Revelation - Seeing the New
Jerusalem
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Out with the old, in with the new. A brand new international now replaces the
vintage! In reality, the Greek phrase that John makes use of (kainos) stresses
a exceptional of newness that means unused, exceptional, unworn, unusual.
Although the old world is destroyed, God doesn’t leave it in ashes. In this
bankruptcy, you walk thru the glorious newness of Revelation 21–22. John
first describes the brand new heaven and earth in Revelation 21:1–8. Then
his interest zeroes in on the centerpiece of this new international order: the
brand new Jerusalem. He is taking readers on a digital tour of the celestial
city (so-known as due to the fact its starting place is in heaven), noting a
number of its functions and landmarks alongside the manner (Rev. 21:9–
22:6). Eventually, we discover John’s imagery, which offers a becoming
conclusion now not simplest to his ebook but to the whole Bible. In short, he
portrays the new Jerusalem as a lawn of Eden (22:1–5). In truth, John Milton,
the seventeenth-century English poet, choices up on this topic in his epic
poem, Paradise Regain’d: God’s human beings go back to the lawn.
Exploring a brand new advent (21:1–8)
In Revelation 20:11, John says “the earth and the heaven” flee from the
presence of the only on the great white throne, and “no area changed into
observed for them.” As Revelation 21 begins, John describes the nature of
the new earth and what lifestyles on it will likely be like for believers.
Curiously, even though he says there’s a brand new heaven, it stays
shrouded in mystery. Rather, he fastens onto a few features of the new
earth. This segment unpacks these new functions.
Scrapping the vintage international
John merely states that the first heaven and earth pass away with out
explaining how this really happens. The Apostle Peter, on the other hand,
provides a image description of the quit, that's the culmination of the
judgments poured out in the world defined in advance in Revelation (see
Chapters 10–13). Peter writes, “however the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, after which the heavens will skip away with a loud noise, and the
factors may be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the whole thing that is
executed on it will be disclosed. [. . .] The heavens will be set ablaze and
dissolved, and the elements will melt with hearth” (2 Peter three:10). Some
speculate that this sort of global wipeout results from a human-inflicted
nuclear mishap or perhaps even from a huge meteor strike. That is unlikely.
From his Jewish background, John is aware of that God spoke the authentic
world into life ex nihilo (out of nothing). On this regard, see Genesis 1, in
which God creates truly by using voicing a command (see additionally
Hebrews 11:3). So bringing the old world to an end and recreating a new
world is no big deal for God!
Reaching the give up of the ocean
A few want John had spent more time describing the brand new advent.
What he says is tantalizing, however it increases as many questions as it
solutions. John says truly, “the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). What does this
suggest? Does the new earth lack oceans, a characteristic distinguishing the
present earth from all regarded planets? Taken literally, the new earth
appreciably differs from the antique, increasing the quantity of land to be
had with the aid of almost 2.5 instances (because approximately seventy
one percentage of the earth’s floor is currently blanketed in water). And
perhaps that is what John intends to say. If so, it shows a completely big
range of God’s human beings and a completely spacious living place (see
John 14:2; Revelation 7:9). However, apocalyptic writings regularly describe
the sea in figurative terms. In a few poetic passages in the old testament,
the ocean is likened to the primeval chaos — the earliest duration of earth
records — and speaks of that that's restless and unruly (see Genesis 1:2;
activity sixteen:12; Psalms 74:thirteen, 89:nine, 107:23–29). John has
already spoken of the ocean as the source of the dragon’s extraordinary
counterfeit: the beast, or Antichrist (Rev. Thirteen:1). Possibly, then, John’s
statement is simply every other manner of pronouncing that each one that’s
probably threatening is now not present inside the new advent.
Creating a sparkling start
Lengthy before John’s imaginative and prescient on Patmos, the old
testament prophet Isaiah foresaw a brand new heavens and a brand new
earth. As a count of fact, the Apostle John nearly genuinely borrows some of
Isaiah’s language and imagery. In a key passage, Isaiah speaks within the
call of the Lord himself: “For i am approximately to create new heavens and
a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind”
(Isaiah sixty five:17; see also sixty six:22–23). Some other key Isaiah text
depicts a splendidly transformed international order: “In days to come back
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest of the
mountains, and will be raised above the hills” (Isaiah 2:1). Jerusalem turns
into a magnet for international pilgrimage and worship. The international
locations cease their conflict, and the Lord arbitrates their disputes (Isaiah
2:three–4). Yet some other passage from Isaiah describes the Messiah, the
fantastic descendant of the residence of Jesse, and his righteous reign over
the earth. Remarkably, his reign transforms even the animal country: “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf
and the lion and the fatling collectively, and a little baby shall lead them. The
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall devour straw just like the ox. The nursing infant shall play over the
hollow of the asp, and the weaned baby shall positioned its hand on the
adder’s den. They shall not hurt or smash on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be complete of the information of the Lord as the water cover the
ocean.” (Isaiah eleven:6–nine) if you take this passage literally, even the
predatory cycle of nature (the massive ones simply eat the toddlers) is
transformed. Some theologians trust that before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit, the garden’s natural animal order became not lion-consume-
sheep. On this view, the new earth reinstates the primeval, non-violent
character of the garden of Eden. Then again, Isaiah may additionally
certainly be using figurative language if you want to depict sweeping, moral
transformation in the human sphere. Either manner, it highlights the
unconventional newness of the new earth.
Welcoming a city from the sky
Immediately after his cryptic statement “the sea became no extra” (Rev.
21:1), John’s attention is absolutely absorbed by using a honestly terrific
scene. Nearly like a spacecraft coming in for a touchdown, the holy town, the
brand new Jerusalem, descends upon planet earth (see parent 14-1). John is
pretty clean about it: It comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2).
This earrings a bell. In John’s Gospel, Jesus reassures his distressed disciples
that he is going away to put together an area for them (John 14:three). That
“vicinity” is probably the brand new Jerusalem that John now sees and
describes in Revelation 21. The certainly giant issue to word in Revelation 21
is where the new Jerusalem finally docks. John’s town isn’t up there in area,
nor does it orbit planet earth. It comes right down to the brand new earth.
Getting ready to see the bride
John makes use of what may also appear to be an odd photo to describe the
holy city because it descends, announcing it’s “prepared as a bride
decorated for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The authentic recipients of John’s
Revelation would’ve without difficulty understood this description. The old
testament every now and then compares Israel to the bride of the Lord (see
Isaiah 62:five; Jeremiah three:1–13; Ezekiel 16:6–14). A wedding bond or
covenant stocks many similarities with the covenant the Lord made with
Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19 and 24); in both instances, mutual
obligations have to be fulfilled. One prophet, Hosea, who divorced his spouse
Gomer for unfaithfulness, makes use of his personal crisis as a powerful
metaphor to describe how Yahweh is also going to divorce Israel for her
covenant unfaithfulness (Hosea 1–2). Luckily, Hosea prophesies that, in the
end, Yahweh takes Israel again and reconciles along with her (Hosea 3).
The new testament likewise provides the non secular courting between the
Lord and his redeemed people in marital phrases (1 Corinthians 11:2). The
maximum first-rate example is in Paul’s famous passage about Christian
marriage in Ephesians 5:25–32, where the church is likened to the bride of
Christ. In order to be the bride of Jesus, but, the church ought to dress the
element — that is, mirror the needful virtues worth of Jesus’s bride. The
phrase embellished, in Greek, is the phrase from which English audio system
get the word cosmetics. Of direction, in Revelation, John envisions a Jewish
wedding ceremony in which the redecorating of the bride is a totally high-
priced and difficult affair. A good deal time is given over to the training of her
look, garb, and accessories. Her complexion must shine with a luster like
marble. Her hair is braided and interwoven with jewels, gold, and pearls. She
is decked with all the precious stones and gemstones that the own family
inherited from previous generations and, if want be, borrowed from pals and
acquaintances. The bride leaves her father’s house in all her finery, with a
crown on her head and fragrance wafting approximately her man or woman.
John couldn’t have selected a better manner to explain the beauty of the
holy metropolis. The prophet Isaiah depicts the Lord’s bride in similar terms:
“[The Lord] has clothed me with the clothes of salvation as a bride
ornaments herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The Apostle Paul
rhapsodizes at the church as the bride of Jesus in those words: “so that it will
present the church to himself [Jesus] in splendor, with out a gap or wrinkle or
anything of the kind — sure, so that she can be holy and with out blemish”
(Ephesians five:27).
Transferring in with God
Inside the new world order, God is constantly and in detail gift — and that
kind of closeness hasn’t befell due to the fact God walked with Adam and
Eve within the lawn of Eden (and Jesus walked the earth). John says actually,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they may
be his humans and God himself can be with them” (Rev. 21:3). This
encounter is once in a while referred to as the beatific imaginative and
prescient due to its utter bliss and blessedness. In reality, this city isn't so
much a place as it's far a community. The development in John’s notion is
great. First, he says that the “domestic of God is among mortals.” This
contrasts with earlier stages of redemptive history, wherein the degree of
closeness became markedly less. After being kicked out of the garden of
Eden, the primary human couple now not had every day visits with God “at
the time of the evening breeze” (Genesis 3:eight). As an alternative, at some
point of the primeval technology (the early period of earth records, as
recorded in Genesis 4–11) and the patriarchal era (the time of the founding
fathers of the Israelites within the second millennium BCE, as recorded in
Genesis 12–50), there were rare theophanies, appearances or manifestations
of God thru heavenly representatives, in dreams or visions, and so on. But
then, the Bible says, a child is born to a Jewish virgin in Bethlehem (round 6
or five BCE). He is a descendant of King David and is known as Jesus, that
means “the Lord saves.” John gives the theological which means of this start
in his Gospel: “And the word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we
have seen his glory, the distinction as of a father’s very own son, full of grace
and fact” (John 1:14). Be aware that the Greek word translated as “lived” in
John 1:14 is the same Greek word that’s translated as “reside” in Revelation
21:3. A totally literal rendering of this Greek word would be he tabernacled
amongst us. For John’s unique readers, the connection to the vintage
testament Tabernacle (the portable tent Moses erected within the Sinai
barren region to residence the Ark of the Covenant, as recorded in Exodus
25–forty) and this new Temple is unmistakable. (See bankruptcy 10 for extra
at the Ark of the Covenant.)
Having a drink
John fastens on one essential human want that solutions the question of
demise. In Revelation 21:6, the one on the throne says, “To the thirsty i can
provide water as a present from the spring of the water of life.” This
metaphor has deep roots in the old testomony and within the teaching of
Jesus. Isaiah the prophet is the foundation of this concept. In a quick hymn,
the prophet portrays redeemed Israel in this phrase photo: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). In a typically arid land,
in which water become often a matter of life and dying (Isaiah 21:14), it’s no
wonder that water turns into a symbol of spiritual existence. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus tells a Samaritan girl he can deliver her “dwelling water” (John 4:10).
To her bewildered reaction, Jesus adds, “The water that i will deliver turns
into in them a spring of water gushing as much as everlasting existence”
(John four:14). No wonder she jumps at the chance! The ultimate second in
which Jesus employs the image of water takes place during the festival of
booths in Jerusalem (John 7:1–43). This ceremonial dinner protected a seven-
day ritual wherein the priest carried a golden pitcher of water from the Pool
of Siloam as much as the Temple. This was a reminder of the striking deliver
of water when the Israelites wandered within the desolate tract (Exodus
17:1–5). Dramatically, at the remaining day of the competition, Jesus cries
out to the assembled multitudes, “allow everybody who is thirsty come to
me and let the only who believes in me drink. As the scripture has stated,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall waft rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38).
Dwelling water symbolizes eternal life, and that is what John is regarding in
Revelation 21:6. All inhabitants of the new Jerusalem possess this
inexhaustible aid.
Inheriting an eternal treasure
John pronounces, “folks who conquer will inherit this stuff, and i can be their
God and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7). “this stuff” affirms all the
items previously stated: the banishment of all evil and the presence of all
that’s truely accurate. The final historical past of believers is belonging to
God’s circle of relatives (Romans eight:14–17).
Taking a digital excursion of the new Jerusalem (21:9–27)
Time for a virtual tour of this new town! Most interpreters of the book of
Revelation apprehend that John’s description, although it conveys spiritual
realities, shouldn’t be squeezed into a literal mildew; symbolism and imagery
abound. We don’t imply to disclaim that John has a actual town in mind;
however, readers must acknowledge that he employs stock photos from the
apocalyptic glossary in an effort to depict certain capabilities of this
metropolis which might be especially noteworthy, along with splendor,
protection, and sanctity. An angel John has seen earlier than takes him on a
excursion of the new Jerusalem, referred to as “the bride, the spouse of the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:nine). The assessment of Jerusalem (the Lamb’s bride) with
“Babylon the extraordinary, mom of whores and of earth’s abominations”
(17:5) is deliberate. The two pictures represent opposing societies. Their
absolutely unique tales dominate Revelation 17–22. John is stuck up via the
Spirit a good way to get a terrific study the holy city. In accordance with
apocalyptic conventions (see Ezekiel 40:2; 1 Enoch 17:2), the seer is whisked
off to a high mountain that offers a superb standpoint. From there, he
watches the holy city descending from heaven to the earth and gives a
detailed description. His first impression of the metropolis is its glory, its
sheer radiance. The city possesses a luminescence that overwhelms the
senses; it’s the last “crystal cathedral”! John accommodations to bringing up
precious gem stones and jewels so that you can convey the beauty of the
brand new Jerusalem.
Admiring the structure: walls, gates, and foundations
The city itself is surrounded by a big wall constructed on 12 foundations and
entered through 12 gates. The gates are named after each of the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the foundations are named after the 12 Apostles. Taken
collectively, the gates and foundations emphasize the continuity and
harmony of the human beings of God. Inside the e-book of Exodus, 12 pillars
are installation at the foot of Mount Sinai to represent each of the tribes of
Israel as a part of the covenant ratification ceremony (24:four). Within the
barren region, the Tabernacle paperwork the middle of the Israelite camp.
Arrayed round it in a selected order are the 12 tribes, 3 on every facet
(Numbers 2:1–34). A part of the land of Canaan is sent to each tribe after the
conquest (Joshua thirteen–17). The reality that there are 12 gates named
after each of the 12 tribes of Israel conveys a clear theological message in
Revelation: The antique testomony people of God, the 12 tribes of Israel, are
a vital part of the new Jerusalem. Those who put their believe inside the God
of Israel can be there. The 12 foundations are named in honor of the 12
Apostles of the Lamb. The 12 Apostles have been the appointed successors
of Jesus, the guardians of the gospel. Paul wrote that believers in Jesus are
“built upon the muse of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself
because the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined collectively and
grows into a holy temple within the Lord [. . .]” (Ephesians 2:20–21). Siege
conflict regularly concerned undermining the rules of partitions. Metropolis
walls are simplest as robust as their foundations, so builders positioned
enormous attempt into constructing walls on solid bedrock. Consequently,
the 12 foundations memorialize the position of the Apostles and attest to
their electricity.
Thinking about dimensions and shape
The metropolis is a massive dice with all streets intersecting at proper
angles. Its dimensions are 1,500 miles in period, width, and breadth. (that is
the English equivalent of the Greek expression “twelve thousand stadia.”
The NRSV thus obscures the fact that another 12 honestly happens inside
the Greek textual content.) The thickness of the partitions is a hundred and
forty four cubits (about 216 ft). The cube, composed of ideal squares,
features prominently in biblical history. The Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary)
of the Tabernacle built within the wasteland changed into a cube, being
about 15 feet in every measurement (Exodus 26). In Solomon’s Temple, the
Holy of Holies became also a cube (20 cubits, or 30 feet in each size). In
Ezekiel’s vision of a brand new Temple, the Holy of Holies changed into 34 ft
consistent with aspect (Ezekiel forty one:3–4). What’s so extensively
extraordinary about John’s imaginative and prescient is that the entire town
is a cube. In theological phrases, the city of God, which is also the bride of
Jesus, is in which God himself dwells together with his humans. The cubic
nature of the new Jerusalem symbolically pronounces its perfection. What
John portrays symbolically, Paul describes metaphorically via evaluating
believers to a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22).
Scoping out the building materials
John’s description of the town defies precise analysis. Despite the fact that
the wall is built of jasper, the city itself consists of translucent gold. Brought
to that, each of the 12 foundations is decorated with 12 one of a kind
treasured stones, and the 12 gates consist completely of gigantic, unmarried
pearls. The streets, just like the town, are “pure gold, transparent as glass”
(21:21). John’s language symbolizes religious realities. In the vintage
testament and Apocrypha, treasured stones provide a wellknown recipe for
depicting beauty and glory. Isaiah the prophet describes a restored
Jerusalem in the following manner: “i am about to set your stones in
antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'm able to make your
pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all of your wall of valuable
stones” (Isaiah 54:11–12). The prophet Ezekiel, in a funeral music over the
fall of the king of Tyre, compares the deposed dictator to a cherub (an
angelic being) in Paradise earlier than its fall from grace. Consider the
description of his splendor: “You had been in Eden, the garden of God; each
treasured stone became your protecting, carnelian, chrysolite, and
moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and
labored in gold had been your settings and your engravings” (Ezekiel
28:thirteen). Within the apocryphal e-book of Tobit, courting to about the
third century BCE, the anonymous creator describes Jerusalem’s destiny
greatness and glory in those terms: “The gates of Jerusalem might be built
with sapphire and emerald and all your partitions with precious stones. The
towers of Jerusalem might be constructed with gold, and their battlements
with pure gold. The streets of Jerusalem could be paved with ruby and with
the stones of Ophir” (Tobit 13:16). One more piece of information fills out the
photo.
The 12 stones of the foundations appear modeled after the breastplate worn
by way of the Israelite high priest, in line with the outline of it in Exodus
28:15–20. After detailing the 12 distinctive valuable stones, the text
concludes with the aid of pronouncing, “There will be 12 stones with names
corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they will be like signets,
each engraved with its name, for the 12 tribes” (Exodus 18:21). John’s
description of the holy town is specifically indebted to the breastplate. The
brand new Jerusalem is a priestly city, and all of the people of God — the 12
tribes, the new Israel — are monks of God, exactly what Jesus meant for the
fellowship of the Lamb: “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with
the aid of his blood, and made us to be a nation, monks serving his God and
Father [. . .]” (Rev. 1:5–6, emphasis ours). View the precious stones in light of
this symbolism.
Spotting what’s no longer there
The New Jerusalem is described as plenty by way of what isn’t there as by
means of what is. Revelation 21:22–22:5 info five items or companies of
objects that aren’t there. Whilst you add those five to the two that John has
already mentioned, you arrive, no longer relatively, at the magic wide variety
seven: The town is the epitome of perfection! Here’s the whole list:
No sea (21:1)
No loss of life, mourning, crying, or ache (21:4)
No Temple (21:22)
No want of solar and moon (21:23)
No night (21:25) nothing unclean (21:27)
No curse (22:3)
The lack of a Temple is quite surprising because the Temple turned into
significant to Jewish tradition. The Apostles Paul and Peter both use Temple
imagery to describe the present church (1 Corinthians 3:sixteen–17, 6:19; 2
Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21; 1 Peter 2:5). The antique testament
prophet Ezekiel spends 8 chapters describing and extolling the glories of a
3rd Temple he appears to envision at the site of the first and 2d Temples
(Ezekiel 40–forty eight). The first Temple was built by means of Solomon, and
it stood from approximately 970 BCE until it was destroyed via
Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. The second one Temple changed into
dedicated in 517 BCE and turned into greatly enlarged and enhanced by
means of Herod the amazing starting in 20 BCE. The Romans destroyed the
second one Temple in 70 CE, near the stop of the first Jewish rebellion
towards Rome, just a few 20 years before John wrote the e-book of
Revelation. In Jewish literature of this era, prayers for a new and superb
Temple appear often. Furthermore, in the e book of Revelation, the
conquerors in Philadelphia are promised, “i'm able to make you a pillar
within the temple of my God; you will by no means go out of it” (Rev. 3:21).
And Revelation consists of numerous references to a heavenly Temple (7:15,
eleven:19, 14:15, 15:5–8, 16:1, 16:17); the general public might just expect
that it need to have a counterpart in the new Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s
sudden that the new Jerusalem lacks one. However, John’s explanation
makes ideal experience: There’s no Temple constructing because all that the
Temple stood for within the past is now realized by the very presence of God:
“Its temple is the lord god the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). God dwells
along with his people head to head. Item 4 is likewise tough to imagine: no
greater solar or moon! The town is so suffused with glory it genuinely
illuminates itself. The distinction of God and the Lamb are a perpetual source
of mild (Daniel 12:three; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians
3:18). Add to that, there’s no extra night time. Physicists and cosmologists
may also speculate approximately how the brand new earth operates, but in
the long run, John’s clarification suffices: “the first things have handed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
