The Identity of the Two Witnesses - Revelation 11; Zechariah 4
Channel: lethimwhoboasts
Date: 2023-02-10

Revelation 11; Zechariah 4

Ananus ben Ananus and Jesus ben Gamala make the best fit for the identity of the two witnesses in Jerusalem before its fall.  They are the "restrainer" of 2 Thes 2.6, and their prophetic witnesses, fulfilling two prophetic offices (let a matter be established on the testimony of two or more witnesses), oversaw the building, inhabitation, and perseverance of the temple from its building in the time of Zechariah to its fall in 70 AD.

The historian Josephus remarks that it was from the death of those two that the steady decline of Israel and the destruction of Jerusalem can be marked.  Had they not been killed, such proponents of peace they were, that Jerusalem likely would not have fell.

http://www.beyondrevelation.com/study/odd-and-ends/topics-from-revelation/the-two-witnesses/