if any man will hurt them--twice repeated, to mark the immediate certainty of the accomplishment.
in this manner--so in like manner as he tries to hurt them (compare [Re 13:10]). Retribution in kind.
6. These ... power--Greek, "authorized power."
it rain not--Greek, "huetos brechee," "rain shower not," literally, "moisten" not (the earth).
smite ... with all plagues--Greek, "with (literally, 'in') every plague."
7. finished their testimony--The same verb is used of Paul's ending his ministry by a violent death.
the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit--Greek, "the wild beast ... the abyss." This beast was not mentioned before, yet he is introduced as "the beast," because he had already been described by Daniel ([Da 7:3], ), and he is fully so in the subsequent part of the Apocalypse, namely, [Re 13:1]; . Thus, John at once appropriates the Old Testament prophecies; and also, viewing his whole subject at a glance, mentions as familiar things (though not yet so to the reader) objects to be described hereafter by himself. It is a proof of the unity that pervades all Scripture.
make war against them--alluding to [Da 7:21], where the same is said of the little horn that sprang up among the ten horns on the fourth beast.
8. dead bodies--So Vulgate, Syriac, and Andreas. But A, B, C, the oldest manuscripts, and Coptic read the singular, "dead body." The two fallen in one cause are considered as one.
the great city--eight times in the Revelation elsewhere used of BABYLON ([Re 14:8]; ; ; , [16, 18], [19, 21]). In [Re 21:10] (English Version as to the new Jerusalem), the oldest manuscripts omit "the great" before city, so that it forms no exception. It must, therefore, have an anticipatory reference to the mystical Babylon.
which--Greek, "the which," namely, "the city which."
spiritually--in a spiritual sense.
Sodom--The very term applied by [Is 1:10] to apostate Jerusalem (compare [Eze 16:48]).
Egypt--the nation which the Jews' besetting sin was to lean upon.
where ... Lord was crucified--This identifies the city as Jerusalem, though the Lord was crucified outside of the city. Eusebius mentions that the scene of Christ's crucifixion was enclosed within the city by Constantine; so it will be probably at the time of the slaying of the witnesses. "The beast [for example, Napoleon and France's efforts] has been long struggling for a footing in Palestine; after his ascent from the bottomless pit he struggles much more" [Bengel]. Some one of the Napoleonic dynasty may obtain that footing, and even be regarded as Messiah by the Jews, in virtue of his restoring them to their own land; and so may prove to be the last Antichrist. The difficulty is, how can Jerusalem be called "the great city," that is, Babylon? By her becoming the world's capital of idolatrous apostasy, such as Babylon originally was, and then Rome has been; just as she is here called also "Sodom and Egypt."
also our--A, B, C, Origen, Andreas, and others read, "also their." Where their Lord, also, as well as they, was slain. Compare [Re 18:24], where the blood of ALL slain on earth is said to be found IN Babylon, just as in [Mt 23:35], Jesus saith that, "upon the Jews and Jerusalem" (Compare [Mt 23:37], ) shall "come ALL the righteous blood shed upon earth"; whence it follows Jerusalem shall be the last capital of the world apostasy, and so receive the last and worst visitation of all the judgments ever inflicted on the apostate world, the earnest of which was given in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. In the wider sense, in the Church-historical period, the Church being the sanctuary, all outside of it is the world, the great city, wherein all the martyrdoms of saints have taken place. Babylon marks its idolatry, Egypt its tyranny, Sodom its desperate corruption, Jerusalem its pretensions to sanctity on the ground of spiritual privileges, while all the while it is the murderer of Christ in the person of His members. All which is true of Rome. So Vitringa. But in the more definite sense, Jerusalem is regarded, even in Hebrews ([He 13:12-14]), as the world city which believers were then to go forth from, in order to "seek one to come."
9. they--rather, "(some) of the peoples."
people--Greek, "peoples."
kindreds--Greek, "tribes"; all save the elect (whence it is not said, The peoples ... but [some] of the peoples ... , or, some of the peoples ... may refer to those of the nations ..., who at the time shall hold possession of Palestine and Jerusalem).
shall see--So Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic. But A, B, C, and Andreas, the present, "see," or rather (Greek, "blepousin"), "look upon." The prophetic present.
dead bodies--So Vulgate, Syriac, and Andreas. But A, B, C, and Coptic, singular, as in [Re 11:8], "dead body." Three and a half days answer to the three and a half years (see on [Re 11:2], ), the half of seven, the full and perfect number.
shall not suffer--so B, Syriac, Coptic, and Andreas. But A, C, and Vulgate read, "do not suffer."
in graves--so Vulgate and Primasius. But B, C, Syriac, Coptic, and Andreas, singular; translate, "into a sepulchre," literally, "a monument." Accordingly, in righteous retribution in kind, the flesh of the Antichristian hosts is not buried, but given to all the fowls in mid-heaven to eat ([Re 19:17], [18, 21]).
10. they that dwell upon ... earth--those who belong to the earth, as its citizens, not to heaven ([Re 3:10]; ; ; ).
shall--so Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic. But A, B, and C read the present tense; compare Note, see on [Re 11:9], on "shall not suffer."
rejoice over them--The Antichristianity of the last days shall probably be under the name of philosophical enlightenment and civilization, but really man's deification of himself. Fanaticism shall lead Antichrist's followers to exult in having at last seemingly silenced in death their Christian rebukers. Like her Lord, the Church will have her dark passion week followed by the bright resurrection morn. It is a curious historical coincidence that, at the fifth Lateran Council, May 5, 1514, no witness (not even the Moravians who were summoned) testified for the truth, as Huss and Jerome did at Constance; an orator ascended the tribunal before the representatives of papal Christendom, and said, "There is no reclaimant, no opponent." Luther, on October 31, 1517, exactly three and a half years afterwards, posted up his famous theses on the church at Wittenberg. The objection is, the years are years of three hundred sixty-five, not three hundred sixty, days, and so two and a half days are deficient; but still the coincidence is curious; and if this prophecy be allowed other fulfilments, besides the final and literal one under the last Antichrist, this may reasonably be regarded as one.
send gifts one to another--as was usual at a joyous festival.
tormented them--namely, with the plagues which they had power to inflict ([Re 11:5], ); also, by their testimony against the earthly.
11. Translate as Greek, "After the three days and an half."
the Spirit of life--the same which breathed life into Israel's dry bones, [Eze 37:10], (see on [Eze 37:10], ), "Breath came into them." The passage here, as there, is closely connected with Israel's restoration as a nation to political and religious life. Compare also concerning the same, [Ho 6:2], where Ephraim says, "After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight."
into--so B and Vulgate. But A reads (Greek, "en autois"), "(so as to be) IN them."
stood upon their feet--the very words in [Eze 37:10], which proves the allusion to be to Israel's resurrection, in contrast to "the times of the Gentiles" wherein these "tread under foot the holy city."
great fear--such as fell on the soldiers guarding Christ's tomb at His resurrection ([Mt 28:4]), when also there was a great earthquake ([Re 11:2]).
saw--Greek, "beheld."
12. they--so A, C, and Vulgate. But B, Coptic, Syriac, and Andreas read, "I heard."
a cloud--Greek, "the cloud"; which may be merely the generic expression for what we are familiar with, as we say "the clouds." But I prefer taking the article as definitely alluding to THE cloud which received Jesus at His ascension, [Ac 1:9] (where there is no article, as there is no allusion to a previous cloud, such as there is here). As they resembled Him in their three and a half years' witnessing, their three and a half days lying in death (though not for exactly the same time, nor put in a tomb as He was), so also in their ascension is the translation and transfiguration of the sealed of Israel ([Re 7:1-8]), and the elect of all nations, caught up out of the reach of the Antichristian foe. In [Re 14:14-16], He is represented as sitting on a white cloud.
their enemies beheld them--and were thus openly convicted by God for their unbelief and persecution of His servants; unlike Elijah's ascension formerly, in the sight of friends only. The Church caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and transfigured in body, is justified by her Lord before the world, even as the man-child (Jesus) was "caught up unto God and His throne" from before the dragon standing ready to devour the woman's child as soon as born.
13. "In that same hour"; literally, "the hour."
great earthquake--answering to the "great earthquake" under the sixth seal, just at the approach of the Lord ([Re 6:12]). Christ was delivered unto His enemies on the fifth day of the week, and on the sixth was crucified, and on the sabbath rested; so it is under the sixth seal and sixth trumpet that the last suffering of the Church, begun under the fifth seal and trumpet, is to be consummated, before she enters on her seventh day of eternal sabbath. Six is the number of the world power's greatest triumph, but at the same time verges on seven, the divine number, when its utter destruction takes place. Compare "666" in [Re 13:18], "the number of the beast."
tenth part of the city fell--that is, of "the great city" ([Re 16:19]; [Zec 14:2]). Ten is the number of the world kingdoms ([Re 17:10-12]), and the beast's horns ([Re 13:1]), and the dragon's ([Re 12:3]). Thus, in the Church-historical view, it is hereby implied that one of the ten apostate world kingdoms fall. But in the narrower view a tenth of Jerusalem under Antichrist falls. The nine-tenths remain and become when purified the center of Christ's earthly kingdom.
of men--Greek, "names of men." The men are as accurately enumerated as if their names were given.
seven thousand--Elliott interprets seven chiliads or provinces, that is, the seven Dutch United Provinces lost to the papacy; and "names of men," titles of dignity, duchies, lordships, &c. Rather, seven thousand combine the two mystical perfect and comprehensive numbers seven and thousand, implying the full and complete destruction of the impenitent.
the remnant--consisting of the Israelite inhabitants not slain. Their conversion forms a blessed contrast to [Re 16:9]; and above, [Re 9:20], . These repenting (Zec 12:10-14; 13:), become in the flesh the loyal subjects of Christ reigning over the earth with His transfigured saints.
gave glory to the God of heaven--which while apostates, and worshipping the beast's image, they had not done.
God of heaven--The apostates of the last days, in pretended scientific enlightenment, recognize no heavenly power, but only the natural forces in the earth which come under their observation. His receiving up into heaven the two witnesses who had power during their time on earth to shut heaven from raining ([Re 11:6]), constrained His and their enemies who witnessed it, to acknowledge the God of heaven, to be God of the earth ([Re 11:4]). As in [Re 11:4] He declared Himself to be God of the earth by His two witnesses, so now He proves Himself to be God of heaven also.