Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
10 And in the spirit (ἐν Πνεύματι) he carried me away. The phrase also appears in 1:10, 4:2 and17:3. It denotes a vision trance that entails a literal transport from one place to another. This type of transport also occurs in Acts 8:39-40 when the Spirit snatches Philip away from the Ethiopian eunuch. The angel takes John to a great, high mountain. The imagery of Revelation 21:10 closely parallels Ezekiel 40:2 in which Ezekiel is brought in "visions of God" to Israel and is set down upon "a very high mountain" (NRSV). Although in Ezekiel, the city is already located on the mountain. The mountain in the site of the city, as in Ezekiel 40:2. Throughout the OT, mountains have been the places of encounters with the divine world. For example, Abraham encounters God's provision that spares his son Isaac on a mountain (Genesis 22), Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:3-24:18) and is shown the land of Canaan from Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34). In addition, the divine encounter between God and the prophets of Baal occurred on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:19-40). Thus, the language of this verse participates in a broad Jewish tradition in which people experience the divine world on mountaintops. John's location upon the mountain allows him to see the vision: and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of or descending (καταβαίνουσαν) heaven from God. This is the second time John sees the city descending from heaven. However, this is the nature of the city, and thus, we are not view it literally.
22 I saw no temple in the city. For the absence of the temple, see Jeremiah 3:15-17, Isaiah 40, 46:1-6. The heavenly temple has been the place from which the angels announced their judgments, as in 14:15, 17, 15:5-6, 8.[1] From this temple comes the voice that commissions the angels of the plagues to execute judgment on the earth in 16:1. From the same temple comes the voice of fulfillment, 'It is done” in 16:17. For John, the heavenly temple is the habitation of the majesty of God and the mysterious source of the divine commands. Yet, in a final great saying apocalyptic realism, in the New Jerusalem there is no temple. For its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. In Judaism, the New Jerusalem would have a rich and famous temple. In this statement lies one of the boldest transpositions of the whole concept of the temple. God is the temple. God and the Lamb in person replace imperfect representations of the presence of God in the temple, so that unrestricted dealings with God are possible. For him, the influence of Christian ideas breaks down the firm structure of Jewish thought and introduces a new element. The notion of a heavenly Jerusalem was a widespread idea in Judaism (IV Ezra 13:35-36; II Apocalypse of Baruch 4:2-7; Galatians 4:25-26; Hebrews 11:10, 14-16; 12:22; 13:14), but John's declaration that the temple is absent in this eschatological city is unique. The absence of a temple may reflect an anti-temple strand of early Christianity (Acts 7:47-51; John 4:21, 23-24). Such a view finds its parallel in the Qumran community, which rejected the Jerusalem temple, and called its own community a temple. Paul, also, thought of his Corinthian congregations as a temple of God (I Corinthians 3:16; II Corinthians 5:1-2; 6:16). Thus, the rejection of the earthly temple and the construal of communities as temples may be the precedents for John's idea here.[2] 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. This verse echoes Isaiah 60:19-20, which states that the light of the Lord will negate the need for a sun and moon. Isaiah 60:1 may also form the background for verse 23 in its declaration that the light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen. The significance of God's light and glory in the New Jerusalem also occurs in other Jewish texts (Sibylline Oracles 3.787; 5.420-27; Testament of Dan 5:12-13). The theme of light continues in verses 24-26. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth, a phrase that occurs eight times in Revelation (1:5; 6:15; 17:2, 18; 18:3, 9; 19:19; 21:24), and in all of these occurrences, except two (1:5; 21:24), the kings of the earth oppose God and God's people. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. This is not just the elect. It is not a world-denying Nirvana. The very same ones were defeated before. What is redeemable from the old order enter in. One tradition speaks of the Gentiles in a great battle with the holy city. See Psalm 46, Ezekiel 38-39, Isaiah 17:12ff, 29:8, Micah 4:11, Zechariah 12, Sibylline Oracles 3.663, Jubilees 23:22ff, I Enoch 26, IV Ezra 13. However, another tradition includes the vision of the Gentiles making their way to Mount Zion. Examples are Micah 4:1ff, Isaiah 45:14, 61:7, 60, 65:1ff, Jeremiah 3:17, Zephaniah 3:10, Zechariah 8:20ff, 14, Tobit 13:9ff, Sibylline Oracles 3:772ff. The idea that these kings of the earth now stream into the city of God peacefully reflects the eschatological peace after the cosmic wars of chapters 19 and 20 (19:17-21 and 20:7-10). All of this presupposes that the nations exist. This presupposition seems to contradict the scenarios presented in the cosmic wars of chapters 19 and 20 in which heavenly armies defeated these nations and their kings.[3] However, it may be that the heavenly army destroyed just those kings and nations that oppose God and the rest remain. If this is the case, then we should not take the appearance of the phrase "kings of the earth" in the previous chapters as an all-encompassing phrase. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. The elimination of night suggests time shall be no more, nor shall the darkness of sin. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. The allusion in verses 24-26 is to Isaiah 60:3-5, 11. In Isaiah, however, kings are captive, but in Revelation, the kings and all the nations enter at will. The notion of kings and nations coming to Jerusalem in the end times appears in Jewish literature (Isaiah 60: 3-5, 11; Psalms of Solomon 17:31; Tobit 13:11). Moreover, the depiction of them bringing glory and honor to the city indicates conversion of the Gentiles. Gentile conversion is another common theme in Jewish eschatological texts (Isaiah 45:20, 22, 24; Jeremiah 3:17; Zechariah 2:11; 8:23; 14:16-19; Daniel 7:14). That God will bring all nations to the chosen city of God fulfills God's redemptive purpose for all creation. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. This seems to confirm that John is describing Millennial Jerusalem existing before all wickedness is destroyed. Such language of purity echoes Isaiah 52:1 in which God will not allow any uncircumcised or unclean person to enter Jerusalem anymore because her redemption has come. If we take the kai in verse 27 in an epexegetical sense, then John explains the nature of the prohibited uncleanness as people who commit ungodly acts. The language of abomination generally denotes OT usage, which refers to forbidden sexual intercourse and idolatry (Leviticus 18:26, 27, 29; 20:13; Deuteronomy 12:31; 20:18). Interestingly, the writer conceives of a lie as something that someone does and not just something that someone speaks or tells (cf. Jeremiah 6:13; 8:8, 10; Hosea 7:1).[4]
In Revelation 22:1-5, John returns to his Old Testament models of Ezekiel and the Garden of Eden. In verses 1-2, John sees a vision of paradise restored. 22:1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. See Zechariah 14:8. The image combines the primal river of paradise and the eschatological temple river in Ezekiel 47ff.[5] The consummation of the dealings of God with creation and humanity takes up and transcends what God had given in paradise. The end will not be a restoration of the beginning, but will be something new that God consummates with unrestricted fullness the works and ways begun at creation. The river flows 2 through the middle of the street of the city. One broad street goes through the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. The ability to enter paradise has its basis on the divine sentence.[6] In verse 14, one enters paradise by the blood of Christ cleansing from sin. In verse 19, God can take away this share in the tree of life and the holy city from those who impugn the divinely given status of the prophetic word and do not give it unconditional recognition or due obedience. The image appears again in 22:14, 19. In these verses, the trees of life stand on both banks of the river of life in the heavenly Jerusalem. In Jewish apocalyptic, the return of the original conditions in Paradise plays an important role. Paradise is a heavenly place. It will be the future abode of believers. As in the original paradise, so in that of the last time there will be the tree of life, and this will give believers the wonderful food of immortality. It is a reward for the blessed. The idea of the river of paradise also occurs. The concept of the heavenly city also has a close link with that of paradise. The “tree of life” is a figurative expression for the share of Christians in the glory of the heavenly world. Christian tradition connected this tree to the cross as a “tree” of life. It may be that in verses 3-5 we have a description of Eternal Jerusalem.[7] 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. The curse is lifted, which, if we have paid attention, the curses of Deuteronomy 28 and the Holiness Code, revealed in the seals, trumpets, and bowls, is now lifted. But the throne of God and of the Lamb[8] will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face. The end of all will be the beatific vision.[9] Further, his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night, suggesting time itself and the darkness of sin shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light. Light is a biblical image for God. Psalm 4 says that God is the light of the believer’s face. James 1 identifies God as “the Father of lights.” Genesis 1 says that God created light and separated it from the darkness of chaos. Psalm 119 says that God’s word, spoken through the prophets, is the light for the believer’s path. John 1 calls Jesus the Light of the World and so is the salvation he brought. In I John 1:5-7, we read, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” The Bible is telling us that when we walk toward God, we are on the track of life, of spiritual nourishment and of peace. As David put it in the Old Testament, “Indeed, you are my lamp, O Lord, the Lord lightens my darkness” (II Samuel 22:29). Further, they will reign (βασιλεύσουσιν) forever and ever. The slaves/servants of God will reign on Earth as the people of God. This motif of reigning appears in 5:10 and in 20:6. We find it foreshadowed as early as Daniel 7:18, 27 (cf. I Corinthians 6:2). In effect, John declares the full reversal of the events in Eden. God triumphs and restores humanity to its position of eternal worship of him and rule with him.[10]
The vision of science is that the labor of the ages, its devotion and inspiration, and the brightness of its genius, has the destiny of a vast death and extinction. The temple of the achievement of humanity will become part of the debris of a universe in ruins. For science, such a conclusion is beyond dispute. Any philosophy or religion that rejects this conclusion will not stand the test of reason or experience.[11] Even to think of a type of life beyond physical death is beyond the comprehension of the scientific mind. Such notions are from people who allow their fears or absurd egoism to dominate their thinking.[12]
Such analysis of the Christian hope for the transformation and redemption of the world as we know it does do justice to its origin. This hope originates in the apostolic witness to the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Their witness is to a genuine surprise from God. True, the disciples had been his followers. Yet, they had recently denied him and abandoned him. Some women went to the tomb to see the dead body. Their witness that he appeared to them after his death, that God had raised him from the dead, was not a belief at which they arrived by reason and experience. They accepted it as a revelation from God. As such, their witness is contrary to what they expected. They had to trust what God revealed to them. If you accept the orthodox, traditional, or classic view of all this, Christians today trust the apostolic witness. If the risen Lord was with the apostles, the risen Lord is with us as well. Yet, if the Father, the God of Israel, raised Jesus from the dead, then he is the first fruit of the resurrection to life eternal promised in Jewish apocalyptic, becoming the basis for our hope of the redemption of human history and therefore the redemption of our existence. Of course, if we can look for the redemption of humanity, we can also hope for the redemption of creation. The basis for the Christian hope is not on something as flimsy as anxiety concerning our personal existence or as flimsy as a wish. The basis is what God has said and done in Jesus of Nazareth. I do not claim such a belief is easy. In fact, I admit to many times in the past, and they will likely come again, when I find it difficult to believe this. As a unique event, what happened to Jesus of Nazareth has no analogy in human history or experience. In my better moments, I am willing to receive this truth into my life and live by it.
Does the beatific vision sound too good to be true? Is John offering “pie in the sky by and by”? Will too much talk of the things God will do in the future result in the abandonment of human action now? Realistic eschatology seems to lead to a form of quietism, it would appear. Yet, another side of the story may present itself to us. Preoccupation with the ethical and social justice demands of the present may drive us to our own form of despair. Regardless of the vision, whether communitarian, libertarian, or Islamism, possibilities for world transformation of the political, cultural, and economic order fall short of its need of transformation. An honest appraisal of human experience and history suggests that human potential has exhausted the possibilities for transformation. If all we have is what we can see and touch, then human action itself can lead to depressing results. Transformation seems beyond our reach. In fact, biblical texts like this invite us to ponder the possibility of a world not yet, a world still on the horizon of history, rather than the world we see now. This new world comes from God, who makes all things new. It at least suggest that we need to stop adjusting so much to the world as it is and anticipate today, even if in small ways, the world God is bringing to us.
An Australian bushman once said that there is a dream dreaming us. We are part of a vision. Our minds want to know and understand. Yet, the desire of our hearts is intimacy. We want someone to truly know and understand us. We could try to know and understand God with the mind. If God has revealed who God is, then we need to acknowledge and understand that revelation. However, the human heart longs for God to know and understand us.[13]
The beatific vision is the end of this life and the beginning of a new, eschatological life. God truly sees us, and we truly see God. John expresses an oneness and intimacy concerning this home that we so desperately need. That same desire to be seen, to be known, to be at home, is a desire expressed in the play, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder. George and Emily live side by side, grow up together, fall in love, and get married. The train goes through at the same time every night at 11:00 pm. Everything is the same as it has been for years. Yet, tragedy strikes even here. Emily dies giving birth to her child. She learns, after her death, that she can go back and relive one day in her life. Against the advice of the others already buried in the cemetery, she chooses to go back for a day. The day she chooses is her twelfth birthday. She sees the hustle and bustle, the baking of the birthday cake, the busyness and hurriedness, the wrapping of the presents, and people living in the same house but hardly noticing one another. Finally, in desperation, she cries out, "Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me...Just for a moment now we're all together. Mama, just for a moment we're happy. Let's look at one another." In tears, she is led back to the cemetery. The town drunkard said, "Yes, now you know. Now you know! That's what it was like to be alive...to spend and waste time as though you had a million years....[14] Too many of us are content to waste time, never truly meeting people, whether among family or friends or co-workers. Then, we wonder why we feel so lonely.
I conclude with a prayer.
Lord, your life enables us to live as a people of hope. This earth is not our final home. You have placed within us a longing for your beauty, which will consist in the redemption of nature, human history, and our individual lives. Such redemption is the fulfillment of the hope of eternity with you. Yet, my prayer is that you help me to live my life with eternity in my heart and life. Help me to believe, even when it can be so hard to do so, that the world to come far exceeds the world we see and touch on this earth. I thank you for the touch and taste of heaven that I have here. They are gifts beyond measure, stirring longing for more in my soul. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.
[1] Michel (TDNT, Volume 4, 888)
[2] (David Aune, "Revelation," Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 52c [Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998], 1166-1168).
[3] (Aune, 1171)
[4] [Aune, 1166-1175]
[5] Rengstorf (TDNT, Volume 6, 604)
[6] J. Schneider (TDNT, Volume 5, 40)
[7] Ford, AB
[8] Ford will suggest a Christian editor added “Lamb” here to a Jewish text.
[9] Caird
[10] (Gerald Hawthorne, “Philippians,” Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 43 [Waco, Texas: Word Books Publisher, 1983], 17).
[11] Bertrand Russel, Why I am Not a Christian, 1957, 107.
[12] Einstein, Albert. The World As I See It. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1999.
[13] John S. Donne, Reasons of the Heart, quoted in Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, 176.
[14] Referred to in Kennon L. Callahan, Effective Church Leadership, 101-102.
Good If I were to write a theollogy it would start with the resurrection. Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection of Jesus. He is indeed the first fruits.-Lyn Eastman
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