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
I told you in the previous Gem that I would share the views of the commentators on John’s ENSW order in this Gem. I also solicited the views of you, my readers, to see what innovative ideas you could come up with. Following which I will share with you my thoughts. I told you there are commentators who feel John’s change of order is deliberate and meaningful. But just what that meaning or significance is escapes them. The majority of commentators skip any comment on verse 13 altogether. Even Gordon Fee by-passes the matter with a fleeting recognition of John’s ‘criss-cross’ on verse 13 but doesn’t add anything more. Many other commentators follow Gordon Fee’s lead without offering any more than noting there is a problem here.
Swete notes, John differs from Numbers and Ezekiel in the order of the points of compass adding:
Why? John begins with EN and then returns to his starting place to examine SW. It is difficult to understand the purpose for this change. Yet it seems to be deliberate.”
Henry Barclay Swete The Apocalypse of St John p. 286
There are no doubt divine reasons for these variations in the geographic locations in the different passages. [On comparing Numbers, Ezekiel and Revelation)
Walter Scott Exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ p 433
But many commentators like Scott above and Leon Morris who simply wrote “The ENSW order is curious” make no further explanation. Other thorough, detailed commentators suggest John changed the order to discourage readers from adopting astrological interpretations related to the tribes of Israel and the association with the precious stones and their symbolism.
Four gold standard commentators (David E. Aune, G. R. Beasley-Murray, G.B Caird and R.H. Charles) think John’s order in Revelation 21:13 is a polemic against astrology. There is a line of thinking that the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem reflect the twelve gates of heaven and / or the twelve signs of the zodiac. Certainly, Philo and Josephus were of that opinion. After extensive research into the order of the tribes of Israel, the stones of the ephod and the mazzaroth, Caird warns not to try to harmonise the lists. Caird and Charles both point out the reverse order of the precious stones in John’s list coupled with his re-ordering of the points of the compass suggesting John is seeking to dissuade readers from embracing the signs of the zodiac. In my God’s Awesome Book seminar, I show that according to the positioning of the sphinx in the Temple of Esneh between the woman (Virgo) and the lion (Leo), that was the point at which the circle of the zodiac was interrupted, i.e. the beginning and the end points. The sphinx depicts the body of a lion with the head of a woman. The Greek verb [sphiggo] means to “bind closely together. Thus, this is the correct point to mark the beginning and end of circle of the mazzaroth / zodiac.
Charles comments on John’s capricious order (of the compass points) when he wrote:
I know of no certain explanation but offer a tenuous suggestion by matching John’s order of tribes with the reconstructed list of tribes in Revelation 7:5-8 combining them with the order of 21:13. [It’s complicated and unwieldly – Ian] If rejected, some other explanation must be discovered, else the direction pursued by the angel, ENSW, is highly capricious.
R.H Charles, Revelation Vol II, p 166-167
Charles then follows this with a complicated discussion of the layout of the gates matched with the precious stones of Revelation 21:19-20. It appears to me to be hugely contrived. I ask myself the question, “Why?” If John has not given us a match between the names of the tribes of Israel or the names of the Apostles, why would we seek to reconstruct a match between precious stones, tribes and apostles? It makes no sense to me. I will take R H Charles up on his challenge and reject the match between Revelation 7 and 21. In fact I have offered an alternative solution to the anomalies in the list of the tribes given in Revelation 7:5-8 in answer to Suryadi Hertanto’s question in a GAB seminar in July 2007. [See Gems 2258 2259 and 2260]. I have a new and different solution to the ENSW order which I will share in Gem 2387.
There is one other commentator worthy of adding and that is David Flusser. He is of the opinion that this change in the order of the compass points is in fact a combination of two midrashic units. (See below.)
No longer will you need the sun to shine by day, nor the moon to give its light by night, for the LORD your God will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set; your moon will not go down. For the LORD will be your everlasting light. Your days of mourning will come to an end. Isaiah 60:19-20
and
I will increase the power of David; my Anointed One [My Messiah] will be a light for my people.
Psalm 132:17
John in his Gospel recalls Jesus statement related to Himself and the Light:
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 8:12
All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance.
Isaiah 60:3
There are multiple references in Revelation to the nations and their leaders as listed below. I won’t quote them but will leave you with a list of references to look up for yourself.
Revelation 1:5; 6:15; 17:2, 18; 18:3, 19; 19:19; 21:24. Note that the first and last are the ones that are positive. I think that is significant.
As Jesus is indeed the light of the world then there is an obvious connection between these two positive verses above. The nations will walk in the light of the LORD and bring their glory in submission to His. John’s theme of the nations coming to the LORD connects to his repeated emphasis on Tribe, Language, People, Nation – Does it Matter? We last encountered this theme in Revelation 17:15. (See Gem 2245) We will soon be confronted with a problematic verse in Revelation 22:15; the nations outside the city. We will deal with that verse when we come to it. David Flusser sees these all connected in a midrashic way. This has to be the outcome if representatives from every tribe. language, people and nation will be there in the New Jerusalem worshipping the LORD and walking in the light (21:24).
There is yet another commentator I will mention, not because his comment is worthy of remembering or studying further. Rather it’s because it is typical of some of the nonsense written by the commentators on Revelation. I was prompted to check Austin Farrer’s book out after seeing a reference to his view by another commentator, but I didn’t have access to Farrer’s commentary. According to the other commentator, Farrer suggests the list of precious stones is a euphonious list with the “n” and “s” endings on Greek words replicating the poetry of the list of gems found in the Exodus passage. Farrer points out in his book on page 219 that intriguingly the names of the gem stones are listed in groups of three with endings of ‘s‘ and ‘n‘ which are euphonious. In other words they created a poetic harmony, or a pleasant sounding combination by virtue of the repeated [s] and [n] sounds. According to Farrer this is something John has done to draw attention to the poetry of Exodus 28:71-21
- jaspis, sapphiros, chalcedon;
- smaragdos, sardonyx, sardonion;
- chrysolithos, beryllos, topazion;
- chrysoprasos, hyacinthos, amethystos
Farrer suggests this is a poetic replica of what is recorded in Exodus for the ephod stones. He suggests it is incomplete with amethystos instead of amethyston. He claims John did that to draw our attention to the poetic pattern in the Exodus passage, because Exodus 28:21 closes with the words:
Each stone will represent one of the twelve sons of Israel, and the name of that tribe will be engraved on it like a seal.
Exodus 28:21
Austin Farrer claims the fact that amethytos does not end with an [n] is a clue to the fact that John wants us to dig deeper.
If he had made a list perfectly worked out, what could it have done but answer exactly to the list of tribes which he has already arranged for us in Rev 7. How would our wisdom be increased by that?
Austin Farrer, The Revelation of St John the Divine p 219
Farrer’s following explanation does not clarify his claim, rather it muddies the waters. Sorry but I just don’t buy it. If that is so, why do I include it in this Gem you might ask? Simply to point how accessible past commentaries really are in this day and age. I have told you before that I have over 50 hard copy commentaries on Revelation given or loaned to me while I work on these Revelation Gems. In addition to that, I have over 30 digital commentaries I can also consult. When I reach a point in the text where really difficult readings occur, I like to check thoroughly what the experts have said about the issue in focus [like this one.] I don’t have access to Austin Farrer’s commentary in my extensive resources. I only saw it as a passing comment in another commentary. However I went online and simply typed in Farrer’s name and Revelation and it came up with his commentary on Google Archives. I had to sign in with a Google ID but I was then given access to Farrer’s commentary and could ferret out what he said about euphonious lists. That is amazing that even a little known commentator’s work is available on Google Archives.
I am holding my answer to the ENSW question until the next Gem, in favour of building the excitement of the moment and giving Pak Suryadi a chance to join us in this current unfolding plan. Not only that, but I have seen something David Holmes has posted on the Comments page of Gem 2385. Well worth a read from those of you who are interested before I move into giving you my take on John’s ENSW ordering. I feel confident that what I am about to share in the next Gem is significant enough to sum up what John intended. Whoa, that is a bold statement! I make it on the basis of something my friend and colleague, Michael Martens, sent me. Just a few words which told me I am on the right track; that coupled with David Holmes thoughts. This is another moment like that prior to Chris Cullen’s comment on “Why no seas on the New Earth?” Fitting therefore that I pause before the great reveal next Gem – 2387. After all, this is a Gem Series called Beautiful Beyond Description. So there is still time for you to add anything that you wish to.
Revelation is when God bypasses the limitations of your mind and shows you things you otherwise wouldn’t know. Instead of finding a solution to life’s problems every now and then, you can walk each day in a ‘spirit of wisdom and of revelation’.
Bob Gass
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
Scott R Jones
Today we’re inundated with information, flooded with facts, & drowning in data while dying of thirst for true wisdom.
Rick Warren
Have you realised yet how much more you can gain from a Bible verse you thought you knew?
Ian