Revelation 21:12

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 we choose to put it), passages like Revelation 5:9 and Revelation 14:4, is not to be suspected of particularism here. Even on the score of poetic congruity, the new Jerusalem implied such an archaic and traditional allusion to the twelve tribes. The angelic guardians of the gates are an Isaianic trait added to the Ezekiel picture.