Revelation 21:1; And There Was No Sea

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Revelation 21:1 (KJV)  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 

The departure of the old order centers around the meaning of “passed away” and “fled away” in Revelation 20:11.

Revelation 20:11 (KJV)  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 

The question is whether they connote complete disappearance of the old before being replaced by the new or a renovation of the old resulting in the new. The language of Revelation 20:11 which depicts an entire dissolving of the old, a vanishing into nothingness followed by a new creation in Revelation 21:1 without any sea is the decisive contextual feature that determines this to be a reference to an entire new creation.

It is the making of all things new, not a remaking of the old which has fallen under the curse of sin. This does not mark a failure of God’s purpose for the first creation but a process that He intended from the beginning in allowing evil to have its day in the first creation before being purged.

The absence of the sea from the new creation has a wide variety of comments. Most justifiably see this void as representing an archetypical connotation in the sea (Revelation 13:1; 20:13), a principle of disorder, violence, or unrest that marks the old creation (cf. Isaiah 57:20; Psalm 107:25-26; Ezekiel 28:8) (Moffatt, Beckwith, Kiddle, Johnson).

Revelation 13:1 (KJV)  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 

Revelation 20:13 (KJV)  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 

Isaiah 57:20 (KJV)  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 

Psalm 107:25-26 (KJV)  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 

Ezekiel 28:8 (KJV)  They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 

Revelation 22:3 (KJV)  And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 

It is not that the sea is evil itself, but that its aspect is one of hostility to mankind. For instance, the sea is the first of the seven evils that John says will no longer exist, the other six being death, mourning, weeping, pain (Revelation 21:4), the curse (Revelation 22:3), and night (Revelation 21:25; 22:5). The proposal that the clause about no more sea simply repeats regarding the sea what the earlier “passed away” has stated regarding the old creation, disregards the prophet’s habit of joining the sea with heaven and earth in the same clause whenever he wants to convey emphatic comprehensiveness (cf. Revelation 5:13; 10:6; 14:7). (Beckwith)

Revelation 21:25 (KJV)  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 

Revelation 22:5 (KJV)  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. 

Revelation 5:13 (KJV)  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 

Revelation 10:6 (KJV)  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: 

Revelation 14:7 (KJV)  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 440-441]