NT Text: Revelation 11:6
OT Source(s):
Source: Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology (Providential Type, Backward-Looking) + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: The two witnesses' power to "shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy" directly recalls Elijah's pronouncement in 1 Kings 17:1 that "there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Elijah's drought lasted three and a half years (Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17) — the same duration as the witnesses' prophesying (1,260 days = 42 months = 3.5 years). This numerical correspondence strengthens the typological link. Elijah's drought was a covenant lawsuit against Israel's Baal worship: by shutting off rain, YHWH demonstrated that He, not Baal (the supposed storm god), controlled the heavens. The eschatological witnesses exercise the same Elijah-like authority, making their prophetic testimony a divine confrontation with the idolatrous world system. The Elijah typology suggests that the church's prophetic witness in the end times will provoke the same hostility that Elijah faced from Ahab and Jezebel.