One In Jesus

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An unnamed voice next enters the vision:

(Rev. 21:3 ESV) 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

There are several subtleties here worth noting.

Dwelling

First, “dwelling” and “dwell” are taken from the Greek for tent or tabernacle. This is, of course, a reference to the Exodus, but also parallels John 1:14– Continue reading →

Wright answers my question

I found what I’ve been hoping to find in N. T. Wright’s Revelation for Everyone, although until I found it, I had no idea that Wright would agree with my thinking —

And the idea of ‘incarnation’, so long a key topic in our thinking about Jesus, is revealed as the key topic in our thinking about God’s future for the world. Heaven and earth were joined together in Jesus; heaven and earth will one day be joined fully and for ever. Paul says exactly the same thing in Ephesians 1:10.

That is why the closing scene in the Bible is not a vision of human beings going up to heaven, as in so much popular imagination, nor even of Jesus himself coming down to earth, but of the new Jerusalem itself coming down from heaven to earth. At first sight, this is a bit of a shock: surely the new Jerusalem, the bride of the lamb, consists of the people of God, and surely they are on earth already! How can they have been in heaven as well?

Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone, For Everyone Bible Study Guides, (London; Louisville, KY: SPCK; Westminster John Knox, 2011), 187–188.

Exactly my question and for exactly the same reasons. Wright’s answer is more than a little unconventional, but it’s one I’ve suggested several times in this blog — Continue reading →

At last we move to the next verse (the pace will pick up as we go) —

(Rev. 21:2 ESV)  2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

At first, this seems an easy passage to interpret. The OT often describes God as the husband of Israel, and thus Israel’s idolatry is described as “adultery.” In the NT, the church is described as the bride of Christ, surely bringing the OT imagery forward to show Christ as our Lord (which can also mean “husband”) and the church as the true Israel (that is Israel with faithful Gentiles grafted in, as in Rom 11). Continue reading →

After 1600 words on “the sea was no more,” it’s probably appropriate to ask whether this is an important question. I mean, many commentaries deal with the question by not addressing it at all!

Well, this is how I see it —

• Rev 21:1 is one of those key, turning-point passages. It obviously parallels Gen 1:1-2. Both deal with God creating the heavens and the earth.
• Nearly everyone who reads Rev 21:1 finds “the sea was no more” very odd. What is it about the sea that makes it unworthy of the new heavens and new earth?
• The commentators struggle for an answer. Very appropriately, they note that the sea is always associated with bad things in the earlier parts of the Revelation, but rarely does a commentator suggest a reason that the sea is associated with separation from God or chaos.
• The commentators also note NT passages where the sea is a metaphor for bad things, such as Eph 4:14. But again, rarely does someone offer a reason for the sea to be a negative metaphor.
• And a few commentators who are familiar with Jewish backgrounds point out non-canonical literature where the sea is spoken of as evil or even as disappearing in the new heavens and new earth prophesied by Isaiah. But why?

Continue reading →

The last part of Rev 1:1 declares that in John’s vision of the end of time, “the sea was no more.” And I have to say that, while I’m looking forward to a new body, I would hate for there to be no beaches in heaven. I love the beach. And seafood.

So how this is supposed to be a blessing? The commentators struggle with this one. Leon Morris’s explanation is becoming a standard response — Continue reading →