Prophets, Priests, and Kings Through Christ: The Two Witnesses in Revelation 11:3–13 and the Regenerate Church
Joshua M. Greever
Joshua M. Greever is the Associate Dean of Seminary Programs & Associate Professor of New Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary
Abstract: Traditionally Covenant Theology has affirmed that the inaugurated new covenant community is “mixed” in the sense that it contains both regenerate and unregenerate members. This article, which focuses on the identity of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:3–13, challenges this assertion and proposes in its place a “progressive covenantalism” ecclesiology, namely, that the inaugurated new covenant community is entirely and without exception regenerate. In Revelation 11, which relies on the symbol of the OT lampstand and its eschatological vision in Zechariah 4, the two witnesses have a prophetic, priestly, and kingly identity and mission because of their union with Christ. The two witnesses represent the entire church, and through Christ, therefore, the entire new covenant community is faithful as prophets, priests, and kings before God.
As a result of our analysis of Rev 11:3–13, the church fulfills the identity and mission of Israel, and it does so through Christ. Unlike a strict supercessionism that sees the church as the replacement of Israel, Rev 11 and its use of Zechariah’s vision shows that Jesus fulfilled the identity and mission of Israel, particularly in his roles as prophet, priest, and king, and through him the church shares in his victory by faith.
Introduction[1]
Traditionally Covenant Theology (CT) has affirmed that the inaugurated new covenant community is “mixed” in the sense that it contains both regenerate and unregenerate members. CT views the ecclesiology of the old covenant as in fundamental continuity with the ecclesiology of the new covenant, at least in its inaugurated form. Just as the old covenant community contained within it a remnant of faithful Israelites coexisting with unbelieving Israelites, so also in the new covenant community there coexists a remnant of true believers with false believers. Such prioritization of ecclesial continuity is aptly stated by Michael Horton: “It is not that there are two covenants of grace or two churches, but that the one covenant of grace and church of Christ exists for now as a ‘mixed assembly.’ But this is not a new problem for the new covenant people; it has been part and parcel of God’s electing prerogative since the beginning, as Paul insists (Rom. 9:6-18).”[2]
This article intends to challenge this assertion regarding the “mixed” nature of the new covenant community and propose in its place that the inaugurated new covenant community is entirely and without exception regenerate. In other words, the membership of the new covenant community is coextensive with the number of the regenerate in that community. Jeremiah’s new covenant promise that all the covenant members would savingly know God, even “from the least of them to the greatest” (Jer 31:34),[3] has found expression in the inaugurated new covenant era because of the work of Christ mediated to his church.
While many NT texts support such a proposal, this article will focus on Rev 11:3–13. As a hermeneutically challenging text, Revelation 11 has often been overlooked for its contribution to NT ecclesiology. Nevertheless, a proper understanding of the identity of the two witnesses leads to a conclusion that the inaugurated new covenant community is regenerate. Indeed, the two witnesses, who I will argue represent the entire inaugurated new covenant community on earth, are portrayed as faithful in their witness. The foundation for and the guarantee of the church’s faithful witness are located in the church’s union with Christ. Unlike old covenant Israel, which possessed a faithful remnant within a broader unbelieving community, the inaugurated new covenant community is given a prophet-priest-king identity and mission, and it experiences the blessings of God’s enduring presence and communal purity because of Christ’s work on their behalf.
To demonstrate this thesis, I will situate the two witnesses into the immediate context of Revelation; explore the symbolism of the lampstand in the OT and, specifically, in Zechariah 4; and probe the way in which Rev 11:3–13 shows the fulfillment of Zechariah’s vision in Christ and his church.
Identifying the Two Witnesses
Revelation 11 is part of an interlude (Rev 10:1–11:13) between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments (Rev 9:13–21; 11:14–19). The last three trumpets correspond to three woes of judgment on those who dwell on the earth (Rev 8:13; 9:12; 11:14). As with the seven seal judgments (see Rev 7:1–17), the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments functions to show the protection of the church in the midst of divine judgment. In Rev 11, such divine protection is described in two ways. First, John is told to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshipers, whereas he is not to measure the temple courtyard (Rev 11:1–2). That which is measured is protected, whereas the unmeasured is trampled by “the nations” (see Jer 31:38–40).[4] Second, John is told of two witnesses, who will have divine protection until they complete their prophetic ministry (Rev 11:3–6). Even after they succumb to martyrdom, they will receive final protection through their resurrection and ascension to heaven (Rev 11:7–13). Of the two protection accounts—they apparently occur during the same time period, the forty-two months of 11:2 being equivalent to the 1,260 days of 11:3—we will focus on the latter to detect the meaning of the two witnesses for NT ecclesiology.
Regarding the two witnesses, we are told of their life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Their life is described primarily in prophetic terms (Rev 11:3–6). They prophesy for 1,260 days (Rev 11:3), and they preach a message of repentance, as seen from their sackcloth and the torment their message brings (Rev 11:3, 10). They likewise are identified as prophets like Elijah and Moses: like Elijah, they “have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall” (Rev 11:6a; compare with 1 Kgs 17:1), and like Moses, they can turn water to blood and inflict plagues on people (Rev 11:6b; compare with Exod 7:14–10:29).
Their death, resurrection, and ascension are recounted in Rev 11:7–13. They are not invincible forever, for after they are finished with their testimony, they are killed by the beast and are refused a proper burial (Rev 11:7–9). Their enemies rejoice, thinking they had finally achieved victory (Rev 11:10), but then, astonishingly, in an allusion to Ezek 37:10, God gives them the final victory by raising them from the dead, bringing them into heaven, and judging their enemies (Rev 11:11–13).
Attempts to identify the two witnesses have elicited a variety of answers. The preterist and futurist interpretative approaches to Revelation commonly see the two witnesses as two individuals in history, whether past or future, respectively.[5] Specifically, some in the early church saw the two individuals as Enoch and Elijah, who would reappear at the end to unmask the deceptions of the Antichrist.[6] Still, it is more likely that the two witnesses are not historical individuals but represent the entire new covenant community. This interpretation finds sufficient warrant in the identification of the two witnesses as the two olive trees and the two lampstands from Zech 4 (Rev 11:4). A close analysis of the symbolism of the lampstand in the OT and its use in Zech 4 will confirm the corporate interpretation of the two witnesses in Rev 11.
The Lampstand’s Symbolism of Divine Presence and Communal Purity
The lampstand signified both the enduring presence of God in the community as well as the purity and holiness of the community. The lampstand is closely linked with the bread of the presence, both textually and spatially. Textually, instructions for the lampstand often occur within the Sinai legislation alongside mention of the bread of the presence (e.g., Exod 25:30–31; Lev 24:1–9; compare with Heb 9:2).[7] Spatially, the lampstand appeared within the tabernacle opposite the bread of the presence, drawing together the symbols of light and bread as depicting the divine presence. In Solomon’s temple, there were ten lampstands—five on the north and five on the south—suggesting the fullness of God’s presence among his people (1 Kgs 7:49; 2 Chr 4:7). Such an interpretation is found in Zechariah’s vision, in which the seven lamps on the lampstand symbolize the seven eyes of the Lord, who sees the entire earth, watchful and protective of his people (Zech 4:10). As Carol Meyers notes, since God did not allow himself to be represented with an image, “the presence of such a form in the aniconographic Israelite cult can perhaps be construed as the use of a powerful religious symbol to represent the presence of the unseen God of Israel.”[8]
In addition to representing the divine presence, the lampstand also portrayed God’s purity and the purity that he summoned his people to pursue. The high value of God’s presence among his people and the standard of communal purity are aptly depicted by the substance and sustenance of the lampstand. Its substance was made of pure, hammered gold that weighed approximately seventy-five pounds (Exod 25:31–40; 37:17-24; Num 8:4). Its sustenance came from only the best kind of oil (“pure beaten olive oil”; Exod 27:20; compare with Lev 24:1–4), which was provided regularly for the lighting of the lamps. The continuation of this oil represented the ongoing call for the community’s holiness: “The offering of oil . . . formed part of the service in which Israel sanctified its life and labor to the Lord its God, not only at the appointed festal periods, but every day.”[9] A continually lit lampstand by only the finest olive oil was to be symbolic of Israel’s commitment to be pure and holy to the Lord, to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and might (Deut 6:5).
Unifying the themes of divine presence and communal purity is the resemblance of the lampstand to a flowering almond tree. According to Exod 25:32–35, the lampstand had six branches coming off the central stem, with each branch having three cups that resembled almond blossoms with a calyx and a flower. Before winter officially ends, the almond tree produces snow-white blossoms, marking the beginning of spring.[10] The whiteness of the blossoms and the blossoms’ heralding of the onset of spring made the tree an apt symbol for the life and purity the lampstand was to represent—the purity of the people, the priesthood, and the God who dwelt among his people. In this sense the lampstand was a tree-like symbol reminiscent of the tree of life planted in the Garden of Eden.[11] Like the tree of life, the lampstand was to represent the abiding fellowship between God and his people and the continual holiness of his people before him.
Against the backdrop of the lampstand and what it symbolized is the story of Israel’s remarkable impurity and faithlessness. While many stories in Israel’s long history could be proffered to support this point, two are especially powerful because they occur immediately after Israel received the command about the lampstand: the golden calf episode (Exod 32) and a blasphemer (Lev 24:10–23). In the former, the story of Israel’s idolatry comes immediately after the narrative brings to a conclusion God’s instructions for the building of the tabernacle and its furnishings, and God’s commissioning of Bezalel and Oholiab to do the work (Exod 25–31). Israel’s failure is set in stark contrast to the holiness they were called to pursue within God’s presence. Similarly, the story of an Israelite woman’s son who blasphemes the name of the Lord comes immediately after God gave Moses commands regarding the lampstand and the bread (see Lev 24:1–9). While on the one hand, the story illustrates how Israel was to maintain their purity in light of the sojourners among them—they stoned to death the blasphemer—it also provides a stark commentary on the nature of the Israelite community as a mixed community.[12] Even the man himself portrays this: his father was an Egyptian and his mother an Israelite. In a sense, his presence in the community illustrates the nature of that community as mixed with believers and unbelievers. Not everyone in the community was holy and faithful to the Lord. Both the story of the golden calf and the blasphemer insert dissonance into the narrative. The ideal of purity was not actualized or realized throughout Israel. Within Israel was a faithful remnant, but on the whole the community’s behavior was not consonant with the symbol of the lampstand. Such dissonance embedded within the OT narrative of the pure lampstand set in contrast with the impure community highlights the need for a new covenant that would return God’s people to the Garden of Eden, pure and unblemished.
Zechariah’s Olive Trees and Lampstand
This eschatological vision for God dwelling with a pure covenant community is the focus of Zech 4.[13] Using the imagery of olive trees, pure oil, and the lampstand, Zech 4 offers a vision of a newly restored people characterized by faithfulness to the Lord. Within the vision, the lampstand is described according to the instructions in the Sinai legislation: it is made entirely of pure gold, and it has seven lamps (Zech 4:2). Further, the lamps are sustained by two olive trees, one on the right side and one on the left (Zech 4:3). Connecting the olive trees to the bowl for the lampstand are two golden pipes that provide a perpetual flow of olive oil (lit. “gold”) to the lamps (Zech 4:12). More specifically, the angel speaking to Zechariah clarifies the identity of the two branches of the olive trees: “These are the two anointed ones . . . who stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (Zech 4:14). In the Hebrew, the phrase “anointed ones” is literally “sons of new oil” (benê hayyitshār), with the word for oil (yitshār) referring to the newness, freshness, and unblemished sustenance these individuals provide for the lampstand. Given the backdrop of Israel’s faithlessness, the rich quality of the oil they provide and the twofold repetition of the word “gold” (zāhāb) are indicative of their faithfulness to the Lord. Unlike the previous tabernacle and temple, which were quickly defiled and tainted by Israel’s sin, these individuals would maintain the purity and holiness of God’s dwelling place.
The two individuals are most likely identified as Joshua and Zerubbabel, who were the leaders of the post-exilic community in Judah.[14] Joshua was the high priest (see Zech 3:1–10; 6:11; Hag 1:1), and Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah who was in the royal lineage of David (see Zech 4:6–10; Hag 2:23; Matt 1:13). Hence, in the post-exilic period, Israel was represented by a king-like figure and a priest, who led the people to be faithful to the Lord, as symbolized in the rebuilt temple. Given the lampstand’s symbol of God dwelling with a pure people, Zechariah’s vision holds forth the eschatological hope that the lampstand’s symbol would one day be realized through a king and priest and pure community. The symbol was fulfilled in an interim way in the rebuilt temple through the efforts of Zerubbabel and Joshua, but the symbol awaited a final and climactic fulfillment, since in the post-exilic period Israel remained tainted and defiled (see Hag 1:4–6; 2:14; Mal 1:6–14). The efforts of Joshua and Zerubbabel to rebuild and sustain a pure temple point forward to a day when another king and priest would lead the people of God finally and climactically to be faithful to the Lord, to be pure and pleasing in his sight.[15]
As a hermeneutically challenging text, Revelation 11 has often been overlooked for its contribution to NT ecclesiology. Nevertheless, a proper understanding of the identity of the two witnesses leads to a conclusion that the inaugurated new covenant community is regenerate. Indeed, the two witnesses, who I will argue represent the entire inaugurated new covenant community on earth, are portrayed as faithful in their witness. The foundation for and the guarantee of the church’s faithful witness are located in the church’s union with Christ.
The Two Prophet-King-Priest Witnesses in Revelation 11
Our analysis of the symbolism of the lampstand and Zechariah’s eschatological vision for its renewal provides a foundation for understanding the identity of the two witnesses in Rev 11.
As indicated above, the “two witnesses,” first mentioned in Rev 11:3, fulfill a prophetic role, since they “prophesy” (Rev 11:3, 6), perform miracles like Moses and Elijah (Rev 11:6), and are called “prophets” (Rev 11:10). That there are “two” witnesses evokes the OT lawcourt motif, in which an accusation could stand only on the evidence of two or three witnesses (see Deut 17:6; 19:15; Matt 18:16). Like Moses and Elijah, these figures thus appear on the side of truth and prophetically herald that truth to the world, even if the world does not want to hear it (Rev 11:7–10).
In addition to being prophets, the two witnesses also occupy the roles of kings and priests, since John identifies them as “the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (Rev 11:4). In this clear allusion to Zech 4, the two witnesses are identified as a king and priest, since the two olive trees in Zechariah’s vision represented the anointed figures of Zerubbabel and Joshua.[16] Further, since the lampstand was temple furniture that symbolized God’s presence among a pure people, the identification of the two witnesses as two lampstands shows they are the dwelling place of God and are characterized by purity, faithfulness, and truth. Since the lampstand in Israel represented the entire covenant community, the identification of the two witnesses as lampstands strongly suggests that these figures are not to be identified as two historical individuals but represent the entire church. Indeed, elsewhere in Revelation John already labelled the churches as lampstands (see Rev 1:20).[17] The church is portrayed as the faithful and pure people of God, share fellowship with God and one another, and shine the light of truth in the midst of a dark world.
Such a portrayal stands in stark contrast from the reality of Israel’s experience in the OT. Far from worshiping the golden calf—in Revelation it takes the form of worshiping the beast (Rev 13:4)—the two witnesses hold fast to the Lord amidst trial. Far from blaspheming the name of the Lord—in Revelation this is what unbelievers do (Rev 16:9, 11, 21)—the two witnesses remain faithful to the Lord even unto death.
To what can we explain the difference between Israel’s experience in the OT and the church’s in the NT? The difference is a salvation-historical one: at this stage in redemptive history, Christ has already come and inaugurated the new covenant. The people of God are created and identified by virtue of their union with Christ. While this is not explicit in Rev 11, it is implied by the way in which the two witnesses most resemble Jesus. While they resemble Moses and Elijah in their prophetic ministries, they most closely resemble Jesus himself, as seen from the following table.
| Event | Jesus | Two Witnesses |
| Prophetic ministry | Luke 4:24 | Rev 11:3, 5–6 |
| Invincibility until appointed death | John 7:30 | Rev 11:5 |
| Finished the task | John 19:30 | Rev 11:7a |
| Martyred and shamed in Jerusalem | John 19:16–37 | Rev 11:7b–8 |
| Dead for only a short time | Mark 16:1–2 | Rev 11:9–11a |
| Raised to life | Matt 28:1–10 | Rev 11:11b |
| Fear on those who saw | Matt 28:4 | Rev 11:11c |
| Ascension into clouds | Acts 1:9 | Rev 11:12 |
The two witnesses resemble Jesus in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Like Jesus, they prophetically herald the truth of God to the world, despite all opposition. Like Jesus, they cannot die until they finish their divinely-given task of testifying. Like Jesus, they are faithful unto death, even when their death is brought about by the beast and leads to public scorn and shame. Indeed, the phrase “where their Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8) shows the close identification in death between the witnesses and Jesus.[18] Further, like Jesus, the two witnesses remain dead for only a short period of time—three and a half days[19]—and then are raised from the dead, to the fear and astonishment of the onlookers. Finally, like Jesus, they ascend to heaven in a cloud, God vindicating their righteousness. Thus, everything that happens to the two witnesses does so because it happened first to Jesus. They walk in his footsteps (1 John 2:6), and they share in his sufferings, death, and resurrection (Phil 3:10–11). More so than Moses or Elijah, they resemble Jesus and derive their identity and mission by virtue of their union with him.
The identity of the two witnesses as king-priests also derives from their union with Christ. Elsewhere in Revelation Jesus makes his people kings and priests by virtue of his death for them. Revelation 1:5–6 and 5:9–10 recount how Jesus died for his people, ransoming them from their sins by his sacrificial death, and made his people a “kingdom” and “priests” to God. The status of God’s people as king-priests is the benefit of their union with him within the new covenant. Like the old covenant, which was inaugurated through covenant sacrifice (Exod 24:3–8), Jesus has inaugurated the new covenant through his blood. But unlike the old covenant, which contained the promise of God’s people as kings and priests within a conditional framework (Exod 19:5–6), Jesus’ covenant sacrifice brought into effect a new and better covenant, which assures for all its covenant members the identity of king-priests before God. Hence, the church receives and fulfills Zechariah’s vision of the two king-priest olive trees that support and sustain the temple, but it does so not apart from but only on the basis of Christ and his covenant sacrifice. In Jesus we see the union of the crown and the priesthood; Jesus is the final and climactic fulfillment of the offices held by Zerubbabel and Joshua; he is both olive trees, both anointed ones, who builds and sustains the eschatological temple. Moreover, in Jesus we also see the lampstand, the light of the world (John 8:12), who mediates God’s presence to God’s people and, through his sacrificial work on their behalf, ensures their inviolable purity before God forever.
Ramifications for NT Ecclesiology
As a result of our analysis of Rev 11:3–13, the church fulfills the identity and mission of Israel, and it does so through Christ. Unlike a strict supercessionism that sees the church as the replacement of Israel, Rev 11 and its use of Zechariah’s vision shows that Jesus fulfilled the identity and mission of Israel, particularly in his roles as prophet, priest, and king, and through him the church shares in his victory by faith. The following diagram portrays this Israel-Christ-Church relationship.[20]
If this diagram is accurate, then the church in its entirety—by definition—is identified with Christ and lives out the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. As it does so, the church is preserved through faith in Christ. The church as a whole, despite its trials and temptations, remains faithful to the Lord and will finish its prophetic, priestly, and kingly task because of its union with Christ within the new covenant. Since Christ is our great Prophet, Priest, and King, all those in covenant with him in the new covenant era share in this identity and mission. This is not to diminish the difficulty the church faces while it is the church militant, nor is it to deny the need for Christ’s discipline of his church (see Rev 2:1–3:22). But it is to say that Christ will ultimately and finally preserve his church—that is to say, all the members of the new covenant without exception.
From a practical standpoint, this ecclesiology entails that Christians should not baptize and admit into the membership of their churches those who make no profession of faith. Due to the shortcomings of human knowledge at this juncture in redemptive history (see 1 Cor 13:12), churches sometimes err in baptizing and receiving those into membership who do not truly belong to Christ. Indeed, sometimes those who appeared to be Christians fall away and definitively reject the faith. Still, in such cases, they were never members of the new covenant—they did not belong to the “two witnesses” with its prophetic-priestly-kingly identity and mission, and they will hear Jesus’ eschatological denouncement, “I never knew you” (Matt 7:23). Hence, this is fundamentally different from CT since adherents of CT, committed to paedobaptism, knowingly baptize and admit into covenant membership those who do not profess faith in Christ. A better ecclesiological way forward in the inaugurated new covenant era will seek to align the visible (baptism and church membership) with the invisible (circumcision of the heart and faith). This approach better accounts for the way in which Christ brings redemptive-historical fulfillment to his people, and it better highlights the church’s identity and mission as prophets, priests, and kings through Christ.[21]
[1] This article is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Antonio, TX (November 16, 2016). Many thanks to those who offered feedback on the original paper.
[2] Michael S. Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 116. See Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 795.
[3] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical quotations are from the English Standard Version.
[4] Rightly G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 558–59.
[5] For a list of individuals put forward in the history of interpretation, see Beale, Revelation, 572–73n293; David E. Aune, Revelation 6–16, Word Biblical Commentary 52B (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 598–603. For instance, Josephus (Jewish War 4.5.2) tells of two godly Jewish high priests named Ananus and Jesus, who were martyred and left unburied in AD 68, and whose martyrdom led to the downfall of Jerusalem.
[6] Hippolytus of Rome, On Daniel 22; Tertullian, On the Soul 50; compare with Ethiopic Apocalypse of Peter 2.
[7] For the complementary use of the bread and the lampstand, see L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus, New Studies in Biblical Theology 37 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2015), 187–90.
[8] Carol Meyers, “Lampstand,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 4:142.
[9] C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, trans. James Martin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 2:451.
[10] Michael Zohary, Plants of the Bible: A Complete Handbook (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 66.
[11] R. E. Averbeck labels the lampstand “a stylized ‘tree of life’” Averbeck, “Tabernacle,” in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, ed. T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 815. similarly Meyers, “Lampstand,” 4:142; G. J. Wenham, “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” in Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986), 19–24.
[12] Leigh Trevaskis convincingly shows that the story of the blasphemer “extends the ideal of a sanctified Israelite community living under God’s rule, symbolized within Lev 24:1–9, to everyday life within the Israelite community.” While this is so, the fact that Israel had to deal with such a blasphemer within their own community immediately after receiving the Sinai commands shows a bleak outlook for the achievement of such an “ideal.” Trevaskis, “The Purpose of Leviticus 24 Within Its Literary Context,” Vetus Testamentum 59 (2009): 307.
[13] The visions in Zech 1–6 establish parameters for the return of Yahweh to Zion. For instance, in the first vision, God has horsemen to patrol the earth to remind the people that he must be recognized as king (Zech 1:7–17; compare with. 6:1–8). Again, the visions of Zech 3 and 5 show that for God to return to Zion, covenant-breaking and sin must be definitively dealt with (Zech 3:1–10; 5:1–11). Finally and positively, God’s return to Zion will coincide with a renewed and restored people, whose faithfulness is symbolized in the rebuilding of the temple (Zech 1:18–2:13; 4:1–14).
Now that we have surveyed the meaning of the lampstand in the story of Israel, we are equipped to understand the significance of the vision of the lampstand in Zech 4. Against the backdrop of Israel’s faithlessness, Zechariah 4 portrays the lampstand in the hope-filled, eschatological vision.
[14] This is the traditional identification of the olive trees. For example, see Carol L. Meyers and Eric M. Meyers, Haggai, Zechariah 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary Anchor Bible, 25b (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987), 275–76. More recent suggestions that the figures are prophetic instead of royal and priestly do not adequately take into account the prominence of Zerubbabel and Joshua in the visions of Zech 1–6 and the post-exilic era. For example, see Mark J. Boda, The Book of Zechariah New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 313–19.
[15] All the visions of Zech 1–6 run along these eschatological lines. For instance, God promised Joshua to send “my servant the Branch” and “remove the iniquity of this land in a single day” (Zech 3:8–9; compare with 6:12). Again, in Zech 5:1-11 God promises to do away with all those who break the covenant. Finally, in Zech 6:9–15, the crown and priesthood conjoin, and people from “far off” would come and help build the temple of the Lord (Zech 6:13–15). None of these visions found final fulfillment in the time of Zechariah.
[16] Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 421.
[17] Beale, Revelation, 574; Brian J. Tabb, All Things New: Revelation as Canonical Capstone, New Studies in Biblical Theology 48 (Downers Grove, IL: 2019), 96. John’s shift from Zechariah’s single lampstand to two lampstands in Rev 11:4 fits with the multiplicity of lampstands as multiple churches earlier in Rev 1–3.
[18] The adverbial kai (“also”), though occasionally omitted from English translations of Rev 11:8, highlights this close identification.
[19] While technically Jesus was not dead for three and a half days, the number “three and a half,” a form of which occurs throughout Rev 11–13 and derives from Dan 7:25, signifies a time of brief duration, especially the brevity of the power of evil (e.g., forty-two months [Rev 11:2; 13:5], 1,260 days [Rev 11:3; 12:6]). In this sense, it aptly parallels the brevity of Jesus’ time in the grave.
[20] For a defense of this biblical-theological ecclesiology, see Brent E. Parker, “The Israel-Christ-Church Relationship,” in Progressive Covenantalism, ed. Stephen J. Wellum and Brent E. Parker (Nashville, B&H, 2016), 39–68.
[21] For a more detailed systematic-theological exposition of new covenant ecclesiology, see Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 683–703.