Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 21:1

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more." — Revelation 21:1 (ASV)

The new heavens and earth were foreseen by Isaiah (Isaiah 65:17) as a part of his vision of the renewed Jerusalem. John’s picture of the final age to come focuses not on a platonic ideal heaven or distant paradise but on the reality of a new earth and heaven. God originally created the earth and heaven to be our permanent home. But sin and death entered the world and transformed the earth into a place of rebellion and alienation; it became enemy-occupied territory. But God has been working in salvation history to effect a total reversal of this evil consequence and to liberate earth and heaven from bondage to sin, corruption, and death (cf. v.4; Romans 8:21). John’s emphasis on heaven and earth is not primarily cosmological but moral and spiritual (cf. also 2 Peter 3:13).

The Greek word for “new” (GK 2785) means new in quality rather than new in time. That it is a “new” heaven and earth and not a second heaven and earth suggests something of an endless succession of new heavens and earth. It is the newness of the endless eschatological ages (2:17; 3:12; 5:9; cf. Eph2:7). What makes the new heaven and earth “new” is above all the reality that now “the dwelling of God is with men.... They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (v.3). The heaven and earth are new because of the presence of a new community of people who are loyal to God and the Lamb in contrast to the former community of idolaters.

The sea—the source of the satanic beast (13:1) and the place of the dead (20:13)—will be gone. Again, John’s emphasis is not geographic but moral and spiritual. The sea serves as an archetype with connotations of evil (cf. comment on 13:1). Thus, no trace of evil in any form will be present in the new creation.