{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "kind": "event",
  "id": "revelation-two-witnesses",
  "era": "revelation",
  "order": 512,
  "title": "The temple and the two witnesses",
  "group": "rev-trumpets",
  "date": {
    "kind": "relative",
    "label": "Revelation 11 · reading sequence",
    "note": "This is the order of the book. It does not assign a calendar date to a vision or choose one scheme of fulfillment."
  },
  "summary": "John is told to measure the temple while its outer court is given to the nations. Two witnesses prophesy, are killed and publicly dishonored, then receive life from God and ascend as an earthquake follows.",
  "context": "The witnesses are compared to olive trees and lampstands, and their powers recall Moses and Elijah; the passage does not name them. Readers differ over individual and corporate interpretations and the temple’s meaning. The city where their bodies lie is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt and associated with the Lord’s crucifixion. This layered language should not be flattened into three literal destinations. The 42 months, 1,260 days and three-and-a-half days are preserved in their textual setting without assigning modern dates.",
  "question": "How does the witnesses’ vindication challenge the apparent success of those who silence them?",
  "locationNote": "Visionary setting; no geographic pin or route. The background map shows the historical recipients in western Asia Minor, not the location of this vision.",
  "relatedNote": "These readings illuminate biblical language and themes. Connections do not by themselves settle the timing or every interpretation of the vision.",
  "passages": [
    {
      "reference": "Revelation 11:1–14",
      "range": [
        66011001,
        66011014
      ],
      "translation": "bsb",
      "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2011%3A1%E2%80%9314&version=BSB",
      "availability": "bundled",
      "verses": [
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 1,
          "text": "Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 2,
          "text": "But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 3,
          "text": "And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”"
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 4,
          "text": "These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 5,
          "text": "If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 6,
          "text": "These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 7,
          "text": "When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 8,
          "text": "Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 9,
          "text": "For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 10,
          "text": "And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 11,
          "text": "But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 12,
          "text": "And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 13,
          "text": "And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven."
        },
        {
          "book": "Revelation",
          "chapter": 11,
          "verse": 14,
          "text": "The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly."
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "range": [
        38004001,
        38004014
      ],
      "kind": "teaching",
      "note": "Zechariah’s lampstand and two olive trees underlie the description of the witnesses.",
      "reference": "Zechariah 4:1–14",
      "translation": "bsb",
      "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zechariah%204%3A1%E2%80%9314&version=BSB"
    }
  ],
  "places": [],
  "mapPeriod": "revelation-asia",
  "further": [],
  "provenance": {
    "sources": [
      {
        "name": "editorial",
        "ref": "content/authored/revelation.json"
      }
    ],
    "review": "draft"
  },
  "eraName": "Revelation",
  "interactiveUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?event=revelation-two-witnesses",
  "attribution": [
    "Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.",
    "Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.",
    "Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm"
  ],
  "translation": "bsb",
  "url": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/revelation-two-witnesses/",
  "markdownUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/revelation-two-witnesses/index.md",
  "jsonUrl": "https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/revelation-two-witnesses/index.json",
  "cautions": "Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.",
  "revision": "06bd241c52d8b432"
}