had not grown dim. In other words, he did not die of old age. God simply took him and neither his body nor his grave was ever found.

Elijah was also symbolically taken when Jehovah’s fiery war chariot swooped down from the sky and whisked the prophet heavenward. The departure of Moses and Elijah stands as two prophetic dramas – enactments of future events.

After their mysterious departures, it is as though Moses and Elijah showed up together centuries later in the transfiguration.

Their symbolic departures earlier and their sudden re-appearance in the transfiguration of Christ, and afterwards their depiction as the two witnesses in Revelation, is intended to convey how Jehovah will take the remaining holy ones off the earth after they finish their witnessing and are subsequently killed by the resurrected wild beast.

Answer 3

Your guess is as good as mine. Anyone living in the future will definitely NOT know nor have grown up with them, so how on earth would they recognize them if what you say is true? Perhaps the book refers to them AS IF they were Elijah and Enoch. In the Apocryphal book of Tobit, Raphael comes down to Earth to help Tobit's family, but he does not call himself Raphael, so how do people know he's that angel? It's a mystery.

Answer 4

The 2 witnesses will be the reincarnation of the prophet Muhammad and his wife!