![]() While the city itself (or its streets, Revelation 21:21) is supposed to be constructed of transparent gold like the house of Zeus πολύχρυσον ( Hippol. 583), where the orthography is pronounced “nova” (see reff.). ἐνδώμησις, so an undated but pre-Christian inscription, τ. Looked at from a distance at noon, when the sunbeams came pouring upon the terraced and vaulted roof, it resembles a regal palace of silver, built for some Eastern prince 'when the sun at eventide sheds on its sides his parting rays, the edifice is transformed into a temple of gold and rubies ' and in the calm hours of night, when the moon walketh in her brightness, the immense surface of glass which the building presents looks like a sea, or like throwing back, in flickering smile, the radiant glances of the queen of heaven."Įxpositor's Greek TestamentThe materials of the city. ![]() The following description from one who was an eyewitness, drawn up by him at the time, and without any reference to this passage, and furnished at my request, will supply a better illustration of the passage before us than any description which I could give: "Seen as the morning vapors rolled around its base - its far-stretching roofs rising one above another, and its great transept, majestically arched, soaring out of the envelope of clouds - its pillars, window-bars, and pinnacles, looked literally like a castle in the air like some palace, such as one reads of in idle tales of Arabian enchantment, having about it all the ethereal softness of a dream. Perhaps the reflection of the sunbeams from the "Crystal Palace," erected for the late "industrial exhibition" in London, would convey a better idea of what is intended to be represented here than anything which our world has furnished. It is certain that, as nothing could be more magnificent, so nothing could more beautifully combine the two ideas referred to here - that of "gold and glass." Would the appearance of a city, as the sun is setting, when the reflection of its beams from thousands of panes of glass gives it the appearance of burnished gold, represent the idea here? If we were to suppose a city made entirely of glass, and the setting sunbeams falling on it, it might convey the idea represented here. Here the meaning is, that the golden city would be so bright and burnished that it would seem to be glass reflecting the sunbeams. It means, properly, "anything transparent like water" as, for example, any transparent stone or gem, or as rock-salt, crystal, glass (Robinson, Lexicon). ![]() Like unto clear glass - The word rendered "glass" in this place - ὕαλος hualos - occurs in the New Testament only here and in Revelation 21:21. ![]() Of course, this cannot be taken literally and an attempt to explain all this literally would show that that method of interpreting the Apocalypse is impracticable.Īnd the city was pure gold - The material of which the edifices were composed. Was of jasper - See the notes on Revelation 4:3. The height of the foundation is not stated, but the entire wall above was composed of jasper. This means the wall above the foundation, for that was composed of twelve rows of precious stones, Revelation 21:14, Revelation 21:19-20. The wealth of heaven is love love is the circulating medium of all holy activity and of all holy work: all who dwell within the heavenly city are encompassed by it all who tread the streets of that city move along the ways of love no dimness or obscuring motives of self-interest mar its lustre-the gold is clear as pure glass.īarnes' Notes on the BibleAnd the building of the wall of it - The material of which the wall was composed. To what has been said may be added the following:-“Gold has an inalienable reference to the sun itself, consequently, to the symbol of the face of God, or Christ, i.e., to the manifestation of God’s love” (Lange). On the meaning of the gold see Note on Revelation 21:15 and on Revelation 3:18. On this stone, see Note on Revelation 4:3, and on Revelation 21:11 above. The general aspect of the city was jasperlike, because the material of the wall was of the jasper stone. Or, And the building-work (or, the masonry, so Alford) of the wall of it was jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersTHE BUILDING OR MATERIAL OF THE CITY.
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