This does not mean that the two
witnesses are Elijah and Moses. The contrary is indicated by the fact
that the powers of each of the Old Testament prophets are attributed to both of
the two witnesses, not divided between them (11:5-6). . . . John’s choice of
Moses and Elijah as the Old Testament models for his two witnesses is readily
intelligible in terms of his own work, whatever apocalyptic traditions about
eschatological prophets he may or may not have known. Both were great prophets
(often regarded as the greatest of the prophets) who confronted pagan rulers and
pagan religion. In Moses’ care, he confronted Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s magicians,
who were able to imitate some of his miracles, and later Balaka bd Balaam 9cf.
2:14). (It may be significant that the plague which is specified in 11:6 was
one of the two plagues of Egypt which Pharaoh’s magicians were able to imitate
[the miracles of the two witnesses in 11:5-6 are implicitly imitated by the
false prophet’s miracle in 13:3].) In Elijah’s case, he confronted Jezebel (cf.
2:20) and the prophets of Baal. Moses’ contest with Pharaoh and his magicians
and Elijah’s with Jezebel and the prophets of Baal were the two great Old
Testament contests between the prophets of Yahweh and pagan power and religion,
in which Yahweh’s power and authority were vindicated against the claims of
pagan gods and rulers. The same is to be true of the great eschatological contest
between the two witnesses and the beast, though the vindication will take a different
form and have greater consequences. The allusions to Moses have the further
importance of integrating the story into the theme of the new Exodus which runs
through Revelation. The great city is called Egypt, after the nation which
oppressed the Israelites at the time of the Exodus and suffered divine
judgment, as it is also called Sodom, after the city renowned for its evil from
which righteous Lot escaped when it was judged (11:8). Its fate, however, is to
be notably different from that of either Egypt or Sodom (11:13). This is one of
the deliberate twists in the story where it takes a different turn from its Old
Testament precedents.
The power of the two witnesses to
call down fire to consume their enemies (11:5) indicates their immunity from
attack for as long as—but no longer than—they need to complete their testimony
(11:7). (Richard Bauckham, “The Conversion of the Nations,” in The Climax of
Prophecy: Studies in the Book of Revelation [London: T&T Clark, 1993], 275-77)
