Revelation 21:1 - Exposition

And I saw. The usual introduction to a new vision (cf. Revelation 20:11 , etc.). Having described the origin and progress of evil in the world, the final overthrow of Satan and his adherents, and the judgment when every man is rewarded according to his works, the seer now completes the whole by portraying the eternal bliss of the redeemed in heaven (cf. on Revelation 20:10 ). The description is based upon Isaiah 60:1-22 . and Ezekiel 40:1-49 ., et seq.; especially the latter, which follows the account of God and Magog, as does this. A new heaven and a new earth. The dispute as to whether a new creation is intended, or a revivified earth, seems to be founded on the false assumption that the dwellers in heaven must be localized in space (cf. Isaiah 65:17 , "I create new heavens and a new earth;" also Isaiah 66:22 ; 2 Peter 3:13 ). For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. The Revisers follow B and others in reading ἀπῆλθον , and render it by the English perfect tense. In א , A, is read ἀπῆλθαν , while other manuscripts give ἀπῆλθεν and παρῆλθε . The first heaven and earth; that is, those now existing pass away as described in Revelation 20:11 . And there was no more sea; and the sea no longer exists. The threefold division of heaven, earth, and sea represents the whole of this world (cf. Revelation 10:6 ). Some interpret the sea symbolically of the restless, unstable, wicked nations of the earth, which now exist no longer; others understand the absence of sea to typify the absence of instability and wickedness in the New Jerusalem.