Revelation 11:3-5

1599 Geneva Bible

Footnotes

1. Revelation 11:3 I had rather translate it illud than illam, the Temple than the city: for God saith, I will give that Temple, and commit it unto my two witnesses, that is unto the Ministers of the word, who are few indeed, weak and contemptible: but yet two, that is, of such a number as one of them may help another, and one confirm the testimony of another unto all men, that from the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be made good amongst men, 2 Cor. 13:1.
2. Revelation 11:3 They shall exercise their office enjoined by me by the space of those thousand two hundred and sixty years, in the midst of afflictions though never so lamentable which is figuratively showed by the mourning garment.
3. Revelation 11:4 That is, the ordinary and perpetual instruments of spiritual grace, peace and light in my Church, which God by his only power preserved in this Temple. See Zech. 4:3.
4. Revelation 11:5 The power and efficacy of the holy ministry, and which is truly Evangelical, is declared both in earth and in heaven, protecting the administers thereof, and destroying the enemies in this verse, virtue indeed divine most mightily showing itself forth in heaven, earth and the sea, verse 6, as it described, 2 Cor. 10:4, according to the promise of Christ, Mark 16:17. And this is the second place (as I said before) of the combats which the servants of God must needs undergo in the executing of their calling, and of the things that follow the same combats. In the combats or conflicts are these things: to overcome, in these two verses: to be overcome and killed, verse 7. After the slaughter follow these things, that the carcasses of the godly are laid abroad, verse 8 being unburied, are made a matter of scorn together of cursing and bitter execrations, verse 9, and that therefore gratulations are publicly and privately made, verse 10.