Mount Zion, the Holy Hill

 

Revelation 21:2:  “And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.  (Matt. 16:18 RSV)

 

            Jesus here was suggesting the passage in Isaiah 28:16:

Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘He who believes will not be in haste.’ (RSV).

 

The foundation of Zion is Christ.  This would furnish a context for the building of Christ’s Kingdom upon “He who believes.” as just demonstrated by Peter.

            The word translated ‘church’ may have come from the Hebrew word eviy, ‘desire’, which would suggest the passage in Genesis 2:22 where God ‘built’ the rib into a woman.  This would also have referenced the significant passage in Psalm 132:13, 14 where this word is used.

For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it [her] for his habitation:

‘This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it [her].’ (RSV)

            The “Holy Mountain” of Zion is in the heavenlies, or the spiritual dimension.  The earthly city is only Zion while she allows the spiritual Zion to fill, permeate and rule in her.  The earthly city ceases to be Zion when she falls into sin and idolatry.  Psalm 87 speaks of the true Zion:

1 A Psalm [or] Song for the sons of Korah.  His foundation [is] in the holy mountains. 2 The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. 4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this [man] was born there. 5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. 6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, [that] this [man] was born there. Selah. 7 As well the singers as the players on instruments [shall be there]: all my springs [are] in thee.

 

            Zion is the birthplace of Christians.  The writer of 2 Esdras uses the term “Mother”, speaking of the Church:

Mother, embrace your sons; bring them up in gladness, as does the dove; establish their feet, because I have chosen you, says the Lord.  And I will raise up the dead from their places, and will bring them out from their tombs, because I recognize my name in them.  Do not fear, mother of the sons, for I have chosen you, says the Lord (2 Esdras 2.15-17).

 

Gates

 

Revelation 21:12:  “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.”  (See “Jewels”, Commentary on 4:2-3).

            The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem are somewhat similar to those seen by Enoch.  He saw the beautiful ‘portal’ through which passed the stars, dew, wind and rain.

And as often as I saw I blessed always the Lord of Glory, and I continued to bless the Lord of Glory who has wrought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of His work to the angels and to spirits and to men, that they might praise His work and all His creation: that they might see the work of His might and praise the great work of His hands and bless Him for ever, (Enoch 36.4).

            Malina says:

The fact that it has no temple and no sun or moon for light points to a celestial arrangement above the earth, sun, and moon.  That twelve “sky servants”, [Malina’s term for ‘angels’], stand over its twelve gates is not unlike the twelve gates at the four corners of the cosmos through which winds and stars emerge, [as seen by Enoch]…  The sky servants control the gates (Malina, 33 – 35, pp. 54-5).

 

Foundations

 

Revelation 21:14 “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

            Malina says that the word ‘foundations’ is a synonym for the word ‘element’ or ‘basic constituent’ and that these terms can indicate the signs of the zodiac, stoicheia (Malina, 241).  Quoting Philo of Byblos he says that the Phoenicians assigned the names of their kings to the constellations.  Epiphanius in his writing against the heresies of the Pharisees calls the zodiacal constellations stoichea.  The repeated use of the number twelve in this section of the book of Revelation, Malina believes, indicates that the zodiacal constellations are in the writer’s mind (ibid., p. 242).

            He also quotes Josephus in regard to the twelve stones of the breastplate worn by the High Priest in Exodus 28:17-20:

As for the twelve stones, whether one would prefer to read in them the months or the constellations of like number, which the Greeks call the circle of the zodiac, he will not mistake the lawgiver’s intention.[1]

He quotes many other ancient sources as to the relationship of precious stones to the zodiac constellations.

            He quotes R. H. Charles, (1920, 2.167-8):

That our author (John) is acquainted with the[se] current beliefs as to the connection of the twelve precious stones with the signs of the Zodiac, and the sun’s progress through the signs of the Zodiac cannot in the face of the above facts be questioned (ibid., p. 243).

 

            So, in this symbolism we see that the New Jerusalem, the Church, fills the heavens, as the precious stones filled the Breastplate and as the signs of the zodiac fill the natural heavens.

 

Foursquare

 

Revelation 21:16: “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.”

            Malina quotes Herodotus, Histories (1.178 LCL) that ancient Babylon was also in the form of a square (ibid., p. 241).

            Lightfoot says:

It obtained among the Jews, ‘That the land of Israel contained the square of four hundred parsae’….A parsa contains in it four miles.  ‘Ten parsae…are forty miles.’…four hundred parsae…made a thousand six hundred miles.  Which measure why they ascribed it to the land of Israel on every side of the square of it, whether from the measurings of Ezekiel, or from somewhat else, we do not here inquire.  But we cannot but observe this, that the same number is mentioned and perhaps the same measure understood, Rev. xiv, 20: ‘Blood issued out of the lake to the horses’ bridles, for a thousand six hundred furlongs.’  Where the Arabic reads….’for the space of a thousand six hundred miles’ (CNT, vol. 1, p. 261-2).