Throughout the First Readings of the last two weeks of the liturgical year II (even-numbered year) from the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic and eschatological vision revealed to John continue to unfold. As the First Reading of Friday of the 33rd Week, Year II, Revelation 10:8-11, describes, John received the small open scroll from a mighty angel and commissioned to prophesize, between the sixth trumpet (Revelation 9:13-19) and the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:15-19). The seven angels blow the seven trumpets to announce the progressive judgement (Revelation 7:2-9:21; 11:15-19), following the breaking of the seven seals of the scroll by Christ the Lamb (Revelation 6:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-11, 12-17; 8:1).
The First Reading of Saturday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II (Revelation 11:4-12), the two witnesses appear in the eschatological vision revealed to John. This reading is a part of the second portion of the second interlude (Revelation 10:1-11:14).
After receiving the small open scroll from the mighty angel and being commissioned to prophesize what he witnesses about people toward the return of Christ (Revelation 10:1-11), John is called to measure the Temple and its alar and count the worshipers there but not to measure the outer court because it is given to the Gentiles through these words:
Come and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshiping in it. But exclude the outer court of the temple; do not measure it, for it has been handed over to the Gentiles, who will trample the holy city for forty-two months. I will commission my two witnesses to prophesy for those twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth (Revelation 11:1-3).
In this context, Gentiles refer to the antichrist, who wage a war against the faithful, resulting in martyrdom of those who endured in faith (i.e. Revelation 6:1-10). And the war against the faithful and destruction of Jerusalem, the holy city, including its Temple, will last for 42 months.
In fact, what John was called to measure is ναὸν (naos) (Revelation 11:1), the inner sanctuary of the Temple (ἱερόν(hieron), which means the entire Temple) . What ναὸν (naos) (Revelation 11:1) refers to does not contain the outer court.
But why John was called to measure ναὸν (naos), the sacred part of the Temple?
In this context, it is not the Temple which is about to be destroyed by the judgement. Remember, Christ predicted the destruction of the second Temple, which Ezekiel had measured in his post-exilic vision (Ezekiel 40-48) and administered by Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the priest (Ezra 1-3) as it was built upon returning from the exile in Babylon. What John is called to measure in the eschatological vision is considered to be the eternal Temple that Christ promised to build after the destruction of the second Temple (i.e. John 2:19). And this eternal Temple in heaven is revealed (Revelation 11:19) after the seventh trumpet is blown, followed by heavenly doxology (Revelation 11:15-18). It seems that John is called to measure the eternal ναὸν (naos) in heaven to see what God will have for the faithful after the judgement.
As a matter of fact, John is called the measure the eternal Temple in New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). Because the eternal temple is not a physical one (Revelation 21:22), just as the Kingdom that Christ will bring is not a geopolitical one (i.e. John 18:36-37). And this temple is not ἱερόν(hieron), which refers to a physical temple with a physical sanctuary. Rather, it is pure ναὸν (naos), which is the risen body of Christ. For this reason, he said that he would raise the temple in 3 days after its destruction (John 2:19).
The symbolic meaning of the two olive trees and the two lampstands (Revelation 11:3, 4), based on Zechariah’s prophetic post-exilic vision (Zechariah 4:1-14) suggests that the two witnesses are the ones who are like Zerubbabel the governor of the Davidic lineage (1 Chronicles 3:1-19; Matthew 1:12-13), and Joshua the high priest, Levite, descending from Aaron (Zechariah 3:1-10). They work together, as olive trees provide lampstands the oil to burn, to bring God’s light to the world. In the context of John’s eschatological vision, the two witnesses symbolize the faithful martyrs, who represent the Church under persecution because of the antichrist. Reflecting Daniel’s vision of persecution of the faithful by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Daniel 7:25; 12:7).
Christ’s Church stands before the Lord of the earth (Revelation 11:4), as she will be raised as one body of Christ (i.e. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27), which is the eternal Temple (ναὸν (naos)), ναὸν (naos), measured by John (Revelation 11:1-2), as Zerubbabel and Joshua stood in the post-exilic Jerusalem to rebuild the destroyed city the Temple, as measured in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 40:1-48:35), to give witness. And those who dare to harm the two witnesses, the Church, will be destroyed by the fire of God’s wrath (Revelation 11:5; cf. 2 Kings 1:10), as God’s holy fire destroys the wicked (i.e. Leviticus 10:1-2).
The two witnesses are given supernatural power (Revelation 11:6), as Elijah (1 Kings 17:1-7; James 5:17) and Moses (Ex 7:17-24) were given such power, to do works of God on His behalf. This suggests the Church is given the abilities like those given to Elijah and Moses to do supernatural works.
Then, it is prophesized that the Church will suffer greatly as the antichrist will wage a war against her, killing the witnesses, as she finishes her testimonies (Revelation 11:17). This indicates that there will be a large number of the faithful will be martyred before the return of Christ the King at the eschaton (Revelation 6:1-10).
There will be the corpses of the martyrs in the holy city, and they will be desecrated by the antichrist for not being buried, making the city as unholy and profane as Sodom and Egypt (Revelation 11:8), which God punished for being outrageously wicked (Genesis 19:1-29) and for oppressing God’s people (Exodus 7:14-11:10). Desecrated holy city was where the incarnated Christ was crucified to death, as it was how the Romans executed most disgracefully (John 18:28-19:42). This suggests that the witnesses to Christ, the Church, will be desecrated and mocked as Christ on the Cross was made into an object of contempt on the Cross, when the antichrist dominates the earth toward the end of the 42 month-period of the persecution of the Church (Revelation 11:8-10).
But this is not the end.
The eschatologically prophetic vision is further unveiled to John:
But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell in ruins. Seven thousand people were killed during the earthquake; the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven (Revelation 11:11-13).
This vision reflects the content of the scroll unveiled with the sixth seal broken by Christ, shown to John:
When he broke open the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God. They cried out in a loud voice, “How long will it be, holy and true master, before you sit in judgment and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little while longer until the number was filled of their fellow servants and brothers who were going to be killed as they had been (Revelation 6:9-11).
And this vision is reflected in this vision revealed to John:
All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “For this reason they stand before God’s throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:11-17).
The martyred witnesses will be resurrected to life through a breath of life from God, after their corpses left unburied for three and half days (Revelation 11:11), evoking Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones gaining life through God’s breath of life (Ezekiel 37:1-14), as dust from the earth became adam (אדם)(human being) through God’s breath of life (נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat chayyim))(Genesis 2:7). And this will certainly frightened those who kill them (cf. Matthew 28:4). Then, the witnesses are called into heaven as the earth quake shakes turns one tenth of the desecrated city into ruin (Revelation 11:12-13; cf. Matthew 28:2-3).
This is how the martyred witnesses, the Church that fights on earth and suffer in purgatory, will be called into heaven as the triumphant Church, to be the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:9).
The two witnesses, symbolized with two olive trees and two lampstand, who are like Zerubbabel and Joshua, as well as, Elijah and Moses, are martyrs in the Church. Their martyrdom will take place when the antichrist will strike a war against the Church to desecrate her and mock her martyrs as she complete her apostolic and prophetic mission on earth. This war is to last for the period of the length symbolically indicated as 42 months. The martyrs corpses are left unburied for the period of what the symbolic number, 3.5 days, indicates, to be mocked. However, God will raise them as He pour His breath of life, the Holy Spirit, and call them up in heaven, making Christ’s Church victorious.
In connection to the Gospel Reading (Luke 20:27-40), which describes that Christ’s teaching of resurrection is undisputable at all, an emphasis is made on resurrection of the faithful, especially on martyrs. And the risen bodies of saints in heaven will be the new Church in heaven as she becomes one with her groom, Christ the Lamb, the eternal new Temple in heaven, which John is called to measure.
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