I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. 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. 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. 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 thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. — Revelation 21:2-7
The City of God
The New Jerusalem is Eden restored and rebuilt. The idyllic garden and true home is found again, but this time it has not been given to man by God but rather it has been founded and built in perfection by God and the Son working in harmony. The Christed Son returns as the crowned soveriegn…
It is the ultimate fulfillment of God's redemptive plan, a glorious eternal city that represents perfect restoration and divine presence among humanity.
New Jerusalem is the consummation of the new creation: a holy, radiant, and eternal dwelling where God resides fully with redeemed humanity in unbroken fellowship, harmony, and joy, free from all sin and suffering.
The angel then invites John to “see the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” and what is shown is the cubical city itself, with twelve gates, twelve foundations, and the light of God as its lamp. Its length, breadth, and height are equal (12,000 stadia); the wall measures 144 cubits; the foundations are set with twelve stones (jasper through amethyst), and the river of the water of life proceeds from the throne through its midst, with the Tree of Life bearing twelve fruits for the healing of the nations.
This imagery deliberately completes the older prophetic visions of Ezekiel’s ideal city whose new Name is “YHWH-Shammah” (“The LORD is there”), and whose gates are named for Israel’s tribes.
“I will not enter Jerusalem above until I enter Jerusalem below.” — Talmud, Ta’anit 5a (Yerushalayim shel ma‘alah / shel matah).
New Jerusalem descends, as heaven’s feminine indwelling comes down to meet the world’s redeemed form.
Kabbalah’s Sefer Yetzirah maps cosmos and soul onto the “Cube of Space”: twelve simple letters as the cube’s edges (twelve directional gates), seven doubles along its axes, three mothers at its core. This geometry gives a ready grammar for the twelve gates and perfect cubicity of the city. The New Jerusalem becomes the cosmic cube where the twelve edges (tribes/signs) open, the seven (planets) harmonize, and the three (elements/letters) unify center and axes
The adept receives the city through purification, equilibration, and hierogamy so that Malkuth is restored to the King—the Shekhinah indwells—and the light is its lamp.
“You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” — Hebrews 12:22.
The New Jerusalem descends from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. It radiates the glory of God, shining like a precious jasper stone, clear as crystal, constructed of pure gold like transparent glass, with walls of jasper and foundations adorned with twelve precious stones.
The city is perfectly symmetrical—a cube with equal length, breadth, and height (12,000 furlongs)—enclosed by a great wall with twelve gates (three on each side), each gate a single pearl and guarded by angels, inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, signifying the unity of God's people across the Old and New Covenants.
There is no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb/Christ are its temple. The city requires no sun or moon, as the glory of God and the Lamb provide its eternal light. A pure river of the water of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb, with the tree of life on its banks bearing twelve fruits and leaves for the healing of the nations.
All former sorrows—death, mourning, crying, and pain—are abolished. God dwells directly with His people, wiping away every tear. There is no night, no curse, and no defilement; only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life may enter. The redeemed shall see God's face, bear His name, serve Him, and reign forever.
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, 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, chrysolyte; 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. — Revelation 21:10-27
John’s city universalizes and glorifies that vision. The Epistle to the Hebrews already calls this reality “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” and Paul speaks of “Jerusalem above… our mother,” linking it to a free, supernal maternity.
The New Jerusalem is Eden rebuilt through experience
The “descent” of the New Jerusalem is the descent of higher consciousness into the purified inner temple of a human being. The twelve
The river of life flowing from the throne John saw no temple in the New Jerusalem
In Jewish mysticism, there are two Gardens of Eden and two Promised Lands: the heavenly invisible one and the earthly visible one that is a copy of the heavenly invisible one.
Heaven in Jewish mysticism includes a heavenly Promised land – including Jerusalem, the temple, and the Ark of the Covenant[6] – and a heavenly Garden of Eden – including the tree of life, a storehouse for the manna that angels eat, and multiple rivers that water the garden.[6][7] When the Bible mentions a New Jerusalem, heavenly sanctuary, bread of life, or God's throne, it is referring to the Jewish mystical understanding of heaven.
Judaism sees the Messiah as a human male descendant of King David who will be anointed as the king of Israel and sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem. He will gather in the lost tribes of Israel, clarify unresolved issues of halakha, and rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem according to the pattern shown to the prophet Ezekiel. During this time Jews believe an era of global peace and prosperity will be initiated, the nations will love Israel and will abandon their gods, turn toward Jerusalem, and come to the Holy Temple to worship the one God of Israel.
Zechariah prophesied that any family among the nations who does not appear in the Temple in Jerusalem for the festival of Sukkoth will have no rain that year. Isaiah prophesied that the rebuilt Temple will be a house of prayer for all nations. The city of "YHWH Shamma," (cf. Ezek 48:35) the new Jerusalem, will be the gathering point of the world's nations, and will serve as the capital of the renewed Kingdom of Israel. Ezekiel prophesied that this city will have 12 gates, one gate for each of the tribes of Israel. The book of Isaiah closes with the prophecy, "And it will come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me, says YHWH".
Esoteric Christianity and Christian Kabbalah: the Bride, the Temple, the Shekhinah
Western mystics read the city as the Shekhinah restored: the feminine Presence (indwelling Glory) reunited with the Holy One.
Christian readers took this as a key to the Apocalypse’s marriage scene: heaven’s feminine indwelling comes down to meet the world’s redeemed form.
Liturgically, this descent is enacted every Sabbath when the community welcomes the Bride/Queen (Lecha Dodi), a weekly micro-New Jerusalem in song: the Shekhinah welcomed into the “city” of time and community. Theological details vary, but the underlying figure—divine indwelling as Bride coming to dwell—matches John’s “tabernacle of God is with men” motif.
Rosicrucian and theurgical reading: the Royal Wedding and the House of the Spirit
Rosicrucian literature refracts Revelation’s nuptial city into the language of The Royal Wedding. The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz frames the Work as invitation to a hierogamic palace—“Sponsus et Sponsa”—where the adept is led through purgations and showings to a wedding that renews king and queen, land and heaven.
The “wedding” functions as the Rosicrucian analogue of the descending City: the form of heaven consummated in the purified microcosm. The Fama and Confessio speak of a House Sancti Spiritus and a reformation of the whole wide world—not a political program but a spiritual civic architecture: an invisible city-temple whose stones are living adepts. Here Peter’s line—“ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house”—is taken quite literally.
In later Christian esotericism, Swedenborg makes the identification explicit: “By the New Jerusalem is meant a New Church” descending—a society formed by an opened inner sense of Scripture and a life according to it.
Augustine had already envisioned the same polarity: civitas terrena vs. civitas Dei, culminating in the Revelation vision of the city “coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride.”
Hermetic–alchemical synthesis: lapis, cube, and the perfected polis
Alchemy interprets the New Jerusalem through its own triad and fourfold: the coniunctio (nuptial union) yields the lapis, and the lapis founds a square/cube—stability in three dimensions. The city’s cubicity, its rainbow foundations, its river and tree, are read as imaginal signatures of the Stone’s final state (rubedo): incorruptible, translucent, light-bearing, fecund. The gemstone foundations echo the High Priest’s breastplate—an oracular vest of twelve stones over the heart—transposed into a city-heart whose walls are precious clarity.
Jacob Böhme offers a vivid mystical bridge: Sophia—the Virgin Wisdom—manifests the heavenly Jerusalem as a new divine-human life. For him the city is not a district on a map but a state of regenerated nature shining through the world.
From Hildegard’s visions of the heavenly polity singing in ordered choirs, to Blake’s vow to “build Jerusalem in England’s green & pleasant land,”
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- “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” — Revelation 21:2.
- “Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife… that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God… having the glory of God… the city lieth foursquare… the wall… an hundred and forty and four cubits… the foundations… garnished with all manner of precious stones.” — Revelation 21:9–21.
- “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” — Revelation 22:1–2.
- “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” — Hebrews 12:22.
- “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” — Galatians 4:26.
- “The name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.” — Ezekiel 48:35.
- “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.” — 1 Peter 2:5.
- “I will not enter Jerusalem above until I enter Jerusalem below.” — Talmud, Ta’anit 5a (Yerushalayim shel ma‘alah / shel matah).
- “By the New Jerusalem is meant a New Church.” — Swedenborg, New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine (§1).
- “The twelve simple letters… are arranged along the edges of a cube [= the twelve boundaries/doors].” — Sefer Yetzirah, Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation, pp. 179–181.
- “The heavenly Jerusalem was manifested…” — Jacob Böhme, Aurora
In the New Jerusalem, God "will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God..." [Rev 21:3].
As a result, there is "no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." Nor is there a need for the sun to give its light, "for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light" [Rev 21:22–23].
The city will also be a place of great peace and joy, for "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" [Rev 21:4].
New Jerusalem – Dead Sea Scrolls
Discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls near Qumran, Israel, were fragments of a scroll which describes New Jerusalem in minute detail. The New Jerusalem Scroll (as it is called) appears to contain apocalyptic vision, although, being fragmented, it is hard to categorize. Written in Aramaic, the text describes a vast city, rectangular in shape, with twelve gates and encircled by a long wall. Similar descriptions appear in Ezekiel 40–48 and Revelation 21–22 and comparison to the Temple Scroll (also found near Qumran) shows many similarities despite no direct literary links between the two.
In The Book of Revelation
Revelation Chapter 21 (KJV) 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, chrysolyte; 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.
Revelation Chapter 22:1–5 (KJV) 1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
William Blake
And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon Englands mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold: Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold: Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem, In Englands green & pleasant Land.