The Theology of the Book of Revelation

by Richard Bauckham

  As a city, the New Jerusalem is the seat of the divine kingdom. The throne which had been in heaven (chapter 4) is now in the New Jerusalem (22:1, 3). The city is both the light of the world, by which the nations walk (21:24; cf. Isa. 60:3), and the centre to which the nations and their kings come on pilgrimage, bringing tribute (21:24–6; cf. Isa. 60:4–17; Zech. 14:16). But whereas in Isaiah 60:5–17, it is the material wealth of the nations that is brought in tribute to Jerusalem, in Revelation the kings of the earth bring ‘their glory’ and people bring ‘the glory and honour of the nations’ (21:26–7). The intention is probably to contrast with Babylon’s self-indulgent exploitation of the wealth of her empire at her subject’s expense (cf. 18:11–14), as well as to extend the theme of glory that runs through the whole description. In offering their own glory to God’s glory, of course the kings and the nations do not lose it, but acknowledge its source in God to whom all glory and honour belong. It is no accident that ‘glory and honour’ regularly appear in the doxologies of Revelation (4:11; 5:12, 13; 7:12; cf. 19:1).

  The description of the New Jerusalem in many respects closely follows Old Testament models (especially Isa. 52:1; 54:11–12; 60; Ezek. 40:2–5; 47:1–12; 48:30–4; Zech. 14:6–21; Tob. 13:16–17). Its most novel feature is the absence of a temple: ‘I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb’ (21:22). Ezekiel had called the New Jerusalem ‘The Lord is There’ (Ezek. 48:35), Zechariah had declared the whole city to be as holy as the temple (Zech. 14:20–1), and Isaiah, followed by John (Rev. 21:27), had excluded the ritually unclean from the New Jerusalem, as they were excluded from the temple (Isa. 52:1; Ps. 24:3–4). These prophets had gone far towards envisaging the whole city as the place of God’s holy presence, as his truly ‘holy mountain’. But John seems to have been the first to eliminate the temple altogether. The city needs no temple, a special place of God’s presence, because the whole city is filled with God’s immediate presence. As a result the city itself becomes a temple. As well as features already mentioned, the most striking sign of this is its perfectly cubic shape (21:16). In this it is like no city ever imagined, but it is like the holy of holies in the temple (1 Kings 6:20). The radical assimilation of the city to a temple, taken further in Revelation than in its prophetic sources, shows how central to the whole concept of the New Jerusalem in Revelation is the theme of God’s immediate presence.

  THE NEW JERUSALEM AS PEOPLE8

  As John sees the New Jerusalem descend from heaven (21:3), he hears its meaning proclaimed:

  Behold, the dwelling of God is with humans.

  He will dwell with them as their God:

  they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.

  (21:3)

  We have already noticed how these words echo both God’s promise to dwell with his own people Israel and to be their God (Ezek. 37:27–8; cf. also Zech. 8:8) and also his promise that many nations will also be his people with whom he will dwell in Zion (Zech. 2:10–11; cf. also Isa. 19:25; 56:7; Amos 9:12). The words are programmatic for the whole account of the New Jerusalem, in the way they combine the language of God’s commitment to his covenant people with the most universal-istic reference to all people. In saying that ‘the dwelling of God is with humans’ (meta tōn anthrōpōn), John uses the word he commonly uses for humanity in general (8:11; 9:6, 10, 15, 18, 20; 13:13; 14:4; 16:8, 9, 21). In saying that ‘they will be his peoples’ (laoi), he prefers to the more usual ‘nations’ (ethnē, cf. 2:26; 11:18; 12:5; 14:8; 15:3–4; 18:3,23; 19:15; 20:3) the plural of the word used for God’s covenant people (e.g. Ezek. 37:27). Now that the covenant people have fulfilled their role of being a light to the nations, all nations will share in the privileges and the promises of the covenant people.

  Two strands of language and symbolism – referring respectively to the covenant people and to the nations – run through the whole account. In the first place, the history of both Israel and the church comes to fulfilment in the New Jerusalem. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are on its gates (21:12), as in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 48:30–4), while the names of the twelve apostles are on its foundations (21:14). The structures and dimensions of the city are composed of the numbers symbolic of the people of God: twelve (21:12–14, 16, 19–21; cf. 22:2) and 144 (21:17; cf. 7:4; 14:1). It is, after all, the New Jerusalem. When the Old Testament covenant formulary (‘I will be their God and they will be my people’), which was adapted to apply to all nations in 21:3, is adapted again in 21:7, it forms God’s promise to the Christian martyrs, the faithful witnesses whom John’s readers are called to become, summing up all the promises made to those who ‘conquer’ in the seven messages to the churches. Moreover, the climax of the whole account of the New Jerusalem (22:3b–5) portrays the destiny of being ‘a kingdom and priests to our God’ (5:10; cf. 1:6), which the Lamb won for his Christian followers (5:9; 1:5). In the New Jerusalem they will worship God in his immediate presence, as priests (22:30–4), and they will share his reign, as kings (22:5).

  On the other hand, the nations walk by the city’s light (21:24), the glory and honour of the nations are brought into it (21:26), and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it (21:24). This reference to ‘the kings of the earth’ is the last occurrence of a phrase which has been used throughout Revelation to refer to the rulers who associate themselves with Babylon and the beast in opposition to God’s kingdom (6:15; 17:2, 18; 18:3, 9; 19:19; alluding to Ps. 2:2) and whom Jesus Christ is destined to rule (1:5; cf. 17:14; 19:16). These references to the relationship of nations and kings to the New Jerusalem are based on Isaiah’s vision of the New Jerusalem ruling the world (Isa. 60:3, 5, 11). Even more striking is the way that, in Revelation 22:2, John has adapted another Old Testament prophecy to make reference to the nations. The description of the tree of life in 22:2 is based on Ezekiel 47:12, but whereas in Ezekiel the trees bear fruit every month, John has taken this to mean that they bear twelve kinds of fruit, and whereas in Ezekiel the leaves of the trees are simply said to be for healing, John specifies ‘the healing of the nations’. Thus, in line with his purpose in the whole description of the New Jerusalem, he combines an allusion to the covenant people (the number twelve) with reference to the nations.

  The combination of particularism (reference to the covenant people) and universalism (reference to the nations) in the account of the New Jerusalem could be explained in three ways. In the first place, it has been argued that throughout John intends to refer only to the covenant people redeemed from all the nations (5:9–10). When the rebellious nations have been judged, the covenant people inherit the earth and become the nations and kings of the earth in place of those who once served Babylon and the beast. This explanation fails to take seriously 21:3, in which the overall meaning of the whole account is stated at the outset, as well as the evidence we have studied in our chapter 4 which indicates that in Revelation the witness of the church is intended to bring about the conversion of the nations. Secondly, it might be thought that the covenant people are the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem itself (22:3b–5), while the nations and their kings live outside it and visit it (21:24–6). On this view, the eschatological blessings are shared with the nations, but the covenant people retain a special privilege. But this view also fails to take seriously the implication of 21:3, which declares all the nations to be covenant peoples. If the nations and the kings of the earth have to enter the city by its gates (21:24–6), so do the Christian martyrs (22:14). The image conveys the full inclusion of the nations in the blessings of the covenant, not their partial exclusion. The third explanation is the most probable: that the deliberate mixing of particular and universal imagery throughout the account is a way of maintaining the perspective given in 21:3. It brings together the Old Testament promises for the destiny of God’s own people and the universal hope, also to be found in the Old Testament, that all the nations will become God’s people. The history of the covenant people – both of the one nation Israel and of the ch
urch which is redeemed from all the nations – will find its eschatological fulfilment in the full inclusion of all the nations in its own covenant privileges and promises.

  The universalism of the vision of the New Jerusalem completes the direction towards the conversion of the nations which was already clearly indicated in 11:13; 14:14–16; 15:4. Its universal scope should not be minimized. But it should not be taken to mean that Revelation predicts the salvation of each and every human being. Two passages (21:8, 27; cf. 22:15) prevent this conclusion. Unrepentant sinners have no place in the New Jerusalem. The two passages make this point in different, complementary ways. 21:8 is the counterpart to the promise to the one who conquers in 21:7. It warns Christians that if they are not faithful witnesses, but participate in the sins of Babylon, they cannot inherit the holy city, the New Jerusalem, but must suffer the judgment on Babylon’s evil (cf. 18:4). (The same combination of promise and warning to Christians recurs in 22:14–15). In 21:8 the imagery used for the fate of sinners is that of divine judgment (cf. 2:11; 14:10; 18:8; 19:20; 20:10, 14–15). In 21:27 the imagery is that of the exclusion of the unholy from the holy presence of God in his holy city (cf. Isa. 52:1). Here those who are threatened with exclusion are those of the nations and their kings (21:24–6) who do not repent (cf. 14:6–11).

  THE NEW JERUSALEM AS DIVINE PRESENCE

  The theocentricity of Revelation, so apparent in chapters 4–5, is focussed again in the description of the New Jerusalem. God’s creation reaches its eschatological fulfilment when it becomes the scene of God’s immediate presence. This, in the last resort, is what is ‘new’ about the new creation. It is the old creation filled with God’s presence.

  Before chapter 21, Revelation confines the presence of God, as ‘the One who sits on the throne’, to heaven, where his throne is. This does not mean that he is not now present in the world in any sense, but that his presence is only a paradoxical presence in hiddenness and contradiction. He is present to his worshippers in the sanctuary that is the hidden, inner reality of the persecuted church (11:1–2; cf. 13:6). He is present as the slaughtered Lamb. He is present as the Spirit in the faithful witness of the Lamb’s followers who follow him to death. But while the beast rules the world and humanity in general refuses to give God glory, his evident presence, his glory which is inseparable from his reign, appears only in heaven. And when his glory is manifested in heaven, its effect on earth is the destructive judgment of evil (15:7–8). Only when all evil has been destroyed and his kingdom comes, will God’s throne be on earth (22:3). Then, when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, God will make his home with humanity on earth (21:3). The Greek words which 21:3 uses for ‘dwelling’ (skēnē) and ‘dwell’ (skēnoō) are those which Jewish Greek used as virtually transliterations of the Hebrew mishkān and shākan, used in the Old Testament of God’s presence in the tabernacle and the temple. Since the whole of the New Jerusalem is a holy of holies, God’s immediate presence fills it. In place of a temple, it has the unrestricted presence of God and the Lamb (21:22). Like his presence in the temple (e.g. Ezek. 43), this eschatological presence of God entails holiness and glory. As his eschatological presence, it is also the source of the new life of the new creation.

  Holiness we have already mentioned: it is this which excludes the unholy from the holy city (21:27, cf. 2, 10). But the city which is permeated by the divine holiness is also filled with the divine splendour. It needs neither sun nor moon nor lamp (21:23; 22:5), for it has the glory of God (21:11) reflected in the radiance of its own multicoloured translucence (21:11, 18–21). Creation has thus a moral and religious goal – its dedication to God fulfilled in God’s holy presence – and also an aesthetic goal – its beauty fulfilled in reflecting the divine glory. The latter is just as theocentric as the former. The new creation, like the old, will have its own God-given beauty, but will be even more beautiful through its evident reflection of God’s own splendour. Similarly, the nations and the kings will enjoy their own glory – all the goods of human culture – the more through dedicating it to God’s glory. He will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28), not through the negation of creation, but through the immediacy of his presence to all things.

  God’s presence, as ‘the One who lives for ever and ever’ (4:9–10; 10:6; 15:7), also means life in the fullest sense: life beyond the reach of all that now threatens and contradicts life, life which is eternal because it is immediately joined to its eternal source in God. So God gives the water of life (21:6), which flows from his throne (22:1) and waters the tree of life (22:2). All sorrow, suffering and death are banished for ever (21:4). Significantly, this promise is directly linked with God’s presence (21:3) by means of the beautiful image John has taken from Isaiah: God himself ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes’ (21:4; also 7:17; cf. Isa. 25:8). Whereas God’s acts of judgment have been only indirectly attributed to his agency, through intermediaries, here God himself is said to wipe the tears from the faces of all his suffering creatures. The love of God, for which Revelation rarely uses the word ‘love’ (cf. 1:5; 3:9, 19; 20:9), could hardly be more vividly depicted.

  With the final scene around the throne of God and the Lamb (22:313–5) we are brought back to the central symbol of the whole book: the divine throne, with its combination of cultic and political images, which first appeared in chapters 4–5. We should notice a contrast. In chapters 4–5, in heaven, the living creatures form an inner circle of priests in the immediate presence of God and the twenty-four elders form an inner circle of thrones sharing God’s rule. They mediate the worship of the rest of creation. In chapter 22, however, all who may enter the New Jerusalem have immediate access to God’s throne on earth. They are priests who worship him and kings who reign with him.

  In the earthly temple in Jerusalem the high priest, once a year only, wore the sacred name of God on his forehead and entered God’s immediate presence in the holy of holies. In the New Jerusalem, which is God’s eternal holy of holies, all will enjoy this immediacy without interruption. But nothing expresses this immediacy more evocatively than the words: ‘they shall see his face’ (22:4). This is the face of God that no one in mortal life could see and survive (Exod. 33:20–3; Judg. 6:22–3), but to see which is the deepest human religious aspiration, to be realized only beyond this mortal life (Ps. 17:15; 1 Cor. 13:12; cf. 4 Ezra 7:98). The face expresses who a person is. To see God’s face will be to know who God is in his personal being. This will be the heart of humanity’s eternal joy in their eternal worship of God.

  As for the image of God’s rule in the eschatological kingdom, what is most notable is the fact that all implication of distance between ‘the One who sits on the throne’ and the world over which he rules has disappeared. His kingdom turns out to be quite unlike the beast’s. It finds its fulfilment not in the subjection of God’s ‘servants’ (22:3) to his rule, but in their reigning with him (22:5). The point is not that they reign over anyone: the point is that God’s rule over them is for them a participation in his rule. The image expresses the eschatological reconciliation of God’s rule and human freedom, which is also expressed in the paradox that God’s service is perfect freedom (cf. 1 Pet. 2:16). Because God’s will is the moral truth of our own being as his creatures, we shall find our fulfilment only when, through our free obedience, his will becomes also the spontaneous desire of our hearts. Therefore in the perfection of God’s kingdom theonomy (God’s rule) and human autonomy (self-determination) will fully coincide. Thus Revelation’s final use of its central image of God’s throne (22:313–5) frees it of all the associations of human rule, which must always have subjects, and makes it a pure symbol of the theocentricity of its vision of human fulfilment.

  * * *

  1 On the cities, see especially C. J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in their Local Setting (JSATSS 11; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986).

  2 For a detailed discussion of Rev. 11:1–2, see chapter 9 (‘The Conversion of the Nations’), in Bauckham, The Climax of Pr
ophecy.

  3 Cf. J. Sweet, Revelation (London: SCM Press, 1979), 194–6.

  4 On the (varied) extent of Jewish involvement in the life of the cities of Asia Minor, see P. Trebilco, Jewish Communities in Asia Minor (SNTSMS 69; Cambridge University Press, 1991).

  5 Cf. C Deutsch, ‘Transformation of Symbols: The New Jerusalem in Rv 213-223’, ZNW 78 (1987), 106–26.

  6 Cf. J. Dougherty, The Fivesquare City (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980), chapter 1.

  7 For the background, see R.J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972); R. L. Cohn, The Shape of Sacred Space (AARSR 23; Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1981) ; F. R. McCurley, Ancient Myths and Biblical Faith (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), part 3; W.J. Dumbrell, The End of the Beginning: Revelation 21–22 and the Old Testament (Hombush West, NSW: Lancer Books; Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1985); B. C. Ollenburger, Zion the City of the Great King (JSOTSS 41; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1987).

  8 For the argument of this section in more detail, see chapter 9 (‘The Conversion of the Nations’) in Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy.

  CHAPTER 7

  Revelation for today

  THE CHRISTIAN CANONICAL PROPHECY

  Revelation has a unique place in the Christian canon of Scripture. It is the only work of Christian prophecy that forms part of the canon. Moreover, it is a work of Christian prophecy which understands itself to be the culmination of the whole biblical prophetic tradition. Its continuity with Old Testament prophecy is deliberate and impressively comprehensive. The point may be highlighted by comparing it with the other major work of early Christian prophecy which has survived: the work known as The Shepherd, by the Roman Christian prophet Hermas, a work which was popular in the early church, though not finally admitted to the canon. Hermas, despite – or perhaps because of – his Christian prophetic consciousness, virtually ignores the Old Testament. John is steeped in it, not just as the medium in which he thinks, but as the Word of God which he is intepreting afresh for an age in which God’s eschatological purpose has begun to be fulfilled. He gathers up all those strands of Old Testament expectation which he understood to point to the eschatological future and focusses them in a fresh vision of the way they are to be fulfilled.