Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 21:3

"And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God:" — Revelation 21:3 (ASV)

The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, occupies John’s vision for the remainder of the book. First, he sees the city “coming down out of heaven from God”—a phrase used three times (3:12; 21:2, 10) in an apparent spatial reference. But the city never seems to come down; it is always in the process of descending from heaven. Therefore, the expression stresses the idea that the city is a gift of God, forever bearing the marks of his creation.

Second, John calls the city a “bride” (GK 3813; cf. 21:9, 22:17; cf. also 19:7–8, where a different word was used). The purity and devotedness of the bride are reflected in her attire. The multiple imagery is needed to portray the tremendous reality of the city. A bride-city captures something of God’s personal relationship to his people (the bride) as well as something of their life in communion with him and one another (a city, with its social connotations).

The subtitle of the Holy City, “the new Jerusalem,” raises a question. The “old” Jerusalem was also called the “holy city” and a “bride” (Isaiah 52:1; Isaiah 61:10).

Since the Jerusalem from above is the “new” Jerusalem, we may suppose that it is connected in some manner with the old one so that the new is the old one renewed. The old Jerusalem was marred by sin and disobedience. In it was the blood of prophets and apostles. Still worse, it became a manifestation of Babylon the Great when it crucified the Lord of glory (11:8). But the old city always involved more than the mere inhabitants and their daily lives. It represented the covenant community of God’s people, the hope for the kingdom of God on earth. Thus the OT looked forward to a renewed Jerusalem, rebuilt and transformed into a glorious habitation of God and his people. But the prophets also saw something else. They saw a new heaven and new earth and a Jerusalem connected with this reality. Thus it is not altogether clear precisely what the relationship is between the old and the new, the earthly, restored Jerusalem of the prophets and the Jerusalem associated with the new heaven and earth (cf. Galatians 4:25–31; Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 12:22; Hebrews 13:14).

The key to the puzzle must be understood with due respect for the old city.

Any exegesis, therefore, that completely rejects any connection with the old city cannot take seriously the name “new” Jerusalem, which presupposes the old. To speak of the heavenly Jerusalem does not deny an earthly city, as some suggest, but stresses its superiority and affirms the eschatological nature of Jewish hope —a hope that could not be fulfilled by the earthly Jerusalem but which John sees realized in the Holy City of the future. This city is the church in its future glorified existence. It is the final realization of the kingdom of God.

God’s “dwelling” (GK 5008) among his people (v.3) is a fulfillment of Lev 26:11–13, a promise given to the old Jerusalem but forfeited because of apostasy. As a backdrop for the scene, consider Ge 3, when humanity lost their fellowship with God (cf. Exodus 25:8; Ezekiel 37:26–27). Thus the holy Jerusalem is not only humanity’s eternal home but the city where God will place his own name forever. God’s presence will blot out the things of the former creation. In a touching metaphor of motherly love, John says that God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (cf. 7:17; Isaiah 25:8). These tears have come from sin’s distortion of God’s purposes for the human race. God now has defeated the enemy of humankind and liberated his people and his creation.