The Revelation of John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 20 of 22 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
20:11-21:14
[20:11] And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
[20:12] And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
[20:13] And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
[20:14] And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire.
[20:15] And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
[21:1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
[21:2] And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
[21:3] And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God:
[21:4] and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.
[21:5] And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true.
[21:6] And he said unto me, They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
[21:7] He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
[21:8] But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
[21:9] And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
[21:10] And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
[21:11] having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal:
[21:12] having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
[21:13] on the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
[21:14] And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes and the twelve foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles, mapping the city's structure onto the people of God at both old and new covenant levels.
A binding agreement or relationship between the divine and a people or individual, establishing mutual obligations.
'They shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God' (21:3) and 'I will be his God, and he shall be my son' (21:7) establish a renewed covenantal relationship between God and the redeemed.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
God's tabernacle is with men, he dwells with them, and is their God (21:3) — the divine is no longer transcendent above but pervasively present within the renewed cosmos and its inhabitants.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The new Jerusalem has 'the glory of God' and 'her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal' (21:11), presenting divine luminosity as the city's constitutive quality.
The reunification of complementary divine principles (male-female, spirit-matter) as a symbol of wholeness and salvation.
The new Jerusalem is explicitly described as 'a bride adorned for her husband' (21:2) and 'the bride, the wife of the Lamb' (21:9), making the nuptial union the defining symbol of the eschatological state.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The Great White Throne judgment (20:11-15) is the opening and structuring event of the passage, with the dead judged according to their works and the unwritten in the book of life cast into the lake of fire.
The renovation of the cosmos is the central theme of chapter 21: 'I make all things new,' 'new heaven and new earth,' 'the first things are passed away,' and the new Jerusalem descending from heaven.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The seer is 'carried away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high' (21:10) to perceive the non-physical new Jerusalem, indicating a dimension of reality accessible only through spiritual perception.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
God is active and dynamic throughout: sitting on the throne, wiping tears, speaking from the throne, declaring 'I make all things new,' and offering the fountain of living water freely.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The city's architecture is structured by the number twelve: twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve tribes, twelve foundations, twelve apostles — numbers encoding the completeness of the redeemed community.
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
The names of the twelve tribes and twelve apostles are written on the gates and foundations of the new Jerusalem, carrying ontological significance as markers of identity and belonging in the divine city.