| Revelation 21 | |
|---|---|
 Revelation 13:16–14:4 onPapyrus 47 from the third century. | |
| Book | Book of Revelation |
| Category | Apocalypse |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 27 |
Revelation 21 is the twenty-first chapter of theBook of Revelation in theNew Testament of theChristian Bible. This chapter contains the accounts of "the new heaven and the new earth", followed by the appearance of theNew Jerusalem, "prepared as a bride".[1]
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The original text was written inKoine Greek.This chapter is divided into 27 verses.
Some earlymanuscripts containing the text of this chapter are among others:[2][a]
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
TheNonconformist ministerAlexander Maclaren interprets "a new heaven and a new earth" as meaning "a renovated condition of humanity" and suggests that "and the sea is no more" is "probably ... to be taken in a symbolic sense, as shadowing forth the absence of unruly power, of mysterious and hostile forces, of estranging gulfs of separation". Referring to the island ofPatmos where the writer experienced his vision, Maclaren continues, "The sad and solitary and estranging ocean that raged around his little rock sanctuary has passed away for ever".[5]
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The nameJohn appears in theKing James Version andNew King James Version but is generally omitted in other English translations.[6]
9Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife."10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,11having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
The beginning part of this section (verses 9–10) forms a parallel withRevelation 17:1–3, which is similar to the parallel betweenRevelation 19:9–10 andRevelation 22:6–9, indicating a distinct marking of a pair of passages about Babylon and the New Jerusalem withRevelation 19:11–21:8 as a transition from the destruction of Babylon to the arrival of the New Jerusalem.[13]
Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
W H Simcox, in theCambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, observes thatSt John the Apostle (if he was the author) "does not notice his own name being written there".[14]
The ground plan of the New Jerusalem is shown to be a square (cf.Ezekiel 40:3), '12000 stadia in each direction' (verse 16), but the general form is actually a 'perfect cube', unlike any 'city ever imagined', but 'like the holy of holies' inSolomon's Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6:20). The New Jerusalem has no temple (verse 22), because 'the whole city is the holiest place of God's presence'.[15]
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb'sBook of Life.
The description of the New Jerusalem in many ways is in agreement with the models in theOld Testament and apocryphal literature (Isaiah 52:1;54:11–12;60;Ezekiel 40:2–5;47:1–12;48:30–34;Zechariah 14:6–21; Tobit 13:16–17), except for the absence of a temple in the new city.[15] The New Jerusalem is called in theBook of Ezekiel as 'The Lord is There' (Ezekiel 48:35) and in theBook of Zechariah the whole city is declared as holy as the temple (Zechariah 14:20–21; cf.Isaiah 52:1).[15]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Gill, John.Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–1763).