Revelation 21:1-8
the prelude to the last vision.... [ Continue Reading ]
the prelude to the last vision.... [ Continue Reading ]
The title: Revelation 21:1 _a b_ = Revelation 20:11 _c_. Revelation 20:1 _c_ = Revelation 20:13 _a_. The absence of the sea from John's ideal universe is due not to any Semitic horror of the ocean, nor to its association with Rome (Revelation 13:1), nor to the ancient idea of its dividing effect (“m... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκ =origin, ἀπὸ = originator. This conception of the new Jerusalem as messiah's bride in the latter days is an original touch, added by the prophet to the traditional Jewish material (_cf._ Volz, 336 f.). In 4 Esd. 6:26 (Lat. Syr.) “the bride shall appear, even the city coming forth, and she shall b... [ Continue Reading ]
σκην. (chosen on account of its “assonance with the Hebrew to express the _Shekinah_,” Dr. Taylor on Pirke Aboth iii. 3) is the real tabernacle (Hebrews 8:2; Hebrews 9:11). The whole meaning and value of the new Jerusalem lies in the presence of God (En. xlv. 6, lxii. 14, Test. Jude 1:25, etc.) with... [ Continue Reading ]
The first and only time that God addresses the seer, or indeed (apart from Revelation 1:8) speaks at all. The almost unbroken silence assigned to God in the Apocalypse corresponds to the Egyptian idea of the divine Reason needing no tongue but noiselessly directing mortal things by righteousness (Pl... [ Continue Reading ]
“Tis done, all is over” (sc. οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι or πάντα). The perfecting of God's work is followed, as in Isaiah 54-56, by a liberal promise of satisfaction to all spiritual desire, and the three ideas of consolation, eternal refreshment, and Divine fellowship are thus conjoined as in Revelation 7:14-1... [ Continue Reading ]
These boons (Revelation 21:3-7), however, are reserved for the loyal; the third (son of God) was a title applied to Augustus and the emperors generally throughout the Greek and Roman world. κληρονομήσει (here only in Apoc.) in general sense = “enter into possession of,” “partake of”. (“This place” o... [ Continue Reading ]
The reverse side of the picture (_cf._ Revelation 20:12-15 and below on Revelation 21:27): a black list of those who have not conquered. δειλοῖς = “cowards” or apostates, who deny Christ in the persecution and worship Caesar (Introd. § 6) through fear of suffering; “ δειλία does not of course itself... [ Continue Reading ]
A fresh vision, marked by a new transport of ecstasy (_cf._ Ezekiel 3:14; Ezekiel 11:1, etc.). ὄρος, the vantage-ground of elevation from which the seer views the site and buildings. If the hill is the site of the city, it is a truncated cone like Cirta, or a terraced _zikkurat_. Ezra sees the visio... [ Continue Reading ]
“With the dazzling splendour of God,” _cf._ on Revelation 21:3; Ezekiel 43:5; Isaiah 60:1-2. _Uxor splendet radiis mariti_; δόξα, here, as usually in a apocalyptic literature, denotes the manifestation and realisation of the divine presence. A realistic turn is given to the expression by the “shimme... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔχουσα. The constr. becomes still more irregular, the participles agreeing with an imaginary nominative, ἡ πόλις, sugg. by ὁ φωστήρ. The inscribed names denote the catholicity of the church and its continuity with the ancient people of God. A writer who could compose, or incorporate, or retain (as w... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔχων, another rough asyndeton. θεμελίους κ. τ. λ., a symbolical and corporate expression for the historical origin of the church in the primitive circle of the disciples who adhered to Jesus (_cf._ on Revelation 22:19). It is not their names but their historical and apostolic position which is in th... [ Continue Reading ]
The measures of the city are now taken, as in Ezekiel 40:3; Ezekiel 40:48; Ezekiel 42:16 f., to elucidate the vision (otherwise in Revelation 11:1-2). It turns out to be an enormous quadrilateral cube, like Ezekiel's ideal sanctuary, a cube being symbolical of perfection to a Jew, as a circle is to... [ Continue Reading ]
The materials of the city. ἐνδώμησις, so an undated but pre-Christian inscription, τ. ἐνδώμησιν τοῦ τεμένους (Dittenberger's _Sylloge inscript_. _Graec._ 583), where the orthography is pronounced “nova” (see reff.). While the city itself (or its streets, Revelation 21:21) is supposed to be construct... [ Continue Reading ]
Another fulfilment of the O.T. ideal (Isaiah 60:19-20). It is a Jewish-Christian symbol for Paul's thought _God shall be all and in all_. So in 4 Ezra 7 :[42] at the last judgment there is neither sun nor moon nor any natural light, “but only the splendour of the glory of the Most High”. “As the _su... [ Continue Reading ]
Further traits borrowed from Isaiah 60. (see reff.).... [ Continue Reading ]
νὺξ κ. τ. λ. “for no night (when even in peace they would be shut, Nehemiah 13:19) shall be there”.... [ Continue Reading ]
From the tradition of En. liii. 1 and Ps. Sol. 17:34 35 (where the Gentile nations seek Jerusalem φέροντες δῶρα … καὶ ἰδεῖν τὴν δόξαν κυρίου, ἣν ἐδόξασεν αὐτὴν ὁ θεός); _cf._ Apoc. Bar. lxviii. 5. The idea of 24 and 26 is of course literally inconsistent with those of Revelation 19:17 f. and Revelat... [ Continue Reading ]
R. Jochanan (Baba-Bathra f. 76, 2,) said the coming Jerusalem would not be like the present one: in hanc ingreditur quicunque uult, in illam uero non nisi qui ad eam ordinati sunt. Citizenship similarly in John's new city is a matter of moral character and of divine election, not of nationality. The... [ Continue Reading ]