Bible Gem 2384 – Beautiful Beyond Description (Revelation 21:19-21)

⁹Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. ¹¹It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal. ¹²The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. ¹³There were three gates on each side—east, north, south, and west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. ¹⁶When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles. ¹⁷Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick (according to the human standard used by the angel). ¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. 

¹⁹The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass.

²²I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. ²⁴The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. ²⁵Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. ²⁶And all the nations will bring their glory and honour into the city. ²⁷Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Revelation 21:9-27

The second portion of the middle paragraph of this block of text in Revelation 21 is truly mind-bendingly amazing. Here is an image of the twelve precious stones mentioned in the list given in Revelation 21:19-20. Most Christians realise that these precious jewels are the same as those included in Exodus 28:17-20. The stones found in Exodus are the stones of Ephod the high priest wore. The stones in Revelation 21:19-20 are the precious stones which were inlaid as adornment for foundation stones, with the names of the twelve apostles of the lamb on them. There is debate as to whether the names of the twelve apostles are engraved on each foundation stone respectively or whether the names are on the portion of the wall associated with each foundation stone.

The twelve precious stones are steeped in symbolism and tradition accumulated over centuries. It is also true that matching the stones between the Ephod and the Foundation stones adds to the depth of meaning. However there are some complications. I have prepared the available information in two tables in a way you can use. There are some difficulties involved in matching the material between the Ephod and what John has written here in Revelation. But also there are further difficulties given the indistinct references in Hebrew terminology as compared with Greek when it comes to the names of the precious stones on the ephod. As a result there is significant confusion evident across the range of translations when it comes to matching the stones between the jewels on the foundation stones of walls of the Holy City with the stones on the Ephod.

The New Jerusalem Gems and Their Translation

The Ephod Gems and Their Translation

I promised you some mind blowing information my readers. The simplest way to share it is via a video made sometime ago by David Pawson, from whom I first heard this absolutely incredible depth of truth related to the Word of God. Watch the video before you move beyond this point in the Gem.

Isotropic and Anisotropic Gemstones

As David explained in the video, isotropic materials have the same identical properties in all directions. The properties of the material such as strength, hardness, bonding is the same throughout the object in whichever direction you utilise or test it. Steel, glass and some minerals are isotropic. Anisotropic materials change with respect to direction. For example wood shows different strength and hardness dependent on which direction you cut or drill it. There are isotropic minerals and anisotropic minerals. As David stated in the video rather provocatively, “diamonds, rubies and garnets are nothing”. when you shine cross-polarised light through them; they turn to black and white or grey. But the minerals listed as the ephod stones and the foundation gems of the New Jerusalem are all anisotropic! When you shine the purest light through any anisotropic stone it refracts into all the colours of the rainbow as you saw in the video and transforms into remarkable patterns as well.

This knowledge has only come to light (sorry for the pun) in this last generation, thirty to forty years ago. I first heard of this phenomena from David himself. I have heard a number of testimonies from people who experienced heaven. Ian McCormack was one, Dominggus Kenjam was another and there have been others added to that list over the years. The repeated refrain has always included comment on how vivid and multi-coloured is the appearance of heaven. Rainbows appear everywhere and the colours themselves are stronger, brighter and more vivid. That feature alone captured my attention. I have read a series of testimonies from children who have visited heaven in after-death experiences. Some of them tell of surprising meetings with departed grandparents. One instance I remember is of a boy telling his parents that he had seen grandad in heaven and sharing something about the grandfather’s appearance that the boy could not have known having never seen him before. Then he came out with a question related to something his grandfather said to him in a statement about “marks on land snakes”. They asked him what he meant. He said grandfather had said, ‘land snakes boy mark my words.’ What did he mean?”. They were shocked and explained to him that was one of his granddad’s sayings he had never heard because he had never met him. The granddad often said “For land sakes boy, you mark my words.” This one utterance corroborated his story of meeting his granddad in heaven. In addition to that were the number of descriptions from these children of the colours of heaven where they saw rainbows everywhere. That one fact has long fascinated me.

The explanation for it I believe is found in the fact that the colours of the precious gemstones used in heaven are all anisotropic. At first I assumed the terms isotropic and anisotropic were related to the tropics but on searching the etymology of these two technical terms I realised the Greek word ‘tropos‘ is hidden in the terminology of both words. [tropos] means ‘to turn’ as a verb or ‘turning’ as a noun. The reason for the phenomena has to do with whether the materials change or turn with respect to direction, hence the refraction which occurs with anisotropic minerals.

There is debate among the scholars as to whether the anisotropic stones are singularly each placed on the foundation stone related to the wall or whether the wall in that portion is constituted from the specific gemstone material in that part of the wall. I suspect the anisotropic gemstones are found on each foundation stone respectively and not the stone from which that portion of the wall is made. Why! Because I think that is the way the text most naturally reads. Besides, we are told the wall itself was made of jasper (the colour of deity) in a related statement. However the text reads “like jasper”. Can that infer it could also be like the other stones as well? At least that is my understanding of what’s recorded in the text. But we can agree to disagree.

I have spent a great deal of time looking at the gemstones included in the ephod and the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem seeking to match them. All stones in each set are anisotropic. One would think it would be easy to match the stones of the Ephod and the Stones of the New Jerusalem. My favourite exegete, Gordon Fee, has a section in his commentary on Revelation (p. 299-300) where he compares the two lists and seeks to match them stone for stone. He adjusts the order of the stones of the Ephod (Exodus 28) in the right column in order to compare with the order of set in Revelation 21 in the left column.

Do you see how exact the Word of God is when it comes to the detail recorded in the Scripture? As David Pawson once told me, “Ian, what is amazing is the fact that Moses and John recorded detailed lists accurate to the n^th degree before we knew such facts about the minerals involved. We have only discovered this feature in the last generation.”

It goes without saying that I have removed ‘rubies’, ‘diamonds’, ‘garnets’ and any stones not anisotropic from the lists in the various translations. I would substitute Carnelian for Gordon Fee’s Ruby. You will note that Chrysoprase is missing from all Ephod lists. Therefore my substitute for Gordon Fee’s Turquoise would be Chrysoprase. I think that would make an accurate list for the Ephod stones matching the stones included in the Revelation 21 list but of course in a different order.

I have also given you my summary of the choices made by the translators. You will see some interesting anomalies there in the Translation Variance columns of each table but I am not going to comment on them further. I don’t consider it is worthwhile commenting on such matters in this Gem. The main thing I wish you to see is the beauty of what is in store for us in the New Jerusalem which is indeed beautiful beyond description.

Remember Paul wrote:

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

Paul was likely quoting from:

For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!

Isaiah 64:4

This all brings to my mind one of our daughters’ favourite songs to sing in the car and other places which goes like this:

• Heaven is better than this
• Oh my what joy what bliss
• Walking on streets of solid gold
• Living in a land where you’ll never grow old.
• Heaven is better than this
• Oh my what joy what bliss . . .
• I like _____________ .
• But heaven is better than that!

Our girls loved singing this song ad nauseum until they had exhausted the examples they dreamed up to fill in the gap.

Try it for yourself. If you want the tune just ask me.

I will pick up what remains to complete this section in the next gem and then follow on with a lot of good stuff to come yet. We haven’t finished yet covering all the wonderful blessings this passage outlines for us. So many more ideas to use to fill in the gap in the song above. I am holding back another remarkable surprise until the end of this Gem series.

Feel free to ask any questions you like. I haven’t forgotten the questions I have delayed until later Gems. I will address the matter of John’s unique ordering of the points of compass (ENSW) as well as what I think about the annihilation vs eternal conscious torment debate at the right time.