11:3 two witnesses. Possibly two literal individual human beings are in view: either two Christian prophets who were martyred shortly before the fall of Jerusalem, or two prophets who will appear shortly before the Second Coming. But their identification with two lampstands (v. 4) suggests they might be symbolic figures standing for the witness of the lampstand churches of 1:20. If this is the case, they would symbolize churches rather than specific individuals. Two lampstands, rather than seven, are mentioned to imitate the pattern of Zech. 4 and of Moses and Elijah (11:1–14 note; cf. Deut. 17:6; Matt. 17:3, 4; Luke 10:1).