After the harvest of Revelation 14, John sees another great sign in heaven, angels with bowls full of the passion of God (Revelation 15:1). As he watches, the “temple of the tabernacle of the testimony (ho naos tes skenes tou marturiou) in heaven” is opened (15:5) and angels emerge to take the bowls from the living creatures and pour them out on the world (15:6-8).
It is a reference to the most holy place, which contained the ark of “testimony” (Exodus 25:16; in the LXX, ten kiboton ta marturia). The blood of the saints is coming out of the inner sanctuary.
By this time in Revelation, though, both skene and martur– have taken on more specific connotations. The sea beast blasphemes God’s skene, which means blasphemy against “those who tabernacle in heaven” (tous en to ourano skenountas, 13:6). The tabernacle opened in chapter 15 must be the tabernacle in which the saints in heaven dwell. In the context of chapter 15 more specifically, those heavenly campers include the martyrs who have been harvested from the earth, the 144,000 (14:1-5).
In short, what opens is the heavenly inner sanctuary, but the saints are inside the heavenly sanctuary, the tent of the tabernacle. Their blood has been taken up into heaven in a great Yom Kippur, and how that blood is taken from the tent of witness out into the world.
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