Who are the two men in white robes who appear to the disciples in Acts 1:10-11 to tell them that Jesus will return from heaven in the way that he has ascended? They also appear at the conclusion of Luke's Gospel where "two men in dazzling clothes" appear to the women in Jesus' empty tomb and tell them that he has risen from the dead (24:4, see for contrast Mark 16:5 and Matt 28:5). Additionally, are these the same men who appear earlier "in glory" on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:30-31)? In these three passages, Luke uses the same terms to describe these figures. Additionally, he tells the readers who they are in their first appearance (9:30). They are Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews, and Elijah, the Hebrew prophet taken directly into heaven without dying; see 2 Kgs 2:9-12.

Interpreters view the symbolic significance of these two figures in Luke-Acts as the embodiments of the Law and the Prophets, the Hebrew Scriptures. For Luke, the Scriptures themselves, personified in Moses and Elijah, testify to the existence of Jesus, particularly his mission on earth that leads to his death (Luke 9:31), his resurrection from the dead (Luke 24:4), and his ascension into heaven and return in glory (Acts 1:11). Luke uses these mysterious two men to show that the aspects of Christ's work of salvation occurs in fulfillment of God's plan set forth in the Jewish Scriptures.

(Adopted from Bart D. Ehrman's The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Fourth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.)

See Peculiarities Of The Gospels