1
Sillä katso, niinä päivinä ja sillä ajalla, kuin minä Juudan ja Jerusalemin vankiuden palautan,
Joel 3:1
SWORD version by Tero Favorin (tero at favorin dot com)
True Christian Religion # 197
197. In Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem is described as having in it a source of light like a most precious stone, similar to the jasper stone, shining like crystal. It had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels above the gates, and the names inscribed of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel. The wall was one hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, an angel. The material of the wall was jasper, and its foundation of every precious stone, jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. Its gates were twelve pearls. The city itself was of pure gold, resembling clear glass; and it was four-square, its length, width and height all equal, twelve thousand stades 1 , and other details [Revelation 21:11-12, 16-21].
All this must be understood spiritually, as is evident from the fact that the New Jerusalem means the new church which is to be founded by the Lord, as shown in Apocalypse Revealed 880. Since Jerusalem there means the church, it follows that everything which is said of that city, its gates, its wall, their foundations, and its measurements contain a spiritual sense, because anything that relates to the church is spiritual. Their meaning was demonstrated in Apocalypse Revealed 896-925, so it is unnecessary to pursue this demonstration here. It is enough to know from this that the details of the description contain a spiritual sense, as the body does a soul. Without that sense nothing of what is written there could be understood as referring to the church; for instance, that the city was of pure gold, its gates were of pearls, its wall of jasper, the foundations of the wall of precious stones, the wall measured one hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, an angel; and the city was twelve thousand stades in length, width and height, and so forth. Anyone who knows the spiritual sense from a knowledge of correspondences can understand these statements; as for instance, the wall and its foundations mean the doctrines of that church derived from the literal sense of the Word; and the numbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand mean everything belonging to it, truths as well as various kinds of good, all taken together.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. See note on 179; i.e. about 1350 miles.
Revelation 21:16-21
16
The city lies foursquare, and its length is as great as its breadth. He measured the city with the reed, Twelve thousand Twelve stadia. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.
17
Its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
18
The construction of its wall was jasper. The city was pure gold, like pure glass.
19
The foundations of the city's wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
20
the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; and the twelfth, amethyst.
21
The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was made of one pearl. The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
