The New Heaven and Earth
Heaven, earth, and sea of the old creation are gone now. As in Revelation 10, here we see heaven, earth, and sea as a statement of all creation. So here, a new creation is on the way as this text points to all creation being removed.
The KJV/TR reads "And I John saw"; John's name is not in the critical text of this verse, which reads καὶ τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν Ἰερουσαλὴμ καινὴν εἶδον — "and I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem."
Re 21:2, Re 21:9 — Now, the bride is a symbol of the city.
All Things Made New
Re 13:6, Re 21:3
Re 7:17, Re 21:4
When Revelation 21:1 declares, "a new heaven and a new earth," and 21:5 records the Father — the One seated on the throne — saying, "Behold, I make all things new", the language can function both literally and idiomatically. The phrase does not require us to flatten every occurrence of "new heavens and new earth" in Scripture into the same moment of fulfillment. In Isaiah 65:17, the Lord says, "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth," yet within that same context we read, "for the child shall die an hundred years old" (Isaiah 65:20). If Isaiah 65 were identical in scope to Revelation 21:1–5, a tension would arise, since Revelation explicitly states, "there shall be no more death" (Revelation 21:4). This suggests that in Isaiah the expression may function as covenantal renewal language — a decreation–recreation idiom describing radical restoration — while still ultimately pointing forward to its fullest and final realization. The idiom can point to a literal consummation without every immediate context requiring that consummation to be present in full. Just as "a thief in the night" is an idiom describing unexpected arrival while still referring to a real event, so "new heavens and new earth" may describe profound renewal in Isaiah's prophetic horizon while Revelation 21 reveals the ultimate, deathless fulfillment of that promise. In this way, Scripture maintains theological consistency without forcing two distinct prophetic contexts into one identical timeframe.
The KJV/TR reads λέγει μοι — "said unto me"; the critical text reads λέγει — "said" — without "unto me."
Re 16:17, Re 21:6
Re 1:8, Re 1:11, Re 1:17, Re 2:8, Re 21:6, Re 22:13 — In 21:7, we see that this is the Father because it says "he shall be my son" — the covenant formula of 2 Samuel 7:14. The sonship language belongs to the Father; Jesus, who shares the divine titles (1:8; 22:13), speaks of "my God" (3:12), not of the overcomer as His son.
The Bride
The KJV/TR reads "there came unto me"; the critical text reads ἦλθεν εἷς ἐκ τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλων — "one of the seven angels came" — without the object.
Re 17:1, Re 21:9 — δεῦρο is a Greek summons meaning “come!” or “come now!” It functions as a direct, personal call rather than a simple directional command. It is therefore rendered here as “come on” to reflect its immediacy and force.
Re 21:2, Re 21:9 — Now, the city is a symbol of the bride.
The New Jerusalem
The KJV/TR reads "that great city, the holy Jerusalem"; the critical text reads τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν Ἰερουσαλήμ — the holy city — without "great."
Re 17:3, Re 21:10
Re 21:10, Re 18:18
Most Holy, Holy of Holies City
Important Note: While we are keeping this study anchored strictly in Revelation's own testimony, it is important to recognize that when Revelation 21:16 describes the New Jerusalem as having its "length and the breadth and the height… equal," it presents the city as a perfect cube. In the Old Testament, that exact geometry is uniquely associated with the Most Holy Place. In the tabernacle, the inner sanctuary where God met with man (Exodus 25:22; 26:33–34, KJV) formed a perfect cube (10 cubits by 10 cubits by 10 cubits). Likewise, in Solomon's temple, the "oracle" or Most Holy Place was explicitly twenty cubits in length, breadth, and height (1 Kings 6:20, KJV), again forming a cube. That chamber was the localized dwelling of God's glory, where only the high priest could enter once a year (Leviticus 16). When Revelation presents the New Jerusalem as cubic, and then immediately declares, "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Revelation 21:22, KJV), the implication is clear: what was once confined to a restricted inner sanctuary has now expanded to encompass the entire city. The whole New Jerusalem is presented as the Holy of Holies. This signals not architectural symbolism alone, but covenant fulfillment — unrestricted, permanent access to the presence of God, for "the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them" (Revelation 21:3, KJV).
The Pure Wife's Eternal Worth and Worthiness
The KJV/TR opens with καί — "And the foundations"; the critical text reads οἱ θεμέλιοι τοῦ τείχους — "the foundations of the wall" — without the conjunction.
No Temple
Re 7:15, Re 21:22 — In 7:15, the saints serve in the temple, which places 21:22, when there is no temple, and 7:15 as distant realities, making them two distinct times: 7:15 before, and 21:22 after, the 1000 years.
God is Their Father, Jesus is Their Husband
"Which are saved" appears in the KJV/TR tradition. Many critical texts omit the phrase; ESV follows the omission. This only affects whether the nations' salvation status is explicit or inferred from context.
The KJV/TR also reads "glory and honour" here; the critical text reads τὴν δόξαν αὐτῶν — "their glory" — while both glory and honour stand in the critical text at 21:26.
Parenthetical Scenes 7: We know that the Bride of the Lamb represents the people of the Church. Because Revelation is rich in symbolism, the phrase "I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife" reveals that the city itself is a symbol of the Bride. Just as the seven-headed beast is identified as symbolic, so too is this city. Yet the image can be both literal and symbolic at once. Just as Jonah's three days in the great fish were a literal event that also carried prophetic meaning (Matthew 12:40), so too the New Jerusalem may be both a real city and a living picture of the Bride. Revelation 21:2 and 21:9 show this parallel clearly: first, the city is described "as a bride adorned for her husband," then the Bride is revealed, "as a city." The two mirror one another—one and the same. Christ is not betrothed to walls and streets, but to a people who themselves form the very structure of that holy city, living stones joined together for His dwelling. Thus, to speak of the city is to speak of the Bride herself. A city is no city without people.