The two witnesses speak words from God
that destroy the arguments of their enemies (Rev 11:5, an allusion to Elijah’s
ability to bring down fire from heaven to silence the false prophets; 1 Kings
18;22-39; cf. also 2 Kings 1:9-14 and Jeremiah 5;14). They also have the power
to stop the rain (Rev 11:6, an allusion to a drought caused by Elijah; 1 Kings
17:1; cf. Luke 4:25 and James 5:17) and to turn water into blood, as well as
being about other plagues (an obvious connection to Moses; Exodus 7:20). It is
not clear who the witnesses are, but what is clear is that John wants the
reader to think of them in terms that remind one of Old Testament figures whom
God had chosen to do his work, such as Moses and Elijah. However, they are not
characters from the Old Testament, because Revelation 11:8 describes the city
where the two witnesses died as the place, “where their Lord was crucified.”
Therefore, these are Christian evangelists, followers of Jesus who lived in the
first century and who might have been killed by the Roman legions during the
fall of Jerusalem (Rev 11:7). (James L. Papandrea, The Wedding of the Lamb:
A Historical Approach to the Book of Revelation [Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick
Publications, 2011], 74)
We can safely assume that the two
witnesses join the other souls who have been martyred. In chapter 6, John sees
the souls of the martyrs under the altar of heaven. The fact that they are
“under” the altar is a reference to the Old Testament practice of pouring out
the blood of a sacrifice on the base of the altar (Exodus 29:12; Leviticus
4:7). (Ibid., 121)
