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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 21

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.⁠ 2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.⁠ 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”⁠ 5 And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Then he said to me, “Write it down, because these words are reliable and true.” 6 He also said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.⁠ To the one who is thirsty I will give water free of charge from the spring of the water of life. 7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death.” 9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” 10 So he took me away in the Spirit to a huge, majestic mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.⁠ 11 The city possesses the glory of God; its brilliance is like a precious jewel, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper.⁠ 12 It has a massive, high wall with twelve gates, with twelve angels at the gates, and the names of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel are written on the gates.⁠ 13 There are three gates on the east side, three gates on the north side, three gates on the south side, and three gates on the west side. 14 The wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The angel who spoke to me had a golden measuring rod with which to measure the city and its foundation stones and wall.⁠ 16 Now the city is laid out as a square, its length and width the same. He measured the city with the measuring rod at 1,400 miles (its length and width and height are equal). 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which is also the angel’s. 18 The city’s wall is made of jasper and the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.⁠ 19 The foundations of the city’s wall are decorated with every kind of precious stone.⁠ The first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates are twelve pearls—each one of the gates is made from just one pearl! The main street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.⁠ 22 Now I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God—the All-Powerful—and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God lights it up, and its lamp is the Lamb.⁠ 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their grandeur into it.⁠ 25 Its gates will never be closed during the day (and there will be no night there).⁠ 26 They will bring the grandeur and the wealth of the nations into it, 27 but nothing ritually unclean will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 61:2 and Revelation 21:15

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 Enoch 61 describes angels being given tools to measure sacred space, and Revelation 21 similarly describes an angel measuring the city. Both follow traditions from the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East of divine beings measuring the heavens.

Passages

1 Enoch 61:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And I saw in those days how long cords were given to those angels, and they took to themselves wings and flew, heading north. 2 I asked the angel, 'Why have those angels taken these cords and departed?' And he replied, 'They have gone to measure.' 3 The angel who accompanied me said, 'These shall bring the measures of the righteous, and the ropes of the righteous to the righteous, so that they may rely on the name of the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.' 4 The chosen will begin to dwell with the chosen, and these are the measures which shall be given to faith and which shall strengthen righteousness.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Revelation 21:15

New Testament
15 The angel who spoke to me had a golden measuring rod with which to measure the city and its foundation stones and wall. 16 Now the city is laid out as a square, its length and width the same. He measured the city with the measuring rod at 1,400 miles (its length and width and height are equal). 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which is also the angel’s.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... The significance of the measuring means that their salvation is secured, despite physical harm. This is a further development of the ‘sealing’ of 7:2–8 and is consistent with 1 Enoch 61:1–5, where the angelic ‘measuring’ of the righteous elect ensures that their faith will be strengthened and not demolished, despite the fact that their bodies will be destroyed. In the Old Testament generally, ‘measuring’ was metaphorical for a decree of protection ... An angel measuring various features of the temple complex in Ezekiel 40–48 metaphorically pictures the sure establishment and subsequent protection of the temple. In Revelation 21:15–17 an angel, also in dependence on the same Ezekiel text, ‘measures with a reed’ (metreō + kalamos, as in 11:1) ‘the city and its gates and its wall’. There the measuring of the city and its parts pictures the security of its inhabitants against the harm and contamination of unclean and deceptive people ..."
G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004), 387.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Enoch 61:2 and Revelation 21:15

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