Revelation 21:14

Revelation 21:14. From the gates we are next taken to the foundations. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations (comp. Hebrews 11:10). We are not to think of foundations buried in the earth, but of great and massive stones rising above the soil as a pediment sustaining the whole structure. At the same time we have not before us twelve great foundation-stones going round the city in one line, but twelve courses of stones, ‘each course encompassing the city, and constituting one foundation' (see Revelation 21:19).

And on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. There was one name doubtless on each foundation, but the main point of the figure is that the city rested on the twelve Apostles of our Lord. 1 Corinthians 3:11 is presupposed. The twelve Apostles are ‘Apostles of the Lamb,' placed by Him in their several positions, and fulfilling in Him their several functions. It ought to be unnecessary to say a single word in refutation of the idea that St. John would not thus have referred to himself as an Apostle had he really been the author of this book. He is not thinking of himself. He is lost in the magnitude and glory of the apostolic office. Nor is the idea in the least degree better founded that it is St. John's intention, out of hatred to St. Paul, to exclude him from the apostolic office. The whole passage is symbolical; the Jewish imagery could not have admitted thirteen instead of twelve foundations, and St. Paul is no more excluded from the number of Apostles than are Gentile Christians from the happiness of the city.