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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 11:5, fire comes out of their mouth
Fire that comes out of the witnesses' mouths and consumes their enemies joins Elijah's fire from heaven to Jeremiah's words made fire in his mouth.
Revelation 11:5, in every translation this tool compares.
A new song can join the chorus of one hit to the verse of another. Elijah called down fire from heaven on soldiers sent to seize him. God told Jeremiah that his words would be fire in his mouth, and the people wood for it to burn. John joins the two. Fire comes from the witnesses' mouths and devours anyone who tries to harm them. Elijah's fire now comes from a prophet's mouth, as Jeremiah's did.
Fire that devours enemies: 2 Kings 1:10 in Greek has fire come down and devour (katephagen) Elijah's foes. Fire in the mouth: Jeremiah 5:14 has my words in your mouth as fire (pyr), and it will devour (kataphagetai) them. John has fire coming out of their mouth that devours (katesthiei).
Elijah's fire falls from heaven; John's comes from the mouth, which is Jeremiah's picture. Jeremiah's fire is God's word aimed at Judah; John's guards the witnesses from anyone who harms them. John adds that anyone who tries to harm them must die in the same way, the law's rule that the penalty fit the deed.
Beale reads the fire as the witnesses' word of judgment: to reject it starts the enemies' doom. Two study Bibles say the mouth is Jeremiah's picture and the fire is Elijah's. Heiser uses the line to test readings that take the witnesses as two men. MacArthur reads real fire that keeps the two safe while they prophesy.
Not Elijah's fire from heaven. Elijah called fire down from the sky. John's fire comes out of the witnesses' mouths, which is Jeremiah's picture of God's word.
Beale says the clause is not literal but a legal pronouncement that begins the enemies' judgment, like the sword from Christ's mouth (1:16; 19:15) and Isaiah 11:4. He cites Jeremiah 5:14, where God gives his words into the prophet's mouth as fire to consume the people, noting the shared verb give in 11:3, and Elijah calling down fire in 2 Kings 1:10-17. The vault's Septuagint of Jeremiah 5:14 reads dedoka tous logous mou eis to stoma sou pyr, and then kataphagetai autous; 2 Kings 1:10 reads kateben pyr ek tou ouranou kai katephagen. Revelation 11:5 has pyr ekporeuetai ek tou stomatos auton kai katesthiei tous echthrous auton. Keener says the Elijah allusion is slightly changed, perhaps for powerful declarations of judgment (Jeremiah 5:10, 14). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible cite both texts. The grade is drawn here: the fire and the mouth each have a clear source, joined by John.
Heiser presses consistency. Readers who take the witnesses as two literal men, Moses and Elijah or Enoch and Elijah, read nearly every line literally but call the fire from their mouths figurative. If that line is figurative, he asks, why not the rest? He says this is not his main reason for a symbolic reading, which is Zechariah 4 and the day of the Lord material that follows, but it argues for being consistent.
Is the fire literal? Beale reads a legal word of judgment, like the sword from Christ's mouth, and notes that no Old Testament prophet breathed fire. Heiser says readers who take the witnesses as two men still read this line as a figure, and asks why the rest is not. MacArthur, who reads two individuals, takes the fire as probably literal: no one can harm the witnesses while they prophesy, and the false prophet later copies the sign.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:5
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:5
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:5-6 and cross-references on Revelation 11:5
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:5-6
- Septuagint, Jeremiah 5:14 and 2 Kings 1:10, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:5
- 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 11:5
