Revelation 21 | |
---|---|
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 the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This chapter contains the accounts of "the new heaven and the new earth", followed by the appearance of the New Jerusalem the Bride. [1]
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 27 verses.
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are among others: [2] [lower-alpha 1]
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.
The Nonconformist minister Alexander 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 of Patmos 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 name John appears in the King James Version and New 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 with Revelation 17:1–3, which is similar to the parallel between Revelation 19:9–10 and Revelation 22:6–9, indicating a distinct marking of a pair of passages about Babylon and the New Jerusalem with Revelation 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 the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, observes that St 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' in the Solomon's temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6:20), although the New Jerusalem needs 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's Book of Life.
The description of the New Jerusalem in many ways is in agreement with the models in the Old 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 the Book of Ezekiel as 'The Lord is There' (Ezekiel 48:35) and in the Book of Zechariah the whole city is declared as holy as the temple (Zechariah 14:20–21; cf. Isaiah 52:1). [15]
In the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible, New Jerusalem is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city centered on the rebuilt Holy Temple, the Third Temple, to be established in Jerusalem, which would be the capital of the Messianic Kingdom, the meeting place of the twelve tribes of Israel, during the Messianic era. The prophecy is recorded by Ezekiel as having been received on Yom Kippur of the year 3372 of the Hebrew calendar.
Revelation 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author is a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the prologue of the book, followed by the vision and commission of John.
Revelation 12 is the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the accounts about the woman, the dragon, and the child, followed by the war between Michael and the dragon, then the appearance of the monster from the sea. William Robertson Nicoll, a Scottish Free Church minister, suggests that in this chapter the writer has created a Christianised version of a Jewish source which "described the birth of the Messiah in terms borrowed from ... cosmological myths [such as] that of the conflict between the sun-god and the dragon of darkness and the deep".
Revelation 3 is the third chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains messages to the churches of Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea, three of the seven churches of Asia located in modern-day Turkey, continuing from the messages for the other four churches which appear in chapter 2.
Revelation 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains an inaugural vision of heaven, portraying the throne room of heaven, and the heavenly worship which the writer observes there.
Revelation 5 is the fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the inaugural vision of the lamb on the throne in heaven.
Revelation 7 is the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. Chapter 6 to Chapter 8:5 record the opening of the Seven Seals. This chapter contains the writer's vision of "the Four Angels of the Four Winds", the sealing of the 144,000 and the "Praise of the Great Multitude of the Redeemed". The passage in this chapter is 'an intercalation in the numbered series of seven'.
Revelation 8 is the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate.
Revelation 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Revelation of Jesus Christ shown to John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the accounts related to the sounding of the "Seventh Trumpet".
Revelation 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the accounts of the lamb with 144,000 followers, the three angelic messages and the voice from heaven, as well as the harvest of the earth and the vintage of the earth. The Three Angels' messages in verses 6 to 12 form a central feature of the teaching and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church: "“Make disciples of Jesus Christ who live as His loving witnesses and proclaim to all people the everlasting gospel of the Three Angels’ Messages in preparation for His soon return".
Revelation 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter includes the hymn of Moses and the Lamb and introduces the seven angels who appear with seven plagues.
Revelation 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse to John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter describes the judgment of the Whore of Babylon.
Revelation 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter describes the fall of Babylon the Great.
Revelation 20 is the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter contains the notable account of the "Millennium" and the judgment of the dead.
Revelation 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. In this chapter, heaven exults over the fall of Babylon the Great.
Ezekiel 48 is the forty-eighth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 40-48 give the ideal picture of a new temple. The Jerusalem Bible refers to this section as "the Torah of Ezekiel".
Isaiah 65 is the sixty-fifth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 56-66 are often referred to as Trito-Isaiah. According the Christian exegesis, this chapter refers to the vocation of the gentiles.
Zechariah 3 is the third of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. The chapter contains the vision of Joshua, the high priest, being cleansed before God. It is a part of a section consisting of Zechariah 1–8.
Zechariah 2 is the second of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter is a part of a section consisting of Zechariah 1–8. It records the third of eight visions received by the prophet, followed by an oracle calling the exiles to return to the city where Yahweh is about to dwell and all nations will come.
Zechariah 6 is the sixth of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter contains the description of the eighth vision and the crowning of Joshua. It is a part of a section consisting of Zechariah 1–8.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain :Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–1763).