In order to understand who the virgins are we need to understand the part they play in the wedding. The wedding metaphor is used throughout the scriptures and the virgins have a very specific role. In the modern day we would refer to them as bridesmaids. We see them depicted in the following passage from the Psalms:

What is most important to note is that the virgins are not the bride! They are companions of the bride. This means they cannot be the faithful members of the church that Yeshua described as being those who overcome in His seven letters (see our previous article Who is the Bride? which explains this).

If you are not familiar with the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1–13 we suggest you read it now before continuing. One often overlooked aspect of that parable is that the bride is not even mentioned! The parable is simply not about her.

What characterised the virgins, wise and foolish alike, is that they “all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5). Whereas the faithful bride will have heeded her betrothed husband’s command to watch:

The bride will have been watching and will have kept her garments. On the other hand, the virgins weren’t watching—they fell asleep—and so would have been found naked. This could also be what the oil in their lamps is alluding to (albeit with a different metaphor). Those virgins with extra oil had previously heeded the command to “buy from Me […] white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; […]” (Revelation 3:18). The unwise virgins had not previously purchased extra oil/garments, and when they tried to do so at that late hour it was too late. As a result they didn’t have suitable wedding attire and were excluded from the wedding, which we see happen in the parable of the wedding feast:

In Revelation 19 we’re told what the bride’s garments are:

This is consistent with the description of the overcomers in the letters to the seven churches. For example:

These passages are also reminiscent of the following in Zechariah:

If we couple that with the following a clear picture should start to emerge:

To summarise these passages, the bride had made herself ready by being faithful to her husband while he was away and watching for His return. Our righteousness is as filthy rags, but it’s better to be wearing filthy rags than to be naked! God will take the little we are able to give Him—He will take off our filthy garments and clothe us in garments of pure white—but we must be found worthy!

Another thing that differentiates the virgins from the bride is that the virgins are all present at the time of the end. They were all awoken by the shout that the bridegroom is coming, so the virgins aren’t from the last 2,000 years of church history—they will all be here at the end of the age.

In the previous article we showed that the bride is the male child of Revelation 12, and it should now be clear who the virgins are. They are the “rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17). These are the ones Satan is going to make war with for three and a half years (Revelation 12:14; Revelation 13:5,7). Of them it is said:

This is during the wrath of Satan (Revelation 12:12) which is also known as the great tribulation. It is at that time that the virgins will be divided into the wise and the foolish, and we see that the wise are those who “did not love their lives to the death”—suggesting that they will relinquish their lives during the great tribulation in order to acquire the garments that will grant them entrance to the wedding feast. We see them attired in precisely this manner in Revelation:

The good news is that there are a “great multitude which no one could number”. The great tribulation is going to be a horrendous time like no other but the wedding feast that follows is going to be absolutely full of guests!

In the penultimate article in this series we will return to the topic of the male child and discuss what it means when it says he is “caught up” to God.