Revelation 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around AD 95, about twenty-five years after Roman armies burned the Jerusalem temple in AD 70
Location
A measured temple and a city called figuratively Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified, which points to Jerusalem
Audience
The seven congregations of Roman Asia, including Jewish Christians for whom the loss of the temple was a live wound
Situation
John is told to measure the temple's inner courts but not the outer court, then two witnesses prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, are killed by a beast from the abyss, lie unburied for three and a half days, and are raised. The seventh trumpet then sounds and heaven announces that the kingdom of the world has changed hands.
Key Background
Measuring a building in prophetic vision, as in Ezekiel and Zechariah, marks it off for protection and preservation rather than for construction, so the unmeasured outer court signals what will be exposed to trampling. The witnesses' signs, stopping rain and turning water to blood, are the trademarks of Elijah and Moses, casting them as the law and the prophets still testifying. Leaving corpses unburied and putting them on public display was a deliberate Roman humiliation used on executed rebels, which is what makes the three and a half days of gawking crowds so pointed, and the three and a half years behind the day count comes from Daniel's period of persecution.
Then I was given a like a staff, and I was told, "Get up and measure God's and the and count those who worship there.
But leave out the of the temple. Don't measure it, because it has been handed over to the They will trample the that to for
"And I will authorize my two and they will for 1,260 days, dressed in
These are the two and the two that stand before the of all the
If anyone tries to harm them, from their and consumes their enemies. Anyone who wants to harm them will be killed this way.
These witnesses have the authority to up the so that no rain falls during the time they are speaking God's message. They also have authority to and to strike the earth with every kind of as often as they want.
When they finish giving their the that comes up from the will wage war against them, overpower them, and kill them.
Their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the — which is symbolically called and — where their Lord was also on a
For and a people from every nation, tribe, language, and ethnic group will stare at their dead bodies and to them be
The on will celebrate over them, throw parties, and send gifts to each other, because these two had the on
But after the three and a half days, the of from entered them, and they stood up on their feet — and absolute seized everyone who saw them.
Then the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, up here!" And they went up to heaven in a while their enemies watched.
At that very moment a massive hit, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the and the survivors were terrified and to the of
The second has passed. Look — the third is coming quickly.
Then the seventh angel blew trumpet, and loud voices rang out in heaven saying, "The of the world has become the of our Lord and of and he will and
Then the who sit on their thrones before God on their and worshiped God,
saying, "We give you thanks, Lord God, the — the Who Is and Who Was — because you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
The but has come. The time has come for judging the dead, for rewarding the and everyone who honors name, ordinary and influential alike, and for those who the
Then God's in was opened, and the of could be seen inside And there were flashes of peals of an and heavy