New Jerusalem

The phrase “New Jerusalem” appears only twice in the Bible. Both times, it appears in the book of Revelation—once near the beginning and once near the end (Revelation 3:12; 21:2).

In the first major vision of Revelation, the risen Christ speaks to his people while they face conflict in this world. He promises that those who remain faithful will one day belong to the new Jerusalem. This promise describes a future identity and place of belonging for God’s people.

At the end of Revelation, this promise is fulfilled. John sees the victorious people of God and the city that will be their home. The new Jerusalem represents life with God in a renewed world, where God lives with his people forever.

This does not, of course, answer the question “What is the new Jerusalem?” A description of what it is like would be relatively simple. An explanation of what it is would be more complicated.

An angel takes John to a high mountain to show him the new Jerusalem. What follows is a detailed vision (Revelation 21:10–22:5).

The first thing John notices is the light of the city. It shines like a great, jewel-like lamp. This light is “the glory of God” (21:11). John then describes the city's walls and gates (Revelation 21:12–14). The 12 gates have the names of the tribes of Israel, and the wall between each gate forms a single “foundation,” or block, with the name of one of the 12 apostles of Christ.

Next, John gives the measurements of the city (Revelation 21:15–17). The city is about 2,220 kilometers (1,400 miles) wide, long, and high. Its wall is 65.8 meters (216 feet) thick or perhaps high. While these modern measurements are helpful, they may miss what mattered most to John.

According to biblical measurements, the city is 12,000 stadia wide, and its wall is 144 cubits thick. These numbers are symbolic. They are multiples of 12, indicating perfection, as do other occurrences of the number 12 in Revelation (for example, Revelation 7:4–8).

After this, John describes the materials used to build the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:18–21). The city wall is made of jasper. The foundation layers are covered with many precious stones. The gates are made of pearls. The streets and buildings inside the city are made of "pure gold, clear as glass."

John then lists several important things the city does not have (Revelation 22–27). There is no temple, because God himself lives with his people. There is no sun or moon, because God’s glory gives light. There is no night, the gates are never closed, and nothing evil is present.

Finally, John describes three wonderful things the city does have (22:1–5). There is the river of the water of life, which brings life from God. There is the tree of life, which provides healing and renewal. Most important of all, God himself is present. His throne is there, and his people live with him forever.

This is how John describes the new Jerusalem. However, his main purpose is not simply to help us imagine what the city looks like. He wants us to understand what the new Jerusalem means and what it shows about God’s final plan for his people.

Old Testament history presents the city of David, old Jerusalem, as the center of God’s rule and presence among his people. In that city stood the temple, where the priests served God. It was also the place of the king’s throne, where rulers governed as God’s representatives. Jerusalem was the main city, or “mother city,” of Israel, the people of God.

However, the Bible as a whole tells the story of God redeeming a people for himself from all nations and all times. This larger people of God goes beyond Old Testament Israel. Israel was the beginning, or first part, of this greater people.

Because of this, it makes sense that the Bible’s final revelation shows a vision of this greater people of God. They are finally at home in the true mother city. This city is the new and greater Jerusalem.

The Old Testament prophets saw the decline of old Jerusalem. They watched with sorrow and anger as the city failed to live up to its calling. Sin and foolishness spread through the city. Its kings and priests increasingly turned away from the role God had given them.

Because of this, some prophets began to hope for a different Jerusalem. They looked forward to a city that would one day become what God intended. The prophet Ezekiel imagined Jerusalem and its temple rebuilt in great detail (Ezekiel 40–48). The prophet Isaiah described this future Jerusalem in even more vivid and hopeful language (Isaiah 52, 60–66).

The visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah closely connect with John’s vision in Revelation 21–22. Together, they point toward a renewed Jerusalem that fully reflects God’s purpose for his people.

In the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, many Jewish writers became even more disappointed with the situation in Jerusalem. Because of this, they shifted their hope. Instead of expecting the earthly city to be renewed, they began to describe a heavenly Jerusalem.

These writers believed this heavenly city already existed. At the end of the age, God would cause it to come down from heaven. It would be the main city of God’s people. It would be full of life and beauty, and it would be the place of God’s temple and throne.

In many ways, what these apocalyptic writers imagined is very similar to what John later describes in Revelation. Their hopes and visions prepared the way for the picture John presents of the new Jerusalem.

Jesus takes all these earlier ideas and reshapes them in a striking way. He does more than predict the final destruction of Jerusalem and its temple (Mark 13; Luke 19:41–44). If that were all he said, an important question would remain unanswered.

Old Jerusalem existed for a purpose. It was meant to be the place of God’s rule and presence. If the city and its temple are destroyed, how will that purpose be fulfilled? Where will God’s people then find God’s throne and God’s dwelling place among them?

Jesus answers that, since the Incarnation (when God became human), God now rules through him, and God’s presence is seen in him (Matthew 28:18; John 14:9). In Jesus, God is present with his people in a new way. Because of this, some Christians understand Jesus as fulfilling what Jerusalem and the temple once represented.

There are two different Greek words that English Bibles translate as “new.” After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the emperor Hadrian built a “new” Jerusalem. That kind of “new” meant only the latest version of a city built on the same site.

John’s vision uses the other meaning of “new.” This word means fresh, clean, and truly different. It does not describe a replacement of the old city. It describes something transformed and renewed. The New Testament uses this same word when it speaks of the new covenant and the new commandment (John 13:34; Hebrews 8:8), and of the new creation and the new person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:15).

John shows what this kind of “new” means by listing seven things that will exist “no more” in the new heaven and new earth. There will be no more sea, death, sorrow, crying, pain, curse, or night (Revelation 21:1, 4; 22:3–5). In these ways, everything will be truly new and different.

Five other passages in the New Testament help explain the background of Revelation 21. In Galatians 4:26, Paul speaks of “Jerusalem above.” This city is the mother city of all who receive salvation by faith. He contrasts it with the old Jerusalem, which represents those who try to please God by obeying the law (Galatians 4:25). In Ephesians 5:25–32, Paul describes the “bride of Christ,” meaning the church. In John’s vision, this same bride is described as a city, the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9–10). In Philippians 3:20, Paul says that believers already have their citizenship in heaven. This means the heavenly city is not only a future home. It is also the place to which believers already belong. Hebrews 12:22 makes the same point. Those who believe have already come to the “heavenly Jerusalem.” This language shows that the city is real in the present, not only in the future.

Taken together, these passages show that the Jerusalem John sees is the home of all God’s people. This includes Jews and non-Jews (gentiles), and believers from both Old Testament and New Testament times. In some way, this city already exists, even though its full reality still lies ahead. This raises an important question: how should we understand John’s vision of the new Jerusalem?

Some Christians expect a future millennium. This refers to a one-thousand-year earthly reign of Christ between his second coming and the final defeat of Satan.

Some Christians who hold this view believe the new Jerusalem belongs to the millennium. They base this view on details they think fit that period better than the eternal state that follows it (Revelation 21:24–26; 22:2). They imagine the new Jerusalem as a literal, physical city. Because its length, width, and height are equal, they suppose it may be shaped like a cube, or possibly a pyramid. Some even imagine it floating above the earth, like a very large structure suspended in the air (that is, not resting on the ground).

Most Christians who believe in a future millennium, and also many who do not hold that view, think John is describing the city as it will be in eternity. Some of them understand the description in a literal way. Others think John uses detailed images (the city’s size, shape, and materials) because this is the only way to speak about something that is beyond full human description. In this view, the city is real, but its reality goes beyond what human language can fully explain

In line with the message of the whole book of Revelation, many understand the new Jerusalem as the ideal city of God. In this view, it belongs not only to the future but also to the present. The new Jerusalem exists now because it is a spiritual reality, not a physical city made of material things. It is “coming down out of heaven” because it comes to people “from God” (21:2).

At the same time, everything John describes in the final chapters of Revelation belongs to a new world. This world will appear only after the first heaven and the first earth have passed away. From our present point of view, that world is still future.

When we consider all these passages together, we come closest to understanding the new Jerusalem as the community of Christ and his people. This community will be revealed in its full perfection only when this present age comes to an end.

At the same time, Christians already belong to it in a real sense. The new Jerusalem gives them an ideal to live toward in this world and a hope to look forward to in the world to come.

See also Bride of Christ; Church; Jerusalem.