And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
9. shall see ] Read, see: and so “suffer not” “rejoice and make merry,” but “shall send.” The presents seem to make the transition from the prophecy to the narrative a little easier.
three days and a half ] Should probably be “ the three &c.” The half day lends a certain support to the “year-day” hypothesis that 3 years are meant. But the traditional explanation takes the days literally they rise, not on the third day like their Lord, but on the fourth being like Him, though not equal to Him. Whether the periods named are to be taken literally or no, there seems no reason why we should not follow the traditional view, and understand this chapter as foretelling a sign which shall literally come to pass in the last days. The prophets Moses and Elijah will appear upon earth or at the least two prophets will arise in their “spirit and power:” the scene of their prophecy will be Jerusalem, which will then be re-occupied by the Jewish nation. Antichrist (under whose patronage, it is believed, the restoration of the Jews will have taken place) will raise persecution against them, and kill them: but they will rise from the dead, and then, and not till then, the heart of Israel will turn to the Lord.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they of the people – Some of the people; a part of the people – ek ton laon. The language is such as would be employed to describe a scene where a considerable portion of a company of people should be referred to, without intending to include all. The essential idea is, that there would be an assemblage of different classes of people to whom their carcasses would be exposed, and that they would come and look upon them. We should expect to find the fulfillment of this in some place where, from any cause, a variety of people should be assembled – as in some capital, or some commercial city, to which they would be naturally attracted.
Shall see their dead bodies – That is, a state of things will occur as if these witnesses were put to death, and their carcasses were publicly exposed.
Three days and an half – This might be either literally three days and a half, or, more in accordance with the usual style of this book, these would be prophetic days; that is, three years and a half. Compare the notes on Rev 9:5, Rev 9:15.
And shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves – That is, there would be a course of conduct in regard to these witnesses such as would be shown to the dead if they were not suffered to be decently interred. The language used here – shall not suffer – seems to imply that there would be those who might be disposed to show them the respect evinced by interring the dead, but that this would not be permitted. This would find a fulfillment if, in a time of persecution, those who had borne faithful testimony were silenced and treated with dishonor and if there should be those who were disposed to show them respect, but who would be prevented by positive acts on the part of their persecutors. This has often been the case in persecution, and there could be no difficulty in finding numerous instances in the history of the church to which this language would he applicable.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.] They shall be treated with the greatest barbarity. Refusal of burial to the dead was allowed to be the sum of brutality and cruelty. In popish lands they will not suffer a Protestant to have Christian burial, or to have a grave in a churchyard! Contemptible wretches!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations; that is, a multitude of people of all sorts shall take notice of this suppression of these two witnesses in their bearing witness for God, and all the cruel dealings with them.
Shall see their dead bodies three days and an half: there are great disputes what time these three days and an half denote: it cannot be understood of three natural, or artificial days; for (as it is noted by the most judicious interpreters) this is much too short a time for all people to
see their dead bodies, to
rejoice over them, and to
make merry, and to
send gifts one to another in testification of the satisfaction of their lusts, upon the victory got over them. I find some understand these three days and an half of the one thousand two hundred and sixty years, wherein they prophesied in sackcloth, Rev 11:3, which they thus make out; they first conclude, that these are prophetical days, and so signify three years and a half; then they resolve each of those years into days, and count three times three hundred and sixty days (for in those countries they say the year was counted to contain but three hundred and sixty days); to which they add one hundred and eighty, the half of three hundred and sixty, for the half day, which make up one thousand two hundred and sixty days, or forty-two mouths; which is the just time both of the beasts reign, and of the womans abode in the wilderness, and of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, and of the Gentiles treading down the outward court.
1. But it seems very hard, thus first to make the three days three years in a prophetical sense, and then again to resolve those years, into days, and make those days so many more years; this looks as much like oppression to the text, as the counting interest upon interest to a debtor.
2. It plainly confounds the time of the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth, with the time of their lying dead.
Now although the time of their lying dead must be within the one thousand two hundred and sixty days, in the latter end thereof, (for it must be within the beasts forty-two months, mentioned Rev 13:5), yet it seems hard to make it as long as the beasts reign. It certainly signifies a time toward the end of the beasts reign, when there shall be a more eminent and universal suppression of the faithful witnesses of Christ than ever was before: it seemeth therefore rather to be understood more generally for a short time, as much such a phrase or way of speaking is used, Hos 6:2, or else for a determinate time of such three years and a half as we ordinarily count. I must confess the half day being added, makes me more incline to the latter; for though it be usual with us to express a short time by, two or three days, and this seems by that text of Hosea to have been an ancient way of speaking, yet we do not use to put in half days when we so speak. I do therefore agree with those who think the time here specified is to be understood of three ordinary years and a half; and the rather, because this is the very time that Christ was under the power of the Pharisees. As three days (that is, part of them) was the time of his being under the power of death, so three years and a half was the just time of all the indignity that he suffered from his manifestation to the world, to his death: and (as we read in 1 Macc.) it was the just time of Antiochuss oppressing of the Jews, whom divines judge that Daniel, in his 11th chapter, {Dan 11:1-45} makes a type of antichrist.
And shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves: divines are divided whether these words be to be understood of enemies or friends. If it be to be understood of friends, the death being a civil death principally that was spoken of, it signifieth the providence of God so working for his witnesses, by the adherence of a party to them, that their adversaries the popish party should not wholly extinguish them; which hath been seen all along the story of the church: though their adversaries have been warring against them, overcome and killed them, yet they have not been able to bury them; nor shall they be able to do it at this last pinch, when they shall have a greater victory over them than ever before, and kill them to a further degree. But methinks the phrase rather signifies this an act of enemies, who, to show their further malice to them, and contempt and scorn of them are said to be so inhuman, as not to suffer their dead bodies to be buried.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. theyrather, “(some)of the peoples.”
peopleGreek,“peoples.”
kindredsGreek,“tribes”; all save the elect (whence it is not said, Thepeoples . . . but [some] of the peoples . . . , or, someof the peoples . . . may refer to those of the nations . .., who at the time shall hold possession of Palestine andJerusalem).
shall seeSo Vulgate,Syriac, and Coptic. But A, B, C, and ANDREAS,the present, “see,” or rather (Greek, “blepousin“),”look upon.” The prophetic present.
dead bodiesSo Vulgate,Syriac, and ANDREAS.But A, B, C, and Coptic, singular, as in Re11:8, “dead body.” Three and a half days answer to thethree and a half years (see on Re11:2, 3), the half of seven, the full and perfect number.
shall not sufferso B,Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS.But A, C, and Vulgate read, “do not suffer.”
in gravesso Vulgateand PRIMASIUS. But B, C,Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS,singular; translate, “into a sepulchre,” literally,”a monument.” Accordingly, in righteous retribution inkind, the flesh of the Antichristian hosts is not buried, butgiven to all the fowls in mid-heaven to eat (Rev 19:17;Rev 19:18; Rev 19:21).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations,…. These are either the enemies of the witnesses, who consisted of the people, kindred, tongues, and nations, out from among whom they were chosen, redeemed, and called; and before or against whom John, representing these witnesses, prophesied; and over whom the Romish antichrist sits and rules, Re 5:9; or else their friends, either real or pretended; since it is not said “the people”, nor “all the people, kindred, tongues, and nations”, as it is when the antichristian party are spoken of; and seeing “they that dwell upon the earth”, in Re 11:10, are mentioned as a distinct company from these; and these are said to be some “of”, or “out” of the people, c. and accordingly the following words will admit of different senses:
shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. Now, though this is not literally to be understood, yet it may have some reference to the usages of the witnesses enemies, who sometimes have not allowed them a burial: so the bodies of John Huss, and Jerom of Prague, were burnt, and their ashes cast into the Rhine the body of Peter Ramus was cast about the streets, thrown into ponds and ditches, then dragged out, and beat with rods; and some have had their bones dug up again, after they had been buried many years, and then burnt, and their ashes scattered abroad, as Wickliff and Bucer here in England: but as this is to be understood in a mystical and allusive sense, the meaning is, as it may refer to enemies, that they shall see, and look upon with joy and pleasure, and with scorn and contempt, and insult over the witnesses, being silenced and deprived of power and opportunity of prophesying:, and as quite dispirited, cast down, and trodden under foot; and whereas not to have a burial granted is always reckoned a piece of the greatest barbarity and inhumanity, as well as of ignominy and reproach, and is expressive of a most unhappy and miserable condition; see
Ps 129:2; so it here signifies, that the enemies of the witnesses having obtained power over them, will not only insult them, but treat them in a very cruel and inhuman manner, and expose them to scorn and contempt; and it represents their case as being very uncomfortable, and deplorable: or as it may respect friends, real or pretended, such as had been, or were, the sense is, that they shall see them in their unhappy condition, and look upon them with pity and compassion; and shall thoroughly consider, and lay to heart, their case and circumstances; and shall remember then, their doctrine and testimony, and their godly lives, and not suffer them to be buried in oblivion; and shall also call to mind this prediction concerning them, that they should continue in this state but three days and a half, and then revive; and therefore they shall entertain hopes of them, as persons sometimes do of their friends, when they are in doubt whether they are dead or not, and therefore keep them above ground for some time, and will not suffer them to be buried; for when put into the grave, there is no more hope, or when a person has been dead, as in the case of Lazarus, four days; so that this conduct may express the kindness and hope of these friends: or it may be, the meaning is, that they will not look at them but very shyly, and at a distance, as being ashamed of them, and having no heart to succour, relieve, and encourage them; but act as did the priest and the Levite towards the man that fell among thieves, and was left half dead, looked upon him, and turned from him, to the other side of the way; as also, that they will not entertain them, or give them any shelter and refuge among them, when, in this their distress, they shall apply to them: the grave is a resting place; there the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest, Job 3:17. Such resting places the witnesses in former times have found, as the English in Queen Mary’s days found at Frankfort and Geneva, and other places, and since in Holland; and as now the French refugees here, who being killed in a civil sense in their own country, are put into graves, or are allowed places of rest and security here: but now these witnesses will find none; those who pretended to be their friends will look shy upon them, and not harbour them, yea, will not suffer any to do it; they will by some public act, through fear of the Popish party, forbid the reception and entertainment of them. The time that this will last will be “three days and a half”; after which, as in Re 11:11, they will live again, which cannot be understood literally of so many precise days; for it will; not be possible, that, in so short a time, the news of the slaying of the witnesses should be spread among the inhabitants of the earth, md they be able to express their general joy and rejoicing, and to send their gifts to one another upon his occasion, as is signified in Re 11:10; nor does this design so long a time, as the time and times, and half a time, elsewhere mentioned; or that it is a period of the same date and duration with the forty two months, in which the holy city is trodden under foot, and the 1260 days, or years, in which the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth; for during that time they will prophesy, and hold forth their testimony, though in sackcloth; but now they will be killed, and during this space will lie dead, and in entire silence: besides, it will be when they shall have finished their testimony, or towards the close of the 1260 days or years, that this war and slaughter will be, and when these three days and a half will take place, which are to be understood of three years and a half, according the prophetic style, a day for a year; and seems intended for the comfort of the saints, that this most afflictive and distressed condition of the witnesses should last but for a little while. It is made a question, whether this war with the witnesses, and the slaughter of them, and their lying unburied, are over or not: some have thought that these things had their accomplishment in the council of Constance, held about the year 1414, and which lasted three years and a half exactly, when those two witnesses, John Huss, and Jerom of Prague, were killed, insulted, and triumphed over by this council, which was made up of almost all nations. Brightman refers it to the Smalcaldic war in Germany in 1547, when the Protestant army was beaten, and John Frederick, elector of Saxony, and Ernest, the son of the landgrave, and after that the landgrave himself, were taken prisoners; which was a grievous blow to the Protestant cause, and occasioned great rejoicing in the Popish party; but in the year 1550, just three years and a half after that defeat, the men of Magdeburgh rose up with great spirit and courage, and revived the cause. About this time was the council of Trent; to which also the same writer accommodates these things, which consisted of men of all nations, and continued three years and a half; when the authority of the Scriptures was destroyed, which he supposes are the witnesses; when they were suppressed and silenced, and lay as a mere carcass, a dead letter, without any life in them: and it is easy to observe, that there have been several periods of time, in which there has been a seeming fulfilment of these things; the persecution under Queen Mary, and the burning of the martyrs in her time, continued about three years and a half; the massacre in France, in 1572, threatened an utter extirpation of the Protestant religion there, which yet revived in 1576, much about the same space of time here mentioned; and there are several others that have been observed by writers; but what seems most remarkable of all is the case of the Protestants in the valleys of Piedmont, commonly called the Vaudois. The duke of Savoy, their sovereign, by an edict, dated January 31, 1685-6, N. S. forbad the exercise of their religion on pain of death, ordered their churches to be demolished, and their ministers to be banished; which was published in the valleys April the 11th, and was put in execution on the 22nd of the same month, by Savoy and French troops, who killed great numbers of them, took others, and put them into prisons, whom they released about the beginning of December, 1686, and suffered them to depart into other countries, where they were kindly received, relieved, and preserved, particularly by the kingdoms and states of England, Holland, Brandenburgh, Geneva, and Switzerland, while the Popish party were rejoicing at their ruin: and toward the latter end of the year 1689, about three years and a half after the publishing of the edict, these people were inspired on a sudden with a spirit of resolution and courage; and, contrary to the advice of their friends, who thought their case desperate, secretly passed the lake of Geneva, and entered Savoy with sword in hand, and recovered their ancient possessions; and by the month of April, A. D. 1690, established themselves in it, notwithstanding the troops of France and Savoy, to whom they were comparatively few, and whom they slew in great numbers, with little loss to themselves; when the duke perceiving they were encouraged and assisted by foreign princes, and he having left the French interest, recalled the rest of them, and reestablished them by an edict, signed June 4, 1690, just three years and a half after their total dissipation, and gave leave to the French refugees to return with them. Now I take it, that these several things which have happened at certain times, in particular places, are so many hints and pledges of what hereafter will be universal to the witnesses in all places where they are. It would be very desirable if it could be ascertained, and concluded upon a good foundation, that this affair of the killing of the witnesses was over; but because of the following things it cannot be; for the outward court is not yet given to the Gentiles, at least not the whole of it, which must be, ere they can come at the witnesses in the inner court to slay them: they have indeed attacked it, and have taken some part of it, as in Germany, Poland, c. but as yet not in Great Britain, Holland, c. at least not thoroughly, though it is plain they are getting ground. Moreover, the witnesses have not finished their testimony, they are still prophesying: in sackcloth whereas it will be when they have finished it, and towards the close of the 1260 days or years, that they will be killed: to which add, that the ruin of antichrist will quickly follow their rising and ascension so that if any of the above instances had been the fulfilling of these things relating to the witnesses, antichrist must have been destroyed before now. And it may be further observed, that the second woe, which is the Turkish woe, will, upon the fulfilment of these things, pass away; and the third woe, or the sounding of the seventh trumpet, will immediately take place, which brings on the kingdom of Christ; whereas the Turkish government is still in being, and in great power (this was published in 1747. Ed.); and there is no appearance, as yet, of the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. There may be an allusion, in this space of time, to the time that Antiochus, called Epiphanes, held Jerusalem in his hands, after he had conquered it, which was just three years and six months s, during which time he spoiled the temple, and caused the daily sacrifice to cease: this term of time is much spoken of by the Jews; so long they say Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, and likewise Vespasian, and also three years and a half Adrian besieged Bither t.
s Joseph de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 7. t Echa Rabbati, fol. 43. 4. & 46. 3. & 48. 1. & 52. 2. & 58. 3. T. Hieros. Taanith, fol. 68. 4. Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 93. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Men from among ( etc.). No word for “men” ( or ) before , but it is implied (partitive use of ) as in 2:10 and often. See also Rev 5:9; Rev 7:9 for this enumeration of races and nations.
Do look upon (). Present (vivid dramatic) active indicative of .
Three days and a half ( ). Accusative of extent of time. H is neuter singular though (days) is feminine as in Mark 6:23; Rev 12:14. The days of the gloating over the dead bodies are as many as the years of the prophesying by the witnesses (11:3), but there is no necessary correspondence (day for a year). This delight of the spectators “is represented as at once fiendish and childish” (Swete).
Suffer not ( ). Present active indicative of , late form for , as in Mr 1:34 (cf. in Re 2:20). This use of with the infinitive is here alone in the Apocalypse, though common elsewhere (John 11:44; John 11:48; John 12:7; John 18:8).
Their dead bodies ( ). “Their corpses,” plural here, though singular just before and in verse 8.
To be laid in a tomb ( ). First aorist passive of , to place. (old word from , to remind) is a memorial, a monument, a sepulchre, a tomb (Mr 5:3). “In a country where burial regularly took place on the day of death the time of exposure and indignity would be regarded long” (Beckwith). See Tobit 1:18ff.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Shall see [] . Read, blepousin do men look (Rev.), and see on Joh 1:29.
Shall not suffer [ ] . Read ajfiousin do not suffer. To be put in graves [ ] . Read mnhma a tomb, as Rev. Compare Gen 23:4; Isa 14:19, 20.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations,” (kai blepousin ek ton laon kai phulon kai glosson kai ethnon) “And (shall) see (some) out of the peoples (masses) and family tribes and languages and nations,” the masses of both Israel and of the Gentiles gathered in Israel and Judea, Rev 17:15.
2) “Shall see their dead bodies,” (to ptoma auton) “the lifeless forms of them,” (not nekros, dead corpses) but assemblies of worship, the two witnesses, two candlesticks, or two olive trees. They (the masses) shall look upon the remains of them, their lifeless forms, assembly-bodies. This appears to be the unsaved of Israel (not sealed against death as the 144,000 had been) and the masses of formal Christiandom which had not, or followed not, the Spirit of God which seems to have been taken out of the Way at the rapture, 1Th 4:16; 1Th 4:18; 2Th 2:3-9; Mat 23:29-35.
3) “Three days and an half,” (hemeras treis kai hemisou) “for a period of three days and a half,” the last half-week of Daniel’s seventieth week of prophesy, here referred to as the half week in days, Dan 9:26-27.
4) “And shall not suffer their dead bodies,” (kai ta ptomata auton ouk aphiousin) “and the lifeless religious body forms of them they do (shall not) allow or permit.” That the two witnesses are not merely two human beings, but two (congregate) bodies of witnessing, Israel and the church, is evidenced by the term (Gk. ptoma) not nekros”, used of literal physical bodies that are dead.
5) “To be put in graves,” (tethenai eis mnema) “to be placed or put away Unto a tomb, an hiding; – The dead (barren, unfruitful, spiritually unproductive forms of the formal religious bodies), fakes of the two true witnesses will be permitted to continue under the antichrist rule of oppression as synagogues of Israel and formal spiritless Christiandom, protestantism and Catholicism, as both receive divine judgment, Rev 13:16-18; Rev 17:18; Dan 9:27.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. Three days and an half A miniature of the forty and two months, or three years and a half of Rev 11:2; being “a day for a year.” It is an adverse number, the sacred seven broken into two equal parts. The reduction to a miniature amount, corresponds both to the miniature reduction of the witnesses to two, and to the necessary brevity of time for a corpse to lie unburied.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And from among the peoples and tribes and languages and nations do men look on their dead bodies for three days and a half, and do not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.’
These ‘peoples and tribes and languages and nations’ are in direct and deliberate contrast with the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Rev 5:9), and the faithful servants of Christ out of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues (Rev 7:9) who come from the same source. They thus have no excuse, for their compatriots have responded to Christ. It was to them that John was to prophesy (Rev 10:11). Their behaviour is inhumane and abominable, and is shown to be even worse in the next verse, but there is no limit on man’s behaviour when he seeks revenge on those who make him feel uncomfortable.
When he speaks of many peoples and nations John may have thought in terms of people gathering to Jerusalem for the feasts, or he may have had in mind the armies of the nations who were treading it down. But he intends us to see Jerusalem as a microcosm of the whole earth, just as the church in Jerusalem is the microcosm of the whole church. (He could never have dreamed of television and computers and things yet to be invented). The three and a half days clearly parallels the three and a half years. God allows the crowds to enjoy, a day of shame for every year of the ministry they have rejected. That is all they have.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Ver. 9. Three days and a half ] i.e. For a short time, till out of their ashes others should arise to stickle for Christ. The pope never rested, but had one or other faithful witness to oppose him; either to his face (as Joannes Sarisburiensis, Qui praesens praesentem Pontificem redarguit; and Mancinellus, who reproved Alexander VI in a sermon at Rome, and had therefore his hands cut off, and his tongue cut out, whereof he died), or else in some more remote part of his dominion, as Savonarola (whom Guicciardin and Mirandula highly commend), Petrarch, who writeth thus, Babylon altera, nempe propinquior, atque recentior, adhuc stat, cito itidem casura, si essetis viri; Babylon would soon down, would you but play the men; besides a cloud of other witnesses, that might here be called in. (Jac. Rev.)
Not suffer their dead bodies ] So fulfilling that, Psa 79:2 . Some they would not suffer to be buried; others they dug up again after burial, as (besides many of our martyrs) they unburied and burned the bones of Hermannus Ferrariensis after they had sainted him, because he was said to have followed the doctrine of the Waldenses, those ancient Protestants. (Jac. Rev.) Cardinal Pole had a purpose, if he had lived, to have taken up King Henry VIII’s body, and to have burned it. It was generally observed, that as Winchester and Bonner did always thirst after the blood of the living, so was Cardinal Pole’s lightning (for the most part) kindled against the dead; and he reserved this charge only to himself.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 11:9 . Cf. 2Ch 24:19 f., Mat 23:34 f., Job 1:12 . , for other N.T. assimilations of irreg. to reg. verb (Win. Rev 14:16 ; Blass, 23:7), cf. Mar 1:34 , Luk 11:4 . In Ep. Lugd. the climax of pagan malice is the refusal to let the bodies of the martyrs be buried by their friends. . The rendering of burial honours to the dead was a matter of great moment in the ancient world; to be denied pious burial meant ignominy in the memory of this world and penalties in the next. The two witnesses are treated as the murdered high priests, Ananus and Jesus, were handled by the Jewish mob in the seventh decade (Jos. Bell . iv. 5, 2). , the onlookers, who evidently sympathise with anti-christ ( cf. on Rev 16:12 ), include pagans as well as Jews (Andr.). , . . ., three and a half as the broken seven ( cf. on Rev 11:2 ) here in days. This trait ( cf. on Rev 11:12 ) shows that their fate was not originally modelled on that of Jesus.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
of. App-104.
people = peoples.
kindreds = tribes. as Rev 1:7.
shall see = see, with texts. App-133.
shall. Omit.
three days and an half. A literal period.
shall not suffer = suffer not.
graves = a tomb, a word destructive of interpretations of the two witnesses as the O.T. and N.T.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 11:9. – ) The present, followed by another tense. Thus soon after, . Comp. ch. Rev 12:4, Rev 13:12.- ) 3 days, not 3 or 4. This passage, even by itself, affords an irrefragable proof, how scrupulously, that is, how exactly, the interpreter, who trembles at the words of THE LORD, ought to take prophetic numbers, without proverbial roundness of numbers. See Erkl. Offenb., p. 99.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the people: Rev 10:11, Rev 13:7, Rev 17:15
three: Rev 11:2, Rev 11:3, Rev 11:11
and shall not: Rev 5:8, Rev 19:17, Rev 19:18, Psa 79:2, Psa 79:3, Ecc 6:3, Isa 33:1, Jer 7:33, Mat 7:2
Reciprocal: Psa 141:7 – bones Jer 25:33 – they shall not Hag 2:6 – and I Heb 11:5 – and was Rev 5:9 – out Rev 11:8 – their dead Rev 11:18 – the nations
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 11:9. The Bible continued to be a prohibited book all through the Dark Ages or the 1260 years. That is the period represented here by three days and a half. The term is obtained by reducing three and a half years to days (1260), then remembering that a day in symbolic language stands for a year. Not suffer . . . put in graves. A refusal to give burial to a body that has been slain would indicate much disrespect for the body. The figure is used to denote the low esteem the church of Rome had for the word of God.
Rev 11:1. The reed given unto John was a measuring rule and is a symbol of the word of God. This is clear from the fact that the angel gave it to John who was one of the apostles. We know the word of God is the divine standard for it is required in 1Pe 4:11 that, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” At the time predicted by this chapter the apostasy (“falling away”) was an established fact. The Bible was virtually taken from the people and the religious lives of men and women were judged by the decrees of Rome instead of by the word of God. This verse is a symbol of the true standard of the measurement as the apostles were given the authority to execute (Mat 19:28). The temple of God means the church (1Co 3:16-17). The altar was the center of worship in the Mosaic system, and it is referred to here as a symbol of the worship under that of Christ. The in that worship therein means Christians, whose personal lives must be measured (regulated) by the word of God and not by the decrees of Rome.
Rev 11:10. The teaching of the Bible stands in the way of the evil desires of men who wish to profit by a misuse of the religion of Christ which they profess to follow. It torments them as the verse states it, and therefore it would be a cause for rejoicing among such people to have it put out of the way. Two prophets are other terms for the Old and New Testament. It was a custom to exchange gifts upon occasions of special rejoicing which was a form of mutual congratulations. (See Neh 8:12 and Est 9:22.)
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verses 9-10.
In verse 9, it is stated that the people and kindred and tongues and nations, such as were represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, should see the dead bodies of the two witnesses. The word see indicated that the people would come to know the testimony of the witnesses, and would not allow them to be put in the grave–that is, the cause of the two witnesses survived.
5. The three and one-half days here were one-half of the symbolic seven, a shortened period of calamity, corresponding to the Lord’s description of these tribulations in Mat 24:22 and Mar 13:20 : “And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days”– the cause only shortly defeated.
A comparison of this application of the phrase three and one-half days is found also in the message that Jesus sent to Herod, recorded in Luk 13:31-33 : “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” This was an effort of the Pharisees to scare Jesus; he was lingering too long in Galilee to please his adversaries; and he was adding followers and new adherents to his teaching, as his reputation increased. The province of Galilee was a safe retreat from the dangers that would surround Jesus in Jerusalem, and the Pharisees knowingly attempted to reverse the Lord’s favorable surroundings. It was an alleged Herodian threat, which if true, and Jesus had yielded to the intimidation, it would have involved him in an ignoble flight from the scene of his ministry; and if not true, it was the strategy of the Pharisees under friendly mien and confidential guise to divert his course from Galilee into the more perilous regions of Jerusalem.
The pretension was that despite their differences the Pharisees were concerned with the Lord’s safety; but there was no evidence that Herod Antipas had any designs of killing Jesus, as ascribed by these Pharisees. He had already enough blood on his hands by the execution of John in which he had been entangled and entrapped unawares (Mat 14:2); and thinking that Jesus was John raised to life (Luk 9:7-9), he would not have been so foolish as to kill him again; beside this, is the fact that Herod did not want to kill Jesus, as shown by his sending him back to Pilate rather than to sentence Jesus in his own court. (Luk 23:6-11)
The Herodian report was a Pharisaical invention, a fiction of their own to rid Galilee of Jesus, rather than a collusion with or an actual threat from Herod. And in the spirit of irony, not at all alien to his teaching, Jesus fell in with the report, knowing that the fox, whom he called that fox, was none other than the Pharisees themselves.
The Lord answered the Pharisees: Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. It would be equivalent to convicting the Lord of cowardice to construe his statement to mean that he would tarry in Galilee two days more and on the third day he would quit! The proper analysis of the passage is: As in the past, so in the present (today); I shall continue without interruption (tomorrow); and in the future also (third day), I shall pursue this course until my ministry shall have reached completion in the finished work (perfected).
There had been a predetermined time for the Lord’s earthly ministry; instead of fleeing he would accomplish his work this day and tomorrow, and when the third or last day came, he should then have been perfected-his ministry fulfilled and his work finished. In the meanwhile there would be no abrupt or premature ending of his course by threats to intimidate or attempts to scare. Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following. The great Master had just stated that his divine ministry would continue to completion l now he refers to the day following as a day of walking, or the day of finished work. Henceforth, to the day of his passion, his resurrection and his ascension, until the purpose of his incarnation shall have been fully performed and accomplished, and his vicarious work crowned by his return to heaven from whence he came –until then, he would walk and work unlet and unharmed in Galilee, “for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” His destination was Jerusalem, the evil murderess of the prophets and the deadly enemy of the kingdom of Christ–and Jerusalem would crucify him. The Lord’s words to the Pharisees, paraphrased, were these:
My danger is not Galilee, nor Herod, but Jerusalem; your seat and headquarters, where you reign; and when the day of my death shall come, you the Jews, not Herod the king, will be the author of the murderous deed.
On another occasion (Joh 11:9) when the disciples warned Jesus that the Jews had plotted to stone him, Jesus answered: “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” Here again a figurative expression was employed to indicate a fixed and appointed time for the ministry of Christ to be accomplished.
In the same figure of speech employed by Jesus on the two occasions mentioned, John represents the two witnesses as having been dead in the street the three and one-half days. Here it denoted that fixed and appointed time for the people to see their testimony, as a result of martyrdom, during the period of suffering. But the fixed time was designated as three and one-half days because that figure is one-half the seven days period–as the number seven represented the full time; and one-half of seven, the three and one-half days, represented the shortening of the period of tribulation through which they were passing. This application of the time figure blends into a complete harmony with the Lord’s own predictive narrations of the tribulation period, as though woven by one hand into one apocalyptic garment: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Mat 24:21-22) The three and one-half days of the two witnesses were the pictorial fulfillment of the Lord’s own prophetic descriptions.
The pronouncement of verse 9 that they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations . . . shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves indicated that the defeat of their cause was of short duration–it would survive death, as life returning before decomposition. All of the combined powers of persecution could not prevent the survival of the testimony of the two witnesses. But–they that dwell on earth rejoiced–the enemies of the cause showed great jubilation over the death and public exposure of the witnesses, rejoicing in the victory they thought was gained-but their celebrations were premature. In their exchanges of praise and self-congratulation they would send gifts one to another with mutual admiration in the part each of them played in the prosecution of the cause of the two witnesses gloating in victory because the two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. The earth signified the place of the powers, the sphere of authority. They were tormented by the presence and testimony of the two witnesses as the gospel torments the disobedient. (Act 7:54); and as the effect of truth on evil spirits (1Jn 4:18; Mat 8:29; Mar 5:7; Luk 8:28).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 11:9. The spectators mentioned in this verse come from the whole world in its fourfold designation of peoples and tribes and tongues and nations. All look upon the dead body of the witnesses without commiseration for the miserable state in which it lies. This they do for three days and a half, not literal days but, according to the analogy of three and a half years, a broken, incomplete, and probably short period. That during this period the world suffers not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb heightens the picture of contempt and injury (comp. Gen 23:4; Isa 14:19-20).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Real joy will be expressed by the world over the death of the two witnesses because they had tormented the world with their testimony. The worldly celebrate, even exchanging gifts. Leaving the bodies of the witnesses unburied shows the scornful attitude they had for the truth and its deliverers. Three and a half is half of seven, which represents a broken, short, troublesome space of time. Coffman also suggests it means evil’s triumph is never complete.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
11:9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies {15} three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
(15) That is, for three years and a half: for so many years Boniface lived after his Jubile, as Bergomensis witnesses.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Evidently people from all over the world will be able to view the corpses, probably by television. Alternatively people from all these groups (cf. Rev 5:9; Rev 7:9) may be in Jerusalem at this time and will see them. The correspondence of three and a half days to the three and a half years of the Great Tribulation may only be coincidental. Nonetheless it draws attention to the fact that God’s servants will only suffer a short time whereas those under His wrath will suffer much longer.