There are several clues in John’s vision of a voluminous golden city descending through the sky that lead the reader to believe it symbolizes spiritual truths.
- In comparison to Babylon—portrayed as a woman of excesses—the bride motif of new Jerusalem symbolizes the far superior role as Christ’s beloved, than as the world’s.
- The purity and luminosity of the precious materials in the city’s construction point to the spiritual radiance of the church, and of being the Lord’s treasure.
- The massive wall surrounding the city is reminiscent of the Wall of Salvation Isaiah spoke, and of the wall of fire which is God, the glory within the city.
- The twelve portals bring to mind Jesus’s prophecy that people will come from all four corners of the earth to take their place at God’s banquet table.
As John looked ever more intently at the glorious city, he kept noticing new details.
Firm Foundation
John now saw a peculiar aspect of the city.
Ordinarily, buildings are anchored on a foundation. Jesus had spoken of the importance of choosing wisely where a home might be built. A foundation sunk into the sand has no security. Instead, there must be bedrock to give the foundation its strength.
Parable of Being Founded Upon Rock
“Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”
Matthew 7:24-27 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
But what John saw was a house appearing to be fully built in the sky. What was it founded upon? And that’s when he realized the city had twelve foundations.
Trying to picture such a strange anomaly has created challenges for commentators.
Twelve Foundations
Some scholars suggest the foundations are layered one upon the other. Others see each gate and section of the wall being supported by its own foundation.
All are agree this is a reference to the church, which is founded upon the apostolic teaching as Paul underscored.
So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
- built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
- with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone
- in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Ephesians 2:19-22 (NRSVUE, modifications added)
The writer of Hebrews may also have been thinking of this spiritual foundation, stating that Abraham, by faith, looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Measurement of the City
Once John had examined the city, the angel brought out the golden measuring rod and began to calculate the city’s dimensions. John’s readers would have remembered that John had himself been instructed to measure the temple earlier in his apocalyptic account.
But now the entire city was before them. In a similar way, Ezekiel had been gazing upon the city of a Jerusalem when an angelic messenger from God came with a similar tool.
When he brought me there, a man was there whose appearance shone like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand, and he was standing in the gateway.
Ezekiel 40:3 (NRSVUE)
Though premillennialists tend to see Ezekiel’s vision as having to do with the Millennium and John’s vision as having to do with all that will occur after God’s final Day of Judgment, other expositors see a parallel between these two oracles. Several believe that by measuring the city, John was being shown that not just spiritual truths were being portrayed, but rather this city has a more concrete reality to it. It is not simply imagination, or an illustration. It is an actual place.
Foursquare
A remarkable architectural aspect—that John may have suspected from the city’s appearance—was now confirmed. The city was as tall and broad as it was long: it was a cube. Its rampart, the wall that surrounded it, was 144 cubits (216 feet) tall, but the city towered far, far about the wall, dwarfing what would otherwise have been considered respectably sturdy fortification. As magnificent as the wall was, with its twelve pearly portals and encrustation of rare gems, it paled in comparison to the impressive grandeur of the city itself.
Is it fair to try to translate John’s dimensions into modern figures? It depends on who is asked.
Real?
Are we to be encouraged to envision this city in factual terms? Is this indeed the “mansion” Jesus spoke of in which individual rooms are being prepared for every person who has put their faith in God over the course of human history?
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
John 14:2 (NRSVUE)
Symbolic?
Structurally, such a city (made of pure gold) would have to rely upon a new kind of physics to be fundamentally sound.
Perhaps we to understand these dimensions as symbolic, founded upon the twelve tribes of Israel, and the teaching of the twelve apostles, whose Wall of Salvation has portals recalling the “pearl of great price” which is worth more than all earthly treasure.
Together, there is the impression of majesty and perfection, of loveliness, with an echo of the wealth of Eden.
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.
Genesis 2:10-12 (NRSVUE, italics added)
The Holy of Holies
It is also worth noting that the city’s dimensions reflect the innermost chamber of the temple. Before, John measured the earthly temple. And in Ezekiel’s oracles, the earthly temple was the center of God’s attention. But throughout John’s Apocalypse, God’s throne room is the revealed as the true temple from which the blueprints for the tabernacle and the earthly temples sprang.
Now, the New Jerusalem has no temple. It is, it seems, a depiction itself of the Holy of Holies, the place where God’s glory dwells, and where God’s faithful may commune with God, as the writer of Hebrews exclaimed,
Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the boldness and the pride inspired by hope.
We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)
Hebrews 3:6, 6:19, 10:19-20 (NRSVUE, italics added)
Sanctified and Glorified
Several times, John noted the purity of the gold, so clean it shone like crystal and so clear it was as transparent as glass. Not usually the property of gold, these are the qualities of fine character and the way of the Lord, as symbolized in the golden thoroughfare down the center of the city. But he knows the way I take, Job wrote, when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.
And I will put this third into the fire,
refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’ ”Zechariah 13:9 (NRSVUE, italics added)
And Peter concluded,
… the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:7 (NRSVUE, italics added)
Views summarized from Revelation: Four Views A Parallel Commentary, edited by Steve Gregg
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