It's the 24 elders who are holding the golden bowls. But still doesn't mean they were prayer prayed to them.
Jesus actually demonstrated this for us on Mt. Tabor when He communicated with Moses and Elijah. What do you think they were, dead?
Are you saying Jesus was PRAYING to them?
He did not pray to them. He was talking with them about His departure.
When Peter made an attempt to honor them, the Father threw himself on that like a wet blanket and basically told him to shut up and listen to Jesus.
Nobody knows exactly what the saints in heaven are doing. Nobody even knows who the saints in heaven ARE. There are some that we can be reasonably certain are there, Stephen, for example, and the apostles.
Nobody has been to heaven to verify it though and honestly, if someone claimed to have been there and come back with a report, I would be exceedingly skeptical about it, to say the least.
If we go by Jesus example and teaching, we pray to the Father only, who is promised to hear and answer our prayers Himself. That's good enough for me. Sometimes I will ask for others to agree with me in prayer for something, but that is not praying to them.
The Hebrews 11 chapter, the hall of fame of faith, is followed by Hebrews 12 and while the chapter and verse notations are useful, they do have the drawback of unnaturally breaking up the flow of though for one.
But Hebrews 12, following on the thought of Hebrews 11 says this.....
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
It's all about Jesus......
It’s all about the Body of Christ :o)