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Revelation 21

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1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

12 And had a wall great and high, and had 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:

13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #4901

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4901. 'So it was about three months later' means a new state. This is clear from the meaning of 'three' as that which is complete, and therefore the last and at the same time the first, or the end and at the same time the beginning, dealt with in 1825, 2788, 4495; and from the meaning of 'a month' as a state, dealt with in 3814. All periods of time in the internal sense mean states, such as an hour, day, week, month, year, or age. And states are likewise meant by the periods making up these, such as the times of day, which are midday, evening, night, and morning; the seasons of the year, which are summer, autumn, winter, and spring; and also the phases of life, which are infancy and childhood, adolescence, adult years, and old age. All these periods and many more have states as their meaning. What a state actually is, see 4850.

[2] The reason periods of time mean states is that in the next life such periods do not really exist. Spirits' and angels' lives do, it is true, seem to move forward within a time-sequence; but periods of time play no part in the formation of their thought, as those periods do in the formation of men's in the world. Rather, states of life contribute to the formation of their thought, without the help of any temporal notion. Also, a further reason why such periods of time mean states is that consecutive stages in the lives of spirits and angels are not distinguished as separate times of life. For those in the next life do not age; nor are there any days or years there because the Sun there - the Lord - is always rising and never sets. Consequently no temporal notion can enter their thinking, only the notion of a state and of the stages by which this moves forward It is the things present and taking place before people's senses that are the source of the notions gained by them.

[3] These matters are bound to look like a paradox, but the reason they do so is that every single idea present in a person's thought has something of time and space attached to it. These are the source of what is in his memory and of what he recollects, and they are the source of his lower level of thought, consisting of ideas called material ones. But the memory from which such ideas are recollected is quiescent in the next life. Those who are in the next life use their interior memory and the ideas present in the thought there. Thought flowing from this interior memory does not have any temporal or spatial content, but instead of this states and the stages by which those states move forward. Consequently periods of time correspond to these, and because they correspond periods of time are used in the Word to mean states. For details about man's possession of an exterior memory which belongs properly to him while in the body, and also of an interior memory which belongs properly to his spirit, see 2469-2494.

[4] The reason 'about three months later' means a new state is that 'months', into which periods of time in the world are also divided, means state, and that, as mentioned above, 'three' means the last and at the same time the first, or the end and at the same time the beginning. Because in the spiritual world states are constantly moving forward from one into another, and as a consequence the last phase or end of each state includes the first phase or beginning of the next, resulting in a continuous sequence, 'about three months later' therefore means a new state. The same applies within the Church too, which is the spiritual world or the Lord's kingdom on earth. The last phase of the Church among one nation is always the first phase of the Church among another. Because a last phase is in this way continued into a first, the Lord is spoken of several times as the Last and the First, as in Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; Revelation 21:6; 22:13; and by this is meant in the relative sense that which is perpetual, and in the highest sense that which is eternal.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.