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Revelation
Revelation
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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to Revelation · About this commentary

A New Heaven and a New Earth

Revelation 21:1-4

1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. · WEB

The new creation opens with a city dressed as a bride, God moves in with his people, and the tears are wiped by hand — with death gone because the first things went.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.

Isaiah's promise arrives in sight Isaiah 65:17: creation renewed, the first order — audited, judged, and dissolved Revelation 20:11 — succeeded by the new. And one clause carries the book's whole geography of evil into the renewal: the sea is no more — the sea from which the beast rose Revelation 13:1, the restless mass of peoples Revelation 17:15, the element of separation and storm and drowned dead Revelation 20:13: the new creation has no reservoir of chaos left in it — nothing for a beast to rise from, ever.

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband Revelation 21:2.

The direction is the gospel's own: down, out of heaven — mankind does not ascend to God's address; God's address descends to mankind's. And the city comes dressed like a bride: the wedding announced at the hallelujahs Revelation 19:7 arrives at its home — city and bride one image, the people and their place indistinguishable, the anti-Babylon in every particular: Babel built up toward heaven and fell Genesis 11:4; Jerusalem comes down from heaven and stands.

Behold, God's dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God Revelation 21:3.

The loud voice announces the Bible's oldest promise at its terminus. The covenant formula — their God... my people — has run from Sinai through every prophet Leviticus 26:11–12 Ezekiel 37:27 Jeremiah 31:33; the word for dwelling is the tabernacle's own: God pitching his tent with mankind, the sanctuary-thread of the whole book Revelation 7:15 Revelation 15:5 ending not in a building but in cohabitation — God himself with them: Immanuel as permanent address.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away Revelation 21:4.

The wiping is by hand — Isaiah's promise Isaiah 25:8, performed as at the multitude's homecoming Revelation 7:17: personally, face by face. And the four abolitions — death, mourning, crying, pain — stand on the courtroom just adjourned: death can be no more because death itself went into the lake Revelation 20:14. The reason given is the book's quiet logic: the first things have passed away — grief was never punishment to be endured but symptom of an order now gone; remove the order, and the symptoms follow it out of existence.

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