thousand two hundred and threescore days
Revelation 11:3
11:3 thousand two hundred and threescore days. The period of their prophetic ministry will thus be forty-two months of thirty days each, corresponding to the length of the month and year before the great Flood (compare Genesis 7:11, 24; 8:3,4). The earth’s rotation seems to have been increased (or else its orbital speed decreased) by about 5¼ days per year as a result of the cataclysmic effects of the Flood, so that terrestrial chronologies have been difficult to calculate ever since. God, however, evidently still uses the primeval time measures (360-day years and 30-day months) in His own reckoning of time, especially prophetic time. Note that the 3½ year reign of the beast does not begin until after the witnesses are slain (Revelation 11:7; 13:5), which means that the 1260 “days of their prophecy” (Revelation 11:6) correspond to the first 3½ years of the tribulation period, the time of the seal and trumpet judgments.