Revelation 11:11 - Printer Friendly

ESV: But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

NIV: But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.

NASB: And after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.

CSB: But after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.

NLT: But after three and a half days, God breathed life into them, and they stood up! Terror struck all who were staring at them.

KJV: And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

NKJV: Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

In contrast to the glee felt when the two witnesses are killed, there comes a rude awakening: terror and dread, and one would assume surprise, shock, and dismay. These emotions will wash over unbelievers just three and a half days after the beast kills the two witnesses. Just as God breathed the breath of life into Adam's lifeless body after creating him, so God breathes into the lifeless bodies of His two witnesses, and they stand up.

It's important to remember that the world is watching these bodies rot in the streets, celebrating their deaths. One can imagine shock waves circling the globe as media viewers see the dead bodies become alive. This verse makes an expected observation: "great fear fell on those who saw them." Their resurrection prefigures the resurrection of righteous Old Testament saints at Christ's return to earth.

In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel expressed what he saw and heard regarding this end-time resurrection. In a valley full of bones, he saw dry bones, but heard the Lord say, "Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:5). Daniel, too, prophesied about the resurrection of Old Testament saints after the tribulation. He wrote: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" (Daniel 12:2).

Revelation 11:3–14 follows on the heels of a brief assertion that the Gentiles will possess the temple's outer court and trample Jerusalem for forty-two months. We learn also that God will authorize two witnesses to prophesy during those forty-two months. Here we gain information about the two witnesses' ministry, what happens to them, and God's immediate response. The passage ends by alerting us to the fact that the second woe has ended, but the third woe is coming soon.

This chapter continues the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments. John received a measuring rod and was told to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshipers. However, he was told not to measure the court outside the temple, because the Gentiles would overrun it for three and a half years. During that time, two divinely authorized witnesses would prophesy. They would have power to summon fire from heaven and to strike the earth with plagues. At the end of their testimony the beast from the pit will kill them and leave their bodies in a street in Jerusalem. But, three and a half days later, God will resurrect their bodies and draw them up to heaven. At that time a powerful earthquake will level a tenth of Jerusalem and kill seven thousand people. When the seventh trumpet sounds, loud voices in heaven proclaim Jesus as the possessor of the world's kingdoms, and the twenty-four elders praise Jesus as the Lord God Almighty who will begin to reign. He will judge the dead but reward His servants. The chapter ends with the opening of the temple in heaven.

The eleventh chapter of Revelation provides information about an event that transpires between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets. It involves two powerful witnesses that God raises up in the middle of the tribulation. These two witnesses minister throughout the second half of the tribulation. They are martyred, but God raises them up and lifts them to heaven. Concurrent with their ascension a mighty earthquake destroys one tenth of Jerusalem and kills seven thousand people. This is the second woe. The first woe is described in chapter 9 as an invading army of locusts.

The word ''revelation'' means ''an unveiling or disclosure.'' This writing unveils future events such as the rapture, three series of judgments that will fall on the earth during the tribulation, the emergence of the Antichrist, the persecution of Israel and her amazing revival, as well as Jesus' second coming with His saints to the earth, the judgment of Satan and his followers, and finally, the eternal state. This content, combined with the original Greek term apokalypsis, is why we now refer to an end-of-the-world scenario as ''an apocalypse.''