Revelation 21:27

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 Lord's city is like the Lord's table, as the Ep. to Diognetus finely puts it (5) κοινή ἀλλʼ οὐ κοινή, communis but not profanus, “common and open to all, yet in another sense no common thing.” The trait is adapted from Slav. En. ix., where the garden-paradise of the third heaven is only for those loyal to their faith, humble, just, charitable and benevolent, blameless and whole hearted, while the hell of torture (Revelation 10:4-6) is reserved for all addicted to sodomy, witchcraft, theft, lying, murder, and fornication, besides oppression and callousness to human suffering. But βδ. and ψ. may be simply “idolatry” (as in LXX); the keynote of the book being struck once more (as in En. xcix. 9). In the Egyptian litany of the nine gods (E. B. D. 35) every petition ends with the words, “I have not spoken lies wittingly, nor have I done aught with deceit,” and in Apoc. Bar. xxxix. 6 the seer accuses the Roman Empire thus: “by it the truth will be hidden, and all those who are polluted with iniquity will flee to it, as evil beasts flee and creep into the forest”.