Revelation 21:2; A New Jerusalem

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

The naming of the city as “new Jerusalem” presupposes a recognition of the old Jerusalem too. The old city suffered the taint of sin and disobedience, but the hope for a renewed Jerusalem always remained. The new Jerusalem stresses the superiority of itself to anything belonging to the old creation (Smith). The city’s name given in Revelation 21:10 is the same as here except for the absence of “new” there. The Philadelphian overcomer had the promise of having the name of “the new Jerusalem” written on him in proof of his right to live in that city (Revelation 3:12). Since God’s throne will be in the new Jerusalem which is on the new earth, there will be an inclining of the new heaven to the new earth, the new Jerusalem providing a bond between the two (Lee).

Revelation 21:10 (KJV)  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 

Revelation 3:12 (KJV)  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Its coming into being does not indicate that Israel had forfeited her hope of God’s dwelling among His people (Exodus 25:8; Leviticus 26:11-13; Ezekiel 37:26-27; Revelation 21:3).

Exodus 25:8 (KJV)  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. 

Leviticus 26:11-13 (KJV)  And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. 

Ezekiel 37:26-27 (KJV)  Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

Revelation 21:3 (KJV)  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 

This hope comes to fruition in the millennial kingdom prior to the new creation. The old Jerusalem is good enough for the Millennium, but not for the final bliss (Moffatt).

There as also the sentiment that the old Jerusalem was too stained for such a role and so needed replacing by an unstained city. This is what come through in the present passage. When John wrote Revelation, Jerusalem had been in ruins for about twenty-five years. Hadrian’s plans for a new city had not yet come forth, but even before the old city fell, the thought of a heavenly city in a figurative sense was before the Christian church (Galatians 4:26-27; Hebrews 12:22) (Swete).

Galatians 4:26-27 (KJV) But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Hebrews 12:22 (KJV)  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 

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