Revelation — Chapter 21

Authorship & Background

Map & Geography

• Jerusalem (v.2, v.10): Capital of Judah; the holy city where the Temple stood.

Places on this map

• JerusalemJerusalemA hill town about 2,500 feet up in the central spine of Judah, roughly 35 miles inland from the Mediterranean and 15 miles west of the Jordan. It sits on no trade route and has no river, which is why it mattered as a fortress and a sanctuary rather than as a market. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Deep Dive

Setting: Chapter 20 ended with the great white throne, the books opened, and Death and Hades thrown into the lake of fire. Every enemy is gone: Babylon (chs 17–18), the beast and the false prophet (19:20), the dragon (20:10), and death itself (20:14). What is left is what God was aiming at all along. Chapters 21 and 22 are the Bible's last vision, and they deliberately close the story Genesis opened. There, God made the heavens and the earth, walked with people in a garden, and lost them to the serpent. Here he makes all things new and comes to live with his people for good, in a city that is also a garden (22:1–5). Much of the imagery comes from the Old Testament's great hopes: Isaiah's new heavens and new earth (Isa 65–66), Isaiah 54 and 60's rebuilt and shining Zion, and Ezekiel 40–48's measured temple-city with the river of life.

The four reading approaches come closest together here. Nearly everyone agrees this is the final state, still to come, after Christ returns. They differ mostly on how literally to take the city:

• Futurists like Guzik take it as a real city, with real dimensions and materials whose glory goes beyond what can be pictured. Its inhabitants are its "bride."
• Historicists like Henry and JFB see the church perfected in glory, with the city as its true home. Henry: "This new Jerusalem is the church of God in its new and perfect state."
• Preterists mostly agree the chapter is still future. A few see the new covenant order that replaced the old one after AD 70 already in view.
• Idealists see the whole city as a symbol for the people of God, perfected and dwelling with him, with every detail carrying meaning.

All agree on the center: God will live with his people, and every tear will be wiped away.

The New Heaven and the New Earth (vv1–8)

• "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth" (v1). This is the promise of Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22, repeated in 2 Peter 3:13. "New" is kainos. The lexicon says it means new "in respect to form or quality, fresh, unused," as opposed to neos, new in time, though it notes the difference is less sharp in later Greek. The same word describes the new covenant, the new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) and the new song (5:9). Readers differ on what it implies: - Renewal. Many, including JFB, see the old creation not destroyed but transformed, "not annihilated, but transfigured." Paul says creation itself "will be set free from its bondage to corruption" (Rom 8:21), and the resurrection body is the same body made new. - Replacement. Guzik sees a truly new creation, citing Isaiah's verb bara, "create," as creating out of nothing. The lexicon says bara is "always of divine activity," something only God does. But it does not have to mean "from nothing," and it is used of transformations too, a clean heart (Ps 51:10) and Jerusalem made a joy (Isa 65:18). So the verb leaves the question open. - Both views agree the new world is physical and lasting, not a vague spiritual heaven.
• "The first heaven and the first earth had passed away" (v1). This picks up 20:11, where earth and sky fled from God's throne. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Matt 24:35).
• "And the sea was no more" (v1). In the Bible the sea often stands for chaos and danger (Ps 74:13; Isa 57:20, "the wicked are like the tossing sea"). In Revelation the beast rose from it (13:1) and the dead lay in it (20:13). For John on Patmos it was also the barrier that cut him off from his churches. JFB says it stands for "perpetual unrest," and Henry for "freedom from conflicting passions, temptations, troubles." The point is not geography but that nothing threatening is left.
• "The holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (v2). The city comes down. It is not built from below, like Babel's tower (Gen 11:4), but given from above. Abraham "was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God" (Heb 11:10). Jesus promised the faithful in Philadelphia "the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven" (3:12).
• "Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (v2). The marriage announced in 19:7 is now here. Isaiah 61:10 pictures the bride adorned with jewels. Babylon was a prostitute dressed to seduce (17:4). Jerusalem is a bride dressed for her husband alone. The city and the bride are one picture of God's people (v9).
• "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man" (v3). "Dwelling place" is skēnē, "tent" or "tabernacle," and "dwell" is its verb, skēnoō. This is the tabernacle in the wilderness, where God lived among Israel in a tent (Exod 25:8; 29:45). It is also John 1:14: "the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us." JFB connects the two. The promise that runs through the whole Bible is fulfilled: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Lev 26:11–12; Jer 31:33; Ezek 37:27). Some early manuscripts read "his peoples," plural, which would stress that people from every nation are now God's people.
• "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (v4). This is Isaiah 25:8: "the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces," in the same verse that promises God "will swallow up death forever." The picture is personal, a parent drying a child's face. It was already promised in 7:17. Guzik notes the many kinds of tears that will be dried: grief, pain, regret and disappointment.
• "Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore" (v4). Everything that came with the curse of Genesis 3 is undone. "For the former things have passed away" echoes Isaiah 65:17, "the former things shall not be remembered." JFB argues that this cannot describe the thousand years of chapter 20, because death is gone only now.
• "He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new'" (v5). This is one of the few times in Revelation that God himself speaks. It takes up Isaiah 43:19, "Behold, I am doing a new thing." The verb is present tense. God is not only going to make things new. He is already doing it, beginning in every person born again (2 Cor 5:17). Henry: "Christ makes all things new."
• "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true" (v5). The repeated command to write (1:11, 19; 14:13; 19:9) underlines that this is not wishful thinking.
• "It is done!" (v6). The bowl judgments ended with "It is done!" (16:17). The Greek word here is a plural, "they are done," meaning all of God's words have come to pass. The Tyndale notes link it to Jesus' cry from the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30), though that is a different Greek word (tetelestai). What was won on the cross is here complete.
• "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" (v6). God's title from 1:8, which Jesus takes in 22:13. He who started everything will finish it.
• "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment" (v6). This is Isaiah 55:1: "Come, everyone who thirsts… buy wine and milk without money and without price." Jesus offered the same "living water" (John 4:10; 7:37–38). "Without payment" is dōrean, "as a gift." JFB points out it is the same word as in John 15:25, "They hated me without a cause," meaning for nothing. The water costs nothing because Jesus paid for it. Guzik notes that thirst is need, and drinking is receiving, not earning.
• "The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son" (v7). Each of the seven letters ended with a promise "to the one who conquers" (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). This sums them all up. "I will be his God and he will be my son" was God's promise to David about his royal son (2 Sam 7:14). Now it belongs to every believer. Paul applies the same verse to the church as "sons and daughters" (2 Cor 6:18).
• "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable…" (v8). The list of eight is sobering and deliberate. It begins with the cowardly and the faithless, those who shrank back under pressure and denied Christ, the opposite of the one who conquers. JFB says they lacked bold love for God, and Guzik that they chose self over Christ. Henry: "The fearful durst not meet the difficulties of religion, their slavish fear came from their unbelief." The rest are the sins of Babylon and the beast's followers in the book: murder, immorality, sorcery and idolatry (9:21; 18:23; 22:15). It ends with all liars, because the whole system was built on Satan's lie (John 8:44). The list is a warning to the churches, not a list of those beyond hope. Paul wrote that some of the Corinthians had been such people, "but you were washed" (1 Cor 6:9–11).
• Commentators: All three see the final, eternal state here. Henry and JFB see the old creation made new rather than destroyed, and JFB calls it "transfigured." Guzik takes the opposite view of a brand-new creation, which is a fair debate, though his point about bara goes beyond what the lexicon supports. On kainos, Guzik and JFB both say "new in quality, not just in time," which the lexicon supports. Henry dwells on the comfort: God's presence "will not be interrupted as it is on earth," and Christ's joys are "like waters springing from a fountain, pure, refreshing, abundant, and eternal." Guzik adds that the redeemed in Christ gain more than Adam lost.

The New Jerusalem (vv9–27)

• "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls… 'Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb'" (v9). This is the same introduction as in 17:1, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute." The parallel is exact on purpose. One of the same angels who poured out God's wrath now shows his bride. JFB notes the contrast between the harlot's many lovers and the Lamb's one faithful bride.
• "He carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain" (v10). For the prostitute, John was taken into a wilderness (17:3). For the bride, he is taken to a mountain. Ezekiel was brought "to a very high mountain" to see the restored city and temple (Ezek 40:2). Mountains are where people meet God throughout Scripture (Exod 19; Isa 2:2).
• "Having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal" (v11). The city shines with God's own glory, like Isaiah 60:1–2, "Arise, shine, for your light has come." The word "radiance" (phōstēr) is the word for a light-giver, a star. JFB notes it is used of the lights in the sky. "Jasper" was the stone John used to describe God on the throne (4:3). Ancient jasper may have been a different stone from modern jasper, which is not clear. The point is that the city reflects God himself.
• "A great, high wall, with twelve gates… the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel" (v12). In the ancient world walls meant safety. Here they mean that the city is secure and set apart. Ezekiel's city also had twelve gates named for the tribes, three on each side (Ezek 48:30–35). Twelve angels guard the gates, as the cherubim guarded the way into Eden (Gen 3:24), but now the way is open.
• "Twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (v14). Israel's tribes on the gates, and the apostles on the foundations. The one people of God is built from both Testaments together (Eph 2:20). JFB adds that the apostles are foundations only in their testimony, since Christ is the true foundation (1 Cor 3:11).
• "A measuring rod of gold to measure the city" (v15). In 11:1–2 John measured the temple, which marked God's protection. In Ezekiel 40–42 an angel measured the temple with a rod. Here the whole city is measured, and nothing is left outside.
• "The city lies foursquare… Its length and width and height are equal" (v16). It is a perfect cube. The only cube in the Old Testament was the Most Holy Place in the temple, 20 cubits each way, where God's presence dwelt (1 Kgs 6:20). The whole city is now the Most Holy Place. The people of God no longer stand outside it. They live in it.
• "12,000 stadia" (v16). A stadion was about 607 feet, so 12,000 stadia is roughly 1,400 to 1,500 miles. Guzik points out that this is about the distance from Maine to Florida, and that there is room for everyone. Twelve thousand is twelve times a thousand, the number of God's people (7:4–8) multiplied to fullness. Most readers, whatever their approach, see the number as carrying meaning. Futurists who take the size literally still agree it pictures room for all of God's people.
• "Its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement" (v17). That is about 216 feet, high or thick (the text does not say). 144 is twelve times twelve, the number of the 144,000 (7:4). A wall that small on a city that vast shows that the measurements are symbolic rather than architectural. The note that it is a human measurement which is also an angel's says the angel used ordinary units. JFB reads it as a hint that people will be like angels (Luke 20:36).
• "The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass" (v18). Gold you can see through does not exist. JFB calls it "ideal gold." The city is so pure that nothing is hidden. Solomon overlaid the Most Holy Place with gold (1 Kgs 6:20–22), and this city is made of it.
• The twelve foundation stones (vv19–20). The list closely matches the twelve stones on the high priest's breastplate, each engraved with the name of a tribe (Exod 28:17–21). The high priest carried God's people on his heart into God's presence. Now they are built into the city where God lives. Ancient names for stones do not always match modern ones, so the exact colors are uncertain. Isaiah 54:11–12 promised a rebuilt Zion with sapphire foundations and gates of carbuncles. JFB sets the stones against Babylon's jewels in 18:12.
• "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl" (v21). In the ancient world pearls were among the most valuable things there were. Jesus told of a merchant who sold everything for one pearl of great price (Matt 13:45–46). Here entire gates are made of one pearl. This is the source of the phrase "pearly gates." The street of pure gold is also where the common English phrase "streets of gold" comes from. The Tyndale notes say that what is most precious on earth is ordinary building material there.
• "I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" (v22). Every ancient city had temples. Jerusalem was built around one. This one has none, because the reason for a temple, to make a place where God can be met, is gone. God is met everywhere. Jesus said that the hour was coming when true worshipers would not need a mountain or a temple (John 4:21–24), and he called his own body the temple (John 2:19–21). JFB: "Means of grace shall cease when the end of grace is come." Notice again that the Lamb stands with God, sharing his place.
• "The glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb" (v23). This is Isaiah 60:19–20: "The sun shall be no more your light by day… but the LORD will be your everlasting light." The sun and moon were the first creation's lights (Gen 1:14–16). In the new creation God himself is the light, and the Lamb is the lamp that carries it. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).
• "By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it" (v24). This is Isaiah 60:3, 5, 11: "nations shall come to your light… the wealth of the nations shall come to you." Throughout Revelation "the kings of the earth" were God's enemies, Babylon's lovers (17:2; 18:9; 19:19). Now kings bring their glory to God. Readers find this hard to explain: - Some think of saved nations living on the new earth around the city. Guzik admits it is a hard verse and notes this view. - Many see the redeemed from every nation, bringing the best of every culture purified into the city, as the Tyndale notes do. JFB sees converted kings laying their glory before God. - Either way, the Lamb's purchase of people "from every tribe and language and people and nation" (5:9) is complete. Nothing good in the world's history is wasted.
• "Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there" (v25). Ancient cities shut their gates at night against enemies. These gates are never shut, because there is no night and no enemy. This is Isaiah 60:11, and Zechariah 14:7 promises "continuous day."
• "Nothing unclean will ever enter it… but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life" (v27). The open gates are not an open door to evil. The city is open to all who belong to the Lamb and closed to whatever defiles. Isaiah 52:1 promised that "the uncircumcised and the unclean" would never again enter Zion. Henry: "Nothing sinful or unclean, idolatrous, or false and deceitful, can enter." Guzik notes the sinners of v8 are already gone, so the warning is for present readers. The book is "the Lamb's," so the way in is through him.
• Commentators: Henry and JFB read the city mainly as the church perfected, while Guzik insists it is a real city whose people are its bride. All three agree that every detail speaks of God's glory, the safety of his people and the presence of God. Henry finds meaning in each part: "The wall is for security," and "Heaven has gates; there is a free admission to all that are sanctified." Its foundation is "the promise and power of God, and the purchase of Christ." JFB connects many details to Ezekiel, the tribes' camp and the high priest's breastplate. He also links the 144 cubits to men being equal to angels and calls the gold "ideal gold." Guzik gives the size as about 1,500 miles and compares the shape to the tabernacle's holy place. His conclusion is that the city is real but its glory goes beyond anything the mind can picture. The Tyndale notes read the numbers symbolically, as God's people made complete.

Pointing to Christ

The Bible began with God dwelling with people in a garden and ends with God dwelling with them in a city. Everything between is the story of how he made that possible. The tabernacle and temple pointed forward to it. Jesus fulfilled it when the Word "became flesh and dwelt among us," and he opened it when he died. In this city there is no temple because "its temple is… the Lamb," and no sun because "its lamp is the Lamb." The water of life is free because he paid for it, and the gates are open to all whose names are in "the Lamb's book of life." Every tear wiped away is a tear he saw. Every name written is a name he bought.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers the new creation, God's dwelling with man, the New Jerusalem's description, and the absence of temple, sun, and tears.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org The promise about tears, death and mourning, and what it says has passed away.
• Crossway: crossway.org Why the heaven believers go to at death is temporary, and what the renewed creation of this chapter adds to it.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Revelation -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• God Dwelling With His People (v.3) — The ultimate goal of redemption arrives: God's presence with His people with no barrier between them. Are you living now in the reality of His nearness, or does He feel distant?
• Every Tear Wiped Away (v.4) — Death, sorrow, crying, and pain all pass away as God personally removes every tear. Does this hope sustain you in whatever sorrow you're carrying right now?
• All Things Made New (v.5) — God isn't finished creating; He is actively renewing everything, including His people. What in your life most needs His renewing touch today?
• No Building Needed (v.22) — In the new creation there's no temple, because God and the Lamb are present everywhere. You are already called His temple now — does your life reflect that?
• Only the Written-In Enter (v.27) — Nothing unclean enters the city — only those written in the Lamb's book of life. Is your hope for that final entry resting on Christ, or on something less certain?