Revelation 21

Re 21:1-27.

THE

NEW

HEAVEN AND

EARTH:

NEW

JERUSALEM

OUT OF

HEAVEN.

The remaining two chapters describe the eternal and consummated kingdom

of God and the saints on the new earth. As the world of nations is to

be pervaded by divine influence in the millennium, so the world of

nature shall be, not annihilated, but transfigured universally in the

eternal state which follows it. The earth was cursed for man's sake;

but is redeemed by the second Adam. Now is the Church; in the

millennium shall be the kingdom; and after that shall be the new world

wherein God shall be all in all. The "day of the Lord" and the

conflagration of the earth are in

2Pe 3:10, 11

spoken of as if connected together, from which many argue against a

millennial interval between His coming and the general conflagration of

the old earth, preparatory to the new; but "day" is used often of a

whole period comprising events intimately connected together, as are

the Lord's second advent, the millennium, and the general conflagration

and judgment. Compare

Ge 2:4

as to the wide use of "day." Man's soul is redeemed by

regeneration through the Holy Spirit now; man's body shall be

redeemed at the resurrection; man's dwelling-place, His

inheritance, the earth, shall be redeemed perfectly at the creation of

the new heaven and earth, which shall exceed in glory the first

Paradise, as much as the second Adam exceeds in glory the first Adam

before the fall, and as man regenerated in body and soul shall exceed

man as he was at creation.

1. the first--that is the former.

passed away--Greek, in A and B is "were departed"

(Greek, "apeelthon," not as in English Version,

"pareelthe").

was--Greek, "is," which graphically sets the thing before

our eyes as present.

no more sea--The sea is the type of perpetual unrest. Hence our

Lord rebukes it as an unruly hostile troubler of His people. It

symbolized the political tumults out of which "the beast" arose,

Re 13:1.

As the physical corresponds to the spiritual and moral world, so the

absence of sea, after the metamorphosis of the earth by

fire, answers to the unruffled state of solid peace which shall

then prevail. The sea, though severing lands from one another,

is now, by God's eliciting of good from evil, made the medium of

communication between countries through navigation. Then man shall

possess inherent powers which shall make the sea no longer necessary,

but an element which would detract from a perfect state. A "river" and

"water" are spoken of in

Re 22:1, 2,

probably literal (that is, with such changes of the natural properties

of water, as correspond analogically to man's own transfigured body),

as well as symbolical. The sea was once the element of the world's

destruction, and is still the source of death to thousands, whence

after the millennium, at the general judgment, it is specially said,

"The sea gave up the dead . . . in it." Then it shall

cease to destroy, or disturb, being removed altogether on account of

its past destructions.

2. And I John--"John" is omitted in A, B, Vulgate, Syriac,

Coptic, and ANDREAS; also the "I" in the

Greek of these authorities is not emphatic. The insertion of "I

John" in the Greek would somewhat interfere with the close

connection which subsists between "the new heaven and earth,"

Re 21:1,

and the "new Jerusalem" in this verse.

Jerusalem . . . out of heaven--

(Re 3:12;

Ga 4:26,

"Jerusalem which is above";

Heb 11:10; 12:22; 13:14).

The descent of the new Jerusalem out of heaven is plainly

distinct from the earthly Jerusalem in which Israel in the flesh

shall dwell during the millennium, and follows on the creation of the

new heaven and earth. John in his Gospel always writes [Greek]

Hierosoluma of the old city; in the Apocalypse always

Hierousaleem of the heavenly city

(Re 3:12).

Hierousaleem is a Hebrew name, the original and holy

appellation. Hierosoluma is the common Greek term, used

in a political sense. Paul observes the same distinction when refuting

Judaism

(Ga 4:26;

compare

Ga 1:17, 18; 2:1;

Heb 12:22),

though not so in the Epistles to Romans and Corinthians

[BENGEL].

bride--made up of the blessed citizens of "the holy city." There

is no longer merely a Paradise as in Eden (though there is that also,

Re 2:7),

no longer a mere garden, but now the city of God on earth,

costlier, statelier, and more glorious, but at the same time the result

of labor and pains such as had not to be expended by man in dressing

the primitive garden of Eden. "The lively stones" were severally in

time laboriously chiselled into shape, after the pattern of "the Chief

corner-stone," to prepare them for the place which they shall

everlastingly fill in the heavenly Jerusalem.

3. out of heaven--so ANDREAS. But A and

Vulgate read, "out of the throne."

the tabernacle--alluding to the tabernacle of God in the

wilderness (wherein many signs of His presence were given): of which

this is the antitype, having previously been in heaven:

Re 11:19; 15:5,

"the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven"; also

Re 13:6.

Compare the contrast in

Heb 9:23, 14,

between "the patterns" and "the heavenly things themselves," between

"the figures" and "the true." The earnest of the true and heavenly

tabernacle was afforded in the Jerusalem temple described in

Eze 40:1-42:20,

as about to be, namely, during the millennium.

dwell with them--literally, "tabernacle with them"; the

same Greek word as is used of the divine Son

"tabernacling among us." Then He was in the weakness of the

flesh: but at the new creation of heaven and earth He shall

tabernacle among us in the glory of His manifested Godhead

(Re 22:4).

they--in Greek emphatic, "they" (in particular).

his people--Greek, "His peoples": "the nations of

the saved" being all peculiarly His, as Israel was designed to be. So A

reads. But B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, "His

people": singular.

God himself . . . with them--realizing fully His name

Immanuel.

4. all tears--Greek, "every tear."

no more death--Greek, "death shall be no more." Therefore

it is not the millennium, for in the latter there is death

(Isa 65:20;

1Co 15:26, 54,

"the last enemy . . . destroyed is death,"

Re 20:14,

after the millennium).

sorrow--Greek, "mourning."

passed away--Greek, "departed," as in

Re 21:1.

5. sat--Greek, "sitteth."

all things new--not recent, but changed from the old

(Greek, "kaina," not "nea"). An earnest of this

regeneration and transfiguration of nature is given already in the

regenerate soul.

unto me--so Coptic and ANDREAS. But

A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac omit.

true and faithful--so ANDREAS. But A, B,

Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic transpose, "faithful and

true" (literally, "genuine").

6. It is done--the same Greek as in

Re 16:17.

"It is come to pass." So Vulgate reads with English

Version. But A reads, "They ('these words,'

Re 21:5)

are come to pass." All is as sure as if it actually had been fulfilled

for it rests on the word of the unchanging God. When the consummation

shall be, God shall rejoice over the work of His own hands, as at the

completion of the first creation God saw everything that He had

made, and behold it was very good

(Ge 1:31).

Alpha . . . Omega--Greek in A and B,

"the Alpha . . . the Omega"

(Re 1:18).

give unto . . . athirst . . . water of

life--

(Re 22:17;

Isa 12:3; 55:1;

Joh 4:13, 14; 7:37, 38).

This is added lest any should despair of attaining to this exceeding

weight of glory. In our present state we may drink of the stream, then

we shall drink at the Fountain.

freely--Greek, "gratuitously": the same Greek as is

translated, "(They hated Me) without a cause,"

Joh 15:25.

As gratuitous as was man's hatred of God, so gratuitous

is God's love to man: there was every cause in Christ why man should

love Him, yet man hated Him; there was every cause in man why (humanly

speaking) God should have hated man, yet God loved man: the very

reverse of what might be expected took place in both cases. Even in

heaven our drinking at the Fountain shall be God's gratuitous

gift.

7. He that overcometh--another aspect of the believer's life: a

conflict with sin, Satan, and the world is needed. Thirsting for

salvation is the first beginning of, and continues for ever (in the

sense of an appetite and relish for divine joys) a characteristic of

the believer. In a different sense, the believer "shall never thirst."

inherit all things--A, B, Vulgate, and

CYPRIAN read, "these things," namely, the

blessings described in this whole passage. With "all things," compare

1Co 3:21-23.

I will be his God--Greek, "I will be to him a God," that

is, all that is implied of blessing in the name "God."

he shall be my son--"He" is emphatic: He in particular

and in a peculiar sense, above others: Greek, "shall be to

me a son," in fullest realization of the promise made in type to

Solomon, son of David, and antitypically to the divine Son of

David.

8. the fearful--Greek, "the cowardly," who do not quit

themselves like men so as to "overcome" in the good fight; who have

the spirit of slavish "fear," not love, towards God; and who through

fear of man are not bold for God, or "draw back." Compare

Re 21:27; 22:15.

unbelieving--Greek, "faithless."

abominable--who have drank of the harlot's "cup of

abominations."

sorcerers--one of the characteristics of Antichrist's time.

all liars--Greek, "all the liars": or else "all

who are liars"; compare

1Ti 4:1, 2,

where similarly lying and dealings with spirits and

demons, are joined together as features of "the latter times."

second death--

Re 20:14:

"everlasting destruction,"

2Th 1:9;

Mr 9:44, 46, 48,

"Where THEIR worm dieth not, and the fire is not

quenched."

9. The same angel who had shown John Babylon the harlot,

is appropriately employed to show him in contrast new Jerusalem, the

Bride

(Re 17:1-5).

The angel so employed is the one that had the last seven plagues, to

show that the ultimate blessedness of the Church is one end of the

divine judgments on her foes.

unto me--A, B, and Vulgate omit.

the Lamb's wife--in contrast to her who sat on many

waters

(Re 17:1),

(that is, intrigued with many peoples and nations of the world, instead

of giving her undivided affections, as the Bride does, to the Lamb.

10. The words correspond to

Re 17:3,

to heighten the contrast of the bride and harlot.

mountain--Compare

Eze 40:2,

where a similar vision is given from a high mountain.

that great--omitted in A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and

CYPRIAN. Translate then, "the holy city

Jerusalem."

descending--Even in the millennium the earth will not be a

suitable abode for transfigured saints, who therefore shall then reign

in heaven over the earth. But after the renewal of the earth at the

close of the millennium and judgment, they shall descend from

heaven to dwell on an earth assimilated to heaven itself. "From God"

implies that "we (the city) are God's workmanship."

11. Having the glory of God--not merely the Shekinah-cloud, but

God Himself as her glory dwelling in the midst of her. Compare the

type, the earthly Jerusalem in the millennium

(Zec 2:5;

compare

Re 21:23,

below).

her light--Greek, "light-giver": properly applied to the

heavenly luminaries which diffuse light. Compare Note,

see on

Php 2:15,

the only other passage where it occurs. The "and" before "her light' is

omitted in A, B, and Vulgate.

even like--Greek, "as it were."

jasper--representing watery crystalline brightness.

12. And--A and B omit.

Eze 48:30-35,

has a similar description, which implies that the millennial Jerusalem

shall have its exact antitype in the heavenly Jerusalem which shall

descend on the finally regenerated earth.

wall great and high--setting forth the security of the Church.

Also, the exclusion of the ungodly.

twelve angels--guards of the twelve gates: an additional emblem

of perfect security, while the gates being never shut

(Re 21:25)

imply perfect liberty and peace. Also, angels shall be the brethren of

the heavenly citizens.

names of . . . twelve tribes--The inscription of the

names on the gates implies that none but the spiritual Israel, God's

elect, shall enter the heavenly city. As the millennium wherein

literal Israel in the flesh shall be the mother Church,

is the antitype to the Old Testament earthly theocracy in the

Holy Land, so the heavenly new Jerusalem is the

consummation antitypical to the spiritual Israel, the elect

Church of Jews and Gentiles being now gathered out: as the spiritual

Israel now is an advance upon the previous literal and carnal Israel,

so the heavenly Jerusalem shall be much in advance of the millennial

Jerusalem.

13. On the north . . . on the south--A, B, Vulgate,

Syriac, and Coptic read, "And on the north and

on the south." In Ezekiel, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan (for which

Manasseh is substituted in

Re 7:6),

are on the east

(Eze 48:32);

Reuben, Judah, Levi, are on the north

(Eze 48:31);

Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, on the south

(Eze 48:33);

Gad, Asher, Naphtali, on the west

(Eze 48:34).

In Numbers, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun are on the east

(Nu 2:3, 5, 7).

Reuben, Simeon, Gad, on the south

(Nu 2:10, 12, 14).

Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, on the west

(Nu 2:18, 20, 22).

Dan, Asher, Naphtali, on the north

(Nu 2:25, 27, 29).

14. twelve foundations--Joshua, the type of Jesus, chose twelve

men out of the people, to carry twelve stones over the Jordan with

them, as Jesus chose twelve apostles to be the twelve foundations of

the heavenly city, of which He is Himself the Chief corner-stone. Peter

is not the only apostolic rock on whose preaching Christ builds His

Church. Christ Himself is the true foundation: the twelve are

foundations only in regard to their apostolic testimony concerning Him.

Though Paul was an apostle besides the twelve, yet the mystical number

is retained, twelve representing the Church, namely thirty the divine

number, multiplied by four, the world number.

in them the names, &c.--As architects often have their names

inscribed on their great works, so the names of the apostles shall be

held in everlasting remembrance. Vulgate reads, "in

them." But A, B, Syriac, Coptic, and

ANDREAS read, "upon them." These

authorities also insert "twelve" before "names."

15. had a golden reed--so Coptic. But A, B,

Vulgate, and Syriac read, "had (as) a measure, a

golden reed." In

Re 11:2

the non-measuring of the outer courts of the temple implied its being

given up to secular and heathen desecration. So here, on the contrary,

the city being measured implies the entire consecration of every part,

all things being brought up to the most exact standard of God's holy

requirements, and also God's accurate guardianship henceforth of even

the most minute parts of His holy city from all evil.

16. twelve thousand furlongs--literally, "to twelve thousand

stadii": one thousand furlongs being the space between the several

twelve gates. BENGEL makes the length of each

side of the city to be twelve thousand stadii. The stupendous

height, length, and breadth being exactly alike, imply its faultless

symmetry, transcending in glory all our most glowing conceptions.

17. hundred . . . forty . . . four

cubits--twelve times twelve: the Church-number squared. The wall is

far beneath the height of the city.

measure of a man, that is, of the angel--The ordinary measure

used by men is the measure here used by the angel,

distinct from "the measure of the sanctuary." Men shall then be

equal to the angels.

18. the building--"the structure"

[TREGELLES], Greek, "endomeesis."

gold, like . . . clear glass--Ideal gold, transparent

as no gold here is [ALFORD]. Excellencies will be

combined in the heavenly city which now seem incompatible.

19. And--so Syriac, Coptic, and

ANDREAS. But A, B, and Vulgate omit.

Compare

Re 21:14

with this verse; also

Isa 54:11.

all manner of precious stones--Contrast

Re 18:12

as to the harlot, Babylon. These precious stones constituted the

"foundations."

chalcedony--agate from Chalcedon: semi-opaque, sky-blue, with

stripes of other colors [ALFORD].

20. sardonyx--a gem having the redness of the cornelian, and the

whiteness of the onyx.

sardius--(See on

Re 4:3).

chrysolite--described by PLINY as

transparent and of a golden brightness, like our topaz: different from

our pale green crystallized chrysolite.

beryl--of a sea-green color.

topaz--PLINY [37.32], makes it green

and transparent, like our chrysolite.

chrysoprasus--somewhat pale, and having the purple color of the

amethyst [PLINY, 37, 20, 21].

jacinth--The flashing violet brightness in the amethyst is

diluted in the jacinth [PLINY, 37.41].

21. every several--Greek, "each one severally."

22. no temple . . . God . . . the temple--As

God now dwells in the spiritual Church, His "temple" (Greek,

"naos," "shrine";

1Co 3:17; 6:19),

so the Church when perfected shall dwell in Him as her "temple"

(naos: the same Greek). As the Church was "His

sanctuary," so He is to be their sanctuary. Means of grace shall cease

when the end of grace is come. Church ordinances shall give place to

the God of ordinances. Uninterrupted, immediate, direct, communion with

Him and the Lamb (compare

Joh 4:23),

shall supersede intervening ordinances.

23. in it--so Vulgate. But A, B, and

ANDREAS read, "(shine) on it," or

literally, "for her."

the light--Greek, "the lamp"

(Isa 60:19, 20).

The direct light of God and the Lamb shall make the saints independent

of God's creatures, the sun and moon, for light.

24. of them which are saved . . . in--A, B,

Vulgate, Coptic, and ANDREAS read "(the

nations shall walk) by means of her light": omitting "of them

which are saved." Her brightness shall supply them with light.

the kings of the earth--who once had regard only to their glory,

having been converted, now in the new Jerusalem do bring their glory

into it, to lay it down at the feet of their God and Lord.

and honour--so B, Vulgate, and Syriac. But A omits

the clause.

25. not be shut . . . by day--therefore shall never be

shut: for it shall always be day. Gates are usually shut by

night: but in it shall be no night. There shall be continual free

ingress into it, so as that all which is blessed and glorious may

continually be brought into it. So in the millennial type.

26. All that was truly glorious and excellent in the earth and

its converted nations shall be gathered into it; and while all

shall form one Bride, there shall be various orders among the

redeemed, analogous to the divisions of nations on earth

constituting the one great human family, and to the various orders of

angels.

27. anything that defileth--Greek, "koinoun." A

and B read [koinon,] "anything unclean."

in the Lamb's book of life--(See on

Re 20:12;

Re 20:15).

As all the filth of the old Jerusalem was carried outside the walls and

burnt there, so nothing defiled shall enter the heavenly city, but be

burnt outside (compare

Re 22:15).

It is striking that the apostle of love, who shows us the glories of the

heavenly city, is he also who speaks most plainly of the terrors of

hell. On

Re 21:26, 27,

ALFORD writes a Note, rash in speculation, about

the heathen nations, above what is written, and not at all

required by the sacred text: compare Note, see on

Re 21:26.