12 The theme of the deliverance of the witnesses is continued in
this verse, which includes the record of their ascension to heaven. The scene
is a recapitulation of 4:1–2 (q.v.), where the seer is taken up to the throne
room of God and the Lamb; note the similar language in 4:1–2 and 11:12,
especially in the form of the command, ἀνάβα (ἀνάβατε) ὧδε (anaba [anabate] hōde, ‘come up [pl.] here!’). Both situations
involve a rapture; but in neither context should this be understood literally.
Rather, the prophet-seer is ‘taken up’ spiritually, so that more of a heavenly
vision may be disclosed to him (cf. Ezekiel’s experience, described in Ezek. 1–3
[see esp. 3:12–15]; also the non-literal ‘rapture’ language of Rev. 17:1–3;
21:9–10); and the same is true of the two witnesses here (against Aune 625–26).
Theologically, there is a connection in the Apocalypse between John’s first
commissioning as a prophet (1:10–19), his second (4:1–2a) and third (10:1–11). The witnesses, representing the Church of
Christ as a whole (see on 11:3), participate in the seer’s prophetic task
(11:3–7). This accounts for the parallels between the activity of John and the
two witnesses in Rev. 10 and 11, as in the ‘clouds’ of 10:1 and 11:12; the
designation of both John and the witnesses as ‘prophets’ (10:11; 11:3, 10, 18);
and their joint and universal message of judgement (10:11; 11:5–10). Cf. Beale
598–99.
The resurrected witnesses, rather
than the bystanders (the ‘enemies’ of verse 12b), ‘heard a loud, heavenly voice’ of command (against Charles 1,
290, who claims that the speaker is audible to everyone). This connects with
the unidentified ‘voice’ of 10:4, which is doubtless in turn the divine voice
of 9:13 (q.v.); and, given the associations between 11:12 and 4:1–2 noted
above, it could be that the ‘loud voice’ from heaven in the present verse
shares in the character of the ‘trumpet-like voice’ of 4:1, and therefore
begins the sounding of the seventh trumpet mentioned at 11:15 (cf. Beale 599).
For ‘hearing’ in Johannine thought, often associated with sight and
understanding, see on 4:1; et al.; also 8:13.
The witnesses ‘ascended to (εἰς, eis, lit. ‘into’) heaven in a cloud’; and this points to their
vindication, on the basis of faithful Christian testimony and behaviour. The
presence of the article with the noun ‘cloud’ (ἐν τῇ νεφέλῃ, en tē[i] nephelē[i], lit. ‘in the cloud’) suggests that this allusion
would be familiar to John’s audience; and there is certainly a tradition in
Judaism that divine approval was given to loyal witnesses by ‘assumption’ to
heaven in a cloud. Such was true of Enoch (Gen. 5:24), Moses (Assum. Moses 10.12; Josephus, Ant.
4.320–26; cf. Deut. 34:5–6), Elijah (2 Kings 2:11, where the ‘whirlwind’ is
theophanic; cf. Ezek. 1:4), Ezra (4 Ezra 14:7–9,[48]) and Baruch (2 Apoc. Bar. 76.1–5). However, as Aune
(625–26) points out, all these figures were taken up into heaven to await the
end, at which time it was predicted that they would return. The same directly
eschatological dimension does not belong to Rev. 11:12. Nevertheless, there is
in the New Testament a ‘cloud’ tradition, associated with Jesus, which denotes
the authentication and approval given to his ministry by the Father. See Mark
13:26; 14:62; Acts 1:9–11; cf. Rev. 14:14–16; Gospel of Peter 35–36). It is possible that in Rev. 11:12 the
anaphoric article introducing ‘cloud’ picks up this tradition, as well as
referring back to the ‘cloud’ in 10:1 (cf. Beale 600).
Clouds in Jewish and Christian
tradition are often represented as a means of transport between heaven and
earth, or between one part of heaven and another; and this applies to divine
and angelic beings, as well as to mortals (cf. Deut. 33:26; Ps. 68:4; Acts 1:9;
Rev. 1:7; Exod. 14:24; Rev. 10:1; 2 Kings 2:11; 1 Enoch 39.3; et al.). See Aune 625. The ascension of the witnesses
by cloud, in the present context (Rev. 11:12), takes place ‘in full view of
their enemies’. Ascent narratives sometimes include the fact that bystanders
look on, and see what is happening (Judg. 13:20; 2 Kings 2:11–12; Acts 1:9–11; Jub. 32.20–21; 2 Enoch 67.1–3; T. Job
52.8–10). In these instances, however, the viewers are friendly; whereas in
Rev. 11:12 they are representatives of a hostile and oppressive world, which
has rejected the message of the believing and suffering Church. The ascent to
heaven of the two witnesses, therefore, becomes not only a divine demonstration
of their authority and authenticity but also a judgement on the world’s
mistaken view of truth and righteousness as these have been revealed in God
through Christ. (Stephen S. Smalley, The Revelation to John: A
Commentary on the Greek Text of the Apocalypse [London: SPCK, 2005],
284-85)
