The Three and a Half Years of Elijah

Both the time span, and the association with Elijah, link these two passages with Rev. xi 2-3: "(The nations) will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth". The two witnesses "have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall, during the days of their prophesying" (v. 6); they also "went up to heaven in a cloud" (v. 12). There is a further link with Rev. xii 6 and 14: the mother of the Messiah was nourished in the wilderness for 126o days, or "a time, and times, and half a time"; also with xiii 5: "(the beast) was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months". In all cases, there is a link between a period of three and a half years and an experience of temporary deprivation, and in three, possibly four (the wilderness in Rev. xii) cases there is a link with Elijah. The time is expressed in several different ways, from the the very exact 126o days to the very general "a time, times, half a time".