Revelation 11:12

12. Great voice from heaven Life from God gave them their resurrection; a voice from God their ascension.

Hither Into the presence of God, the highest firmament, the most excellent glory. Note, Revelation 4:11.

In a cloud Rather in the cloud, the airy region of vapour and dimness.

Enemies beheld them As crowned with divine approbation and rising in triumph to the blessed abodes.

Alford remarks that “no attempt has been made to explain this ascension by those who interpret the witness figuratively of the Old and New Testament,” as Wordsworth, or as “calling up to political ascendency and power.” We think the figurative “explanation” not only easy and natural in the “attempt,” but in the accomplishment. The imagery, like that in Revelation 11:5, is borrowed from the history of Elijah; whose ascension, like that of these witnesses, was a divine token of endorsement and triumph. It thence stands in perfect analogy with the ascension of the man-child, who mounts to the throne to rule in ever-completing triumph and power over his adversaries, ultimately to put them all under his feet. Note Revelation 12:5. It is, then, correspondent to the triumphant reign of souls in Revelation 20:4, the millennium which takes place in consequence of the victory of the warrior-king Messiah over antichrist, in Revelation 19:11-21. It is true, that the reign of these two martyrs is in glorified bodies rather than in disembodied souls; but that arises from the parallelism with Enoch and Elijah, and is not to be held literally. Their ascension is simply the figure of the triumph and overruling power of the cause for which they suffered. And this correspondence with the reign of martyred “souls,” be it specially noted, is part of the outlined identity of this chapter with the entire predictive history of all that follows in the book.