Revelation 11:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

NIV: Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified.

NASB: And their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

CSB: Their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city, which figuratively is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

NLT: And their bodies will lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called 'Sodom' and 'Egypt,' the city where their Lord was crucified.

KJV: And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

NKJV: And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

According to this passage, the two witnesses have encountered great opposition. Those who tried to kill them, at first, were consumed by flames (Revelation 11:5). They administered plagues on the earth and caused droughts and other disasters (Revelation 11:6). All of this happens while they are prophesying on God's behalf, bringing a message which the world does not want to hear.

For all that, it's not surprising that when these men are finally killed, they do not receive a decent burial. Instead, their bodies are left in a street like animal carcasses. Like so many prophets before them, the two witnesses experience martyrdom. Jesus indicted Jerusalem for killing the prophets and stoning those who were sent to it (Matthew 23:37). The street is in "the great city" that some expositors identify as Rome or Babylon. However, the context argues for its being Jerusalem. Verses 1 and 2 refer to the temple, the altar, the outer court, and worshipers, all of which point to Jerusalem. Further, verse 8 indicates the great city is where our Lord was crucified. Jesus died on a cross outside Jerusalem, not Rome or Babylon. John tells us that the great city symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt. In the tribulation Jerusalem will be morally corrupt like Sodom and its residents will be in bondage to the beast that controls the economy and their lives (see Revelation 13:16–17).

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.''