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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 11:4, the two olive trees and the two lampstands
The witnesses are the two olive trees and two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth, wording that comes from Zechariah 4.
Revelation 11:4, in every translation this tool compares.
A flag borrowed from an old uprising tells people whose cause you share. Zechariah saw a gold lampstand with an olive tree on each side. The trees were two anointed men, a priest and a governor, who stood beside God, ruler of all lands. They would see the temple rebuilt by God's Spirit. John says his witnesses are two lampstands and two olive trees. They take up that work.
Two olive trees (dyo elaiai), as in Zechariah 4:3 and 4:11, and a standing before the Lord of the earth. Zechariah 4:14 in Greek has paresteka si to kyrio pases tes ges; John has enopion tou kyriou tes ges hestotes. A lampstand (lychnia) stands in both.
Zechariah has one lampstand; John has two, to match the two trees. Zechariah's two are men, Joshua the priest and Zerubbabel; John's are his witnesses. John drops all from of all the earth. In Hebrew the two are sons of oil (bene hayyitshar), which the Greek renders sons of fatness; John says neither, only trees.
In Zechariah the priest and the governor rebuild the temple against opposition, not by might but by God's Spirit (4:6). John gives that picture to his witnesses. Beale applies it to the church, a kingdom and priests (1:6; 5:10), and notes that the lampstands mean churches in 1:20. MacArthur reads two prophets who will stir a revival, as the priest and the governor did after the exile.
Not the same two figures as in Zechariah. Zechariah's olive trees are a priest and a governor of his own day. John gives the picture to his two witnesses.
Beale says the olive trees and lampstands, with the closing clause, come from Zechariah 4:14 (also 4:2-3, 11-14). He reads the lampstand as the second temple and the trees as Joshua and Zerubbabel, supplying the Spirit's oil for its completion despite opposition (4:6-10). The masculine hestotes, he notes, may keep the order of Zechariah, where the feminine trees become the masculine two sons who stand (4:14), and Jewish writings read the lampstand as righteous Israel. The Hebrew of Zechariah 4:14 reads shene vene hayyitshar haomedim al adon kol haarets; the vault's Septuagint has hoi dyo huioi tes piotetos. Walton notes that the oil word means raw, unprocessed oil, not anointing oil. Keener calls the source clear and ties it to king and priest (Zechariah 6:13), as do the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible. The grade is drawn here: the wording is nearly identical and could come only from Zechariah 4.
Heiser makes Zechariah 4 his main reason for reading the witnesses as symbols. The two witnesses are the two sons of oil, he says, in a heavenly vision where the seven lamps are the Lord's eyes, members of the divine council. Not by might but by my Spirit, he says, comes from Hosea 1:7, where God restores a people he had called not my people. So, in his words, "the two sons of oil represent heavenly people of God". He offers it as a direction to think in, not a proof.
Individuals or the church? The CSB Study Bible reads two individuals; Keener holds both options open; the ESV Study Bible, Beale and Heiser read the church as priests and kings. Some, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes, expect two future leaders like Joshua and Zerubbabel. Qumran looked for two anointed figures, a king and a priest, Keener says. MacArthur reads Zechariah's vision as fulfilled twice: first in the temple Joshua and Zerubbabel rebuilt, and last in the two witnesses, whose work points to Israel's restoration in the thousand years.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:4
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:4
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:4
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:3-4
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:4
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Zechariah 4:14
- Septuagint, Zechariah 4:3, 4:11 and 4:14, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Zechariah 4:14, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:4
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 11: The Two Witnesses and the Seventh Trumpet, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 11:4
