Who do you believe the "great cloud of witnesses' are in Hebrews 12:1?

Not all of them are named, but the ones who are belong to the pre-Christian epoch, going all the way back to Abel. Their faithful lives testified to the sovereignty and righteousness of God, the Creator. Many of them are shown to have had an idea of the future Messiah, Jesus Christ. As it says in chap 11 verse 26,
"Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward." His faith was based upon God's promises.

Abraham, we learn, also had faith in God's promises, "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God... they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (vss 10 and 16)

The lovely thing about those ancient worthies is this; "They were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." (verse 39)

Isn't that fantastic? Christians will be made perfect alongside those ancient worthies, sharing the fulfilment of the same promises of God - a heavenly city, not build with hands. What a glorious prospect!

Fabrication, like the rest of the Bible - but the fabrications in the epistles were special, as they seem to know almost nothing about Jesus.

Paul said that the servants of Jehovah who lived before the Christian time were a great “cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” They had remained loyal to Jehovah to the end of their lives, and their example shows that it is possible for Christians to remain loyal to Jehovah even in very difficult situations. The “cloud of witnesses” were like experienced runners who had finished their race. Their example would encourage others to continue to run the race. If we were in a race and knew that very good runners were watching us and encouraging us to continue running, then we would do our best to finish the race. So the Hebrew Christians needed to think about the example of those servants of Jehovah in the past. Their example could give them courage and remind them that it was possible for them to “run with endurance” and finish their race. And it is possible for us too.

We can learn from the faith of the people that Paul talked about because many of them were in situations like ours. For example, Noah lived just before Jehovah destroyed the world of that time in a flood. And we are living just before Jehovah destroys Satan’s world. Jehovah asked Abraham and Sarah to leave their home. He promised to make from them a nation to serve him, and they waited for him to fulfill that promise. Jehovah asks us to stop living for ourselves and to live for him. He promises us that if we do that, he will be our friend and will reward us. Moses walked a long way through a dangerous land to go to the Promised Land. We live in a wicked world and wait for the new world that Jehovah has promised us. It is important for us to think about the life of these faithful people. We can imitate the things they did to please Jehovah and learn from the things that did not please him.—Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11.

The Ancients of Chapter 11.

They are a great host of witnesses--testimonials for us to look to as examples of faith. Most of all we have Jesus as the beginning and ending of our faith.

Just like Fireball says the cloud of witnesses are all of those mentioned in chapter 11.

Fireball nailed it.

All in Heaven!

Mosquitoes.