Bible Gem 2389 – Why Is New Jerusalem So High? (Revelation 21:16)

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 21:22-27

We are left with picking up the loose ends from Chapter 21. I made comment at the end of Gem 2387 that I still had more surprises to share with you. One I shared in Gem 2388, the fact that we won’t be living in the New Heaven; rather we will be living in the New Earth. Isn’t that a wonderful prospect? No sitting around on clouds playing harps; rather we will enjoy life to the full on the New Restored Earth. Restored to the pristine state God first intended when He conceived of LIFE in all its fullness. Then in my response to Darren’s two aspects he liked from Gem 2387, I made the comment that I would move on to my next bombshell, which was positive but conjectural. What might that be? A couple of you queried the height of the New Jerusalem and asked why on earth it should be so high? I have been meditating on that matter and think I know why. I will test my hunch in this Gem with you, my precious readers. That verse is coloured purple above.

There are two further loose ends that several of you have queried. One relates to the-as-yet-unanswered-question concerning the plight of the unsaved. Are they to face annihilation or eternal conscious torment? Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten to address that dichotomy. Also several have asked about the verses related to the nations. We have three verses which refer to the nations left in what remains from John’s letter. Two of them are coloured red above and there is another we find from Revelation 22:15 which reads:

Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.

Revelation 22:15

I have coloured that verse red as well. Those who query this verse do so in the light of the fact that supposedly the unbelieving among the nations perished in final consummation of the battle of Armageddon in Chapter 20:7-10. Why then are there unbelievers from the nations left hanging around in the New Jerusalem? Especially when no evil can be present in the Holy City. Now that is a dilemma to wrap your head around, isn’t it? Oh dear what to do with all these loose ends.

I will deal with the purple problem in this Gem as it is a potential blessing to be included in this series beautiful beyond description. In a following Gem I will respond to the final plight of the unsaved hiding in the last verse of Chapter 21. I will address the seeming contradiction surrounding the nations when we reach 20:15. That will give you some time to gather your thoughts on the matter beforehand.

Now for the last element in the series Beautiful Beyond Description. If you have other elements in the text you want to query or you want to hear my comment on, you had better bring them to my attention.

How High Is New Jerusalem Really?

Let’s return once more to the measurements of the Holy City. John clearly tells us in Greek the measurements are for length, width and height and the measurement recorded for all is 12,000 stadia, thereby forming a cube with equal dimensions. One would think that measuring a cube with those dimensions should be relatively straight forward. Nineteen translations agree the above measurement to be 12,000 stadia. [AMP, BSB, CSB, ERV, ESV, GNT, GW, HCSB, ITB, LITV, LSV, MKJV, MSG, NIV, Remedy, TCENT, TLV, TPT, TS2009]. Two translations [WEB, WEBA] add 12 stadia just to be more accurate, why I don’t know, resulting a total of 12,012 stadia.

If we convert the 12,000 stadia into other measuring standards, things get more complicated:

• 12,000 furlongs [AFV, ASV, JUB, KJV, KJVA, Murdock, NENT, RV, YLT]
• 1,500 miles [AMP, BBE, CEV, CJB, GNB, NASB, Williams]
• 1,461 miles [Remedy]
• 1,400 miles [NET, NLT]
• 1,377 miles [TS 2009]
• 1,374 miles [ISV]
• 2,400 kms [BIS]
• 2,352 kms [Remedy]
• 2,250 kms [IMB]
• 2,216 kms [TS2009]

I can only conclude from all these calculations that it is very hard to measure accurately such a large city. Furthermore, there is disagreement between the translations as to whether this city is a square (29), or a cube (3) or a four-cornered city (2). Five more translations choose to call it ‘a square with length, width and height all equal’. I would classify such a city as a cube. Suffice to say it is all a bit cloudy. I think the reason for that is the higher you go to measure the height, the clouds get in the way.

All joking aside, seriously I think John was deliberately dealing with stadia and cubits because of the resultant numbers involved. 12,000 x 12,000 yields 144,000 square stadia. He then adds that the wall was 144 cubits thick. Why would we change the measuring standard to miles and feet or kilometres and metres? In doing that we lose the pattern of numbering John was intent on using, namely 12 x 12, 144. We already know John has used this number sequence to spell out the link to Old and New Testament saints (144,0000). If we choose to break the pattern by switching to another unit of measurement, we lose the connection John was making. He wanted us to see this Holy City is for all saints across the centuries. Furthermore, a wall 144 cubits thick seals the deal and delineates those inside as the blood bought saints, old and new.

I was struck by the pattern that emerges from the translations when I conducted my little survey of measurements above. Why would some translations insist on naming this a square city when it is obviously a cube. But then I realised that is exactly what John has written. It appears he concentrated first on the length and breadth and then added: and the height too is 12,000 stadia. He starts first with the two dimensional city at ground level and then adds the height. He maintains his symbolic numbers which yield 144,000 square stadia and then informs us that it is as high as the measurements at ground level. I wondered why he did that. I think to focus on the 144 product but then he adds the height. No wonder most translations call the city a square. That is the way John led us to think of the New Jerusalem. So why add a height of the same dimensions at the end? It’s not as an after-thought but there simply to inform us that the city is as high as it is long and wide. But why?

Now is the time for my element of conjecture that I included in my comment to Darren mentioned above. Could it be that the height of the New Jerusalem (at 12,000 stadia) is an allusion to Jacob’s ladder or stairway in Genesis 28? (Jacob’s Stairway and Ha Makom). Could the New Jerusalem contain a means for us to move from the New Earth to the New Heaven? I have given you the link to the Gem series on Finding Ha Makom in Revelation.

A brief summary:- Jacob finds a place. He says in Genesis 28:16 “Surely the LORD is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it.” Later in the passage (28:19), he calls that Place, ‘Bethel’, which means the ‘House of God’. How much more would that be the case for the New Jerusalem, where God dwells forever with His people? My imagination switched into overdrive and I linked the places: Ha Makom, Bethel and the New Jerusalem. Could we dare to think that there might be a link, a stairway, between the New Earth and the New Heaven in the New Jerusalem? I won’t say anymore for fear of over-extending this thought. But I will confess that my mind ran away with me pondering on the outcome of such possibilities.

I confess this last notion is unique to my own pondering over this passage. The idea of keeping the 12,000 stadia and not converting it to other forms of measurement came from one commentator among the 80⁺ I have access to. But having read all 80 plus commentators at one point or another, I am not going to go back and find who it was who wrote that. I think it is a valid point and highlights John’s use of ’12’ and ‘144’. I wonder too whether the variation between the conversions of 12,000 stadia is a result of non-standard measurements for the Roman stadia; i.e furlong vs stadia as an approximation. But my connecting together the New Jerusalem and Ha Makom is entirely of my own doing. However, while saying that, I have a gut feeling it is a very real possibility. Feel free to give me your input on that outlandish thought. I have not heard or read of that possibility anywhere else; it is entirely of my own thinking, so feel free to critique it. I have a sense that I am on the right track and will ponder this notion some more, but not return to it in the Gems.

This Gem concludes the Beautiful Beyond Description Gem series. In subsequent Gems I will unpack the remaining issues I have outlined above in this Gem. I do wonder if we will be housed in high, high-rise apartments in the New Jerusalem. I sincerely hope not; I can’t imagine that.

The less we know, the longer the explanation.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Great minds think alike but great teams don’t. If no one sees anything wrong with an idea, someone isn’t thinking.

Rick Warren

People laugh because I am different. I laugh because they all are the same.

Ian

I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.

Billy Graham

It’s Jesus who has changed my hopeless end into an endless hope.

Ian