God Tabernacles With Humans (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion of “God Tabernacles With Humans (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first; the verses and background material covered in it won’t be repeated here in Part 2.

At first, the Lord God dwelt in the garden of Eden with Adam & Eve.  Later, the Lord dwelt with Israel in the portable “tabernacle” (noun) of Moses.  Then God/Christ dwelt or ‘tabernacled’ (verb) in Solomon’s stationary temple.

Then in the 1^st century AD, the Lord dwelt/tabernacled in a physical body.  Jn.1:14 “The Word became flesh and tabernacled [Strongs g4637 skenóo, Greek verb] among us, and we beheld His glory.”  No longer did He dwell in the innermost room of a sacred tent or a temple building.  Jesus, the pre-incarnate Word of God and Rock of Israel (1Co.10:4 & De.32:18), was now able to have a closer personal relationship with the people He would encounter while on earth for 30–35 years.

However, it was not yet time for Him to tabernacle even more fully than in a physical body!  Jn.7:2 “Now the Jews Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.”  Literally, the ‘Feast of Tent Pitching’ (g4634 skenopegía).  Some translations say “Feast of Booths”.  In John’s account, at this season when Jews were leaving for the week-long Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus said His time had not yet come (v.6-10).

It’s interesting to note that although Jesus is God, as flesh He never set foot inside the temple sanctuary (g3485 naós) in Jerusalem!  Only Levitical priests could enter the Holy Place, and Jesus wasn’t a Levite or a priestly descendant of Aaron.  (Only the high priest could enter the innermost Holy of Holies.)

What comprised Herod’s temple?  In the Greek, the term naos (g3485) referred only to the sanctuary…the Holy Place and Most Holy Place.  Whereas the term hierón (g2411) referred to the entire temple mount complex/precinct, which also included the chambers, Solomon’s Porch, the courts, etc.

In the New Testament (NT), naos occurs 45 times and hieron occurs 70 times.  Yet the KJV and many English translations render both naos and hieron simply as… temple.  So the distinction and meaning is somewhat clouded.  For example…in Mk.11:27, Mk.14:49, Lk.2:37, Ac.2:46 they aren’t in the sanctuary/naos, but are in the overall temple complex/hieron.  Such generalizing in translation can also affect reader perception of specifically where God tabernacled.

Then on the cross as Jesus’ spirit departed His physical body, Mt.27:50-51 indicates the veil separating the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom (not torn from bottom to top, as by man).  A second veil was at the outside entrance to the Holy Place.  Did it also tear?  Willoughby Allen wrote, “A cleavage in the masonry of the porch which rent the outer veil and left the Holy Place open to view, would account for the language of the Gospels”.  Josephus Wars of the Jews 5:5:4 “Before these doors was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain.”  Also the Talmud noted the veil.  (ref the topic, “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”.)

Father God’s tearing of the veil symbolized three things.  #1 Father God/YHVH rending His garment in divine mourning at the death of His Son.  (Some think a vague allusion is Mt.26:65.)

#2 The veil was figuratively Jesus’ flesh.  He.10:19-20 “We have confidence to enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.”  As the veil had covered the entrance in the ancient tabernacle and temple where YHVH/Christ dwelt inside, the flesh of Jesus’ physical body covered Jesus who is Deity.  Col.2:9 “In Him [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”

#3 The torn veil opened access to a relationship with God for all of mankind!  He.9:8-9 “The Holy Spirit is signifying that the way into the holiest place has not been disclosed while the first tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time.”  Also He.10:19, mankind now may enter the holiest of all where God/Jesus is.  (Not solely the high priest once a year in the Holy Land.)  Heaven itself.  JFB Commentary “The holiest of all’ – heaven, the antitype.”  Poole Commentary “In heaven.”

It is significant to note…history indicates there were no sculptured cherubim to ‘guard’ the Most Holy Place of Herod’s temple!  Josephus Wars of the Jews 5:5:5 said the Holy of Holies was entirely empty.  The cherubim stationed at the gate of Eden (Ge.3:24), and the sculptures of them in Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s first temple, had guarded or ‘protected’ God from sinful humanity.  Figures of cherubs had even been embroidered on the veil and curtains of the tabernacle (Ex.26:1, 31, 36:8, 35), and engraved on the walls of the first temple (1Ki.6:29, 32, 35, 7:29, 36).  But in Herod’s temple there were no cherubim to ‘guard’ Christ …Jesus was out walking the Land!  No cherubim to prevent a repentant mankind from eventually knowing God and experiencing the benefits of a relationship with Him!

Jerusalem and the temple structure were destroyed in 70 AD, during the time of the Roman Empire.  Jesus had prophesied the temple destruction in Mk.13:2. “Not one stone shall be left upon another which shall not be torn down.”  Since heaven is God’s throne and the earth His footstool, God doesn’t need an earthly structure anyway (Is.66:1, Ac.7:49)!  God’s Holy Spirit (HS) now indwells Christians.

Centuries later the Roman Empire collapsed.  The Da.2:35 prophecy contains imagery. “The stone that struck the statue [of man’s kingdoms] became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”  And in v.45, “You saw that a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands”.  This divine stone or Rock represents Jesus crushing the Kingdoms of Man and replacing them with the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is figuratively also the stumbling stone and Rock of offense (1Pe.2:7-8) which tripped-up those who didn’t believe He is very God, the Rock of Israel.  (see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

As all humanity has access to God, Is.2:2-3 “Many peoples will say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord”.  Ezk.40:2 Ezekiel saw in vision, “God set me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure like a city”.  He saw a mountain city, a city on a hill.  Furthermore in Ezk.43:12, “Its entire area on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy”.  Here Ezekiel adds to the Edenic mountaintop setting of Ezk.28:13-14.  ref in Part 1 the imagery for Rock, stone, mountain.  A spiritual structure is being built!

In other words…a holy temple or sanctuary is being built!  Who is the Builder?  Mk.6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?”  Jesus in the flesh was a carpenter or building engineer.  Paul wrote to the church in 1Co.3:9, “You are God’s building”.  Continuing in v.16-17, “You are a temple [naos g3485] of God, and the Spirit of God dwells [g3611 oikéo] in you”.  The HS dwells in God’s temple sanctuary of saints! (also ref 2Co.6:16.)

Jesus had prayed to His Father in Jn.17:21, “That they may all be one, even as Thou Father are in Me, and I in Thee, that they may also be in Us”.  We as one with God.  Paul wrote in Ep.4:4-6, “There is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all”.  God dwelling within people, through His Spirit.

Ep.2:19-22 “Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building is growing into a holy temple [naos g3485] in the Lord, built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit.”  Jesus is the Head Cornerstone in this spiritual edifice of God.

Zec.4:6-7 “By My Spirit says the Lord of Hosts. What are you O great mountain? And he [Zerubabbél] will bring forth the top stone with shouts of ‘Grace, Grace to it!”  Targum Jonathán here reads, “He will bring forth His Messiah…and He shall rule over all the Kingdoms”.  Linked with the imagery of this verse, a pyramídion or miniature mountain sits atop Zechariah’s (supposed) tomb today at the foot of the Mount of Olives.  More imagery….

Peter referred to the Christians (1Pe.4:16), to whom he wrote, as living stones being built upon Christ the Cornerstone.  1Pe.2:4-6 “You as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.”  And we as living stones are built upon a Rock (not upon sand, Mt.7:24-26).

When elderly Peter wrote 2Peter, he knew the time had come for him to depart his bodily tabernacle.  2Pe.1:13-15 Young’s Literal Translation “Soon is the laying aside of my tabernacle [g4638 skénoma]…my outgoing.”  The time had come for Peter to leave his fleshly tent, in which he and the Holy Spirit had dwelt jointly as one (cf. 1Co.6:17).

The Christian church will also be metaphorically married to Jesus, the Lamb of God…signifying a very close relationship.  In 2Co.11:2, Paul said they were as a pure virgin betrothed to their husband Christ.  Then John wrote, Re.19:7 “The marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready”.

John’s vision of Re.21:2 follows. “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”  Then an angel says to John in v.9-10, “I shall show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”  So here we see the images combine, the bride/wife of Christ is the city!  The holy structure, New Jerusalem, is the saints!

Continuing with the next verse, Re.21:11 “Having the glory of God, her brilliance was like a very costly stone”.  Then in v.19-21, “The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone”.  John identifies the beautiful precious stones he saw.  These precious stones of the spiritual structure are the living stones of which Peter wrote…the saints of God!

Jesus told His disciples in Jn.14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. I go to prepare a place for you.”  The apostle Paul yearned for his future heavenly dwelling.  2Co.5:1-4 “We have a building from God, a house not made with [human] hands, eternal in the heavens.”  Then we’ll see God!  John wrote in Re.22:4, “They shall see His face”.  (Also ref “Life and Death – for Saints”.)

Back in John 7, it wasn’t yet time for Jesus to fully tabernacle with all people.  But later, Re.7:15 pertains to the great multitude from all peoples & nations.  John wrote, “They are before the throne of God in His temple [naos g3485], and He who sits on the throne shall tabernacle [g4637] over them”.

In Revelation, the time has come to fully tabernacle as a habitation of God!  We will intimately know God (Jn.17:3), His character, His principles of living.  In a sense, the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles/Tent Pitching (g4634) in future full expression!

To recap Part 1 and Part 2: Initially God dwelt in the garden with Adam & Eve (but ended the close relationship when they chose to disobey).  Then later the Lord dwelt with His people Israel in the portable tabernacle of Moses, then in Solomon’s larger stationary temple.  Christ departed at the time of their captivity.  (No cherubim were in the Most Holy Place of Herod’s temple.  And there was no Ark or mercy seat in Zerubbabel’s Temple.  see “Temple of Zerubbabel”.)

Then Jesus tabernacled in the flesh in the Land of Palestine.  After Jesus ascended, God sent the HS to inhabit or reside in believing Jews…and then in believing gentiles too (Acts 10), of all nations.  Ultimately God will tabernacle or dwell forever with all believing humans!

Concluding with Re.21:3-4, “The tabernacle [skené g4633, noun] of God is among men, and He shall tabernacle [skenoo g4637, verb] among them, and they shall be His people. And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall be no more death.”

It’s a beautiful relationship…for all eternity!  Mt.1:23 Emmanuél, “God (is) with us”, in complete fullness.  Re.21:5 “He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold I AM making all things new. These words are faithful and true.”  God is the Master Builder.  He is bringing it to pass, and He will achieve the eternal close relationship with humanity which He so desires.

‘Babylon The Great’ in Revelation

The book of Revelation originated with Father God (Re.1:1), who gave it to Jesus Christ, who revealed it to the apostle John.  John wrote it to seven (persecuted) 1^st century churches located along a mail route in Asia Minor (Re.1:4), western Turkey today.

The word of God is true (Jn.17:17)!  In Re.2:1-5, Jesus warned His church at Ephesus to repent, else He would remove it…Ephesus harbor is now a plain!  He removed it.  Re.3:14-19 Jesus warned the church at Laodicéa to repent.  It didn’t.  Consequently, the ruins of Laodicea are seen today.  Jesus does what He says He will do!

When John wrote Revelation, he used the apocalyptic method.  That is, to take predictions/prophecies which were unfulfilled in the literal sense, and recast or reinterpret them in hidden or symbolic terms.  (That was unlike the rabbinic methods.)  Identifying the original text of the book of Revelation (Rev) is difficult, as there are 500 variant terms in early manuscripts.  The book has been described as a revised Ezekiel and a commentary on Daniel.

The main text for this topic is Re.17:5-7. “Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations.”  Who was this symbolic or encoded mystical Babylon?  Babylon the Great originally wasn’t: New York City (with the woman Statue of Liberty in the harbor waters, as some view Re.17:1, she “who sits on many waters”), nor the USA, nor European Union nations, nor an Islamic block, nor modern Iraq, nor the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages…nor ancient Rome.

Historically, in 586 BC King Nebuchadnézzar of Babylon (Chaldéan Empire) conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the first temple.  Jews were taken captive to Babylon.  Babylon was later judged, conquered by the Medes/Persians in 539 BC, and King Belshazzár was killed.  Is.47:1-3 the Medes exposed Babylon’s shame.  Je.51:6-9 relates to the ancient exit of Jews fleeing Babylon.  In 538 BC, Jews began returning to Jerusalem, bringing Babylonian influences with them.  Christian author Ron Dart wrote, “Roman Catholicism wasn’t the only gateway by which Babylonian mystery religions found their way among God’s people”.  The Jewish Babylonian Talmud, e.g., also contains religious traditions.

Da.7:1-3 while in Babylon, the Jewish prophet Daniel envisioned four Beasts, which represented gentile kingdoms.  Bible historians identify these as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome.  v.7 the 4^th Beast or empire, Rome, having 10 horns, was dreadfully strong.  Re.13:1 John sees this 4^th Beast, having 10 horns, on the scene 600 years later.  This Beast, Rome, direly affects the harlot in Re.17-18!

It is recorded in the Old Testament (OT) where some nations committed spiritual harlotry: Tyre (Is.23:17), Assyria/Nineveh (Na.1:1, 3:4), Egypt, Ephráim/Israel (Ho.5:3-4).  The northern kingdom of Israel’s adulterous harlotry resulted in God sending them into captivity to Assyria (721 BC).

Also, Judah/Jerusalem committed adulterous harlotry…ref Je.2:20, 28, 3:1-3.  God/Christ was spiritually ‘married’ to Israel and Judah.  Is.54:5 “Your Maker is your husband.”  The grievous end of that relationship was foretold in Ezekiel 16 & 23.  Especially note Ezk.16:1-2, 8-45, 23:1-5, 11-19, 45-49 (Sodom); as these two chapters will resolve in Re.17–18.

Is.1:1, 21 “The faithful city [Jerusalem] has become a harlot.”  The Lord is just, even in judging His wives – adulterous Israel & Judah!  Je.13:27 “As for your adulteries…Woe to you, Jerusalem.”  God wouldn’t allow her idolatry and abominations to forever go unpunished.  In De.28:49-68, Moses had warned Israel in prophecy that disobedience to their Lord would result in terrible consequences!

The expression “great city” (mégas pólis, Strongs g3173 g4172, Greek), is crucial to us understanding the identity of Babylon the Great, Re.17:5.  Re.11:8 “The great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”  Here the great city is Jerusalem, recast as Sodom and Egypt.  Besides Re.11:8, other Rev verses which refer to mystical Babylon the great city/harlot are: 14:8, 16:19, 17:1, 5, 18, 18:2, 10, 16, 18-19, 21, 19:2.  (Finally, in 21:10, the great city is again identified as Jerusalem, but now she’s the holy new Jerusalem!…more on this aspect at the end.)

Jeremiah too had referred to Jerusalem as the “great city”!  Je.22:6-9 Septúagint/LXX “Why has the Lord done thus to this great city (g3173 g4172)?”  Josephus Wars of the Jews 7:8:7 “Where is not that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation.”  And ibid 7:1:1 “Jerusalem…a city of great magnificence, mighty of fame among all mankind.”  Jerusalem was renowned as a great city!

Re.17:9 “Seven mountains on which the woman sits.”  The woman/harlot/city is on seven mountains.  Historians say that Jerusalem and Rome both contained seven literal mounts or hills.  The seven hills of Jerusalem have been identified as: Acra, Antonio, Bezétha, Millo, Ophel, Moriah, Zion.  (Of note, the Vatican area was a later addition across the Tiber River from the traditional seven hills of Rome, which are on the east side.  The state of Vatican City doesn’t fit in Re.17:9.)

Re.17:16-18 “The Beast will make her desolate and burn her with fire.”  The Beast destroys the harlot city.  From this verse, it’s evident that the Beast and the harlot aren’t the same entity.  (Rome was never God’s wife anyway.)  The Beast/Rome/abomination who makes desolate…burned the harlot city with fire in 70 AD.  cf. again Ezk.16:41, 23:47, Je.22:7-8, where Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would be burned with fire!  Also Jesus’ parable of Mt.22:7. “The king sent his armies…and set their city on fire.”  Pulpit Commentary Mt.22:7 “The Romans, under Vespasian and Titus.”  (Also in Le.21:9, a Levitical priest’s harlot daughter in Israel was to be burned with fire!)

Rome, the Beast of Da.7:7 and Re.13:1, destroyed the harlot Jerusalem during the 3 ½ year period of 66–70 AD.  ref Re.12:6, Mt.24:15-16, 21 for this time of great tribulation!

That which Jesus said in the book of Revelation did happen to Ephesus and Laodicea, e.g….and most significantly to Jerusalem and Judea!  (This isn’t to say that prophecy can’t repeat itself.)  Re.18 detail:

Re.18:1-4 traditionally the saints in Jerusalem fled 60 miles east to Pella in 66 AD.  In Lk.21:11, 20-21, Jesus had said there’d be great signs and, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee”.

In Wars of the Jews 6:5:3, Josephus recorded the amazing event of angelic armies seen in the clouds surrounding Jerusalem in 66 AD!  So did the Roman historian/senator Tacitus in The Histories 5:13, “There had been seen hosts joining battle in the skies, the fiery gleam of arms, the temple illuminated by a sudden radiance from the clouds.”  That’s historical evidence!  It’s reminiscent of when the Syrians attacked Israel around 800 BC. In 2Ki.6:15-17 the Lord opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant and, “Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots all around Elisha”.  Heavenly hosts were seen by human eyes!

Babylon the harlot said in Re.18:5-7, “I sit as queen and am not a widow”.  Israel/Judah/Jerusalem was the figurative ‘wife’ of YHVH!  cf. Je.3:8.  A wife or queen can become a widow, but an unmarried woman cannot.  (The Tyndale translation also rendered Re.17:6 as “wife”).  Re.18:8-10 woes to the great city.  cf. Ezk.16:22-23 & Je.13:27 which reflect woes to Jerusalem.

Re.18:11-16 the harlot city’s wealth & adornment.  cf. Ezk.16:13-14 Jerusalem’s fame & adornment.  Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner of Harvard University wrote, “The only city which is differentiated from all other cities is the metropolis, the mother of cities, Jerusalem”.

Re.18:17-18 again, her burning.  Ge.38:24 the patriarch of the Jewish people, Judah, had declared against the woman who was pregnant with his own posterity…“Let her be burned!”

Re.18:19-23 & Je.7:32-34 glad voices of the bridegroom and bride would cease in Jerusalem/Judea.  In Wars of the Jews 5:12:3, the Gehenna valley was heaped with Jewish corpses from the Roman siege.

Re.18:24 when the autopsy was performed on the great harlot, the blood of prophets & saints was found in her!  The Greek term “ge”, g1093, can mean earth or Land.  Jesus had declared in Lk.13:33-34, “It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets.”  Stephen accused the Jerusalem court in Ac.7:52. “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?”  Ac.7:58 Stephen was then stoned to death in Jerusalem.  James, Jesus’ relative, was thrown down from the Jerusalem temple in 62 AD and killed (prior to 70 AD).

{Sidelight: Re.2:9 Jesus/John warned the church at Smyrna about the “synagogue of Satan”.  Jn.8:44 Jesus had called the Pharisees the “children of the devil”.  Jesus had warned His disciples would be flogged, cast out of the synagogues, killed (Mk.13:9, Jn.16:2).  Judea was justly punished by God.}

Re.16:18-19 “A great earthquake” occurred.  Josephus Wars 4:4:5 there were “concussions and bellowings of the earth” at the time Jerusalem was besieged.  Re.16:21 “Huge hailstones the weight of a talent.”  In Wars 5:6:3, Josephus wrote that stones thrown by catapults of the 10^th Roman legion weighed…a talent!  (In the Bible, hail may also symbolize government change of cataclysmic magnitude.)  Some of Josephus’ statements in Wars of the Jews seem like a parallel historical account or detailed commentary on the book of Revelation!  Further verse-by-verse detail of the destruction in Revelation would make this too lengthy.  (also see the topics: “The Last Days”, “Two Witnesses in the Bible”, “Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation”, “John Wrote Five Bible Books?”.)

Jesus had said of the temple in Lk.21:5-6, “There will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down”.  After burning the temple cedars in 70 AD, the Roman soldiers tore down the temple stones to get at the melted gold which had congealed in the cracks!  Roman General Titus even tried to stop the temple burning…but to no avail.  Jesus’ prophecy was not to be denied.  It happened!

Jesus opposed the corruption and intolerance of the Jewish religious leaders of His day, and their oral additions to His written Toráh.  These additions survive in normative Judaism today.  Interestingly, they prefer the Babylonian Talmud to the Jerusalem Talmud, and many value it above the written OT!

A corrupt Jewish priesthood is cited back in Mal.2:11.  Many high priests were actually selected by the Greeks & Romans.  The priestly line of succession was violated.  Harvard’s Frank Moore Cross Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic “The Éssenes of Qumrán were a priestly party. The community referred to itself as the sons of Zadók. They heaped scorn and condemnation upon the ungodly priests of Jerusalem who, they argued, were illegitimate.”  This is Jewish history, not a biased anti-Semitism.

In surveying the New Testament books, the chief persecutors of Jewish Christians were disbelieving Jews, not Romans or gentiles.  e.g. 2Th.2:14-15 the Jewish apostle Paul affirmed that disbelieving Jews had “killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets”.  The expression “(of) the Jews” occurs 15 times total in the synoptic gospels, but 50 times in John’s gospel!  And it was John who wrote Revelation.  The allusions to the temple throughout Revelation don’t relate to Rome or gentiles.  e.g. Re.16:15 “Keep your garments” alluded to sleeping temple guards whose clothes could be set afire.

Le.26:18, 21, 24, 28 Moses had warned there would be increasing sevenfold intensities of punishment upon Israel for disobeying the Lord!  Correspondingly, Re.5:1, 6:1-ff reveals seven seals, Re.8 then seven trumpets of destruction, Re.15:6 culminating in seven last plagues of the wrath of God!  Re.6:16 during the seven seals those afflicted will say “to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us”.  Jesus foretold they would be the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Lk.23:28-30 “Daughters of Jerusalem…the days are coming when they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us.”  (Also ref Ho.10:1, 8-9 in regards to Israel. “They will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ You have sinned O Israel.”)  Not Rome’s church.

Then Re.19:1-2. “Hallelujah! God has judged the great harlot. He has avenged the blood of His bondservants upon her.”  The harlot city was burned, the temple destroyed in 70 AD.  God’s servants, including the faithful remnant of Judah, were avenged.  God is just.

Centuries before Jesus walked the earth, Jews had returned to Judea from Babylon.  The punishments in the book of Revelation primarily refer to Jerusalem the great harlot, and Judea.  Mic.3:12 prophesied “Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins.”  As fulfillment, the Romans plowed it over, and even refashioned Jerusalem as a gentile city in 135 AD.

Yet the book of Revelation has a glorious ending! Jerusalem/Yerushaláyim (h3389, Hebrew) is a plural term.  The book of Revelation is also…a tale of two cities!  F.M. Cross op. cit. “Essenes searched for prophecies of the end of days when they, the poor of the desert, would be reestablished in a new, transfigured Jerusalem.”  The older Jerusalem was made desolate.  But at the end of Revelation….

Re.21:1-2 “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.”  There’s another Jerusalem!  Re.21:9-10 “I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.”  Not the great city, old Jerusalem…but the holy city, new Jerusalem.  And there’s a new wife.  This new Jerusalem isn’t an adulterous harlot wife, but is a holy Bride.  The rest of Re.21 describes the glorious adornment of the Lamb’s faithful wife, new Jerusalem!

British historian Margaret Barker conveys a similar view of mystical Babylon in her book The Older Testament. “Jerusalem, restored Jerusalem [1^st century], was perpetuated in the apocalyptic tradition as Babylon, the place of great evil. The city of Rev.17 was not always Rome, for Rev.17:16 says that the ten horns of the beast, i.e. ten Roman rulers, would attack her. The image of the harlot city upon many waters had originally been applied to Jerusalem, drunk with the blood of earlier saints.”

Also Peter J. Leithart Between Babel and Beast, p.46 “The harlot-city of Revelation is not Rome, but Jerusalem….As in the Old Testament (cf. Ezk.16, 23; Hosea), Jerusalem has turned harlot.”

As for the Jerusalem temple doors, Josephus Wars 4:4:5 “Before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue & fine linen, and scarlet & purple. Nor was the mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe.” (ref the colors in Re.17:4.)  Amazingly, even the temple veil was mystical Babylon!

Old Jerusalem was mystical Sodom & Egypt (where our Lord was crucified, Re.11:8)…and Babylon.  The system is perpetuated in part by the Babylonian Talmud.  Talmuds are a mixture of good & bad.  Also the system may be churches that proclaim as God’s truth their own traditions which contradict or wrongly add to His written word.  And again, all this isn’t to say that prophecy can’t repeat itself.

Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they that do His commandments…that they may enter in through the gates into the city.”  The holy city, new Jerusalem.  By the grace of God, and through the sacrifice of Jesus/Yeshúa the Bridegroom…the saints will enter in!