Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 21:10

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God," — Revelation 21:10 (ASV)

Here the parallelism with 17:1 is clearly deliberate. The bride, the wife of the Lamb, contrasts with the great prostitute, the archetypal image for the great system of satanic evil. The bride is pure and faithful to God and the Lamb, whereas the prostitute is a mockery. To see the prostitute, John was taken to the desert; now he is elevated by the Spirit to the highest pinnacle of the earth to witness the exalted New Jerusalem (cf. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3). As his vision will be a reinterpretation of Ezekiel’s temple prophecy (Ezekiel 40–48), like the former prophet, he is taken to a high mountain (Ezekiel 40:2). For the moment, the author drops the bridal metaphor and in magnificent imagery describes the church in glory as a city with a lofty wall, splendid gates, and jeweled foundations.